Unique Magazine July 2014
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<strong>Unique</strong> Business Stories:<br />
Praveena Thakor<br />
The Laundry Lounge<br />
I had the pleasure of meeting the up and<br />
coming business owner of the fabulous<br />
Laundry Lounge on the Bristol Road in<br />
Gloucester and services Gloucester,<br />
Quedgeley and Hardwicke areas to name<br />
just a few. The Laundry Lounge is a unique<br />
concept in its sector as Praveena has<br />
created a clean, comfortable and chilled<br />
environment or her customers whilst they<br />
wash their clothes.<br />
Praveena is a thoughtful, intelligent and<br />
ethical business lady who is completely<br />
unique at what her business does, this is<br />
Praveen’s story in her own words:<br />
Most of my family have their own business<br />
or are heavily envolved in commerce, so<br />
it was only a matter of time I think before I<br />
started my own business. My family were<br />
very good at encouraging their kids to excel<br />
in education I achieved a Degree in Business<br />
& Law and considered getting a Masters in<br />
Intellectual Property<br />
Instead I went the corporate route in<br />
employed world with C&G and eventually<br />
trained up to be a financial advisor. I then<br />
met my future Canadian husband and<br />
planned our future in Canada where I<br />
emigrated. We had two beautiful children<br />
...happy times or so I thought.<br />
My husband admitted to having a long affair.<br />
My Canadian paperwork was still in its early<br />
stages so I was not recognised and had no<br />
rights. It was a messy and heartbreaking<br />
divorce and my ex-husband was a bully. I<br />
eventually came back to UK with absolutely<br />
nothing apart from the most important my<br />
son and daughter. I decided to be a full time<br />
mother to my two lovely children and to focus<br />
on them, over time I got the call to work for<br />
myself.<br />
I investigated several ventures but wanted<br />
something which fitted around taking my<br />
children to school and spending quality time<br />
with them. I then got the idea of running<br />
a laundry centre with a difference it had<br />
to be clean, comfortable and somewhere<br />
where people can chill out whilst they do<br />
their washing. Eventually the unit came up<br />
on Bristol Road and with the help of my<br />
parents my dream started to be a reality. I<br />
also managed to get the maximum funding<br />
from a local charity trust called Fredericks<br />
Foundation, this was an amazing experience<br />
page 4<br />
uniquecheltenham.co.uk
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