Have you got a copy of September Sussex Life? Pick one up in the next few weeks and you’ll get to see a great article all about the BusinessMums Conference. Not in Sussex? Read the article online.
BusinessMums Conference in Sussex Life
August 30th, 2010The Women’s Coaching Company: Supporting Enterprising Women
August 27th, 2010
The Womens Coaching Company was set up to support, coach, mentor and develop corporate and entrepreneurial women and will be playing an exciting part in the BusinessMums Conference as it sponsors the Awards.
Lynette Allen, Managing Director, will be one of the Judges at the BusinessMums Conference Awards. She says, ”The Womens Coaching Company is very proud to be sponsoring the awards. To go from having an idea in your mind, to being able to make that idea work in practice, to motivate those around you and form a fully fledged profitable business that makes a difference in the world, must always to be celebrated. When the person behind that idea is a woman though, only another woman can really recognise and appreciate the ‘behind the scenes’ mastery and skill that was needed to make her the success she is! If other women are to understand how to blend life and business and really make it work, we need to celebrate those who do it well. These finalists are the ones who do it very well and they’re an inspiration!”
The Womens Coaching Company has 4 aims;
- to make coaching, and the benefits of coaching, more accessible and available to women at all levels of the corporate and entrepreneurship ladder
- to support companies who understand the importance and value in retaining and developing the talents of their female staff
- to ensure that individuals and companies are aware of the benefits of being coached by specialists trained to align the values and communication styles of coaching, with the values and communication styles of a woman
- to support the development, the sustainability, the growth and the success of female owned businesses and women climbing the corporate ranks.
Why we feel women need support in these areas
Lynette Allen explains, “GrowingBusiness.co.uk reports that just 12-14% of businesses in the UK are majority female owned and that just 30% of women owner/managers raise funds through banks and other external sources, compared to 70% of male owners. Many cite the reason for that being that women can be more cautious when making decisions and aren’t always so comfortable in aiming for the top and believing they’ll get there, we aim to change that.
“Cranfield School of Business Management reported that in 2009, the number of directorships held by women on the FTSE 100 corporate boards remained at the same level as in 2008 at 12% – this equates to 113 women holding 131 FTSE 100 directorships, compared to 834 men holding 947 directorships. There could be many reasons why there are so few women at the top of their chosen fields, we believe that through coaching, mentoring, support and training that more women could aim for the top and be confident they’ll get there and stay there.
“We simply believe that there’s no better way to inspire the young women of tomorrow than to support and promote the women in these roles today.
Sponsor and reach Mums with Businesses
August 24th, 2010The exhibition space is fully booked at the BusinessMums conference … but there are just a couple of spaces left for the last two sponsors. If your business sponsors the conference, you get the chance to put your business in front of mums looking for business ideas and services to support their enterprises. Contact info@businessmumsconference.co.uk ASAP to grab one of the last couple of spaces TODAY.
Mel McGee says, “Stop Marketing – Start Engaging”
August 21st, 2010
Do you ever feel that your customers have had enough of how you market your business? If you are bored with your own marketing messages, Mel Mcgee is going to give you a fresh take on ENGAGING with customers and how you can give your marketing programme a real fresh look. Mel explains, “The focus of my talk ‘Stop Marketing – Start Engaging’ is about how to make the most of media and why social media can be more effective than traditional advertising. I’ll also be sharing lots of simple strategies and links etc that the audience can apply immediately in their businesses.”
Attend the BusinessMums conference and you’ll learn about:
1. Building your visibility through social media – the right way!
2. Going viral – what makes people share on social media?
3. Why social media is so much more than free promotion and how to get the most out of it.
4. Using automation – when it’s good, bad and ugly!
5. The payoff – how to make it easy for ‘friends’, ‘followers’ and ‘fans’ to become customers.
Sussex Mum’s Success
August 19th, 2010
You might have heard author Charlie Plunkett on BBC Sussex earlier this week. The Sussex mum wrote her first short story while at primary school and now combines looking after baby Cole with writing. Charlie then went on to have a career as a professional dancer, but explains, “As time passed I found that what had once inspired me and got my creative juices flowing slowly started to drain me. My husband Dave and I made the huge decision to leave London, my job and our big 3 bedroom house to move to Brighton, no job, a bijoux flat and me 4 months pregnant!
“I started writing my first book ‘The True Diary of a Bride-to-Be’ in the months leading up to the birth of our gorgeous baby Cole. I took a total break from completing it during the first few months of Cole’s life choosing instead to immerse myself totally in planet ‘baby land’. As time passed Cole settled into a little routine, my confidence grew as a new mum and I felt it was time to pick up where I had left off with my writing. I discovered a fabulous self-publishing company online called Grosvenor House Publishing and instantly hit it off with the managing director. Once my book was completed I contacted them and a few months later presto I was a published author!
Having been totally bitten by the writing bug I continued working my way through the milestone moments in my life with my second book ‘The True Diary of a Mum-to-be: A Pregnancy Companion’ being published a few months ago. I am currently working on my third book ‘The True Diary of Baby’s First Year’ due out in time for Christmas. My books have been well received and are available from Amazon and Waterstones stores nationwide.”
Does Lack of Confidence Hold You Back?
August 18th, 2010
Robyn Hatley is going to be helping BusinessMums ‘Get Confident!’ this October in Brighton. If your lack of confidence is holding you back in your business, read on to find out about Robyn and what she has planned for the session:
Robyn is the creator of Mums The Business (business advice & mentoring for start up mumpreneurs); and also Regional Director for 9 groups of The Athena Network (a business networking organisation for women). Robyn is the first to admit that the most critical key to her success has been in finding her confidence as an entrepreneur, after a corporate career; and then communicating that confidence, when networking for or promoting her businesses.
Robyn believes that we can all have Superhero Confidence in our businesses – without having to wear our underwear on the outside! Join her workshop, where the keys to confidence for mumpreneurs will be swiftly unmasked! Robyn will show you:
- Why confidence gives kudos to your business
- How to capture & carve your own confident space in the world of business
- How to be confident in who you are & what you have to say about your business
If you know that your confidence could do with a boost, book your ticket for the BusinessMums Conference now.
Startups.co.uk Sponsors the BusinessMums Conference
August 16th, 2010
Startups.co.uk is the most popular independent website for anyone starting a business in the UK. Launched in 2000 by a successful entrepreneur, it offers unrivalled advice and inspiration from leading entrepreneurs and professionals to over 150,000 people every month.
Now, Startups.co.uk is linking up with the BusinessMums Conference to add its support to the thousands of mums starting a business each year.
Sara Rizk, Editor Startups.co.uk says, ‘Startups.co.uk is delighted to be supporting The Business Mum’s Conference 2010, a great opportunity to celebrate the success of women in business and a great opportunity to champion mumpreneurs’
Enter the BusinessMum Conference Awards
August 15th, 2010We’re still finalising one last sponsor … but I said I’d open the BusinessMum Conference awards today, so here are the details.
Winning an award for your business has to be the best feeling. When you run your own business you rarely get external acknowledgement and an award makes all the difference. It can help you gain all sorts of publicity, and builds customer trust.
Whether you have yet to win an award for your business, or you have won already and know just how powerful an award win can be, why not enter this years’ BusinessMums Conference Awards?
Entering is simple. Follow the link to the form and fill in your details. Don’t panic about your style or grammar: we’re looking for inspiring businesses run by committed mums who are making a success of their enterprise. The more detail you supply the more able we will be to make a good decision. Please include supporting material as appropriate:
- Media coverage
- Customer testimonials
- Images
Send in your entry by 17th September. The panel of judges is headed by What’s On 4’s award winning founder Sam Willoughby, together with Lynette Allen of The Women’s Coaching Company and conference organisers Nicky Chisholm, Suzanne Borrell, and Antonia Chitty.
Categories:
Best ‘business start up’ award – for businesses within their first two years. Sponsored by The Womens Coaching Company.
Best ‘growing business’ award – for businesses two years and older. Sponsored by Create.net 
The winner of each Award will win:
Media coverage of their win in:
- Sussex Life
- Mums Inc
- ABC Magazine
- Startups.co.uk
- FamilyFriendlyWorking.co.uk
1 year membership of the Mumpreneurs’ Networking Club
A weekend away courtesy of Thistle Hotels
A Make-Over including Makeup, manicure and pedicure by Anita Smith of Brighton Beauty – www.brightonbeauty.co.uk
A personal Style session from Helen Reynold, Style Step Consultant and Sarah Greg Green House Clothes Consultant.
A coaching session with Lynette Allen of the Women’s Coaching Company.
In addition the winner of the Best Established Business will win:
- a Website Consultation session courtesy of Create.net
- £250 of advertising with the What’s On 4 Group.
Finalist Prizes
There will be three shortlisted finalists in each section. Each finalist will win a selection of signed business books from Antonia Chitty and Startups.co.uk [LOGO]
Award Rules
- To be nominated for an award you must be a mum and own your own business.
- You may nominate yourself or someone else.
- Judges and relatives of the judges may not enter.
- To enter you must be able to attend the BusinessMums Conference on October 5th in Brighton.
- Shortlisted entries and winners will be announced at the BusinessMums Conference on October 5th in Brighton.
- Award entries may be submitted until midnight 10th September.
7. Businesses in their first two years of trading may enter the best business start up category. All other businesses will be judged in the ‘growing business’ category.
8. There will be a shortlist of three finalists for each category.
BusinessMums meet the PM
August 15th, 2010Suzanne Borrell writes, “With my mumpreneur hat on I was lucky enough to be invited to spend the afternoon with David Cameron yesterday! He joined us in Sussex at a ‘secret’ location to answer questions from representatives from Brighton & Hove. The ‘secret’ venue had obviously been leaked as we were greeted upon arrival by a very noisy body of protestors. It was very hot and hectic (the first thing the PM did was to throw his jacket off!) but he fielded questions for a good hour on a range of issues from support for small businesses to the 2nd World War. There is no question he is a polished performer and his responses were fairly predictable but he did re-iterate the government’s commitment to supporting business start ups – for example the cut in NI for small businesses – and he pledged to remove much of the unnecessary bureaucracy and paperwork involved in running your own company.”
See more about the event at the Number10 Blog.
