Female Entrepreneurs Celebrated

Last Thursday ten business women and ten of the UK’s leading businesswomen joined in the celebration when the winner of the FreshIdeas Events Mentor Competition was announced at a ceremony hosted by HSBC in London.

Karen Darby and Paula Wynne were stunned to find out that they had been chosen as the most successful mentoring couple from the very strong group of contestants, all of whom who had successful partnerships with their mentors.

Karen Darby, CEO of Call Britannia and Paula Wynne, co-founder of Remote Employment and the Remote Worker Awards, and Jackie Brennan, Director of FreshIdeas Events and organiser of the Mentor Competition, are available to share their mentoring experience with the millions of small business owners across the UK.

The eager entrepreneurs who entered the competition six months ago, have been mentored by the ‘cream’ of the UK’s entrepreneurial business women, fondly known as the MAD 'Make A Difference' Woman.

Karen Darby, founder of SimplySwitch, Karen Hanton of tobtable.co.uk and Jo Haigh, Author and Head of Corporate Finance of MGR who has bought and sold over 300 companies in the last 20 years, and Polly Gowers, Founder of Everyclick.com, a search engine that gives half of its revenue to charity, shared their experience with the large audience.

From the 10 businesswomen mentees, Paula impressed the judges with her passion and enthusiasm to succeed and for the innovative Remote Employment concept. Paula is Director and Co-founder of Remote Employment, an online web service dedicated to connecting employers with job seekers who work remotely or work from home, and has seen substantial expansion to their business with Karen’s help and guidance.

Paula said: “I am thrilled to win this prestigious award! I feel so privileged to have been a part of this competition. Working with Karen has been an incredible experience for me!”

Karen Darby kicked off the evening with a talk about mentoring and how it can help a business grow. She finished by saying that she enjoyed learning from Paula’s experiences and because it was such a ‘buzz’ she was now mentoring other business owners.

The successful mentoring 'couple' shared their journey with delightful stories of Karen fishing frogs out of her garden pond to add intrigue to Paula’s stand at an Olympia exhibition, and Paula wearing brightly coloured guest slippers while Karen served chocolate crepes and vanilla ice cream during their meetings at Karen’s home.

Along with lots of fun and laughter, the audience also heard about inspirational moments, determination, business ‘savvy’ and revenue growth. After meetings with Karen and her whirlwind of lateral thinking, Paula invariably dashed off firing all guns, buttons, and cylinders to create new marketplace activities.

One of the initiatives Karen and Paula have worked on is launching The Remote Worker Awards, which highlights how remote working benefits business mobility, and if offering life changing prizes such as a home based franchise worth £15k, an Open University study grant and five business start up kits.

During the evening incredible stories emerged about how this mentoring experience has not only changed the Mentee’s businesses, but also changed the way the experienced and gifted Mentors do business.

Paula and Karen were presented with prizes from HSBC and Business Link in London, who have supported the innovative competition.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Fran Currie, Chief Operating Officer at Business Link in London congratulated the participants on their achievements. She said: “Congratulations to all of the participants for their hard work and perseverance. These women learned from the best in the fields and I am highly impressed with the quality of all the entrepreneurs.”

Pointing to recent research conducted by Business Link in London, Ms Currie said that many women entrepreneurs continue to face barriers to developing and growing their business. “Business Link in London was delighted to support this worthwhile programme. It is vital in the current climate that London’s women entrepreneurs are encouraged by other established businesses and organisations to develop and succeed in their own business ventures.”

Jackie Brennan, Director of FreshIdeas Events said: “The awards evening is a fitting celebration of the entrepreneurs’ achievements. We are pleased to have matched such bright entrepreneurs with some of London’s leading businesswomen. This scheme has required hard work from all of these women, and the positive outcome from this mentoring programme is extremely promising for the UK’s small business community.”

For more details, go online www.freshideasevents.com or browse www.remoteemployment.com. For a chance to win one of the life changing prizes on offer, check out www.remoteworkerawards.com.

Paula Launches SHEplc

A group of enterprising business women gathered at one of Berkshire’s premier hotels on the 1st of May to join in the re-launch of SHEplc, a dynamic network of businesswomen.

Mary Flavelle, founder of SHEplc, formed SHEplc in 2005,when she worked at the Chamber of Commerce. Hundreds of ladies have attended over the years and many have gone on to fantastic heights with their businesses, yet when Mary left the Chamber nearly three years ago the networking eventually events faded.

Mary’s belief and faith that one day she would own SHEplc came to pass when the Chamber handed it back to her with their blessing. Mary’s first guest speaker to launch the new and very exciting SHEplc, was Paula Wynne, founder of Remote Employment, Remote Employment, a job site specialising in flexible, remote and home working.

Paula shared her journey of helping to set up Remote Employment after a shoulder operation left her with a dislocated collarbone and subsequent operations to reconstruct her shoulder with metal plates. Consumed with pain and discomfort as well as suffering from sleepless nights, Paula’s pulled through.

During this very difficult time, Paula’s belief for the concept of remote working and home working helped to launch the online website with lots of attention and has seen the company receive two business awards in a short space of time.

Paula invited all of Mary’s guests to enter The Remote Worker Awards, which aims to raise awareness for remote and home working as an alternative solution to redundancy and the traditional nine to five office routine.

The awards has nine different categories and award winners will walk away with a prestigious trophy and will enjoy up to £50k in prizes, including a Penthouse Garden Office worth £10k, a Home Based Franchise worth £15k, interior design, business starter kits, a mobile laptop and a fabulous luxury weekend at a von Essen Hotel.

After her long career in PR, Paula is used to talking to groups of women about being a PR Hound for their business along with other topics on marketing and business advice, and many of the SHEplc guests found her recent experience inspiring.

One such guest, Christine Chalklin, Astrologer and Life Coach, later thanked Paula for giving her business journey a ‘personal touch’. Christine has the fascinating task of giving chart readings to businesses who want a celestial map for navigating their business path.

Mary’s guests included Tessa Harris, editor of Berkshire Life, Carla Delaney, Editor of Business Monthly and Debra Aspinall, Editor of Vive Magazine. Mary said: “It was very exciting and exhilarating to launch my dream for SHEplc at Cliveden House. We had a wonderful group of ladies who enjoyed every minute of networking and sharing their business success with each other. We want to see more ladies joining us every month and share in the SHE experience!”

For more information about SHEplc and Mary’s fantastic business networking, get onto www.sheplc.com and get networking.

Or for more information or any other enquiry about working from home or working remotely, call 0844 800 8355 or browse www.remoteemployment.com. To have a chance to win one of the fabulous prizes, enter the Remote Worker Awards at www.remoteworkerawards.com.

Workers To Win A Home Business

Remote Employment has announced the launch of the Remote Worker Awards, to highlight how remote and home working benefits the environment and everyone's quality of work life. The Remote Worker Awards is not just another business award - it is a life changing awards!

Someone will win a new career, another a Penthouse Garden Office, one winner will walk away with their very own home based franchise worth £15k and lots of other entrants will start a new life with a home business.

The Remote Worker Awards comes at a time when thousands of people across the UK are faced with job losses or reduced hours. The awards aims to raise awareness for remote and home working as an alternate solution to redundancy and the traditional nine to five office routine.

Everyone is invited to enter as there are award categories for people who want to work from home with their own business as well as people who already work remotely or work from home.

The Work From Home Award will give several entrants the chance to change their career with a toolkit to start their own business. This will not only enhance their profile, impress friends and family, but more importantly receive instant recognition from their new clients when they start their new home business. They will also receive other prizes to ensure working from home is more efficient and enjoyable.

The Helen O' Grady Special Award will grant one person their very own home based franchise worth £15k, while The Vivid Green Award will set one lucky winner up with their own £10k Penthouse Garden Office.

Anyone looking for a life changing career, should enter The Helen O' Grady Special Award. This home based franchise is worth £15k and will be presented to a special person who is interested in changing the lives of children and young people in their area.

This award will attract people with an interest in drama and experience in teaching children who wish to set up their very own home based business working in school term time only. What a great work life balance!

Employees who currently work remotely or work from home will also be given the chance to impress their employer and work colleagues by winning The Remote Worker and Home Worker Awards.

All freelancers, self employed consultants and project contractors are encouraged to enter The Freelance Consultant Award. These workers, who already enjoy the benefits of a flexible employment solution, will be given the chance to show traditionalists why more companies should be recruiting this way. And they will walk away with 1000's of pounds in prizes, including a fabulous luxury weekend at a von Essen hotel!

To top it all, The Open University Skills Award will give one deserving winner a brand new career with a £2000 Open University prize and two runners-up great new job prospects with learning vouchers worth £500! Anyone looking to re-train or re-skill following redundancy will be able to ease their way back into work.

Improving skills is an ideal way to increase job security in these uncertain employment times. The £2000 first prize and two £500 runners up prizes can be used by students to develop themselves in their existing role, or with a complete change of career in mind.

The Remote Worker Awards will also celebrate the most innovative home based businesses in The Home Business Award with a collection of valuable prizes perfectly paired with small and large companies that use their home as a base to increase business mobility.

Paula Wynne, co-founder of Remote Employment, a job site specialising in flexible, remote and home working, expects to unearth an abundance of inventive pioneers who champion flexibility with remote working solutions!
Paula said: "The Remote Worker Awards will feature the winners in a Remote Worker E-Book to help other companies to implement a flexible and remote working program."

The Remote Worker Awards has lined up a prestigious panel of judges with successful businesswoman and serial entrepreneur, Karen Darby, founder of SimplySwitch, leading the way. Judges include Alex Johnson of Shedworking fame. Karen said: "I am delighted to be a judge of the Remote Worker Awards! I am looking forward to see some brilliant examples of this trendy work culture."

The prestigious panel of judges also inlcude include Alex Johnson of Shedworking fame, Cath Roan from Careershifters, Diana Robertson from Business Link London, Tony Corbin of MATiSSE and Jackie Brennan of FreshIdeas Events. To add an exciting dimension to The Remote Worker Awards a remote judge, Jeff Zbar, founder of Chief Home Officer in the United States, has been appointed as a Remote Judge. This is remote judging ... or remote working at its best!

A great supporter of the awards is Helen Cook, Women's Enterprise Manager for the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA). Helen said that she is pleased to support these awards because a significant number of women find the flexibility of running a home-based business highly attractive and offers the opportunity to combine caring responsibilities with work.

The winners of all the award categories, as well as runners up, will be invited to a ceremony at the luxurious Cliveden House, a von Essen hotel, which is set in 376 acres of magnificent formal gardens and parklands, and commands panoramic views over the beautiful Berkshire countryside and River Thames. The winners will sip Champagne with sponsored guests and the media amidst the grandeur of Cliveden'sbreathtaking features, lush sofas and exquisite furnishings.

So all Remote Workers, Home Workers, Home Businesses, Freelance Consultants and anyone wanting to work from home should all enter the Remote Worker Awards!

For more information or any other enquiry about the Remote Worker Awards, call 0844 800 8344 or browse www.remoteworkerawards.com.

Slippers and crepes with the UK's best businesswoman!

The Easter weekend was a good chance to relax!

Our last meeting with Karen was a few days before the One Life Show and we had another great meeting with lots of laughs, good ideas and tons of motivation. Karen suggested we find something really different for our stand and fished some frogs out of her pond for us to take with.

We then spend the next few minutes coming up with slogans for our crazy frogs and ended up with a few show stoppers. Spawning home business ideas, Spawning work from home jobs and National Take Your Frog to Work Week were just a few of our crazy ideas.

The frogs went down really well and we had regular visitors popping back to the stand to see how our frogs were getting on. The frogs just stared and now and then sang a few croaky tunes when the loadspeakers came on. After the show ended we escorted the courting couple back to Karen's pond.

What is really baffling is where has the past 5 months gone, they seem to have melted away and we are almost at the end of the UK’s greatest mentoring competition. It all seems surreal – sitting in Karen’s slippers and being served chocolate and vanilla ice cream crepes made by one of the UK’s top businesswomen! I've just pinched myself and I am awake!

The good news is that Karen’s mentorship has grown our business and Remote Employment has just experienced our best month yet. Amongst other things, we are working on a diverse sales strategy to incorporate vertical markets and the possibility of using a call centre to enhance our current sales model.

We are also finalising details with a headline sponsor for the Remote Worker Awards after putting together a fantastic competition with a prestigious panel of judges and a fabulous awards ceremony. This just shows what a great story remote working is and how it is so attention grabbing.

We hope to announce the final details in the next week, in the meantime take a peek at www.remoteworkerawards.com to enter the next best awards!

All in all, we can’t wait to launch the awards and see where our next month of mentoring takes us ...

Announcing The Remote Worker Awards

Remote Employment has had a very exciting few months! We are about to launch The Remote Worker Awards to highlight how remote and home working benefits the environment, business production and an employee’s quality work life.

So far we have great prizes with a value of over £60k! One of them is a £10k Penthouse Garden Office and another is a home based franchise worth £15k!

Yesterday we secured The Open University with a Skills Award whereby they are giving a 3k study voucher for a new career. We are extremely proud to say this competition will change someone’s career and working life! We are expecting to unearth an abundance of inventive pioneers who champion flexibility with remote working solutions!

von Essen hotels will host the winning ceremony at 5 star Cliveden House. The luxurious Cliveden House is a National Trust Grade Two listed building set in 376 acres of magnificent formal gardens and parklands, and commands panoramic views over the beautiful Berkshire countryside and River Thames.

Shortlisted winners, winners, sponsors, judges and the media will be invited to Cliveden House for Champagne and Canapés. These lucky winners and guests will enjoy the slendour and elegance of one of the world's finest hotels. Read more about the winning ceremony.

Watch out for more details soon, in the meantime browse the different awards categories at www.remoteworkerawards.com.

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Strength to strength

Looking back over the last few months, I still have to pinch myself that I have met such a fantastic group of women - both mentors and mentees and that includes Jackie, soon to be the matriarch of women mentoring!

Even though Karen Darby is my mentor and Guru, I have also had the pleasure of meeting Jo Haigh and also talking to Karen Hanton. On top of this, the Mentees, all wonderful entrepreneurs, are banding together to help each other because we all have particular skills and experience and face different challenges and obstructions.

This half mad bunch of mentees, have all just past the half way point in this great mentoring competition, which is a great place to start a three month update.

Five out of six objectives planned for the three month half way line have been achieved! Of this sales and revenue have made the biggest mark. Traffic is also up and Remote Employment has taken on new staff who are now building a great pipeline of future sales. With this boost to the business and our growing confidence in this fantastic new working culture, we are now talking to another staff member with the aim of bringing them on board in March.

It is very gratifying to talk to large companies and find that they are very interested in being associated with Remote Employment and the exciting roller coaster ride we are on! We have worked magic with strategic alliances and sponsorships with more great offerings about to come on board.

We are very proud of the response we have received from sponsors and how the Remote Worker Awards will change a few careers and working lives. We are now putting final plans for the awards and hope to announce our headline sponsor this week. We will also confirm the winning ceremony with a luxury hotel group. Watch this space for more updates on the awards and our stunning collection of prizes – now estimated to be valued at £50k!

Remote and Home Workers Keep The Country Moving

As the country grinds to a standstill, with the heaviest snow for 18 years causing cancellation of buses, trains and airport closures, people working from home are keeping businesses open and fully operational despite this appalling weather.

While the Met Office has issued a further extreme weather warning for England, Wales and parts of eastern Scotland, it is estimated that the worst-affected area has been the Thames Valley and Greater London where the transport network is at its most concentrated, which is why there has been such chaos.

As thousands of businesses send staff home early because of the weather, others who employ remote workers and home workers are relieved and pleased that there has been no disruption to their normal business day.

At least 3 million Brits who are home based or work flexibly or remotely were able to lie in bed without jumping up to get the snow cleared from the drive and battling cold non-starting engines. They were not affected by delayed or cancelled public transport; instead, they were able to throw a few snowballs with ‘home-bound’ kids before ambling into their home office and getting down to business as usual.

Remote Employment, a web service specialising in flexible, remote and home working jobs, highlights how remote and home working benefits the environment, business production and an employee’s quality work life. With the rise in adverse weather conditions now might be a good time for more companies to try smarter employment solutions by giving employees the opportunity to work flexible hours, work remotely or work from home.



Responding to the news of the vast disruptions in business with many companies working either on ‘skeleton staff’ basis or not at all, Director of Remote Employment, Paula Wynne, reported that many of their clients were relieved to have their employees working remotely or working from home.

She said: “Companies up and down the country are benefitting from this flexible way of working. While people are being advised not to travel, their staff still able to keep business wheels in motion from the sanctuary of their own home. We would like to encourage companies to try out working from home or implement some form of flexible and remote working.”

Remote working and working from home significantly, enabling businesses to be more competitive, and enhances work-life balance for staff, with added health and leisure benefits.

Call centres, service agencies, and forward thinking organisations across the UK have improved productivity by giving staff work from home options or by outsourcing their company services and projects to freelancers and remote workers. All of these businesses have been hardly affected by the wide spread weather chaos.

Remote working is the perfect green or ‘snow-white’ employment solution. With this new approach, more and more employers are now considering remote working and working from home as viable options in their recruitment drive.

For more information, browse www.remoteemployment.com.