Spark Your Potential

Off I went yesterday to a networking event at Alton Towers.

I arrived in plenty of time to meet a co-WAHM, Amanda, who will absolutely kill me for mentioning that she is 21 (soon to be 22 - very important that) and has 3 children under 5 AND a successful business (www.ellaannouncements.com). God she made me feel old. But she is lovely so I will let her off.

We carefully edged our way into the room of business women, not feeling intimidated at all and ready to be inspired during the seminars and via networking opportunities. The first thing I noticed however was that there was a distinct lack of chairs in the room. Now I happen to have one leg slightly shorter than the other and so spent the next 15 minutes shifting from one foot to another, uncomfortably. I don't understand why chairs were lacking unless the organisers felt that we needed to be kept on our toes (literally).

Most important thing to mention - there were loads of foodie bits to be had, although I could have quite easily worked my way through a whole tray of mini choc croissants - not very important and successful like business woman behaviour. So I stopped at 10.

Jo Cameron (of Apprentice fame) was the first to kick off and I have to say that I was very impressed with her enthusiasm and zest for life. Lets face it, whenever you go to any event, you expect to be faced with the "I've got it all women" who you immediately take a dislike to, but I really quite liked her. Jo has moved on to designing and running seminars for women - www.jocameron.co.uk (in business and generally) and I am most tempted to join one, given how inspiring I found her on the day. If you want to get on in life and in business, her website is worth a look. And yes, she still has the same zany laugh that you will remember from her time spent with the GOD that is Sugar.

The first seminar I attended was on inspirational women and was fantastic. Amongst the speakers were Jo (mentioned above), Jenny Hudson (fab cake maker - you must check out her website www.sweet-as.co.uk), Ranbir Sahota who runs her own home based PR business (www.vitispr.com) and last but not least, Sandra Brookes (self employed business adviser) who I shall affectionately call "The Quiet Assassin". I have decided on this title because Sandra is extremely gentle, quietly spoken and kind hearted, but clearly when faced with a knife wielding lunatic would not only be able to disarm him but beat him up and leave him in a tangled mess on the floor. Actually I'm not sure of this fact exactly, but I wouldn't want to cross her in business, lets put it that way. The lady knows her stuff and is very determined.
Amongst some of the little gems I picked up were;

1. Think intuitively
2. Get in touch with your local women's business development agency for help with funding, advice, grants, expert support
3. Keep on top of debtors
4. Take a decent salary for yourself
5. Be resilient
5. Keep your values alive
6. Deal with the big stuff first

Note to self - STOP WATCHING JEREMY KYLE AND GET ON WITH IT LISA.

The second seminar was PR on a shoestring and hey-hey guess what this is?

I think amongst all of the valuable advice and information I picked up, the event taught me that I JUST NEED TO BLOODY WELL GET ON WITH IT. So the new me is going to work even harder at getting this business off the ground.

Watch this space.