Enterprise4All

Enterprise4All has helped a local designer to launch a very successful commercial interiors business. Just one year after it was established, Bibi Interiors has won a string of prestigious contracts across a variety of different sectors including retail, leisure, education and the professional services, while its founder, Junaid Khan, now has a waiting list of eager clients.

Pursuing his love of furniture, he began his journey into self employment by developing an online retail business, through which he sourced and sold items from all over the world. However, as Junaid explains, selling other designers' work wasn't where his real aspirations lay.

“Running the business got me closely involved in the furniture industry but I missed the creativity of developing my own products,” says Junaid. “I wasn’t doing what I do best, which is to find design solutions for interior spaces: I wanted to get out there on site, to meet with clients and really get my hands dirty. Basically, I needed a change.”

That change came when Junaid approached Enterprise4All for help in starting Bibi Interiors. Working with specialist advisers, he was able to produce a robust business plan and developed his own skills through a series of free workshops.

“The workshops were really helpful,” notes Junaid. “Having come from quite an academic background, it was very useful to be able to dip in to these sessions and get to grips with a whole raft of different business skills that might otherwise have taken me years to develop.

“Perhaps the single most beneficial thing, though, was that Enterprise4All invited me to attend a series of free networking events, where I met many other regional businesses. It was through these events that I won my first contracts and everything that I have done since then has come as a result of personal recommendation. The networking sessions gave me the start I needed and I've never really looked back.”

Junaid's new business grew quickly and he soon found new markets opening up as word of his services and creative flair spread.

In recent months, he has project managed new-build schemes including a high-spec sales office in Blackburn and a variety of refurbishment projects. One of the most extensive of these was a the creation of a new science lab, common room, board room and classrooms for the Tauheedul Girl’s 6th Form College – the first government-funded Islamic school in the North West of England. Junaid has also designed interiors for other local schools and for companies such as Curtis Law Solicitors and Time Group Middle East.
 
Bibi Interiors now employs three part time staff and operates throughout the North West. Junaid is able to source furniture, architectural fittings, lighting and other products from across the globe and, perhaps best of all, the business now gives him the opportunity to see many of his own creative designs realised.

More details about Junaid’s services are available at www.bibi-interiors.com.