Boda Bridal
A MUM with an eye for design decided to draw her own future after twice being made redundant within three years. Wendy Grove said she had always wanted to have her own shop with a till - and is now running one and learning how to operate the other. "Running your own business can be exciting and scary at the same time, but the feedback I have had from my customers, just weeks after opening the shop, has been fantastic," she said. Wendy already had many of the skills needed to run a business thanks to jobs in the retail industry and as a designer of top quality brochures for other companies. She also had an eye for wedding stationery and favours, having designed her own, but she realised that a shop selling just stationery would not pay the bills, so she decided to really do her homework. "I carried out a lot of research into what brides like and what they don't," she said. The result is a three-storey, one-stop bridal shop in Chester that sells everything a bride could possibly need for her big day, and she even has a section of cards specially designed for same-sex couples tying the knot. Blue Orchid, which advised her in the early days when she was working on her business plan and financial forecasts, is now preparing to help provide PR and marketing advice. That, coupled with Wendy's willingness to go that extra mile for free for her customers, is proving to be a match made in heaven. www.bodabridal.co.uk Tel: 01244 344 388
