After 30 years of working in the law industry, David hit a brick wall. His career was at a standstill, the industry was changing and he saw no progression.
Deciding that his job was no longer giving him the satisfaction it once had, he made the decision to hand in his notice. After the Christmas break, he began to make lists of things to do and they all pointed back to one thing, football coaching.


David explains: “I’d toyed with the idea of doing this over the years, but never had the guts to do it. When I made the big decision to quit my job, I made lists and everything was pointing back to that one thing.
“What do I enjoy doing? What do I want to get paid to do? It was all pointing back to football coaching.”
After researching the industry and deciding he wanted to start his own business, David rang the St Helens Chamber Business Start Up support team, which is part of the Enterprise Hub.
David was invited in to meet with a dedicated business Start Up adviser to discuss his business plan and attended a series of free Start Up Workshops, designed to teach him the tools for becoming self-employed.
David said: “The support from the Business Start Up team helped me immensely. I was guided through every step of my business plan.
“The backup I got from the 4 workshops was fantastic. I learnt an awful lot. If you lay down an idea someone will tell you that it’s a great idea or politely say ‘what are you talking about?’
“Steve has been absolutely fantastic at guiding me throughout, he’s pushed me in the right direction making sure that I think through my ideas and I’m not dreaming of the unachievable.
In just a few months, David was ready to launch his business ‘Enjoy Football’, which has now been trading for almost one year.
Enjoy Football provides football coaching for children as young as three, up to adults of 74, with its range of football, futsal and walking football sessions.
Recently David has worked with Wargrave Big Local on a project to encourage residents to get involved with walking football, which showed great success.
David added: “I’m very interested in the health and wellbeing side of things and bringing the sessions to people. Where I can, I’ll come to people and find locations to deliver sessions near them.
“For me to get to six months was brilliant, now I’m almost at 12 months and I know that we’ll get there. Then I’ll set a new goal, something realistic that I’ll enjoy working towards”.
St Helens Chamber is part of Enterprise Hub, the enterprise gateway for business start-up support in Merseyside.  Offering expert advice and support to anyone thinking about starting a business including help to:
  • Understand the process of starting a business
  • Research a business idea
  • Build a comprehensive business plan
  • Develop a marketing plan
  • Create financial forecasts to understand the costs of running your  business and potential income
  • Identify sources of finance to get started

Enterprise Hub is funded by the European Regional Development Fund. For more information about the support available contact our team on 0151 706 8113.