Deletta Gillespie had wanted to run her own business for seven years but finding funding for a small new business has not been easy.

But now the trained singer, dancer and actress has made her dream come true and set up on her own venture, MelodyGram, a singing telegram and delivery service.

With help from the Bermuda Small Business Development Corporation, she has gone ahead and begun her new venture this week - and the bookings are already coming in hard and fast.

"The response has been tremendous," she said. "I had to turn down work last week - 15 jobs - because I was not ready to start yet."

Her "basic delivery" of a singing telegram, with a certificate and a digital photo provided in the price, costs $60.

"But we can do anything from delivering balloons and stuffed animals and chocolates to specialist wines and even cakes,'' she added. "We even have a male singer if a man would like a man to sing to his wife and the other way around.

"We want to expand into bachelor and bachelorette parties and help organise wedding parties come in from overseas. They will be able just to call us and we will organise it," she said.

And she expects to be getting in costumes to be able to perform at children's parties. "But there is no stripping - his is nice good clean fun," Mrs. Gillespie added.

"I am very excited about this venture. There seems to be a real niche in the market, and we hope we can fill it. It will be a great adventure."

Mrs. Gillespie hopes to have her own web site up and running in a few months which will be linked to other Bermuda sites so it will be easier for visitors to find the company's service. But she admits it has been hard to get up and running with banks not wanting to put hard cash into the venture.

"I had a few financing issues. There wasn't a lending institution on the Island that would think of lending money for something that isn't tried and tested," she said.