A North Tyneside resident has used her wealth of experience to turn her dream of becoming her own boss into a reality by opening her own greetings card and gift shop ‘Wishing Well Cards’.

Kathleen Cave from North Shields had been made redundant twice from previous jobs and had always dreamed of being her own boss, so when her job was under threat once more this year, she decided to bite the bullet and work for herself.

Armed with ten years experience working in card shops, the only barriers facing Kathleen were access to funding to cover start-up costs and lack of confidence in her ability to go it alone. In search of advice she and her partner, Rob Gray, came to The Business Factory.

The Business Factory, based on High Street West in Wallsend, is North Tyneside Council’s one-stop shop for budding entrepreneurs to get all the advice and support they need.

It was here Kathleen met TEDCO Business Adviser George Wafer, she said;

"George was very enthusiastic about my business idea and he encouraged me to take it forward whilst giving me advice on start-up costs and different funding that was available to help me.”

"With help from George we secured a business start up grant from North Tyneside Council and pooled it with our own resources – we made our dream come true when we opened the shop.”

Wishing Well Cards on Nile Street in North Shields offers a huge range of greetings cards and gifts and is the only card shop in North Shields to stock the popular ‘Me to You’ bears which they hope will be a unique selling point that will attract customers to the shop.