Inspirational business celebrates first birthday
By Sarah Kilcoyne
An award-winning start-up business is celebrating an inspirational year, as it marks its first anniversary of trading this month.
Launched by singing professionals and former call centre managers, Andrea Beardshaw and Georgina Jones, corporate training company Sing and Inspire trains, motivates and develops people in business, through the use of song.
Following its launch in November 2008, Sing and Inspire secured a lucrative 18 month contract with insurance giants Admiral, forming a choir of call centre staff, with the aim of improving vocal health, increasing motivation, and decreasing stress levels.
After six months of specially tailored, bi-monthly singing sessions, where staff learnt to harmonise versions of hits by Queen, OutKast and the Blues Brothers; Admiral bosses reported a marked increase in staff’s confidence and enthusiasm.
The Admiral choir’s success has even been picked up outside of the corporate world; with performances at St David’s Hall, Swansea Grand Theatre, and most recently at a star-studded charity concert at the Royal Albert Hall.
Sing and Inspire has since gone on to develop an impressive client base, working with high profile names including; Tesco, Go Compare, Vertex, Coastal Housing group, Tenovus, IoD Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government, Zurich, Real Radio, Trinity College and Arts and Business. These contracts range from one-off training or team building days, to ongoing choir projects, and vocal health programmes.
The company has also been made an associate member of the Welsh Contact Centre Forum, in recognition of the training Sing and Inspire offer in improving the vocal health of call centre staff – an industry where sickness and absence from throat problems can be rife.
Speaking about the impact of the Sing and Inspire partnership on his business, Admiral’s People Services Manager, Ceri Assiratti said: “Inspire has been a great morale booster for all those involved in the project at Admiral. Those working with the Inspire team say they feel highly motivated yet relaxed after the choral sessions.”
Summing up their first year in business, co-founder and director of Sing and Inspire Andrea Beardshaw said: “We’ve exceeded all our expectations of what we could achieve in a year, and we’re delighted with our brand recognition among some major businesses in Wales. Despite a difficult economic climate, employers have understood the value of the service we can offer, and the positive impact it can have on productivity and profit.”
Fellow founder and director Georgina Jones said: “We’re now looking ahead to the new year developing the business even further. We currently recruiting more staff trainers, and plan to roll out further a further vocal health course to businesses. ‘Vocal Power’ focuses on using the voice effectively, as well as incorporating NLP (neuro linguistic programming) techniques, and working on staff attitude. We’ve already had trial runs with some high profile businesses, and the feedback has been really encouraging.”
