At The BWN we love to support local charities so when Farleigh’s Hospice asked us if they could talk about their new challenge for local businesses, we were instantly interested. Not least when they mentioned they already had local press and radio interested, so businesses involved would get great media coverage too.

The idea is that Farleigh’s give you £50 (I did point out this was not the way charities traditionally worked – but heyho) and your business has 3 months to turn that into as much money as possible. The 50 businesses would be welcomed to a launch night and would be congratulated back on an awards night.

I had already had my thinking cap on since talking to Julie Sawyer from Farleigh’s and come up with 3 ideas, the first was a number of pamper events, (I hosted one for charity a few years ago and made £1000 in one night, so knew this could work) a skills bank to showcase the brilliance of business women at the BWN or a naked calendar. Guess what happened?

It was like I hadn’t said the first 2 ideas as Julie’s eyes lit up with “Think of the media opportunities on THIS” and everyone else was talking at a million miles an hour with the ideas whirring in their eyes about how brilliant it would be.

No one was thinking about the getting their kit off bit.

I love that when you asked business women to come up with a solution (I’m not being sexist here, I know you men are just as capable but hey my job is to look after the business women of the world, so don’t get stroppy with me later on Twitter.) they find it – it never ceases to impress me the level of care and consideration business women have for each other and their community.

However there is a problem…

If you know me personally my name is Mandie Holgate and I am the founder of the BWN. This year has been very much a battle for me, having spent near on 3 months in bed (really it sounds fun, but it wasn’t) with Glandular fever and now I am being investigated for ME. I don’t tell you this for sympathy (although if anyone wants to send me gifts, flowers and nice handbags feel free – LOL) I tell you this because as I saw the level of passion for the calendar idea I was instantly seeing a thousand ideas and opportunities at once. A bit like when I talk to a business woman about her business.

But I know my health needs me to consider me first. So what to do?

The heart says rise to the challenge and throw yourself into it like you do the BWN, but my mind says you need to rest (words that are incredibly annoying to keep hearing, I can tell you.)

So you know what, I lay down the gauntlet to the fabulous business women of the BWN.

I know you are all amazing, let’s show the world how incredibly amazing you are, by coming together to create a calendar that is sold for Farleigh Hospice and is brought in to existence by BWN business women, is promoted and sold by BWN business women and clearly tells the world how fabulous you all are. Obviously since it is the BWN doing this, there will be tons of opportunities to promote your business, not least get in the paper, on the radio and shall we go for on the telly too?

So fancy a challenge this fine May day?

Do you fancy getting involved?

We need business women who will “appear” naked (you won’t really need to be). Behind laptops if they are in IT, hidden by picture frames if they are framers (you know who you are), by books if they are thought leaders, behind big knickers if they offer business support for business (again you know who you are) and behind mixing bowls and cup cakes (and lastly you know who you are), the ideas are endless. Apparently they already have me earmarked for naked in a Super girl cape – words fail me.

As I already said I have a poor self image when it comes to my body, especially thanks to gaining weight and turning back into a spotty teenager thanks to my health problems but I will not have a comfort zone in my life and so bring on the challenge.

I see the first challenge though is to find a fantastic printers to be promoted on the back page and print them for free, so hopefully there are none of them out there and then I get to keep my clothes on.

When it comes to selling it, I know that I would rather bung my hand in my handbag/wallet for £10 than get naked for the world to see – what do you think?

Scared you a little?

Made you excited for what you could do for your business promotion and for a fabulous local charity?

Share with your world please, Tweet about this, Post it to Linkedin and Facebook, share in an email, stop the lady at the bus stop, tell everyone at coffee break time, but get the word out there please – and lets all go a little way to make a difference.

Thanks.

They are 5 words that always set my alarm bells sounding.

Why?

Well it is all too easy to assume that while you are away looking after your current influx of customers no one else is filling in the gap you left behind.

And as I often say, you can’t dictate when someone is ready to buy however you can ensure that it is YOU that they chose to buy from when they are ready.

What happens then if you are off working in your business and you are not nearby?

You need to be always on peoples radar and nothing beats the face to face contact.

When you take into account it takes time to build great relationships why would you then not continue to invest the time into this?

I often see business women berating that they slowed down on their marketing stratgey including the face to face networking and they can’t believe that 3 / 6 months later it is having such an impact on their business.

It stands to reason that if it took time to build relationships it would take as long to loose them, however unfortunately that is not always the case. A great hot lead can become a warm interest after only 30 minutes so what happens if you are not around for a few months?

Another sentence that always interests me is We get all of our customers by word of mouth. Again eventually this is going to dry up, and if it does not there is a high risk that you will grow and this will not satisfy your need for customers or your bottom line.

Every business however large or small must have a fully functioning marketing production line, that ensures that while you are busy there are still plenty of new prospects coming through that will naturally pick up on many of your marketing strands to ensure they are constantly getting a reinforced message that says;

They should buy and more importantly they should buy from you.

In doing this you are ensuring your business ALWAYS has lots of happy customers.

It is imperative that you look at your marketing production line and ask yourself;

What is working here?

What should we drop?

When budgets are tight one of the first things to go is the marketing budget, but guess what this is one of the first places you should really test and measure what is working and ensure you keep up the good work.

It is never more important than when things seem to be going great guns, to be just as diligent with your marketing strategy.

So ask yourself can you answer where every new customer came from?

Can you say how much time and money it took to get that customer?

And is your Marketing Production Line working to ensure you always have tons of happy customers.

I love working on businesses sales and marketing strategies. If you are not completely happy with yours, I would love to have a chat and find out more about how I can help. But answering these key questions will be a great way to get started to powering up your marketing strategy.

If you would like a copy of what a great marketing Production Line looks like head over to our confidential mastermind group and use the magnifying glass to get a copy. Many business owners say it’s an insightful way to start your sales funnel – and it works! 

Mandie Holgate – mandie@mandieholgate.co.uk

Hi, I’m Lucie and I have a passion for baking and sugar craft, I like to get an idea and let my creativity run wild.

I often get asked “why should I come along to The BWN, what makes it any different to the other networks out there?”

And up until now I have had a wide variety of reasons for joining The BWN.

(Don’t forget every business woman that has ever walked through our doors is considered a member because we have no membership fees, we are not about getting a nice big membership fee out of you, so if you are reading this, and turn up at an event then you have joined. Wow that was easy, wasnt it?)

Only this week more than one business woman has told me that they are not renewing their membership fees with other networks, when I asked them why they told me similar things…”The fact is not only do I get more work from coming along to The BWN, I also get so much more and its more fun.”

Well you can’t argue with that can you?

Although the reason for my blog is not just a big love in for The BWN, its because over the past month I have truly grown to appreciate what The BWN really does for business womens success.

Over the past month I have developed an understanding of the subtler ways in which The BWN stands out.

Okay so yes we do go out of our way to get you the great contacts, leads and business opportunities, and we know that works for your success. But I had not appreciated the extent to which we support one another.

I at the moment am going through a health crisis, that has left me near on bed ridden for most of January. If you knew me you would know that I am one of lifes do-ers. Sittting around doing nothing is likely to overload my brain with boredom. but for good or bad I have been so poorly I have not even exeperienced boredom. But what I have experienced is a wealth of support and advice from women at The BWN. They have rallied round to ensure that everyone knows about my business and the BWN events that I am responsible for. They have sent me well wishes and thoughts, and have made me feel truly missed. I am overwhelmed by the sincerity and kindess that I have experienced. (It is a struggle to type this but I wanted to show my gratitude.)

Also this week, one of the business women that comes to our events in Essex has experienced one of the most awful things a person can experience with the loss of her husband.

I know I and many other business women have been there to support her at this terrible time, and it made me feel so special to be a part of The BWN. To be at the funeral this week and see so many BWN business women there to support this fabulous business woman through this awful time. What is more I know that over the difficult coming months, I and so many other business women will be there to support this woman as she starts to rebuild her life. And I know it means the world to her that she is not stepping out back into her business alone, that she has the might of The BWN behind her.

There are so many stories I could share with you like this. that have truly helped me to appreciate that The BWN is a powerful team that works together for your success. Whether you want to pop along once in a while for a speaker that takes your fancy or whether you want to ensure that everyone is networking and promoting your business for you by coming reguarly. The BWN is the place where you will get what you need for success.

So often we forget that success is not just about the amount of hours you can pour into your business, or the extent of your knowledge of the calibre of your product, it is also about you the person.

Every person on this planet needs to feel appreciated, loved, respected and cared for. We all need to know that when the chips are down, there are people there that genuinely care about us. And that applies just as much if not more in our professional lives.

I know first hand that the business women at The BWN are as passionate about our tagline (which we live by) as we are, which is fantastic, it truly means that the BWN is THE resource for business women’s success, and I am so incredibly proud to be a part of this.

In case you don’t know our tagline, it is “As Passionate About Your Success As You Are” – and many many business women will tell you, we mean it.

So writing this has exhausted me I am going to finish with big thank you’s to.

Samantha Frickers, Clare Lauwerys, Jacueline Long, Loess Overbury Tapper, Bridget Greenwood, Kathryn Ebdon, Susan Pattrick, Kathy Ennis, Pavlenka Small, Julie Binder, and anyone else that on this amount of meds I might have forgot.

Thank you – I know that my passion is your success, but it feels very special knowing that you feel the same way. You eptimise what The BWN is about. Thank you.

Recently at The Business Woman’s Network I met a woman who stored over 200 login names and passwords in an Excel spreadsheet – And the spreadsheet wasn’t password protected! So if her computer was ever stolen then the lucky thief would have access to all of her many accounts!

And yet another woman used one password everywhere!

This horrified me but didn’t surprise me. I have – well I don’t know how many passwords I have, let’s just say lots. And each one is different and none of them are written down. As Harry Hill says “You’ve got to have a system!”…….

So here we go, how to have different passwords everywhere and never forget them.

First let me say that there is no such thing as an uncrackable password – given enough time and the right tools a dedicated hacker will crack anything. It’s our job to make it as hard as possible so they give up and go the person who has picked their favourite colour as a password.

What makes a good password?

A good password will mix letters, numbers and non-alphanumeric characters or symbols. Don’t use a word that is in the dictionary – hackers have programs that can try thousands of different passwords and try all the words in a dictionary.

It needs to be at least 6 characters long – although I would recommend at least 10 characters (No, don’t say you can’t remember 10 characters – I’m going to teach you a system!)

 This is a three step process.

Step One – The phrase/line that all your passwords are based on.

This might be from a song, a poem, your favourite book.

For example, Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens

Take the first letter of each word and we get “rorawok” as the base phrase.

Step Two – The variation for each site

For this we are going to use part of the site name, for example, the last three letters.

So on Amazon we’d take zon and add it on to our base phrase to get rorawokzon

Step Three – Add some numbers and/or non-alphanumeric characters.

Hold on, this is getting tricky I hear you cry -we’re up to 10 characters already.

Stay with me, and I promise it will be easy.

We can substitute numbers and other non-alphanumerics.

You don’t to use all these suggestions – just swapping one letter is a good start.

Just decide on your personal rule and stick to it.

Letter swap suggestions

S > 5

l or i > 1

E > 3 or £

a > @

o > 0

g or q > 4

So if I swap the ‘a’ for a ‘@’ then my password for amazon would be ror@wokzon

Final tweek is to have a mixture of lowercase and upper case and to give myself another easy rule to remember I will make the letter after a symbol/number to be a capital so my password ends up as being ror@Wokzon.

This system means that you will be able to have hundreds of passwords and always remember them without having to write them down.

And it means that hackers will find it harder to crack your passwords and so you’ll be safer!

This guide was produced by Clare Lauwerys from PositiveWeb, making your web experience positively the best

Running your own business gives you the highest of the highest and the lowest of the lows, and I know from working with business women as their business coach, exactly what that looks like first hand. I personally too know that scary feeling of “aaaaa there is someone else doing what I do, it’s the death of my business, what shall I do?” You can practically hear the warning sirens and the panic stations being manned. But the fact is competition is a good thing, it offers your potential clients variety, a choice, and something that we often forget is, it offers them the chance to see that actually YOU are the best for them, and that they need not look elsewhere wondering “Could we do better?” “Is this the best deal?” because competition reminds them of how brilliant you are regularly.

 Obviously you have to appreciate what your competitors are doing and ensure that you are always at the forefront of your industry, always assessing whether you are genuinely doing your best for your customers and your potential customers. At the end of the next sentence stop reading for a moment and answer the following question in your head with the first words that come into your mind;

 “Do I know that I am doing everything I could to offer my current customers the very best services, or if I was honest with myself is there something that I am missing that could stand me apart from the crowd?”

 Your first response is your gut instinct, so think about what you thought and maybe have a look at what you offer, is it time to think again about your business strategy, your products and services?

 I speak from experience here (on more than one occasions over my…er..a lady never tells you her age) years of business experience, about this and the impact of competitors. You see as the founder of The Business Woman’s Network I knew exactly what I wanted because I could not find what I wanted anywhere else, don’t get me wrong there are plenty of great networking opportunities, but I wanted so much more. Well when have you ever met a woman that did not want the best and the moon on a stick?

 I wanted great proactive networking, but I wanted it to be welcoming to newbie’s and business women petrified of public speaking or meeting new people. I wanted it to deliver new ideas and opportunities for business women. I wanted to go somewhere I could get any answers I needed for the success of my business, be it in my own skill or mind set or in contacts, leads and training. As we near our second birthday the reputation we have built for ourselves is second to none and we deliver exactly what I set out to, but I still get nervous occasionally when a new networking group sets up. But I know we deliver something very special, as the wonderful Loess Overbury Tapper from Tapper Financial Services pointed out to me recently “We are always encouraging people to come to our group (they run this great networking event in Colchester once a fortnight, get in touch with me for more info) I do feel that it works even better if they can attend a group where there’s more structure too but without the pressure of the hard sell. That is where the BWN fits in” We always get business women thanking us for the impact that we have on their business and on their success. For the connections we helped them make, we pride ourselves on not just providing you with a venue and a roomful of businesses, we actively look to connect you, so our coordinators like to get to know about you and your business and what you need to get the results you want, so they can help it happen, And boy do we do that.

 When we had an add up we worked out we had helped businesses across East Anglia in so many ways in 2010, from actually securing big contracts, to overcoming public speaking fears (to the point where they now love the stage) and using social media for more than a way of procrastinating and looking busy to getting them on the telly, and in the news.   We helped them create new ideas, new products and get in front of some of the best public speakers on business and success in the country. Including a few international authors, a rock god (Peter Cook will love that title) and even a  millionaire mentor.

 Our tag line is As Passionate About Your Success As You Are, and everyone that comes along soon sees that is most definitely the case. So do we fear competition? On the contrary we like to scare them by saying “Hey come along to The BWN and let us promote your events (freaky eh? Business working together for the success of everyone, but it works.) In this way, we know that business women are getting in front of the very best opportunities for their business success.

 So what about a new approach? What about not just checking out the competition, what about engaging with and working with them?

Now where could that lead?

If you would like to learn more about The BWN, come along anytime, we have no membership fees so everyone is classed as a member, we have opportunities to promote you online, through our social media and even at all events even if you can’t make it. Every woman in business is welcome and we can’t wait to meet you and learn about your business and your business needs.

For free top tips, ideas, reports and solutions explore our website and if you would like to keep up to date on our events, opportunities and speakers get in touch as we never automatically add anyone to our website.

I’m the Suffolk and Essex Coordinator and the founder of The BWN and I would love to hear from you.

Mandie@thebusinesswomansnetwork.co.uk

When I first heard of Business Woman’s Network I was sceptical, my personal experiences of women in the work place hadn’t been great, pettiness, aggression, bitchiness and moods seemed to be the order of the day, behaviour that was seen in the early episodes of the current series of ‘The Apprentice’.  There is of course an alternative view, that women are fluffy, just playing at business … again, a negative stereotype.

I’m pleased to report that through Business Woman’s Network I’ve been proven wrong, instead of the negative experiences of the past, for which women at work are famed; through Mandie Holgate’s positive leadership, there is a pragmatic but supportive environment with training geared towards the knowledge and skills needed to run a business.

Business Woman’s Network is something of which I feel proud to be a member, where we all support each other as we face the challenges of developing our businesses.  Think ‘Calendar Girls’ for business rather than ‘The Only Way is Essex’ and you’d be about right!

Thanks for sharing that with us Kathy, although I am not sure I would take my clothes off! Okay you never know what you will do in the future if it seems the right decision do you? I am personally looking forward to seeing you all on Tuesday at our big Christmas Event – it will be a great mix of fun and business with a good dollop of gorgeous shopping and plenty of laughs, since it is a Christmas event. So see you there – http://bwnchristmasevent2010.eventbrite.com/

As a Life Coach I encourage people to look on the positive rather than negative side of life & challenge the beliefs they have about themselves.  I came across this poem the other day which I would like to share with you as I think it conveys what Life Coaching is all about.

Its called:

THE WOMAN WHO THINKS SHE CAN

If you think you are beaten, you are,

If you think that you dare not, you don’t,

If you’d like to win, but you think you can’t,

Its’ almost certain you won’t.

If you think you’ll lose, you’ve lost,

For out in the world you’ll find,

Success begins with a person’s will,

It’s all in the state of mind.

If you think you’re outclassed, you are,

You’ve got to think high to rise,

You’ve got to be sure of yourself

Before YOU can ever win a prize.

Life’s battles don’t always go

To the stronger or faster woman,

But sooner or later the woman who wins,

Is the woman who thinks she can!

Thanks for sharing this with us Pavlenka, To learn more about Pavlenka click here.

When you run your own business I believe it is imperative for success that you do everything according to your values and beliefs. Some of the biggest and most successful businesses in the world didn’t start with pages of business plans and projectory of how many buckets of money they could make, just a mission statement that said. This is us, this is what we do and this is why we do it and this is what it means for you. We always want to provide for you in this way.

Now this works really well if your values and beliefs are in line with your buisness, but what if they are not? What if you hold beliefs that don’t work your success?

What if you are holding on to a belief that is outdated and does not apply to you?

This is not a blog about that (for now) although I am happy to look at that another time, this is a blog about one of my beliefs that I was wondering if it was working for or against my success.

You see I firmly believe that if I always do my best by others then they will do their best by me. If they do not (and lets be honest we don’t live in the faraway tree or a fairy tale here, so we know what can happen here right?) but I believe that that is their issue not mine. If I always do my best by everyone then I know I can do no more. I know that whatever is the outcome I have dedicated myself to a positive outcome for everyone.

How ethical, you may say. How honourable. But what if you only come up against people that just take? I was beginning to question this value. How valuable was it to my business success?

If I was strolling around smiling at the flowers and singing to the birds (not literally I hasten to add, it doesn’t get much work done) What was I getting back?

Well for me a few (what shall we call them) baddies, think Evil Step mother material had come into my world and I did my best for them, afterall like silly snow white (Do not go into the forest! The man has an axe love, do not go into the forest! Honestly do they never learn?) I can only see good in people. So the moral of this story/blog?

Well my belief, this value that I have prided myself on, was shaking, “How could someone treat me like that? What did I do wrong? Am I a fool?” And I came to the conclusion that no, the fact is I have no control over what someone else does, I can only control what I do and how I chose to feel about it.

And I choose not to let negativity stick around in my life. I believe in Karma. And guess what?

I can not begin to tell you about how many free and wonderful things have headed my way today. So many referrals and work, presents, and thank yous and things that have just meant a million things more than that to me.

They reinforce that this person I am, that bends over backwards for every person that comes into her world is doing the right thing.  

So look at your values and beliefs. Do they fit in nicely along side your business? or is there some friction there? And if you have been led to question your beliefs, ask yourself why and have the confidence to say. Hey this is me and THIS is the way I run MY business and my customers love it.

It is always lovely to be in touch with business women and to understand what matters to you and how we can help. I have read some lovely, motivational and useful blogs here recently and thought it was about time I contributed too. I hope you enjoyed.

Running a business is a lot like getting the most out of life. Never say no, try everything and have the confidence to do it your way.

Keep in touch mandie@thebusinesswomansnetwork.co.uk