Throughout their final year at Swansea University, friends Sharon and Rachel were thinking about what they were going to do next. Their degrees had prepared them for careers in translation, but the more they looked into the industry the more they realised finding work wasn’t going to be easy. The day after their last exam they registered their business and within a week they were trading.

Be prepared to wear many hats! Marketing, sales, accounts, customer services…. You have to be flexible as the client will expect an all-round service.

Sharon a Rachel - Veritas Language Solutions

They sought help through Business Support Wales and were assigned a business advisor. "He was absolutely brilliant. He helped us write our business plan, put together cash flow forecasts, as well as with the application for the Graduate Start-Up Bursary. We still meet up once a month, and he’s always available on the phone to give calm advice."

The duo were awarded the bursary and an additional discretionary grant for those with dependents - not only had they both gained first class honours and set up a business from scratch, they’d done it all at the same time as bringing up young children.

"We kept being faced with the same old catch 22 - you need experience to get a job but you can’t get the experience until someone gives you a job. In the end, we decided to go for it on our own!"