Member Article

Totally Tranquil Celebration

Two North East Business and Innovation Centre (BIC) start up clients have celebrated their fourth year in business by opening their very own clinic in Roker.

Friends Lindsey Graham and Danielle McGlen met over 11 years ago whilst working at the Sunderland Royal, both qualified physiotherapists they decided to look towards self employment and visited the BIC for help and advice on starting their own business. Four years later andTotally Tranquil, which offers physiotherapy and complementary therapies, has moved into bigger space as well as expanding in staff. Lindsey explains:

“We came across the BICs website asking if you had an idea to make an appointment, at the time we had our plan of what we wanted to achieve but weren’t quite sure of how to get there so we filled in the form, visited the BIC and never looked back.

“We came to about seven workshops hosted by Paul Cairns, business training manager and they could not have been more helpful. We learnt so much about the legal issues surrounding self employment as well as the challenges we faced.

“Over the course of two years we kept in touch with the BIC, began renting a room in the Aquatic Centre and focused on building our client base. As the business grew we began offering a lot more complimentary therapies therefore we needed somewhere quieter and in January we moved out of our rented room and into our very own clinic at Roker.

“We now boost a range of therapies from Katy Shield: Lady Muk- offering Eve Taylor Facials and Reflexology, Joanne Clark delivering chiropody and podicures, Olwyn Rowlands, No dress rehearsal: Hypnotherapy and life coaching, Gillian Rayne: No2 Stress- Forever Living Aloe Vera products and Bach Flower Essences therapist and Liz Cairns, Inspire Holistics- Reiki.

“After a very hard slog renovating the clinic from its origins as a cafe we are proud of what we have achieved, despite the late nights!

“The next step is focusing on maintaining the business and establishing a wider customer base. “

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Sarah Spence .