Two businesswomen from West Cornwall have joined forces to set up a last minute holiday booking website.

Caitlin Thomas from St Ives and Emily Tarrant from Penzance met last year during a seven week course run by Cornwall College Business.

The SMART Enterprise programme offered an introduction to a wide range of business skills, from business planning and finance to marketing, website development and recruitment.

While Caitlin and Emily attended the programme to develop their own businesses, a twist of fate meant that they got more than they bargained for.

Caitlin said: “We both loved doing the course and became friends quickly. Even though we have owned our own businesses for years we still learnt a lot.”

It was during lunch breaks and networking that Caitlin and Emily realised their different skills complemented each other and would be ideal for a new business venture.

Caitlin added: “It is wonderful that because of the course we have now joined forces and started a brand new business.”

With few website design skills, holiday cottage owner Caitlin really wanted to set up an online one-stop-shop, so that holiday makers could instantly look up last minute availability in St Ives.

After the business skills course she approached Emily, who works as a web designer at Webfooted Designs, to see if she could help.

Together they have now designed an easy to use website called Last Minute St Ives.

Caitlin and Emily are now diversifying the website so that last minute holiday let vacancies can be advertised throughout Cornwall.

Helen Norman, SMART Enterprise project manager at Cornwall College Business, said: “We are really pleased to hear about the success of Caitlin and Emily’s business. Those who attend the SMART Enterprise programme normally get more out of it than they expected, but a new business partner is a first.”