Victoria Toby Lade’s Business; Edes Educational Centre is going from strength to strength after the support she has received from The Women’s Organisation helped her to get started. Victoria told us that; ‘The centre allows children of a primary and secondary school age the opportunity to enjoy the facilities of a supplementary educational services.’ Edes Educational Centre runs small group sessions in Maths and English during term time as well as school holidays and covers the Key Stages 1 through to 4 as well as also teaching GCSE Maths and English.
Prior to setting up her business, Victoria has worked in the educational sector for many years, both in the UK and overseas and teaching children of both primary and secondary school ages in mainstream and special schools, with her subjects being Maths and Science. Victoria told us; ‘My passion is helping children of all ages and abilities to learn. This became the driving force that propelled me forward to establishing a business in the educational sector.’
When thinking about starting a business, it was very important to Victoria to consider how best she could support the children she was teaching with personalised techniques. ‘I wanted to be able to meet the needs of the individual child who found the core educational subjects challenging. Edes Educational Centre was set up in response for the need for a high quality, affordable study centre within the local community.
The centre is located on the corner of Belmont Road and Rocky Lane in Anfield, Merseyside and aims to serve the neighbouring communities of Anfield, Tuebrook and Kensington. Victoria says; ‘These are deprived areas and there are children there who are able to get extra support from the centre to improve and boost their grades.’
Victoria completed a Master’s degree at Liverpool Hope University and became aware of their enterprise department; Hope Business Gateway that supports enterprise and new businesses. Victoria approached them to discuss her idea and firstly received support from them before referring her to The Women’s Organisation.
At The Women’s Organisation, Victoria began working with our Business Adviser; Yan Miao who she met over several months with Yan helping Victoria to develop her business plan. ‘Yan was able to provide me with advice and assistance, she also sought out relevant courses for me to undertake and helped with things like keeping financial records, taxation laws, insurance regulations, guidelines and standards. She’s a fantastic business adviser with a very lovely personality!’
One of the biggest barriers that Victoria faced was that running a business was entirely new to her and she says; ‘I know there is a huge difference in one having a business idea and the practicality of its operation, but one thing I found particularly daunting was how to maximise the Social media to meet the targeted market.’
With a plan to continue learning and developing her social media skills and continuing to grow her business; Victoria is looking forward to the future of Edes Educational Centre. She is also now beginning to see the rewards of being self-employed and is enjoying being able to achieve what she set out to do, help each child learn.
‘The best thing about running my own business is being able to plan the teaching and learning sessions that are personalised to meet the needs of the individual child, thereby positively impacting the child with the right skills to achieve their set aims and objectives. Seeing the children make such a remarkable progress gives me such delight!’
We wish Victoria all the best of luck with the future of her business; Edes Educational Centre.
If you’d like to find out more about Victoria’s business; you can use the contact details below:
Email: edescentre@gmail.com
Phone Number: 07722331570 / 0151 3529001
And if you’ve been inspired by Victoria’s story and would like our support with your business idea, then get in touch with us! Email us on hello@thewo.org.uk or ring us on 0151 706 8111