Case Studies - Start With NBSL

Oak & Air – Growing a Nature-Based Wellbeing Business in Rural Northumberland

Balancing life as a parent to two young children while launching a business in rural Northumberland, Laura Waugh is building Oak & Air — a nature therapy and breathwork practice that helps people reconnect with themselves and the natural world. With over 20 years’ experience in conservation and community wellbeing, Laura wanted to turn her […]

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Collage of works featuring Louise Hick, Ceramic workshops, Allendale

Creating with mindfulness, inspired by the peaceful magic of plants and animals.

Louise decided to broaden her business to include the facilitation of small scale, relaxed and engaging workshops based in the market town of Hexham.

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A lifelong dream becomes reality for young single mum

Marie first registered with NBSL In March 2024 and over a year later, her dream of owning and operating a “burger van” (oh, it is so much more than burgers) has become her reality – an ambition Marie had from a young age.

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Repurposing for the benefit of others

Thanks to NBSL’s Start Up Team, Vicky Morgan has found a real sense of purpose following advice and guidance on her idea to reuse and redistribute materials to create activity boxes for organisations that support older and disabled people. Repurposeful CIC (community interest company) has now been established by Vicky and works with the volunteer

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Developing a head for business with music for the hips and heart

Returning from Gambia in 2020, entrepreneur Michael Evans recognised both his skills and experience around the music industry could be used to fuel his ambition to create and produce music for the head, heart and hips by linking and blending the African beat to European producers. Thanks to support from a collective of North East

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Feather being cleaned carefully with a paintbrush

The object doctor will see you now

With over 25 years’ experience in art and heritage conservation, Ticca Ogilvie turned to NBSL to support a dream of establishing a service that allowed her to use her global expertise and knowledge to benefit the wider cultural industry. Borders Conservation Studio (BCS), owned by Ticca, now offers specialist knowledge helping to conserve and restore

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Inspiring a new generation of entrepreneurs

We can all agree that 2020 bought plenty of dark moments but we’ve been inspired by so many people that took the time out during furlough to evaluate their lives and how they use their knowledge to change how they live. With demand for our enterprise support at an all-time high, we’re shining a light

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