Entrepreneur hopes new app will help people cope with zero hours…

It may sound like a pitch from an episode of Dragons Den, but having already tucked away over £70,000 of investment to turn her business idea into reality, Georgina Fairhall already has her sights on the next stage of the development of her business.

And the business? Well, it all began as an idea borne out of personal experience.

After ten years working in the hospitality industry, Georgina, 26, knew first hand how hard it was to keep track of her hours and pay on various contracts. A problem that exists for hundreds of thousands of zero-hour, hourly-paid, temporary contract and gig economy workers.

So, she set about creating Work and Communications Ltd or WAC for short, a mobile app that she now hopes will change the employment system in this sector.

“It’s easy to lose track and get confused of hours worked and what pay is due, especially if you have multiple jobs, numerous contracts and no idea what payday might hold.I’d record my hours in notes on my phone, in notebooks…The employee tends to rely on the employer not their own personal record when it comes to pay and they have no idea if the figures are right, you just have to settle for it. I wanted to improve the system for everyone paid hourly.The app is an easy way to track work hours, breaks and pay, manage money and organise work-related ‘bits and bobs’ like contracts, payslips, certificates and even gives a section on basic employee rights.It’s also getting harder for businesses to keep an accurate record of staff activity too, especially in sectors where employees are increasingly working off-site or in multiple locations.”

Georgina, Creator of WAC

Georgina, who is originally from Brighton, hopes her new app is about to change all this.

She registered her company in January 2018 – all while working full time as a business development manager for a cocktail bar and studying part-time for a postgraduate law degree at Nottingham Trent University.

Just a year later, in January 2019, Georgina was ready to take her leap of faith and start work on her business full time, putting her LPC on hold (LPC, or The Legal Practice Course, is a vocational stage of training to be a solicitor that must be taken after completing a law degree that enables a person to practice.)

The first release of the app will be launched at the end of October and will be designed for the employee. To find out more about WAC and how you can get involved click here.

Georgina has worked with The Hive, Nottingham Trent University’s Centre for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise, and was selected for The Big House Accelerator programme at the University, which she says has been a massive support.

In 2018 she became the first student or graduate from the University to go through to the Finals of the Santander Universities Entrepreneurship Awards. She finished in the top six for the technology category in the UK.

“I was pitted against PHD projects that had been worked on for three years and there was me after three months,” she said. “It really helped me focus.”

She also had support from Microsoft via the Santander Accelerator programme in London in 2018, has just got on to the Natwest Accelerator programme which gives her an office and mentor, has a full tech team in India on board, legal team at Browne Jacobson as part of their ‘Grow’ start-up support programme, and an accountant.

“My aim is to improve the employment system for zero hours workers. I hope to use the traction of the employee side, work together with the users to make the system better, then get employers on board to create a ‘go to’ platform for employers and employees. Eventually including a digital clocking in system.”

Georgina, Creator of WAC

This article has been lifted from the Nottingham Post and the original can be viewed here. It was written by Karen Antcliff.