A swimming coach from Bury is making a splash in the business world after joining a scheme to help self-employed workers.

The business support programme EnterprisingYou has added more than £12m in revenue to workers in Greater Manchester.

The scheme offers a mixture of workshops, coaching, health and wellbeing support to self-employed and gig economy workers across the region.

Sarah Hill, from Bury, is an adult swimming coach and the founder of Swimmingly where she offers private swimming lessons for adults of all swimming abilities.

Read more: Radcliffe Library to be turned into 'enterprise centre'

She also specialises in helping people overcome a fear of water and is the only swimming coach in the North of England and Scotland licensed to use the "Total Immersion" method, a step-by-step approach that makes swimming easy and accessible.

Following a recommendation from her partner, Sarah joined EnterprisingYou to take her business to the next level.

She said: “My business coach’s support enabled me to identify and focus on the most important tasks and be held accountable for actually getting them done!

“We developed a plan that was straightforward to implement with tasks clearly prioritised and with his support I was able to stay on track and get the jobs done.

“I’ve learnt to market my business more effectively and to prioritise and plan more effectively which means everything runs more efficiently and frees up my time for doing the job that I love - teaching swimming."

Read more: Prestwich Arts Festival 2023 announces this year's line-up

EnterprisingYou was launched in 2019 to combat the issues raised in a stark report in 2018 from the Federation of Small Businesses.

The report found that despite more than 4m self-employed workforce contributing more than £270bn to the UK economy in 2017, they were often at the sharp end of the nation’s fiscal and financial challenges.

The programme works with those who have earnings of less than £27,000.

Head of enterprise at business support service GC Business Growth Hub, Yvonne Sampson, said: “The UK has a proud tradition of self-employed workers. We just want to make sure that tradition continues.

“Many were already struggling, but the pandemic magnified those issues.

“Programmes like EnterprisingYou offer help and support and are designed in a way that people will eventually be able to stand on their own.

“We’re really proud to have helped thousands of self-employed people in Greater Manchester to succeed.”

Read more: Chetham's School of Music students to perform at Bury Parish Church

To celebrate three years of EnterprisingYou and its success, GC Business Growth Hub hosted an event at the Midland Hotel in Manchester.

It was attended by alumni, representatives from each Greater Manchester local authority, universities and those involved in delivering EnterprisingYou.

The event looked at the important role the service played in unlocking opportunities for the Greater Manchester self-employed workforce, with talks led by metro mayor Andy Burnham and the team that delivered the programme.

If you have a story tweet @BuryTimes or @Alicegerrard157 or email alice.gerrard@newsquest.co.uk.