An entrepreneur who nearly packed it all in due to lack of finances has praised Bradford Kickstart for enabling him to keep going and succeed.

Paschal Doran, 47, of Saltaire, gave up his job to launch his security business, but ran into problems in the first three months after being refused finance by several banks.

He was recommended to contact the Kickstart enterprise support scheme, which provided advice and access to funding, and now Salts Security Systems is thriving and has created three new jobs.

Paschal said: “I almost called it a day. Had it not been for Kickstart and its partners, I would have done.

“I left full-time employment last February, determined to launch my own business. With many good contacts I soon won numerous orders.

“But the first three months were really tough. I needed financial support to pay for all the technical equipment customers wanted installing, so I went to several banks looking for a business loan. Every one of them turned me away.

“I was on the point of calling it a day when a friend recommended me to contact Kickstart. They put me in touch with George Nash, a business adviser at ATL Yorkshire Ltd, in Manningham.

“George and Matthew Foote, of the Business Enterprise Fund in Bradford, helped me put together a robust business plan and financial forecast.”

Now the business is growing and has employed three installation engineers from Keighley.

The Business Enterprise Fund provided a substantial loan to Paschal to enable him to pay his staff and buy vital stock for the business. This money came from Bradford Council’s Kickstart programme under the Access2Finance scheme.

Kickstart’s professional services scheme also enabled the business to develop a brand identity, with a brochure and business stationery.

The fund also arranged a favourable invoice-factoring deal to get the company’s cash flowing again.

Said Paschal: “In one bumper month we raised invoices valued at ten times our business forecast and we will smash our first year turnover target.

“Without Kickstart, ATL and the Business Enterprise Fund, we would not have made it.”

Salts Security Systems has won a contract to fit alarm systems to hundreds of homes in the Bracken Bank estate in Keighley, on behalf of InCommunities, the district’s biggest social housing provider. It has also won work from several major builders and contractors, and is well placed to take full advantage of improving economic conditions.