January 2012

Congratulations to Katie Drouet from Suffolk

Katie has won her local Business Accelerators competition for the business that she started with support from The Prince’s Trust.

Katie Drouet, from Hadleigh in Suffolk, started her photography business in 2011 after completing The Prince’s Trust Enterprise programme. Katie was sadly made redundant from her last job, but had a real passion for photography she decided to turn that experience into a positive, and use the opportunity to set up her own business, which after two years continues to gorw.

Katie’s success with her business was recognised recently when she found out she had been named the winner of her regional Business Accelerators competition. She had initially made it through to the final three where she had to present to a board of media experts. She has now been awarded with £3,000 worth of advertising as well as further business support and will go forward to the national final, which gives her the opportunity to receive mentoring from Deborah Meaden.

Katie says

I was absolutely thrilled to be chosen and the advertising will be a huge boost to my business as it’s something I have never been able to afford before. There have been many highs and lows with running my own company but the achievement you feel is fantastic and doing something I love everyday makes me feel very lucky.

Katie’s Trust Business Mentor John Stenhouse added:

I have been working with Katie since her panel and she is a true professional in every sense of the word. Winning this award is well deserved and will provide her with much needed free marketing to promote her photography business to a wider audience. 2012 will be very interesting and I expect a busy year for Katie.

We wish Katie very good luck in the national finals of the competition.