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.