Enterprising Julie Nicholls is well on the way to achieving her goal in life.

This 28-year old has already made her mark on the business world by being the North Wiltshire winner of the 1994 Live-Wire Business Start-Up Awards and more recently a finalist in the Wiltshire Business of the Year awards organised by the Evening Advertiser.

Julie set up and runs the Natural Therapy Centre at the Bentley Centre, Stratton Road, Swindon.

She is qualified in remedial massage, which is recognised to help back and sciatic pain, arthritis, sport injuries and stress. Julie is also a qualified nurse but decided that working in the health service was not for her because she wanted her own business.

She began working for herself at the Chiropractic Clinic in Swindon ,before last year moving into the Bentley Centre and finding 12 other alternative therapists to join her. Now, she alone has a 135-strong client list which is growing all the time.

She said: “My long term ambition is to find suitable premises that can be turned into a devoted centre for alternative therapies. We have just completed our first year here and the best thing that has happened is that we are now becoming known. My aim is to win a new client every week and so far I have managed to achieve that.”

The two therapy rooms that Julie rents at The Bentley Centre are shared between all the therapists who have been allocated time slots to use them.

Julie is keen to develop her business with companies in Swindon by taking the Centre’s services to them, instead of the client coming to the centre. She also offers clients a mail order service for orthopaedic aids, herbal products and food supplements as well as gift vouchers for any of the therapies available.