A NUNEATON engineer started his own business with inherited money and benefitted from Warwickshire business growth support.
Mario McLaughlin was left £20,000 in the will of his late father, James, which he invested in launching MJ Classic Engineering in Slingsby Close on the Attleborough Fields Industrial Estate in Nuneaton.
He signed up to The Start-Up programme which offers one-to-one business advice and is part funded by the UK Government through the UK shared prosperity fund and Warwickshire County Council.
Mario and his wife Michelle invested £30,000 in a VMC machine which cuts materials from plastic to steel, to expand the business.
Mario said: “I have always wanted my own tool shop and I have loved working in engineering for the last 30 years.
“When my dad passed away, the money he left me in his will helped me to set up with two machines – and no customers.
“My first customer had a motorbike he wanted customising; he told someone else and word gradually spread and I know a lot of people having been in engineering for a long time.”
John Fitzgerald, Start-Up business advisor at the Coventry and Warwickshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “I think it’s really important to listen to businesses because that is how you help people.
“I listened to Mario and Michelle about how they got to this stage of their business, where they wanted to go and what they wanted to do.
“I could then suggest which of our workshops was most suitable from the Start-Up programme because it is incredibly important to dedicate time into working on the business, instead of just working in the business.”
The support is part-funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund (via Nuneaton and Bedworth Borough Council), and Warwickshire County Council.
