Bolu Fagborun: Former Huddersfield Giants player expands his Bradford courier company

The business makes deliveries on behalf of companies and also fulfils contracts with larger courier services like CitySprint and DPD.

Bolu took a loan of £15,000 in April 2023, which he used to put deposits down on four new vans so the business could scale up and fulfil more orders.

Money was provided from the British Business Bank’s Start Up Loans programme, which provides access to finance to underrepresented groups.

The scheme has provided more than £73m of start-up loans since 2012 to businesses founded by Black owners – with 10 per cent of this coming in the last year.

Same Day Solutions was set up in one of Bradford’s most deprived postcodes and has taken on three people from the local job centre.

He said: “Through my past work with Fagborun Limited, I recognised that not enough people from ethnic minority backgrounds take out these loans. There are so many talented Black entrepreneurs out there who might be put off by the lack of available financing, when all they need to grow and succeed is the capital.

"Putting Same Day Solutions in the spotlight will hopefully provide other people with the proof they need that they too can access the finance they need to set up their own business, and to continue to scale and grow it.

“As well as lending money, Start Up Loans helped me come up with a really solid business plan, which is just as crucial to success. My advice to other aspiring business owners would be to give it a go; if you don’t try you’ll never know.”

Richard Bearman, Managing Director, Start Up Loans, said: “Start Up Loans is proud of how its programme consistently over-indexes in its delivery of finance to underrepresented groups, but there is still much work to do. It’s inspiring to hear stories like Bolu and I hope it inspires other entrepreneurs to take the leap into business ownership.

"As well as the funding, we also offer business mentoring to support business owners and give them more chance of succeeding. We encourage anyone with aspirations to own a business to research their financing options and see whether Start Up Loans can help.”