A BLACKBURN entrepreneur has been nominated for two Lancashire Business View awards.

Lee Chambers who is from Wilpshire started up business Essentialise in Preston to coach individuals and business staff about their careers and how to progress in their career.

The business has now been nominated for New Business of the year as well as Lee receiving a nomination for Entrepreneur of the Year.

Lee Chambers said: “My individual coaching is to career people and entrepreneurs who are at a bit of a crossroads and are not sure what the next move is to make who need a bit of clarity.

“I have a series of modules, one on purpose, one on health and a module on mindset and we look at those different sections and see which are the most applicable.

“The workplace wellbeing is something that has really become really important to me because what we do is, we go into SME’s and see what the current strategy is for wellbeing.

“Some don’t really have anything but most companies now have something in place, so I help to measure how effective it is by getting feedback from employees and seeing what the engagement is like.”

Lee was inspired to start his business to help coach others after facing a wealth of challenges through his life.

After graduating university in 2007, he entered the world of finance but struggled due to the credit crunch.

In 2014, he was taken into hospital and had to learn how to walk again whilst raising a child with his wife who was pregnant.

Lee has used these experiences to grow stronger and now talks about his mental state during this time to try and help others who need support.

During COVID, Lee has been free coaching NHS staff at Blackburn and Bolton Hospitals during to coronavirus lockdown through Frontline 19.

“As the NHS got me back on my feet, as a personal mission to say, you got me back on my feet as an organisation now it’s my turn to give back,” Lee added.

Lee has also been into schools around Lancashire to talk with sixth formers about employment challenges they will likely face in their lives and how to overcome these like Lee did.

Lee said, “It’s all accumulated to me becoming a director of wellbeing across Lancashire.

“It’s an organisation with a really grand plan to align wellbeing strategy across the region and build that in to be able to help both economic and industrial strategy have a wellbeing element so we as a county can become one of the healthiest places to work and live.

“I’m really proud to be a significant part of that and try and make countywide to have more equality of health opportunity.”