A new London-based health and wellbeing start-up is expanding rapidly and recruiting new IT and marketing teams, following enterprise mentoring support from Lloyds Bank.

Located in Kentish Town, Orange Moon provides a number of holistic products and services including advice on health, leisure and general wellbeing. The business’ aim is to educate, inspire and motivate busy adults through interactive games and activities, helping them achieve well-rounded and balanced lifestyles.

Having previously worked as an analyst for a large UK charity, founder of Orange Moon, Naomi Davidson, launched the business last January after she decided to turn her passion for holistics into a career. Since then, she has run numerous workshops with businesses across London, helping staff manage stress levels in fast-paced environments.

Following a local business exhibition, Naomi was introduced to the Institute of Enterprise and Entrepreneurs (IOEE), through which she was able to sign up for additional business support from a qualified enterprise mentor.

The IOEE partnered Naomi with Wayne Mills, a qualified enterprise mentor and director for global trade and receivables finance at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking. Through a series of regular meetings, Wayne helped Naomi develop her business strategy and refine new ideas for the business.

As a result of the support, Naomi is preparing to introduce new IT and marketing departments, as well as investing in full-time staff for her wellbeing sessions, after previously having to use freelancers.

Naomi said: “Wayne has been immensely useful and if it hadn’t had been for his mentoring, I wouldn’t have been able to progress Orange Moon as much as I have. Being a mentee means that I always have someone to call if I have any questions, and with Wayne’s 20 years of professional experience, I know that there’s very little he hasn’t seen or dealt with before.

“Through the mentoring scheme, I have been able to network with other mentees and gain insights from them too. I also recently gave a talk at a British Banking Association conference about my mentee experiences, which enabled me to take away new presentation skills and contacts.”

Wayne Mills, director for global trade and receivables finance at Lloyds Bank Commercial Banking, said: “Lloyds Bank has played an important role in the development and launch of this Government-backed mentoring scheme, and I was keen to volunteer myself so I could share my insights with others. It has always been a passion of mine to help nurture and develop people’s strengths, so mentoring gave me a brilliant opportunity to do more of this beyond my normal day job.

“Naomi is very ambitious and has some fantastic ideas that can benefit the lives of many people. It’s encouraging to see that entrepreneurialism is very much alive in the UK and schemes like this are available to help small businesses prosper.”

Mentoring is a vital component of Lloyds Banking Group's Helping Britain Prosper Plan. They aim to help business and individuals succeed with expert support and mentoring.

The Business Finance Taskforce (BFT) mentoring initiative was set up by banks and the British Banking Association (BBA) to help the economy return to sustainable growth by supporting SMEs. One of the key commitments within the initiative was to establish a free online portal to help SMEs find information about mentoring or to source a mentor.

Lloyds Banking Group has more trained enterprise mentoring volunteers than any other bank.  The bank has an exceptional breadth of mentors from across the company - from senior management to specialist finance departments. Read more about Lloyds Banking Group’s mentoring commitment.