BEING made redundant was just the opportunity Stuart Newland needed to set up his own business.

Now, his company, Fenturi Ltd, a specialist business supplying games and simulations for corporate organisations, is one of 170 businesses which Outset Swindon has helped establish since May 2013.

Although the business is currently based in London, Stuart, who lives in North Swindon, is now working with Forward Swindon to move the business to the town, where they have already spent much time working with the likes of Swindon College and Highworth Warneford school.

He said losing his job at BP after 19 years was the perfect point to start his business.

“I had known for some time that I wanted to draw on my years of experience introducing games and emerging technologies into BP to launch my own business, and it was great to be able to turn to Outset for help in navigating this process,” he said.

“The Outset workshop sessions helped to cement the business idea and taught me some valuable lessons, being clear about your target market, testing and refining your proposition to address client needs and sharing big ideas and trends to help educate our clients about gamification.

“The Outset staff all have a huge amount of experience and really understand what Fenturi is trying to achieve. I am looking forward to building a stronger working relationship as we look to prospect more big companies in Swindon.

“We’ve applied a lot of the advice from the Outset workshops, including building a partnership with Imperial College London, who provide a valuable independent view of the market and help us to educate clients about gamification.”

As well as helping to create 170 new businesses, Outset Swindon, which offers tailored vocational support and guidance, has helped to create 190 new jobs.

They have also set up a new ambassador initiative, where former clients – including Stuart – pledge to donate 24 hours of their time to support new business owners over the course of a year.

Stuart said: “It allows me to work with other entrepreneurial businesses in Swindon, share my experience and support people like me who are making this career transition and do something really extraordinary.”

Outset Swindon programme director Manor Singh said: “For us, this is all about creating a full circle of support in Swindon. At the start of our programme, we tell our clients ‘give us 24 hours of your life and we’ll change the rest of it’; our Ambassadors now get a special opportunity to give that 24 hours back to the service that supported them, helping to inspire the next wave of entrepreneurs.”

For more information about Outset visit www.outsetswindon.co.uk.