PRIME Initiative

Mike Read’s background is print. Starting as an apprentice back in 1970 he soon moved from his native North East to work in London for advertising agencies on creative copywriting and artwork. It wasn’t long before he went freelance.

Like so many working in design and publishing, his world changed in the mid 1980s. It was the arrival of the Apple Mac that caused it and he embraced it warmly by making what was then a substantial investment in his first desk top publisher.

The 1990s saw him take a different direction because he and his wife left for Spain where he earned a living for several years as a crooner in cabarets and casinos specialising in Sinatra and Bobby Darin material. He decided to return to Britain after his wife became ill.

Back home he trained up in web design and after contacting PRIME’s regional Development Manager in the North East, who signposted him to his local support agency InBiz, he received a PRIME loan to enable him to purchase two high-tech digital printing machines. He rents a ‘wired’ office overlooking the Roman Wall museum in Wallsend and many of his clients are referred to him by his local Business Link which list him as an ‘approved consultant’.

Like most people starting up supplying a specialist service he has found his immediate problem is surviving in the interval between obtaining a contract and receiving payment for it. “The PRIME loan makes the whole process much easier”, Mike says, “much of the worry of coping with this income gap is taken away.”

So if anyone out there wants some quality printing, a web site developed and an occasional turn for a wedding, Mike Read is your man.