PaulaWiden.se
The first business
At the age of 29, in 1977, she started her first business. "Paula´s Handgöra". A store selling patterns of her own design, and materials. She made pictures for children and patterns. Put warp yarn in looms for customers.
In the evening she gave courses.
In 1983 she started a new store with a friend, Ann-Marie Persson. "Ammi" worked mostly with fabrics. The name of the store was "Ammis & Paulas Hantverk" .
"A lot of hard work. 24/7. The children's grandparents helped out taking care of them! But since we didn't open the store until 10 A.M., I could let them sleep in, and have a long breakfast. We took turns opening and closing the store. Often one had to stay late at night to get the store in order for the next day."
Ammi took over by herself in 1990, when Paula felt she needed more time for her children. Malin Leijonberg, one of the employees, came eventually to take over the store.
In 1991 Paula got a position at the employment agency in Tanum. She found it rewarding to work with people of all ages. Then she went on to AMU (now Lernia, a company providing education and guidance) in Uddevalla.
"To get a paycheck. And vacation! That was probably the hardest, but a luxury.
To get paid without having to work. Vacation from what? Could get out of work at 4 p.m. and have the rest of the day off. Be off on Saturdays and Sundays.
That was not a full time job to me. Many people asked, how is it to work full time?
From having my own business and sometimes had to work 80 hours per week, and thinking that was OK, I didn't understand why it should be "hard work" to to work 40 hours.
But I enjoyed myself."