Andrea Mclean : Andrea's Garden of Eden

Andrea's Garden of Eden make floral tributes for funerals and design wedding bouquets. Read how Andrea Mclean turned her father's dream into a reality...

I am a mother with 3 girls aged 15, 12 and 7. I have been a florist for 24 years and after, recently being made redundant, I decided to fulfil my dad’s dream (who died 2 years ago) to work for myself.

So I went along to the Job Seekers Plus who gave me the Women’s Business Development Agency’s website address. After seeing what help and advice WBDA gave, I knew that I would feel comfortable with them and that they would help me by giving me some advice and access to opportunities that I couldn’t get on my own.

Business start up help

I gave WBDA a call and they booked me in to receive one to one business advice sessions with my mentor, Michelle Grindley!

Michelle helped organise for me to go on some great free training and learning programmes such as the “Women Only” Inland Revenue workshop – which is organised by WBDA.

I found my one to one advice sessions with Michelle very valuable – as I had guidance throughout the development of my business and she helped me stream line my work and understand all the paperwork needed.

She also gave me some fantastic guidance with the finance aspect as this was one of my main barriers I faced with starting up my own business.

I have become a more confident person and WBDA have given me the support I needed and helped me to have a greater outlook for the future because I now believed in myself. I just didn’t think I had the confidence to start a business after working for someone else for 24 years!

About Andrea’s Garden of Eden

And now I have my own business doing floristry… called Andrea’s Garden of Eden – which includes making floral tributes for funerals, designing wedding bouquets etc.

If it wasn’t for the help and support from WBDA and Michelle, who has been invaluable to me, my dream would not have been fulfilled and now I can make it work – my dad would be so proud!

For more information about Andrea’s florist services please email Andrea on Andrea.mclean@sky.com  or call 02476 461 220.