Apax Partners

My name’s Anita Patel and thanks to The Prince’s Trust, I own the market-leading company in the field of Asian wedding planning, event management, PR and ethnic marketing.

Stereotype

When I was 24, I started working with a business advisor to develop a company plan, but when I applied for a loan, was rejected by several banks. They thought my idea wasn’t viable and that I was too much of a risk - our family didn’t own the corner shop so therefore I wasn’t suited to running a business. That was when my advisor recommended I contact The Prince’s Trust.

When I received a £2,000 start-up loan and a £500 grant from The Trust in October 1995, I could only imagine the incredible success I would achieve with my company, Tania-Tapel. I was determined and focused of proving myself as an Asian businesswoman going into a man’s world.

Know your market

I come from a working-class background and was born in Leicester. In 1996 I launched nationally and started working all over the country creating fabulous events. I now have a beautiful office in a city centre location, I employ three staff and I’ve expanded into ethnic marketing and PR.

I’ve organised hundreds of Asian weddings covering religions including Punjabi, Muslim, Gujarati, Hindu-Punjabi and Bengali. One of my highlights was planning the wedding of Bally Sagoo, the godfather of Bhangra and a celebrity music producer. Indian weddings are huge and the largest I’ve had to co-ordinate involved 20 sittings for dinner, about 2,000 people.

The future

The future is looking very bright for Tania-Tapel. We were recently recognised as the Best Wedding Planner in the UK Wrapit Wedding Industry Awards. I wouldn’t be where I am now if The Prince’s Trust hadn’t given me that first helping hand and I shout about what they’ve done at every opportunity.