Government worker Colina Outerbridge is preparing for a new life as a business owner after completing the Ice House entrepreneurship programme.

She harboured ambitions in her youth to become an accountant and run her own business, although she gradually lost sight of the latter plan.

“When you’re growing up, you’re always told you have to get a job,” she said, “but you’re not really told that you can be an entrepreneur.”

However, Ms Outerbridge, from Paget, who works as a senior accounts administrative officer, reassessed her priorities last year after reading about Ice House in a group office e-mail.

The course was inspired by the life of Clifton Taulbert and aims to educate and inspire people to realise their entrepreneurial dreams.

An African-American born into a poor Mississippi cotton community in 1945, Mr Taulbert has gone on to achieve great things — including becoming a business leader, writing multiple books and getting nominated for a Pulitzer prize.

“I thought I’d try out the course,” the 41-year-old Ms Outerbridge said. “I went to the presentation explaining the programme and thoroughly enjoyed it, so I signed up right there on the spot.”

Brought to the island by the Bermuda Economic Development Corporation, the first Ice House programme ran weekly from October 6 to November 17, with 18 people graduating.

As well as reading Mr Taulbert’s book Who Owns the Ice House, participants listened to online lectures, completed class assignments and attended networking events.

“The book was very encouraging,” she said. “Clifton Taulbert never gave up. He decided he wasn’t going to pick cotton, so he took a different approach, always looked for opportunities and defied the odds.”

Ms Outerbridge also found inspiration in Bermuda’s own entrepreneurial success stories such as Marico Thomas, president of Four Star Pizza, and Lynn Hamilton, founder of Face and Body Retreat spa.

“Nowadays in Bermuda, you also see so many pop-up shops and people coming up with little ideas,” she added. “It resonates: if they can do it, I can do it.

“I figured I needed to get into this, to find other means of income and start thinking for myself. What am I interested in that I could turn into a business?”

By the end of the course, possibilities for potential ventures were coming thick and fast. “If you didn’t have any ideas before, you definitely came up with some by the time you finished,” she said.

Ms Outerbridge has since decided to focus on a company offering accounting outsourcing services, which she hopes to launch in the coming months. Meanwhile, Ice House’s future in Bermuda looks bright, having started its second course in January.

“It was a great programme and I really enjoyed it,” Ms Outerbridge said. “It’s all about thinking outside the box and not being told how you have to do things.”