Philanthropic business owners from Lancashire have signalled their next move to achieve a lifelong dream of establishing a business school in South Africa.
Joanne and Gavin Allday, the Managing Directors of Lancaster-based Showing Off Academy, have had a special affinity with the "Rainbow Nation" since honeymooning there in 2000, prompting the couple to support the South African 'Hope Academies' of Bolton-based charity, Ambassadors in Sport (AIS) since 2008.
Last year, Gavin and Joanne visited the Hope Academies, to which Showing Off Academy contributes 10% of its profits, to provide training for the charity workers and to meet some of the children benefiting from the AIS programmes.
During the visit, Joanne and Gavin met with business owners and researched the possibilities of opening their first international business school, in South Africa, which was welcomed with open arms. Plans are now in motion to make the dream venture a reality, with a pilot project expected to be up-and-running in the country in 2012.
Joanne commented: "It's a life goal for Gavin and I to build a business school in South Africa and it feels like we can almost touch that goal now. There's a lot of work to do, but we're really excited about the difference we can make, especially now we've seen the projects for ourselves and we've met the people involved with the charity."
In the meantime, Showing Off Academy is expanding nationally in the UK and is currently recruiting ambitious business owners who want to grow their businesses and give something back at the same time.
Recent successes of the Academy have seen one company add £22,000 to their bottom line, whilst another delegate boosted their business profits by as much as £70,000 last year.
Showing Off Academy aims to educate business owners how to boost their profits and grow sustainably, through its 12-month course, which covers all of the fundamental elements of growing a profitable business, including finance, sales, marketing, technology, time management and planning.
Ambassadors in Sport operates in countries all over the world and uses football to help children re-engage with education; helping them work their way out of poverty and crime.
