BUSINESS lifeNew Dawn in macho world of engineering; WOMAN'S BATTLE FOR RECOGNITION BRINGS REWARDS.Byline: COLIN LEWIS, Business Editor BEING a woman in the macho world of engineering is still fraught fraught adj. 1. Filled with a specified element or elements; charged: an incident fraught with danger; an evening fraught with high drama. 2. with difficulty, as Dawn Butler Dawn Petula Butler (born 3 November 1969) is a British Labour politician and Member of Parliament for Brent South. She was born in London to Jamaican immigrant parents into a large family with a sister and four brothers. found out when she tried to expand her small welding welding, process for joining separate pieces of metal in a continuous metallic bond. Cold-pressure welding is accomplished by the application of high pressure at room temperature; forge welding (forging) is done by means of hammering, with the addition of heat. and metal fabrication fabrication (fab´rikā´sh  n),n the construction or making of a restoration. firm. The business, Auto Space Saver Fabrications, had been originally set up by her father, but after his death, Dawn, in partnership with her mother Violet, decided to put in pounds 5,500 each to buy the assets and consider extending the metal fabrication side. She had worked for her father for 14 years and was more than familiar with the way the business operated. "From our sales figures sales figures npl → cifras fpl de ventas I knew there was a demand for the products and I was convinced that we could meet that demand," she said. But finding extra finance and dealing with customers in the male-dominated world of metal-bashing proved far from straightforward. Although she was hardly seeking huge sums of money, the banks and some of her customers simply refused to believe a woman could possibly know anything about the male-dominated world of metal-bashing. Some companies refused even to speak to her because she was a woman. "It was a hard slog, especially being in this type of business. Even some marketing people wouldn't deal with me thinking I wouldn't know what I was talking about. "But we didn't give up hope and decided to stick it out. Now we are starting to get somewhere," said Dawn, who was eventually offered pounds 10,500 of help from Warwickshire County Council. In fact, her company, based on the Coleshill Industrial Estate, was the 100th firm to receive a county council loan. The cash was used to help the firm update its computer system, buy new machinery, safeguard three jobs and open up new markets. Warwickshire County Coun-cil's principal officer for business support services support services Psychology Non-health care-related ancillary services–eg, transportation, financial aid, support groups, homemaker services, respite services, and other services , Roy Shearing, said: "If you haven't got your own money to put into the business and you haven't got a track record, then the chances of getting money from a bank aren't very high. We offer a wide range of help for new and existing businesses throughout the county." Since receiving the funding, Dawn has gained more customers for fabrication work, including Siemens the BBC BBC in full British Broadcasting Corp. Publicly financed broadcasting system in Britain. A private company at its founding in 1922, it was replaced by a public corporation under royal charter in 1927. , Sainsbury and the Eurotunnel. She said that without the financial help, the firm could not have gone ahead. "Our experience with the fabrication industry has helped us win the confidence of our customers and achieve steady growth in our manufacturing operation. As this expands, we will take on more people." CAPTION(S): RIGHT ON Q: Auto Space Saver Fabrications boss Dawn Butler, welder Tony Whittaker (left) and Denis Denis, king of Portugal: see Diniz. Malone with a metal letter Q to indicate the quality of their business |
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