For funders and commissioners
A funded route into self-employment for people leaving prison.
Working for Yourself is a 12-week programme, built on a handbook I wrote, that helps people leaving prison test a business idea, deal with the rules that apply to them, and get to their first customers. I am looking for funders and commissioners to run it with.
Degree in Business Management and Entrepreneurship
More than 100 people mentored towards their own business
Lead peer mentor at Project ReMake
Plans presented to a live audience
The gap
Employment support stops short of self-employment
The national framework for employment on release is built around employers, employment hubs and job matching. The version published in July 2026 makes no mention of self-employment. The staff, contacts and employer relationships are there. A route for someone who wants to work for themselves is not.
Self-employment is not an easy alternative. It does remove barriers that stand in the way of many people with a record, and it suits people who are managing licence conditions, their health or contact with their children.
Why it is worth funding
No application form.
A customer decides whether they want the job done, not whether the person fits a recruitment policy.
It fits a life under licence.
People start small, work the hours they can and grow when they are ready.
It builds on skills already there.
Trades, catering, cleaning, gardening, barbering, fitness, IT, driving and removals. A lot of what people learn along the way maps straight onto work that pays.
It can start cheaply.
Many service businesses begin with a phone, some basic kit and insurance. Under about £500 is a good aim for a first business.
We are plain about the risks
It commonly takes six to eighteen months for a new business to reach a steady income, so the programme builds a first customer and a 90-day plan rather than promising an income. Self-employment is probably not the right first move for someone with nowhere stable to sleep, an untreated health crisis, an addiction they are not getting support for, or debt enforcement they have not dealt with. We treat that as a sequence, not a refusal: stabilise first, then build.
The programme
What you would be funding
Working for Yourself is a 12-week programme that is built from eight core workshops and three optional sessions, with a review at weeks 4, 8 and 12, and it ends with a 90-day plan the participant can follow.
A business mentor
Every participant is matched with a mentor who is a member of the Association of Business Mentors, and so works to a published code of conduct.
Peer mentors
The programme is co-facilitated by people with lived experience of the justice system, who know what the first month out is like.
Free market research
Participants learn to use the free databases and one-to-one help at the British Library Business and IP Centre.
What each participant leaves with
- A business plan they can show a bank, a funder, a mentor or a customer.
- A private setup file covering their ID, banking, benefits, disclosure and probation conversations, kept apart so it is never attached to the plan.
- Support to get approval from their supervising officer in writing, where they are on licence.
- A minimum hourly rate that works, and a priced offer.
- A list of ten named people or organisations who might buy from them in the next 60 days.
- A 90-day plan to follow.
The handbook behind it
There are good general guides to starting a business, and the British Library Business and IP Centre publishes one of the best. My handbook borrows its structure on purpose, and adds what general guides do not cover: the extra layer of rules, checks and conversations that apply when you have a record. It has nine parts and 37 short sections, with markers that show what can be done from inside, what needs release, and what to check with probation first. Every section ends with a Guess, Check, Change box, because a guess is only a problem if you never check it.
My Business Plan
The one you show people.
My Setup File
Private, for the participant and their mentor only.
Safe and measured
Built to be safe, and to be checked
How it stays safe
- Licence conditions come first. People on licence need approval before they take their first customer, and the programme builds that conversation in.
- Disclosure is handled on the participant's terms, in their own words, and only where it is required.
- Mentors do not give regulated legal, tax or financial advice. They point people to bodies such as Unlock, Nacro, HMRC and StepChange.
- Mentors work to the Association of Business Mentors Code of Conduct, and there is a complaints route if a mentor falls short.
- Safeguarding is led by a Designated Safeguarding Lead at Anabranch Plus.
- Private information stays in the participant's own setup file, apart from their business plan.
How it is checked
Everything a participant writes on day one is a guess, and each section of their plan ends with a Guess, Check, Change box. Reviews at weeks 4, 8 and 12 give natural checkpoints. What I propose to report to a funder is who started and finished, how many completed a plan, how many obtained probation approval where it was needed, how many reached a first customer and a first income, and how many were still trading at 90 days and six months.
No results yet
The programme is new, and I would rather tell you that than offer figures I cannot stand behind. I will publish results here when there is enough data and consent behind them, and I will not publish small numbers that could identify anyone. A pilot cohort, reported openly, is the sensible first step.
Working with me
Four ways to fund or commission it
Fund a pilot cohort
A first cohort of participants goes through the 12-week programme with mentoring, handbook and workbooks, and you receive a plain report at the end.
Best for: Trusts, foundations and funders who want to see it work before backing it further.
Discuss thisCommission it for your service
Delivery for your prison, probation or resettlement cohort, in custody or in the community, with materials for every participant.
Best for: Prisons, probation providers, resettlement and employment services.
Discuss thisLicence the materials
Use the handbook and workbooks with your own mentors and cohorts, with training so they are used well.
Best for: Organisations that already mentor or support people into work.
Discuss thisSponsor a place
Pay for one or more individual places, so that someone leaving prison takes part at no cost to them.
Best for: Employers, trusts and individuals who want to give a practical start.
Discuss thisPricing depends on cohort size, setting and length. I will send a clear costed proposal after a short conversation.
Why me
Why I am the right person to run it
I hold a degree in Business Management and Entrepreneurship, and I have spent years turning it into practice. I have mentored more than 100 people leaving prison towards their own business, and helped them present their plans to an audience. I was a lead peer mentor at Project ReMake, and I have built two social enterprises of my own.
I am trustee of Switchback and an Board Advisor for the HIN Mindset XR.
Questions funders ask
This page gives general information, not legal, tax or financial advice.
For individuals
Thinking about working for yourself?
Self-employment can be a good route when an application form is the barrier. It is not easy, and it takes time to build. The order you do things in matters more for you than for most people. These five questions take about two minutes, and nothing you choose is saved or sent.
Mentoring with the handbook and workbooks included is available. If cost is a barrier, ask about a sponsored place.
Ask about mentoring