Four participants in the first cohort of entrepreneurial accelerator Ignite Bermuda have been invited to stay on as the programme’s “resident advisers”.Gina Stableford, of OARRS Ltd, Rochelle Minors, of Rochelle Nicole, Melissa Looby, of Pulse Group, and Christina Sgobba, of Lemoncello Design, will continue to develop their own projects as well as provide advice and support for the incoming Ignite cohort of aspiring entrepreneurs in January.Members of the first cohort were invited to express an interest in staying on, and had to pitch for their place. Determining factors included the prospect of creating jobs and diversity, of contributing to the Ignite culture, and of accelerating their own business.Ms Stableford’s company provides credit and debt management services, assisting companies to recover their accounts receivables and bad debt faster, thereby saving time, money and customer relationships.She said the Ignite programme opened her eyes to the existence of an entrepreneurial community on-island. Collaboration with her peers and having their support was beneficial, she says, as was a “change in mindset” that occurred during the cohort.Ms Stableford said she picked up the tools and “almost a vocabulary that you need to become a successful entrepreneur and build a sustainable business”.She added: “I feel I am at a critical point in my entrepreneurial journey. I have made great strides; one of the biggest challenges I have had is managing fear. I recently learnt how to harness fear and make it work in a positive way to help build the business. To be able to stay on with the continued support, challenges and workspace of Ignite will assist as I transition into running the business on my own.”Ms Stableford said she will share what she has learnt with newcomers to Ignite.“It’s about mindset, it’s about commitment, and it’s about preparation,” she said. “I am also able to share my background in accounts receivable management, sharing with the new cohort how fundamental that is to building a strong and sustainable business.”Ms Minors has created a fashion brand that “reinvents classic day wear for the modern-day millennial woman”.She said: “The biggest thing I have learnt during the cohort is ‘feel the fear and do it anyway’.”Ms Minors added: “Knowing your numbers is the biggest takeaway. You can have awesome ideas and designs and concepts, but if you don’t ‘know your numbers’ when you are implementing that part of your business, then you don’t have a business. You have to know your expenses, projections, how much your target customer will pay, the profit you can take from it, how much money you need to get the business operational, product cost, and profit margins.”She said Ignite participants also learnt about “ugly baby syndrome”.“You don’t want to have created something that no one wants, and they won’t tell you,” she says. “I am test trading the market now to see if I have an ugly baby.”She said Ignite gave her a “more clear vision of the brand and the product I’m offering and who I am targeting. That’s where Ignite helped me to get to in six months.“Now, it’s about taking the product to market, and Ignite helping me in that new season. Now, it’s about retailing, selling, getting my designs into shops around the island.”She advises members of the incoming cohort to avoid procrastination.“They should come into the hub, and get started right away, and they should be clear about what they want to achieve in the six months.”Ms Sgobba has launched a design studio that specialises in creating bespoke graphics with local artists for the benefit of small businesses and individuals. She received the Ignite Acceler8 Award during the cohort for demonstrating significant progress during the programme.She said: “The most valuable thing was having a community of entrepreneurs who are experiencing the same feelings of fear and doubt, all the scary feelings you have as an entrepreneur, and not being afraid to go for it.“There is huge value in having a support system that allows you to feel empowered in your business. For me, that was a huge takeaway.”The guidance provided by programme sponsors KPMG in Bermuda was also beneficial, she said.“I’m a creative, so there was a lot of accounting help that I found valuable,” Ms Sgobba said. “Those who create aren’t always the best with numbers.”She said having a space to collaborate with her peers was “invaluable”, as was the continuing opportunity to have as “mentors and guides” Ignite executive director Sean Reel, and Laura Lyons, the group’s manager of acceleration & entrepreneurial enablement.Ms Sgobba is developing both the design services and product portions of her business while in Ignite.She said: “I want to be able to launch both while in Ignite so that when I leave, both arms of the business will be established.”Her advice to the incoming cohort was straightforward.“Don’t take it for granted,” Ms Sgobba said. “Be present, not only in terms of showing up, but also be prepared to absorb the information.”She added: “Give it the time it deserves, and view it as a gift that you will only have at this time in your life.”Ms Looby’s business is a project and event management company with a concentration on sports.She values the relationships she built at Ignite, as well as “the ability to be in a space where you aren’t the only crazy person with a dream”.Ms Looby added: “A lot of the journey sometimes is filled with doubt, and to have people around you who understand the vision and have faith in you when you don’t have faith in yourself, has been pretty amazing.”Her reason for wishing to stay on, she said, is “predominantly wanting to give back to the cohort what I have received. I want to take some of what Sean and Laura have given to us, and give it to others who are coming into the space”.Ms Looby said the Ignite programme “made me go back to ground zero, and re-evaluate the entire structure of my business. In doing so, I literally took the six months we have been here to gain clarity on where I really was, and the direction I wanted to go.“Because of that, I wanted the opportunity to take some of my new assumptions, take some of my new directions, and test them with the guidance of Ignite.”