Michael set up his digital agency Pink Umbrella a week after he left prison. He had the idea of starting the business whilst he was inside. Although Michael knew it would be hard to set up a company, he had faith that it was a good idea, as well as the drive and skills to do it.
The year the pandemic hit was difficult for Michael and his business. His ability to work with serving prisoners became almost impossible, so he focused more on finding ex-offenders once they came out of prison. The situation was compounded by the fact that most of his customers were charities or non-for-profits, and a lot of them had been impacted financially by the pandemic. But things started to look up after he recently won two new contracts with Government agencies.
Michael and his team used the quieter period during lockdown to set up a new, sister organisation, CodeAtt. CodeAtt is a not-for-profit that teaches life skills and industry specific coding skills to prison leavers and young people at risk of crime.
Michael was first introduced to The Forward Trust in 2018 after a colleague mentioned they were expanding into enterprise support.
He initially spoke with an enterprise manager who talked Michael through the various types of support offered, and what the best options would be for him and his business. He was then assigned an enterprise advisor who was available to chat whenever he needed additional guidance.
Forward also made it possible for Michael to chat to some of the enterprise team’s clients in prison. This was a great way to inspire people inside and show them what’s possible.
“As an ex-offender, it’s so reassuring to get genuine support,” Michael said.
“Not only have Forward supported the development of my business, but they’ve introduced me to a network of other business owners who have similar lived experience and social goals for their companies. That network has been invaluable.
“The people in it have had similar challenges starting their respective businesses, so we really get where one another are coming from. The network is also a great resource to bounce ideas off.”
