Case Study

An IT Solutions provider from Ilkeston has been named as the East Midlands’ Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year at a presentation on the 27th May in Nottingham. Samina Gordon (29) won the £1,000 first prize at the East Midlands regional final of the 2004 Shell LiveWIRE Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards, supported nationally by Shell UK with regional support from the East Midlands Development Agency. Samina now takes one of 12 places at the prestigious Shell LiveWIRE UK final to be held in London on 15 June, when she will compete for a top prize of £10,000.

Samina’s business, “Simple Solutions”, provides bespoke IT solutions and website development to schools, colleges and SME’s. Samina has designed two products that aim to simplify the management of information within an organisation. The first, “IT Manager” is specifically tailored for schools, colleges and universities and can increase the availability of computers by automating tasks such as job scheduling and room booking. The second product, “Business Manager” was actually designed to help facilitate the smooth running of Samina’s own business and it proved so successful that she decided to launch it as a product. Samina estimates that her products can save up to £12k for a business by cutting down the time it takes to manage information systems.

Samina has attracted clients from Bolton to Folkestone and is currently working with the East Midlands School of Beauty. On graduating with a 1st class (hons) degree in Information Systems, Samina went on to work in various IT positions. After taking voluntary redundancy, she began working as an IT manager in a school, where she formulated the idea for “IT Manager”. Following maternity leave for the birth of her son, Samina found it difficult to find part time work so she made the decision to realise her ambition of starting her own business using the products which she had designed. By 2006, Samina plans to have her own premises and to be employing permanent sales staff.

Following a detailed assessment of each finalist, Rob Colmer, Issues Adviser, Shell International, who was one of the judges, said: “The title goes to Simple Solutions because not only does the business have outstanding potential, but Samina demonstrated a sound understanding of the importance of thorough preparation, sound business planning and good advice such as Shell LiveWIRE provides.”