Paula Gamester

Well North Enterprises Ambassador

Building social businesses and helping people is what makes Paula tick.

She set up a fashion business at the age of 14 with a second-hand sewing machine. Her first commission was making hot-pants for her school mates to wear at the end of term disco and she hasn’t looked back.

After successful ventures teaching hairdressing and beauty and then launching designer fashion and jewellery collections in Dubai, Paula became a business adviser back in St Helens, Merseyside.

Never one to rest on her laurels, she took her own advice and set up a social enterprise to provide training and jobs for women in film, writing and publishing. She added The Sewing Rooms, which tackles unemployment, isolation and prisoner rehabilitation by teaching sewing skills. Her team now supplies soft furnishings, accessories and bespoke upholstery to major retailers like IKEA – a great way to bring big business and social enterprise together.

Put simply, Paula is out to change the way the world does business, with her ethos of ‘People, Planet, Profit’. She’s a very determined campaigner for more equitable business models, which don’t just focus on the bottom line or satisfying shareholders.

Paula has made a massive difference to her local community as part of the Well Skelmersdale team, helping people to be the best they can and applying business logic to some of today’s most challenging situations. And as a Well North Enterprises ambassador, her mission is to spread the word and get everyone switched on to new social enterprise opportunities.

Read more about Paula’s unique approach at http://www.the-sewing-rooms.co.uk/about-paula-gamester/

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