After a difficult childhood, Jacob spent most of his early adult life struggling with substance use, offending, probation, and mental health. Despite this, he managed to graduate from university and worked as a probation officer at the London Probation Service, until he lost his position due to ending up on probation himself.
In 2023, Jacob was referred to agencies such as Catch22, Maximus, and The Forward Trust. Simultaneously, he was also regularly attending AA groups and church meetings, whilst studying counselling and mental health courses.
It was at this time that he started to develop his first designs for LS Lifestyle, his own headwear brand that was sobriety-related and supported those in active addiction or recovery.
Jacob first started working with an enterprise coach in March 2024. He enrolled on Forward’s Ex-Offenders Business Bootcamp programme, on which he shared:
“My enterprise coach was very supportive and encouraging and made me realise how far my business idea could go. I had weekly meetings to help mould my business idea and make it a reality.
“My relationship with them has been so beneficial, as I was quite a novice in the business side of things and am still learning. They helped me to understand my business model more, gave me the tools to further enhance my current business idea, and offered me advice on how to make my brand a sustainable business model.”
As part of an enterprise project at Forward, Jacob was invited to attend a Dragons Den-style event at the London offices of the Financial Times in June 2024. He received intensive support through his enterprise coach and then pitched his business idea to a room full of professionals at the Financial Times. Although he did not win, Jacob received great feedback from the panel and was also able to network with guests at the event.
Jacob’s goals for LS Lifestyle are to continue to build the brand, develop more of a social media presence, and create a website that will enable him to sell his products. He plans to approach potential business partners, charitable foundations, and investors for grants and funding to help bring his idea to life.
“I am very excited at the prospect of owning and running my own business and look forward to working hard to achieve my ambitions,” Jacob shares.
“I currently have headwear products in ten different colours and footwear products in two which are ready for promotion.”
