Sonia Blizzard, Beaming Ltd
Beaming Ltd is a successful small business with a quarter of a million turnover and employing 5 people - may not sound particularly unique you may think - but it is testimony to the dedication and drive of Sonia Blizzard, an IT professional by trade and mother of a child with special needs.
Before Sonia set up her business three years ago, she had been working for a global telecoms company. However, managing a full-time employed position around her son’s disability needs proved difficult. (He has Williams Syndrome - a genetic disorder caused by a chromosome abnormality which causes a range of different physical and mental symptoms.) Initially, she changed from employee to contractor to work flexible hours, but eventually decided she needed to be her own boss.
Sonia and her family moved from Kent to Hastings to be near her partner’s family who could provide help and support. Hastings is also home to a renowned special needs school where her son is now a pupil. “Torfield is a fantastic school and my son is getting a really good education there,” enthuses Sonia.
Getting Started
Once in Hastings, Sonia decided to take her IT knowledge and set up Beaming, a niche ISP (Internet Service Provider) which provides high-quality broadband and telephony products to business customers nationally. Sonia explains, “I was inspired to set up the company because I would be selling technology that I believed in and would be using myself”.
“When I first started up, I wrote a business plan and raised money from family, friends and acquaintances,” reveals Sonia, “But I wouldn’t have got very far without the support I received from a SEEDA Innovation and Growth business support network, which was crucial in the development of my business.”
In the first year, Sonia received input from a business mentor. Then, when the business outgrew her original premises (the garden shed!), she obtained an office in the Creative Media Centre in Hastings, part of a SEEDA regeneration project.
More recently, Sonia felt the need to improve her marketing skills: “I have to blow my own trumpet more than I did when I was employed. This is necessary to build the business and get it known. However, I do feel uncomfortable doing this,” she admits. To assist with this, Sonia obtained access to an expert company to provide marketing advice. This kind of support, Sonia hopes, will help take her business to the next level.
Giving a Balance to Life
Sonia’s aim in becoming self employed, was to set up a successful business, while working around the constraints of her son’s needs. To help her do that, she uses the technology she sells to work from home when her son is not at school, with hours that fit with her family life. “I communicate mainly by email, meaning I can work from home while my son plays noisily in the background,” she says. Sonia then works from the office when her son is at school or at holiday club, admitting: “Using a laptop, and having access to email via broadband when at home means there is no real difference between working at home and working in the office”.
Sonia is fully supported by her partner whose work for an IT solutions company means he understands the market. “The greatest challenge has been managing the home and work life balance”, she says. “I sometimes feel guilty that we don’t have proper holidays and all the money I get goes back into the business.” The family have been able to take the occasional weekend away, usually involving trains which is Sonia’s son’s obsession and a typical symptom of Williams Syndrome.
A Successful Woman
Sonia believes that one of her strengths as a woman in business is empathy. This has helped her in managing staff and building a reputation for good customer service. In a recent survey run by Beaming, their customers are 95% “very satisfied”. Furthermore, Sonia’s good attention to detail has been instrumental in building consistency in Beaming’s brand messages.
Sonia states, “My advice to women who want to start up in business is: be confident about your own abilities and look for any business support or mentoring schemes that are available. This kinds of support can help build confidence. Also, don’t take any knock-backs personally - these are inevitable in a new business.”
The Rewards of Success
Sonia believes that running her own company has made the best of her family circumstances and adds “With success comes financial security for my son’s future”. She is also, rightly, proud of the products and services that Beaming offers and of the fact that all five of her staff are local people. “I’ve been able to bring employment to the area, if only in a small way,” she enthuses.
Running her own business has been very hard work for Sonia, but that was no more than she expected. “Sometimes I have had to make hard compromises with my home life and I have found that difficult,” she admits, “But the growth in self-belief, the places I have been and the people I have met have been unexpectedly rewarding.”
Sonia is living proof that it is possible for a determined woman to run a business successfully around difficult personal circumstance, and find valuable family time.
