A coach who specialises in supporting people through life-changing situations is celebrating professional growth of her own as her business expands into new premises in Darlington.
Suzanne Barbour was inspired to launch her eponymous Suzanne Barbour Coaching business five years ago after a challenging period in her life affected both her physical and mental health.
She explains: “A cancer diagnosis and resulting treatment put me into early menopause and at the same time I was going through a divorce. It took every ounce of strength to get through it and the rollercoaster of emotions thrown at me every minute of every day.
“I really struggled to find the right support at the time and recognised a huge gap in services to help people to navigate their way through the practical and emotional challenges of treatment, recovery and beyond. I decided I wanted to be that person for others.”
Already a trained coach, Suzanne realised the insight gained through her experience put her in a powerful position to support others.
She developed her business to share tools to help people take control of their emotional pain and redesign their life just the way they want it. She then trained as a menopause mentor, aiming to remove the taboos around menopause and provide comprehensive support to those experiencing hormonal changes.
After four years of running her business from home, Suzanne was keen to progress into a more professional environment and signed up for membership at the coworking lounge at Business Central in Central Park.
Now, she’s on the move again, investing in a dedicated office at the business centre as part of the next phase of growth for her coaching and training work.
Suzanne expects the company’s growth to come from a new service developed to support small businesses with the mental wellbeing of their employees, which she believes is unique in the marketplace.
She said: “Stress related illness remains one of the top reasons for absence, both long and short term, which smaller businesses can find difficult to cover, often putting more pressure on the rest of the team.
“Off-the-shelf employee assistance programmes can be expensive and out of the reach of small businesses, so we came up with a pay-as-you-go solution to fit their budget. Employees can dial in for confidential support from counsellors when they need it.
“As far as we know, there’s nothing else quite like it out there. We’ve been trialling it and the feedback has been superb so I’m very excited about expanding this area of our work.”
Suzanne is keen to target male dominated industries with the service, opening up conversations that men have traditionally struggled to have to reach more people in need of mental health support.
And the decision to remain at Business Central for the next chapter of the business’s development was an easy one to make, Suzanne said.
“There was no question of moving anywhere else, Business Central is perfect for what we need,” she added. “It’s fantastic to have the option to change the space we rent, according to what’s going on in the business.
“As we grow, we need more space for training so our new office gives us room for four or five people and there’s a conference room right opposite if we need something bigger.
“And once the business grows again, there is total flexibility to move to a bigger office just down the corridor.”
Business Central and neighbouring sister site Innovation Central are owned by Darlington Borough Council and are managed by the North East BIC. They provide a connected business community at the heart of the town’s Central Park development, offering a choice of coworking, office and lab space along with meeting rooms, events and shared services designed to help today’s entrepreneurs to innovate and thrive.