Marc Sicamos is an engineer with more than a decade’s experience in building sustainability and industrial manufacturing processes. He has managed a limited company for over 10 years that offers consultancy work, mainly to French clients.

With the help of a funding grant from The Business Hot House, a WSX Enterprise project, Marc was able to establish My Room Outside: modular garden spaces that don’t require planning permission.

Working with local suppliers in Worthing, he designs, manufactures and installs sustainable, beautiful and affordable buildings for all-year-round use with responsibly sourced, recyclable and reduced plastic materials. The result is a range of outdoor rooms or offices, ideal for working professionals who need a separate workspace from their homes.

Invaluable support and grants received

Business Hothouse supported Marc with interactive training sessions where he learnt to define his product, write his business plan, understand his target market, put together a financial forecast and apply for funding. He subsequently received a Fund4 application for all his marketing expenses which helped him get his business off the ground.

Marc has found the business support process invaluable, “From the training sessions to the 1-2-1s for additional support, I have greatly progressed in structure and planning short and medium term.”

He also says WSX Enterprise taught him important business skills when starting up,

“I cannot stress enough how important it is to have a plan. Before this project I had the ‘why’, I then came up with the ‘what’, but the ‘how’ was too blurry and I needed help. WSX Enterprise helped me define ‘how’ enough so I could start moving and bring life to this project and for that I am very grateful”

Since receiving funding, My Room Outside has now moved into a light industrial unit, has a website and Marc has started a marketing campaign on social media.

You can find out more about My Room Outside at https://myroomoutside.co.uk/ or follow on Facebook or Instagram

The Business Hot House

The Business Hot House is a three-year (January 2020 to June 2022) Business Support Programme part-funded by the European Union.

It brings together 6 specialist support providers to fill the much-felt gap in business support provision in the Coast to Capital region.

If you are a pre-start organisation, startup or SME in this area and would like to find out more about how the project can help you, please visit The Business Hot House section of the WSX Enterprise website.