Enterprising Ashfield - Shawn Gascoigne

Tell us a bit about yourself and your business

My name is Shawn Gascoigne and I am the founder of the Digital Startup Academy, which is an e-learning and live interactive platform that I have built.

The Academy teaches new and pre-existing businesses how to build a digital presence, as well as a customer journey to help them grow online, all using free platforms to achieve this.

How did you hear about Enterprising Ashfield and its growth programme?

I was introduced to Richard and Adrian through the DWP after being made redundant from my previous role of 22 years.

What made you want to join the programme and what did you hope to get out of it?

I realised that there were a lot of things I didn’t know about starting a business and being self-employed and I wanted to give my business the best foundation that I could, so talking to the experts was a no brainer!

Were there any challenges you were facing going into the programme?

Although I knew in my own mind what I wanted my business to look like, my offer didn’t have the right level of clarity! Also, Sales and marketing is an area that I still need to evolve in and so these two problems combined formed quite a blocker for me.

How did you find the content, pace and delivery of the programme?

Each module and course that I attended contained great information. It was always delivered at a comfortable pace and i was always made to feel that my questions and contributions were valued.

Has the programme helped get you to where you need to be , and what are your plans now for the business moving forward?

The program has definitely moved me forwards as it’s enabled me to gain so much more clarity around how my business should operate as well as how to structure and cost my different offers.

My plans now are to work on my marketing so that I can get my cash flow to a dependable and predictable state.

Any other comments about the growth programme?

I really valued the help that I got from Enterprising Ashfield and from Adrian specifically who gave me some incredible support with my Business Model.

Would you recommend the programme and Enterprising Ashfield to other people with their own businesses?

I already have recommended this program to other local business owners that I have spoken to!