Ride the Wave: a case study from Smart Bidding

We caught up with Abi Sinclair following the fourth series of Ride the Wave to find out about her business and how the Smart Bidding workshop provided support. 

What is it that you do? 

I am an Occupational Therapist, Life Skills Coach, Parenting Practioner and Workplace Trainer. My business “Field of Dreams” is a family run business that works alongside a diverse team of expert creative and holistic facilitators. We offer a range of individual, group, community and workplace interventions that support people in harnessing and taking control of life events in a meaningful and purposeful way. Our services are wide-ranging from securing a meaningful career, developing life skills through to boosting confidence and self-esteem around family functioning. We offer comprehensive parenting, family and community support, as well as group, staff team and business development.

What are the challenges you face in your business? 

The biggest challenge we face at the moment is the recession and the reduction in both private and public sector finances to secure services that people need but cannot necessarily access. We have had to get really creative about how we secure funding from other sources whilst developing unique multiple streams of income which has really paid off and we are now very confident about the future. 

What prompted you to come along to the ‘Smart bidding’ workshop? 

It had been quite a while since we had tendered for a substantial contract and I wanted to be sure we were on the ball and had the most current information in order to compete in my field of work. Being able to have access to all the relevant information, knowledge and skill sets under one roof in order to make a successful bid was very beneficial as tendering for a contract can be quite daunting coupled with working in isolation. So been there collectively interacting alongside others reminded me that successful bidding is still realistically achievable even in these testing financial times when you’re smart about it.  

What did you like about the workshop and what did you get from it? 

I liked listening to the differing perspectives and approaches to bidding and finding out about the range of opportunities available to work in partnership with some great service providers. I came away from the event with not only a comprehensive "to do list" in terms of people to approach for potential partnership funding but also a renewed sense of "I CAN DO" and so we are very excited about the future of our business and been able to continue to meeting the needs of our service users who invest a lot of trust in their journey with us.

To find out more about Ride the Wave and the events held, have a look at our Storify summary or email ridethewave@businessinbrighton.org.uk. 

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