Stones and Glass Houses….

The media whirlwind surrounding the unwholesome revelations of Glenda Stone’s treatment of her employees has raised important issues. It highlights the issues of the way we work today, equality at all levels and the checks and balances we have in place to ensure employee rights are respected.

As a highly successful woman entrepreneur, Glenda Stone was cherry-picked to sit on the Women Enterprise Task Force. A group that, over a period of three years, provided evidence to argue for government support initiatives - to increase the contribution made by women led businesses in the UK. Due to her ambassador work, through Aurora, promoting women entrepreneurs and equality, the recent news has hit home hard.

The ironic twist in this case is one of the main reasons why the story has received such prolific coverage, which is no bad thing, as long as we ensure the reputation of other women entrepreneurs’ is not tarnished and that it doesn’t degenerate into a ‘gender-attack’ on women bosses.

Issues of this nature must be raised; employers, both men and women, have the same responsibility to protect and respect the rights of their employees. It’s so important to have checks and balances in place within a business to avoid unpleasant situations occurring. And if this framework is absent, it is an example of bad leadership and management which is potentially damaging to the individuals involved and to the business as a whole.

However, the most profound issues laid bare in this story are not ones of gender or governmental error (no matter how entertaining they may be!). Instead, they revolve around mitigating against the type of unethical and counterproductive management practices the story highlights, whether it be through education, legislation, or good old fashioned awareness building.

In effect, through her actions, Glenda Stone has hurt herself more than anyone in this case, and her lack of people and management skills have now sadly surpassed the positive work she contributed to women’s entrepreneurism.

Secret Millionaire’s Top Tips for being a successful entrepreneur

Emma Harrison took to the stage at the Enterprising Women Awards in November, and didn’t pretend she wasn’t nervous – she talks her mind, tells it how it is and isn’t afraid to do so. She shared her inspiring life story with over 100 women entrepreneurs, highlighting the fact that there is no ‘normal’ path through life and to becoming an entrepreneur. It was a matter of survival at first, and she never stopped – never lost her passion and vision. During her talk, she gave us some great tips and insights into starting up and running a business. So what is the secret to Secret Millionaire Emma’s success?

1) Always ask – no matter what it is. What have you got to lose? Don’t be intimated or afraid to ask, just go for it. What’s the worst that can happen? They say no! But you might get a surprise – they might say YES!

2) Never lose the passion – no matter what challenges you come up against or how successful your business becomes, don’t lose the passion you had on the very first day!

3) Make sure your passion isn’t just about making money – you need more than that. Emma’s passion is improving people’s lives.

4) Vision – you need a vision. Tell everyone what your vision is. Don’t hide it. If you tell people, they might just help you!

5) Take little steps everyday – don’t try to do it all at once. And remember to tell everyone where you want to go!

6) Leadership qualities – Inspire, encourage and elevate everyone around you. If you behave like a leader, people will follow.

7) Get a mentor – Emma has always had a mentor and she swears by it – someone to talk to for a couple of hours every month.

8) 4 marketing activities each day – get an A4 sheet of paper, divide it into quarters and write down 4 marketing activities which you need to do that day. Be it calling customers, updating your website, placing an advert, designing a leaflet; make sure you do 4 marketing activities each day.

9) Don’t get too busy and forget about getting new business – it’s great to be busy, but remember that you need to keep bringing the business in.

10) Don’t use up energy being afraid – be brave and focus on what you want to achieve.

Enterprising Women Awards celebrate Exceptional Women Entrepreneurs throughout Britain

It was really great to see so many talented and innovative women entrepreneurs from around the UK at the Enterprising Women Awards last week. There was a fantastic, buzzing and vibrant atmosphere both at the Christmas Fair and at the Awards Lunch, with everybody networking and enjoying the opportunity to look around the excellent Christmas Fair stalls and to talk to the Business Support services.

The Awards Lunch was a festive occasion, with last year’s overall winner, Sally Aspinall talking about how winning the top award has opened up many doors for her and her business. Emma Harrison then gave an inspirational talk about her life and experiences, starting from nothing to become a hugely successful Millionaire. She shared a host of invaluable top tips with us all on how to be successful in business which we’ll be blogging about next so keep your eyes peeled for those...

It was then time for the part we’d all been waiting for; the Awards’ presentation. Congratulations goes to our Overall Enterprising Woman of the Year 2009, Sarah Fuller of Full Support Healthcare Ltd, who also won the High Flyer Award category. Jo Behari of Home Jane Ltd was Runner-up Enterprising Woman of the Year 2009 and winner of Young Entrepreneur Award.

You can see photos of all the winners of each category at Enterprising Women and photos of all the finalists.

Stay tuned to find out about Emma’s top tips and for all our upcoming news at Enterprising Women.

Don’t miss out on Enterprising Women’s event programme this Autumn and Winter

We’ve been really busy at Enterprising Women organising a large variety of events for this Autumn and Winter – our programme’s jam-packed and we’re looking forward to meeting up with you all face-to-face. We’ve blogged about the importance of networking and this is your chance to come along and put our tips into practice. You might meet potential clients, suppliers, mentors and friends...our community means you’re not alone, but have a support network to help you progress with your business and to stay focused on what’s important. Our events will be covering topics including ‘Blogs, tweets and pokes – the benefits of social media’ to ‘Attracting customers’ and ‘Achieving a work-life balance’. We’re also running a programme on ‘Going for Growth’, which incorporates 10 key topics from our growth training programme to create an exciting and informative day.

Our event which took place earlier this week, was a great success. Angela Peacock, the Chair of The People Development Team and founder of www.thecompletetrainer.com, lead on a dynamic and interactive session on ‘Driving your strategy through discovering your culture.’ Participants were asked to assess where their business is now in terms of characteristics, leadership, management of employees and strategy, and then envisage where they want to be in 2 years and how they can get there. Angela categorised the different cultural characteristics found in businesses, grouping them in The Clan, The Adhocracy, The Market or The Hierarchy family - getting the balance right is really important.

Register online and come along to our events this Autumn and Winter. Check out our events calendar here.

PowerPoint presentations - good for business?

I'm sure we've all sat through a PowerPoint presentation which seems to be never ending, the dull tones of the presenter and the endless slides appearing and disappearing. Or a presentation where we're trying to take everything in, but there's just too much! So what's the answer to perfecting PowerPoint presentations and are they the best means of communication for you and your business?

If you are preparing a PowerPoint, here are a few useful tips:

1) A PowerPoint presentation should be an aid to presenting, not an excuse to read from the screen directly with your back to the audience. Eye contact with your audience is extremely important as is your body language.

2) Trying to read, listen and make notes all at the same time is a big ask. If you have hand-outs or are emailing everyone a copy of your PowerPoint presentation, say so at the beginning so that people aren’t frantically copying the slide before it disappears – and not listening to a word you’re actually saying!

3) Make sure your slide is not overfilled with text. Mix it up with images.

4) Make sure the text is big enough - there's nothing worse than your audience complaining that they can't read it.

5) Avoid rambling; plan your presentation carefully. Your presentation should clarify to your audience what you’re saying – it’s not to remind you of everything you want to say.

6) An information overload should be avoided at all costs – don’t assume that your audience will be able to take in huge amounts of information, even if it is all bullet- pointed. Make it a realistic length as learning through listening and speaking is very different to reading and writing.

7) Use creative images and not just lines and lines of words – the audience may loose interest completely through being uninspired!

8) Have as few slides as possible - too many slides will just distract everybody.

Remember, a great PowerPoint presentation relies on a good speaker so practice these skills as much as you can.

Check out the Enterprising Women website for more top tips for running your business. If you have any great tips, share them with us here.

Enterprising Women Awards 2009 open for entries

We’ve just announced that the Enterprising Women Annual Awards 2009 are now open for entries. It’s certainly been a really tough year for businesses, battling against the recession, and we know that there have been some huge achievements made by women across Britain this year.

Our Awards cover nine categories, from Inspirational Business Mum to Young Entrepreneur and, from which the Enterprising Woman of 2009 will be chosen. We’re looking forward to receiving nominations for the awards, the winners of which we’ll be announcing at our Awards Lunch on 24th November.

Last year’s EW nominees and winners said that the Enterprising Women awards brought them real business and personal rewards as well as great promotional opportunities from press coverage to speaker events. This acknowledgement and recognition together with the validation by the wider business community, made the whole experience rewarding at every level for them.

If you know somebody who you feel deserves an EW Award, or you would like to nominate yourself, visit The Enterprising Women Annual Awards 2009 to find out more. You can also register to attend the Awards Lunch and take part in our Christmas Fair.

Top Twitter tips for your business

Businesses, especially SMEs, are all at different stages of discovering social networking sites and how best to use this new technology within their businesses. With Dell reporting that offers from its Dell Outlet Twitter account had led to more than $1 million in revenue, it just shows us the potential of these sites. We’ve read countless articles on how and why to use Twitter and have come up a top tips list of our own:

Use Twitter to...

1. Find out if people have any issues with your product – and if they do, you can resolve any problems quickly and engage directly with them

2. Track your reputation – search to find out exactly what people are saying about you

3. Promote your business to followers – your sales may increase

4. Drive more traffic to your website and blog by using links in your Tweets

5. Network with people to increase your customer base

6. Search for potential customers who you think would like your product or service – although this may seem a bit like stalking!

7. Build your brand and profile through Twitter and ensure your business has its own personality and your customers feel comfortable contacting you directly.

8. Keep an eye on all your competitors too...

Have a look at our Enterprising Women Twitter account and become one of our followers to hear all the latest news in starting up and growing your business.