How Gloria’s achieving her goals: The End Matters CIC
Gloria Ferguson is passionate about encouraging people to accept that death is part of life. With help from The Business Factory, she is launching a business aimed at opening up conversations about death, dying and grief, and understanding good practice in end-of-life care and support. Gloria tells us more…
As a society we’ve lost the ability to acknowledge and cope with death. It’s the one thing in life that is certain and yet we’ve become afraid to talk about it.
Our culture has medicalised death and dying – holding it at arm’s length and often considering it a topic of distaste. However, discussing the subject can have many positive effects for individuals and their families, helping them to ensure plans are made while people are healthy and have a clear mind and helping people navigate bereavement and grief. Honestly, talking about death won’t kill you!
I’ve been blessed to have been with three people when they died. While it was the biggest privilege of my life, witnessing the process of my parents’ death and dying made me realise how urgently we need to make changes.
I began training as an end-of-life doula – a holistic companion supporting the dying person, their family and all involved in their caregiving. This inspired me to explore how to raise awareness around death, dying and grief and that’s how the idea for my business was born.
The End Matters CIC will provide a programme of activities and training around end-of-life care and grief awareness for individuals, community organisations and workforce professionals.
The aim is to increase knowledge, skills and confidence and promote a more ‘death positive’ attitude.
I took my ideas to The Business Factory to get some professional advice on how to go about things. I knew what I wanted to do but needed support to understand how to achieve it.
Having access to their expertise and contacts was fantastic. Their support fast tracked me to the information I needed and the people I needed to meet. They joined up the dots for me and I moved from the idea stage to setting up stage quite fast.
By unpicking the different stages of setting up a business it’s helped me to realise what I need to do at each step.
I joined a pre-start business workshop, which looked at my business idea and what I needed to move it on. I wanted to set up a business and after some helpful discussions I realised that a community interest company (CIC) was the right structure for the business. I was then signposted to Junction Point for specialist support on setting up and running a social enterprise.
This joined up approach with other agencies means you know you’re always getting the most appropriate support for what you need.
I absolutely could not have got this far without the input of the teams. They were really helpful. Being able to pick up the phone at any point and talk to a real person is invaluable. They have a genuine desire to help businesses to become successful and sustainable so they’re always operating in your best interest.
I’m now moving to the next phase of development of the business and it’s an exciting time.
The work I’ve done so far has already attracted significant interest from potential funding partners. Now I’m working towards securing further support for branding, marketing and strategic work and I know The Business Factory will be there when I need them.
Has Gloria's story got you thinking?
Find out how we can help your business by calling us on 0191 643 6409 or drop us an email on info@businessnorthtyneside.co.uk
