More To Life Than Shoes

As a professional or a businessperson, how do you stand out from the competition and explain to people why they should pick you above your competitors? I hear this question all the time from accountants, management consultants, HR experts, lawyers and coaches, and it applies equally to many other small business owners.

My clients often bemoan the fact that a competitor has a much higher profile than they do, often with much less experience. What are they doing wrong? Usually, they're missing the fact that their competitor has simply found a way to convey their uniqueness to their clients and create a compelling argument for why any client should sign up with them.

How can you get people to pick you?
Here are some questions you can ask yourself to get going:

What’s going on with my current clients?
It can pay to sell yourself as a specialist. For example, if you are a therapist with a large percentage of clients who have depression, perhaps it makes sense to use that as your uniquene selling point (U.S.P) -  that you specialise in working with depression.

If most of your clients are coming to you for a specific reason, even if you could be doing a wider variety of work, perhaps you should be sticking to what you already do well. Someone is sending you a message somewhere!

What do I have that is different from everyone else?
This is a difficult one and you may have to dig deep. But what do clients say about working with you? Do you have qualifications over and above your professional competitors? Celebrity clients? These don’t even have to be the Grazia and OK type of celebrities, even household business names come under celebrity status when it comes to PR. Name drop with impunity! What do you do for your clients beyond the call of duty? Really think about what it is you offer them.

 And if you can’t think of anything...then start doing something. Today.

Work a little differently, give them added extras. Just make a difference.

Is it time to Get Over Myself?
Shyness is acceptable in your first job. But that was then. Most clients would rather work with someone who is confident, unflustered and doesn't go to pieces at the thought of being in the spotlight, So, If you have any qualms about putting yourself forward, get over them.

 You can promote yourself in a way that doesn’t involve putting down others, resorting to bragging or lying or hot air. Be proud about what you have achieved, show people the professionalism you put into your work and the delight you get out of it.

Share success on social media platforms, at networking events, support your clients publicly and even create your own community of loyal clients and customers. You can do this virtually on places like Facebook or in real life by organising events (one of my successful marketing activities has been to organise occasional PR and networking evenings – for free).

How can I turn my competitors into compatriots?
Create a special interest or mastermind group where you can interact with other figures in your industry. Hunt out professional bodies and events when you will find them. Befriend them, create special projects and start working with rather than against them.

Find more PR ideas and advice from Paula at www.doyourownpr.com

It started with a random magazine and all kind of discoveries. Then we got physical got sweaty. Made scary phone calls and got a mega dose of entrepreneurial inspiration.

This week, we're going to take a breather and review our progress.

So often we're rushing around from pillar to post, not stopping to appreciate that we've actually achieved some great things already.

Not any more! We've created a short and sweet form to help us all have a think about how our big plans are going, what we've achieved so far and what we'll have a bash at next. 

So, drumroll please, bring on the  Wufoo form. (yup, that's what it's called)

Don't forget to give yourself a treat to celebrate what you've achieved so far and of course share your progress with us!

As a recent female graduate (very recent, I graduated two weeks ago!) I have tentatively begun to look into different career avenues.  I’ve found that other graduates, if not going on to do masters are expecting to work for free in order to gain experience and enhance CVs.  Graduates are attempting to appeal to employers in the face of increasing job competition and enduring economic hardship.

Having considered gaining experience from large corporate firms I have discovered that smaller companies are more enticing to me as a female graduate with potential to develop business startups.  I will gain an insight and overview of how a business works and use this as a route to gaining a broader skills base.  I can apply these skills to my own future startups as a graduate entrepreneur or for future employment.

After a discussion with my parents about my future career as a graduate and the absence of vocational qualities in my degree (BA American and Canadian studies), I have considered the option of business startups as a female entrepreneur rather than embarking on a graduate scheme that would take me into the corporate workplace.

From my perspective as a graduate the overwhelming task of competing against hundreds of fellow graduates for graduate schemes which may or may not lead to permanent employment was not appealing. However, the prospect of engaging in varied work experience with less mainstream companies headed by female entrepreneurs – with the aim to acquire the skills needed to begin any startups – was far more enticing.

Given the opportunity to contribute with some significance to the growth and development of smaller companies and start-ups allocates a sense of worth, albeit not monetary, to female graduates’ efforts and inputs.  The greater variation in day-to-day tasks and the rapidity with which these tasks change certainly keeps you on your toes!  In addition to this the shadowing of female entrepreneurs provides an invaluable lesson for female graduates looking to begin startups.

As a prospective graduate entrepreneur the benefits of startups are far more enticing to me than working for someone else.  These benefits include being your own boss, the stronger sense of dedication to your job, and dictating your own hours (although I have quickly learnt that entrepreneurs work all hours, every day, especially in the early years).   This sense of purpose as the motivating force is especially tempting for graduates when faced with a whole scope of employment in the world of work and no particular direction. 

The possibilities for achievement as a graduate entrepreneur and the sense of satisfaction in reaching your own goals through start-ups make it an attractive prospect.  Instead of doing a job for a large company which may not recognise your achievements or possibility for growth as an employee.

As a female graduate I have therefore decided to gain an understanding of how small startups and entrepreneurial businesses work (especially because I have never studied business at degree level and not even at secondary school).  Seeing first-hand the complexities of startups whilst witnessing the achievements and satisfaction of such an undertaking by other female entrepreneurs inspires me to consider becoming an entrepreneur as a viable option to becoming someone’s employee.  With the large number of graduates entering the work place and the some-what limited graduate places available in large companies, the opportunities that come with graduate entrepreneurship are more enticing.

However, with my large student debt as a graduate, the thought of spending money before making money is unthinkable.  Consequently I would consider becoming employed whilst planning startups as a graduate entrepreneur on the side as a 5pm-9pm job.  Although this may be a more time consuming approach it may be the one best suited to my position as a debt-laden graduate.  My ultimate goal though is to become a successful female entrepreneur.

It started with a random magazine and all kind of discoveries. Then we got physical got sweaty. And last week we all had a go at making that call.

This week, we're after some entrepreneurial inspiration.

One of the reasons we started More To Life Than Shoes was to create an inspiration hub where we could share cool discoveries, helping us fuel our own fire and maybe even inspiring a new business idea.  

I am lucky enough to meet some amazing female entrepreneurs doing all kinds of cool things. For example, the other day I met Genevieve Murphy, co-founder of Trinket Women - a great new way to buy high quality tampons.



Simply sign up, enter your dates and details and receive a neat and stylish present from mother nature's helpers each month. Simple and genius.

I love the fact someone has taken on the big boys and given a much needed feminine touch (not to mention style upgrade) to the most feminine of products. Plus, never again will I get caught short. I'm a real fan of getting letters and packages- just imagine if getting your monthly supply became a joy!

(And if you'd like to try Trinket out, Genevieve has kindly offered us a 2nd box free when we enter code T1005 on www.trinketwomen.com.)

We'd love you to join in this week's mini mission and dig up some of your own entrepreneurial inspiration. 

We wanna hear about amazing business ideas that get you going. If nothing springs to mind, panic not - check out www.trendwatching.com and www.springwise.com. They are both rammed with amazing ideas and concepts - sure to give you as much buzz as a triple espresso.

Wouldn't it be great if we all shared our discoveries - to help each other on the way to success.

Tell us - what's the big idea, why you like it, key things we can learn and give us a link to the website so we can check it out.

And tell your friends about the More To Life Than Shoes mini missions too! Blog, tweet, retweet, text, Facebook, do real talking, whatever floats your boat. Tell everyone!

Nadia x

Still waiting for your big idea to strike before you jack in the day job and start your business? Big mistake ... it's not the idea that's important, it's your drive... 
 
If you ever have the opportunity to see serial-entrepreneur Sara Murray speak, she is likely to champion the view that you do not need a big idea to be an entrepreneur – you just need the drive. Yet many people who speak to me say they are waiting for their big idea before they start their entrepreneurial journey. So, which shoud come first? The idea or the entrepreneurial spirit?

Here are a few businesses that started out by being entrepreneurial before they got their big ideas.

• The founders of Sony started out fixing radios in a bombed-out department store in Tokyo, and their first ‘idea’ was a rice-cooker which didn't really work.
• Nokia started life as a wood pulp company in a tiny town in Finland.
• Apple founders Steve Jobs and Steve ‘Woz’ Wozniak started out together in 1971 selling electronic ‘blue boxes’ that made phone calls for free.
• James Dyson’s first invention was the ‘Ballbarrow’, created long before his iconic vacuum cleaner idea ever existed.
• Nintendo originated from a small Japanese family business that made playing cards.

These entrepreneurs didn't wait around for the perfect big idea. By stepping out and trying one thing, they were best placed to discover something even bigger. Dyson identified the need for cyclone technology in his Ballbarrow factory, and Masaru of Sony discovered a gap in the personal radio market on a chance trip to the USA.

Idea vs. Drive
I believe that your drive will lead to finding your big idea. Whether it is because that entrepreneurial drive is in the blood, as Gu Puds founder James Averdieck describes it, or whether it's what James Dyson calls a “healthydisregard for the status-quo”, there is undoubtedly a mindset that goes with being entrepreneurial. It is a mindset where one is constantly seeking out opportunities, or looking for the problem to solve in peoples’ lives. Find enough people that share that pain and you have a business.

References - How They Started: How 30 Good Ideas Became Great Businesses and How They Started: Global Brands, by David Lester.


By Christina at The Nurture Network: the marketing department for start-ups and entrepreneurs – making expertise and resource available just when it is needed.

PR expert Paula Gardner believes good PR is like learning a language. It takes a lot of work, but if you keep in mind why you're doing it, you can get great results. 

I'm learning Italian at the moment. I was inspired to start last year, when I was stranded in Rome for two weeks because of the Icelandic volcano eruption. But I also decided to do it because giving up languages is one of the two main things in my life that I regret. (The other is getting rid of a gorgeous pair of black thigh-high boots in a moment of madness. I've never been able to remedy the boot mistake, despite years of searching, but the language one I can do something about.)

But PR has its own language too, which can be just as much of a mystery to the beginner as when to use i and gli in Italian is to me.

You've probably heard the terms press release, tip sheets, product shots or digital PR, plus a whole host of other phrases that are bandied about. And you may well be using some of these already, but there is an art to knowing when to use each one, and how often.

It's all about communication. Just as one perfectly composed sentence is not going to fill a whole conversation with a native Italian-speaker, one press release is not going to make an on-going conversation with the press. You need to communicate regularly, persistently and, if it doesn't work one time, pick yourself up and try again.

Fluency will come over time. I have clients who previously baulked at the idea of picking up the phone and talking to the press, who now do it without a moment's angst. I have others who, in the beginning, just couldn't find the time, let alone the ideas, to create some create PR, who have now integrated it into their routine.

What makes The Difference?
 When I first started learning Italian I was a bit flaky, I have to admit. I bought a book and opened that once. My mother-in-law lovingly collected all the Michel Thomas CDs that came free with The Daily Express and handed them to me. I think that there were ten of them and I didn't get past CD two for a long while.

But what made the difference was finally deciding I either had to give up on the idea altogether (and remain stuck and extremely annoyed at myself for not even trying) or go for it.

I conjured up my vision on what learning Italian would mean to me (shopping in the Via Veneto, Rome!) and decided to go for it. I now have a one-to-one lesson each week with a native Italian-speaker, and have come on in leaps and bounds.

So, what exactly would getting some great PR mean for you? More people coming to your site? More newsletter sign-ups? More sales? Credibility? A morale boost for your team?

Are all those great things enough to get you to commit to doing some PR, or raising your PR game? What are you going to do first?

Paula Gardner is a PR expert who runs Do Your Own PR.

Member Chrissie senses change in the air in 2011 for amitious entrepreneurs

I don’t know about anyone else, but I feel there's a fervent murmur of revolution around. The time is now for entrepreneurs and start-ups.

 Last week I was a ‘distinguished guest’ (I’m not sure I make the grade?!) at the Commonwealth Foundation lecture – where Sonia Gandhi spoke of women as agents of change, within social, political and economic circles. The night before, I had the fortune to attend another of the British Library Business & IP Centre events – Mothers of Invention. At both events the air was electric with passion and optimism for what the individual can achieve.

 With a panel hosted by Natasha Kaplinsky, the speakers were Shazia Awan, former PR specialist, and now founder of Peachy Pink; Sara Murray, serial entrepreneur who created confused.com and now Buddi; Sian Sutherland, co-founder of Mama Mio; and finally Vanessa Heywood founder of Tiny Mites.

 All their stories were different: Vanessa was pushed to entrepreneurism through adversity when her husband left her with two small children. Sara is a self confessed serial entrepreneur who champions the view that you do not need to wait for a brilliant idea – if you’ve got the passion, just go out and find one - citing great examples such as Sony who started out fixing radios, and Hewlett Packard, whose founders' only starting point was they wanted to work together. Shazia similarly had the desire to be an entrepreneur before finding her product, and two years ago found that product – her cellulite-reducing underwear. Sian had perhaps the most conventional route, with a background in branding and advertising – but, like the rest of the speakers, no-one in Mama Mio’s founding team had experience in the skincare / cosmetics area in which they now succeed.

 This was just one of the many powerful commonalities in their stories. Irrespective of their starting point – or whether they got outside funding or not - they were consistent in what it takes to make it happen. There was animated discussion around genius being 1% inspiration and 99% perspiration, and how it is absolutely vital that you love what you do and do what you love, because at the end of the day it is your passion and commitment that will make it succeed or otherwise.

 That room was full of  that passion and commitment  – and it is this that  gives me this strong sense of imminent revolution. Men and women alike are standing up and leaving the organisation behind to follow their own path, lead more flexible working lives and seek out the fulfilment that they desire. With the Coalition championing the Start-Up Britain campaign and the budget update this week dropping corporation tax by 2%, and increasing tax relief, perhaps 2011 is indeed the year to take that leap of faith. If you have it in you, get on and do it.

 

The Nurture Network exists to make business strategy and marketing expertise accessible to entrepreneurial start-ups and brands.

As Mattell launch Architect Barbie, complete with statement glasses and pink drawing caddy case, MTLTS member Jules wonders why more women aren't building careers in buildings. 

On Wednesday, I went along to a talk called Women and Sustainability in Architecture, part of a series of talks and seminars at the yearly Ecobuild exhibition. The talk featured four women architects, one of whom was the architect-turned-writer Elizabeth Farrelly, author of best-selling book Blubberland.
 

Each speaker had the difficult task of trying to link their talk to sustainable architecture, at the same time as telling their story of being successful as a woman in a male dominated industry.

With a current initiative running to get the male/female architect ratio, (currently 17 in every 100) to 50/50 by 2020, organisers were hoping to shed some light on why women are so under represented in the industry, and why those who do get in through the door often leave.

What I noticed was that they were comfortable and proud to be talking about their built work, showing off their collective years of work through a series of slides. They went into detail about sustainability, explaining how the users would be able to live and work there for many years, how they used recycled materials, how they got their buildings to respond to the elements.

But, interestingly, they were less comfortable talking about ‘Being a Woman Architect’. There were no axes to grind against chauvinist bosses, no lamenting that they had lost a commission because they were women. They had simply done what they felt compelled to do and when the culture of the office they had been working at didn’t fit, had gone out on their own to do things on their own terms.

So why aren’t there more female architects?

In my opinion, initiatives such as '50:50 by 2020' and the example of Architect Barbie, about to be launched by Mattell, are well-meaning but are missing the point. It isn’t about ‘empowering’ women to take on a traditionally male role. The reasons women don’t practice are probably much more prosaic. Low pay (surprisingly, architects aren't guarenteed high paid) and long hours which are at odds with raising a family.

I took inspiration from the discussion though. The important thing, as with anything in life,   is to find the meaning in what you do. I have been thinking a lot about what drew me to the architecture profession in the first place. It wasn’t the moneym, or the kudos. It was the desire to make things better. At a time when my working landscape is changing due to having a young child, it is hugely heartening to be reminded that following your convictions will take you where you need to be.

 

Julia Burden is an RIBA qualified architect who has recently started up Ver Architecture in order to work on both domestic and commercial projects in the Hertfordshire area.

Hello ladies - I just wanted to tell you about an inspiring speaker event for women that I went to last night, so that you can look out for the next one!

It was the third Stylist Magazine event for aspiring female entrepreneurs, and once again the room was full of beautiful, fascinating and visionary women, all sipping champagne. 

The speakers for the evening, hosted by acting editor Susan Riley, were Chrissie Charlton, print press designer who co-founder Harrington & Squires; Claire Martinsen, the brains behind ‘posh pop ‘ Breckland Orchard; the internationally-acclaimed designer Donna Wilson; and Emma Goss-Custard who has created the inspiring business Honeybuns out of delicious cakes. Have a look at their websites - they have all done such amazing things!

They spoke emphatically about their ventures – about the love and passion you need to get it going, and about the often rather entertaining lengths you sometimes go to to bring it to life. 

Claire spoke particularly about planning, and the ‘business plan’ topic received much air time. Emma, Claire and Donna all spoke about how daunting an idea the business plan was, empathising with the many budding entrepreneurs so intimidated by the long list of business plan content, suggested by some, that they end up doing nothing.

It can be made easier if we stop thinking about them as ‘business plans’ – and start thinking about them as a personal vision: In one of the workshop I do, we talk about what you want to do; who does something similar; how you are going to be different; who will want it; and where you will find those people to tell them about it. Suddenly it is a less daunting task – and entrepreneurs have a vision for what they want to do.

Irrespective of the each speakers approach to planning at the start of their personal journey – they were united on stage - it was their vision for the future that drove them, and gave them the confidence to start-out.

Truely inspiring stuff. I'll try and recount some more anecdotes from them soon.