A PERSONAL trainer has won a young entrepreneur award that has allowed his new business to advance six months ahead of schedule.

Sam Stevenson, 24, from Tranent, was given the East Lothian Investments Ltd Young Entrepreneur Award, scooping a £1,500 prize.

The award was set up to encourage and celebrate young entrepreneurship in East Lothian’s young people, and was open to those aged between 16 and 25.

Mr Stevenson, who set up SS Coaching in January last year, said that the win had hugely boosted his business.

He said: "The prize massively helped with the start-up of the gym.

"We were awaiting planning permission on our new unit when I applied for the competition, therefore the timing was perfect, as we knew the start-up costs of opening our own gym for the first time were going to be significant.

"Winning the prize made all of this far more achievable and took the stress off the coming months.

"This has now allowed us to begin planning forward, looking at potential pathways to grow the business ahead of our business plan timeline."

SS Coaching provides personal training and strength and conditioning coaching for individuals, members of local sports teams and professional athletes.

Mr Stevenson has teamed up with his business partner Jake Beveridge, who runs East Lothian Barbell, to offer bespoke programming and individualised one-to-one performance coaching.

The pair used the prize money to buy gym equipment for their East Fortune-based venture, helping them move forward with their business six months earlier than planned.

They also offer unique equipment for less able or injured clients, and run a summer camp for children aged 11 to 15, promoting health, fitness, confidence and safe strength training.

Rodney Shearer, chair of East Lothian Investments Ltd, said: "We are delighted to offer this prize to encourage entrepreneurship in young people.

"Sam very much deserves this accolade and I’m sure he and Jake will do a fantastic job to promote wealth and wellbeing across the community."

Councillor John McMillan, East Lothian Council spokesperson for environment, economic development and tourism, said: "Sam is a very worthy winner of this award and I’m delighted that it has allowed him and Jake to drive their business forward by six months and to start planning for the future.

"They have demonstrated a commitment to providing very high-quality fitness and health promotion to everyone from children to professional athletes and have obviously used the very latest research and training to provide the very best service they can, and it’s accessible too.

"I wish Sam, Jake and SS Coaching the absolute best for a very bright future."

The pair are now looking at developing an app for online coaching and are eager to work with more young people and low income households in the future.