Saeeda Ahmed, from Bradford, England, gave a very entertaining and personal presentation on the practical difficulties of setting up her training and community regeneration enterprise, Trescom, back in 2001.

Learning the hard way with no funding or experience provided Saeeda with a wealth of wisdom she could share with delegates.

The name Trescom is a conflation of ‘tres’ for ‘three’ and ‘com’ for ‘communities’ – reflecting the underlying philosophy of bringing three communities together in an ethnically diverse Northern English city that experienced destructive riots in 2001.

With absolutely no funding Saeeda and her two co-founders, whom she humorously dubbed Mr Academic and Mr Pessimistic, nevertheless succeeded in winning some small research contracts and persuading estate agents to rent them dingy office space at a very low price. The community helped furnish and decorate the room because they believe in Trescom’s aim of social regeneration.

At first, government agencies and academic institutions didn’t take them seriously, however, because they had no track record. Saeeda would wear glasses and a black scarf to make herself look older in meetings. But eventually her cheekiness and drive proved persuasive.

“They realised we had a passion”, she said “and they wanted to buy a piece of that love.”

Trescom learned by making mistakes and not being afraid to ask for help from experts and other complementary organisations, she said. Their work expanded to include training and advice in addition to the research. One lucrative project involved giving training and support to mothers who wanted to return to work but lacked confidence and the right skills. Now Trescom's training and mentoring courses have been given official accreditation.

Gradually Trescom’s reputation grew and now it has around 13 major research and training projects on the go - one worth £1.5 million - making over 70 in total since its launch, and it employs 16 professionals. 

“I was very clear from the start that I wanted this to be a business”, says Saeeda. “I didn’t want to run a charity and we never use volunteers. I believe in paying people the market rate for the work they do for us and charging clients for the services we offer. In the early days we would lose out on contracts because we charged too little and undersold ourselves. Clients didn’t take us seriously.”

The enterprise caught the attention of political leaders and invitations to No.10 Downing Street and Buckingham Palace followed. Trescom were able to use the publicity from such visits to bolster their reputation and credibility.

“We weren’t very good at marketing ourselves at first. We were too shy. But you should never be afraid to play to your strengths”, she says.

Saeeda and her colleagues made Trescom a success because they had determination, tenacity and a vision that sustained them through the difficult early years.

“Embrace the lonely times, change and failure – it’s all part of the social enterprise journey", she said. "And remember, nobody knows it all. Never be afraid to ask for help.”