Despite battling many hurdles including a serious debilitating illness, Lee Chambers had already achieved great business success when he started his new venture, Essentialise Workplace Wellbeing.

Essentialise which offers functional coaching and workplace wellbeing strategy and delivery was a far cry from the gaming business Lee had launched from his parent's spare bedroom years earlier.

To immerse himself in this new field of health and wellbeing founder Lee attended several local networking events and was pointed to the fully-funded business support at Lancaster University’s Health Innovation Campus.

The innovation for growth workshop was facilitated by Dr Ian Gordon of the Management School and was designed to help leaders to assess the foundations of their business and understand areas blocking innovation.

Lee commented, “It was really insightful because there was a mix of expertise in the room. It was clear that health and wellbeing practices did not always align with entrepreneurial needs and the key was to find a balance between the two functions to become innovative.”

“It made me realise that I could utilise my prior knowledge and experience managing PhenomGames and apply those entrepreneurial skills to this new context and business venture, Essentialise.”

Prior to attending the workshop Lee was focused on delivering coaching and workshops in person. “My preference was physical delivery because when you’re working with health and behaviour change its powerful to get in a room with someone to share stories along with the science and actionable advice.”

The focus on business launch and physical delivery meant that Lee hadn’t spent much time developing digital assets; this changed after the workshop.

“The workshop helped me make digitalisation a priority. It opened my eyes to how powerful digital could be moving forward and how important it was to align both forms of delivery. It made me conscious not to let physical delivery completely take over.

That insight has been worth thousands of pounds, because straight after the workshop I focused on digitalising my offering. A month later lockdown happened and thankfully I had a viable business through covid-19.”

For Lee the workshop also facilitated valuable networking which led to lasting relationships with other wellbeing professionals in Lancashire. These connections contributed to the inception of ‘Wellbeing Lancashire’ an alliance of dedicated professionals who want to make wellbeing a top priority in the county.

Lee commented, “It was a bit of a precursor for Wellbeing Lancashire as most people involved in the alliance have been on a Health Innovation Workshop at some point. I think it’s fair to say that in some capacity the health innovation workshops have influenced Wellbeing Lancashire.”

Lee went on to say, “The workshop ultimately made me more successful through COVID-19, and that success allowed me to coach an NHS staff member for free using the digital programmes I developed just before lockdown.

Further, I could invest time in Wellbeing Lancashire without any funding and as a result I've been nominated for two awards, Entrepreneur of the Year as Lee Chambers and New Business of the Year at Lancashire Business View’s Sub 36 Awards for my work with Essentialise Workplace Wellbeing.

I feel proud to be at a place where I'm being recognised for awards. Now, looking to the future we are planning to expand with a second office and new employee. We are also now engaging larger organisations as well as SMEs. All this is only possible due to the foundations placed over the last year.”

Health Innovation business support is fully-funded through the European Regional Development Fund and available to Lancashire-based SMEs (eligibility criteria applies). To find out more about upcoming opportunities and how to sign up visit www.lancaster.ac.uk/health-innovation/business or email business.healthinnovation@lancaster.ac.uk