The E-factor - not the X-Factor - is helping to make a West Midlands vocal coach a singing success.

Lizzie Perring runs her own business, called Unlock The Music, from her Coventry home and offers vocal lessons to people of all ages and abilities.

She set up the firm in 2004 after spending 18 years in the field of special educational needs, part of which involved using the creative arts as an educational tool.

After receiving free help from the National B2B Centre - the West Midlands' e-business centre of excellence - Lizzie is now oversubscribed with 80 per cent of inquiries coming via her website www.unlockthemusic.co.uk.

But while TV shows such as the X-Factor do encourage more singers to try to become famous, it is not an area of the market that Lizzie is looking to take advantage of.

She said: "I did have two very talented students involved in auditions for the show but I wasn't at all happy with the way they were treated.

"I don't like the current fixation on competitiveness. I prefer to offer opportunities for people to reach their potential through working towards regular performance opportunities.

"However, one thing that programmes like X-Factor have done is to highlight just how much you need to work at singing if you want to achieve your goals."

She added: "The website is the perfect way to attract potential students and the popularity of the site has meant that I can now concentrate on building the vocal coaching side of things and my new venture of life planning for musicians.

"The beauty of the website is that it allows me to share information on other music teachers and also highlight upcoming events that we are putting on."

The National B2B Centre, which is part of WMG at the University of Warwick and funded by the European Regional Development Fund and Advantage West Midlands, introduced Unlock The Music to open source software. This allows Lizzie to have overall control of content and update the site without having to go to an outside source.

Mark Bonnett, of the National B2B Centre, said: "A website that is up-to-date and offers all of the relevant information your potential customer needs is like gold-dust for any business."