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youngBsNs sAn old factory was empty for 30 years until young peoplestarted moving in and setting up their own busrnesses.EEsI started up my own business basically because I wasout of work. I was fed up with applying for jobs andnot even making it to the interview stage. Anyway, Isaw an article in the local newspaper about rentingwork space in an old factory. You could get a loan forany equipment and you only needed to repay themoney once your business was making a profit. Addedto which the rent was very low.So that's exactly what I did. I borrowed some moneyand bought a computer and a colour printer. I'vealways been interested in art and design and I lovemusic and watching videos. I set about designingcovers for music CDs and videos and sent off some ofmy work to various music companies, entertainmentmagazines and so on and within a year I had moreorders than I could cope with by myself. Now, twoyears down the line, I employ a staff of three andwe've branched out into designing the covers forcomputer games. l've been incredibly lucky and mybusiness has really taken off.I tried to get a loan from a bank in order to start upmy business. I spent hours producing a business plan,but the manager turned me down because shethought it would take years for me to make any kindof profit. Well, how wrong she was! My parents lentme the money for the first year's rent and I startedwork in one of the factory's smallest rooms. Now, mybusiness has grown to such an extent that I actuallyrent three rooms. I make wigs for people in showbusiness. lt's not that these people are bald, they'veall got their own hair. lt's just that most of them areon stage night after night and they don't always havetime to look after their hair or get to a hairdresser. Sothey rely on being able to wear a wig that exactlymatches their own hair colour.A wig is very expensive - anything from f 1000upwards for just a small hairpiece. The raw materialto make a wig is very costly and then every hair hasto be threaded by hand so itS hours of work. Andthen you have to look after a wig very carefully; itneeds to be repaired quite often which takes time.For that reason a lot of people actually have two.My parents told me about the factory when I waslooking for a studio to set up my own business. I hadleft art college full of ideas as to what I was going todo. But I was horrified when I saw the cost of rentingeven a tiny studio.I produce hand-made gift boxes and wrapping paper.Each box is individually designed and decorated withgold flowers and butterflies. The wrapping paper ismade to match and I will also take customers' requestsif they want something very special. So, becauseeverything is hand-made my products are quiteexpensive. But you can't buy them in shops orsupermarkets so they really are special.Actually as the demand for my work has increased, l'venow got someone working for me and l'm thinking ofsetting up a mail order business, probably using theinternet.lf it hadn't been for the opportunity to rent a space inthe factory I would still be waiting and hoping!I moved into the factory straight after leavinguniversity. I studied history but ever since I was a smallchild l've been interested in sewing. And halfwaythrough my degree course I realised that although Iwas enjoying the subject, what I really wanted to doas a career was embroidery - that's stitching with silkand threads and suchlike. I used to embroider scarvesfor friends for birthday presents and people lovedthem. So I sent some scarves to a couple of topLondon stores and they placed orders almoststraightaway. They send me the scarves made by theirown design team and I embroider and decorate eachscarf so that it's completely unique and individual. Asit's a very expensive decorative technique and takeshours to do, the scarves are only found at the top endof the fashion market. Recently, l've been asked toembroider the necklines of jackets and the bottomedges of trousers and skirts, so business continues toexpand.TEST 5, PAPER 1lrm