 Twenty years ago Andy Jones was a research chemist in Birtley, County Durham. Today he runs one of the UK's most successful entertainments companies - with a staff of seven - all because he said: "I could". "We'd had a couple of Christmas nights out which I thought were poor value for money and I knew I could do better," says Andy. "I've always been interested in the entertainments side, so I started in a pub in Houghton-le-Spring and put on three Ladies' Nights - basically male strippers - and it went down a bomb. I wanted to go at it full-time but really couldn't afford it. The next year, in 1988, I booked the same place with bigger bands and it was even better. "Call it boredom or latent entrepreneurialism, but I knew I could do a good job in the entertainments industry." Encore Parties, catering for the Christmas celebration market, was born and Andy had even got over the first start-up hurdle - he managed to convince his wife that there was a business in doing what he was doing. "At first the booking office was at home, with a budgie chirping in the background," he says. "A dead giveaway. In 1990 I gradually stepped up a gear and moved the business from being pub-based into hotels. "In 1996 we were catering for 15,000 covers a year for Christmas parties. At one function I saw one of the girls from the bank who used to take the money over the counter from me. The next time I was in I asked her - nervously - if she had enjoyed it. She said she'd had a great time, an excellent night. Then she asked, 'have you thought about going into the corporate side of the business, catering for private companies?'. "I thought, this girl has a talent that I could use - so I offered her a job." Tracy Robson took up the offer. "She's always seeing things from a female angle - getting all the little bits absolutely right that men don't tend to see," says Andy. "It's gone through the roof. It needed that other touch that Tracy brought along. "We expanded into Yorkshire and Tracy became a partner in 2001." Tracy says: "We're now catering for 35,000 covers with clients such as T-Mobile nationally, International Paints - we did their 100th birthday celebrations a couple of years ago and now take care of all their events - Newcastle College, The Journal's Company of the Year, and for the likes of Asda, B&Q and Hays Travel." Washington-based Encore Corporate Events has recently reported its busiest first quarter trading in its history, due to the company's improved venue profile which now includes a range of Marriott and Holiday Inn hotels, Beamish Hall Country House Hotel and Hardwick Hall in Sedgefield. Andy and Tracy also work in close partnership with local authority-controlled venues in Newcastle, South Shields, Sunderland, hartlepool and Middlesbrough and has recently assumed responsibility for the Christmas season of party nights at the Newcastle Federation brewery Lancastrian Suite. "Once you get known for good business practices by a local authority, it's a great network into local authorities all over the country," says Andy. Tracy doesn't regret leaving Lloyds TSB in Washington, either. The bank is now one of her clients. "This is much more exciting," she says. "We start in January booking bands for the next Christmas and we'll have around 3,000 people ringing and booking their nights. "Normally, people will come to us with a budget and an idea of what they want. We then give them four options, whether it's an entertainments night, a food and drink night etc. It could be a club band or a named band - it's like finding a niche and going for it. It's strange, but the day after the August Bank Holiday, the phones start ringing for Christmas bookings and they never stop, I can guarantee it. November and December are really stressfull." Andy calls the business "a hobby that makes money" and there's an added bonus for 2006, a once-in-eight-years' occurrence. "There are four Fridays and four Saturdays in December," says Tracy. "Nobody wants a Christams party on the last Saturday in November. But if it's December 1, they'll happily book it." They thought they could do the business - and they did. For further information, contact Encore Corporate Events (0191) 419 1818 or visit www.encoreparties.co.uk | 
