September 22, 2010.  Ever wondered how people get into the media and promoted their goods or services? Ever felt just a bit queasy about the thought of doing it yourself?

Then this workshop is for you!

Getting an article or mention in the press is one of the most powerful forms of endorsement you can get as research shows that people tend to believe what they read. Good coverage gives you or your product credibility, gravitas and stature. Best of all editorial coverage is free!

This workshop will give you the skills you need to talk to the media and show you how to use them to grow your business and build your reputation.

The workshop will be fun, interactive and practical and afterwards you will have the tools and the skills to start your own successful media campaign immediately.

• Talking to the media- opportunity not ordeal
• Core building blocks: clarity, confidence and control
• What makes a story?
• Who is your audience and how to appeal to them?
• How to make your message relevant?
• Crafting a soundbite.
• Bridging techniques
• Closing the interview and summarising

This workshop is a combination of real, informed advice from Diana Soltmann CEO of Flagship Consulting an experienced media coach coupled with practical interview experience designed to project exactly the right image and message for your business.  Flagship Consulting are a top 50 Communications company whose clients include MWB Exchange, SHL and TMP worldwide.  This workshop normally costs £2500 and Diana has very kindly offered to hold it for Women Unlimited members at a HUGELY discounted rate.  The workshop size is small due to the personalised nature of the coaching on offer.

Location: British Library, 96 Euston Road

Date: 22nd September, 2010

Time: 10:00 – 17:00

Cost: £125

This workshop sold out in 3 weeks last time we ran it so if you want to get media savvy, book this workshop today to guarantee your place.  We have run this workshop twice now with tremendous success.

What some of our previous delegates had to say.

“I just wanted to send you a quick email to say what a fantastic session it was. Diana was brilliant, and the method using a video camera, while striking terror in the heart of everyone present (!), was a masterstroke. It was incredibly effective.  I had numerous ideas for news angles on the train home.  Alas caused significant lack of sleep that night, lol.” Rosaleen Tighe, Milk & Honey Organics

“I just wanted to say Thank you for arranging the course yesterday. It was amazing!  I think we were all extremely nervous initially but Diana was fabulous and imparted some exceptional words of wisdom! ” Jane Robson, The Fine Cotton Company

“I thought the workshop was great, Diana was amazing at being able to explain our messages well and I feel like I got a lot out of it.  Thank you for organising!” Charlotte Morris, Freshe Corporate Finance

My library of entrepreneur books is growing at an alarming rate, however I was still excited to be able to review this first book from Emma Wimhurst, the founder of Diva Cosmetics.  Disclosure first… Emma is a regular speaker for Women Unlimited, and she ran a very inspiring session on creating vision for your business for us earlier in the year in June, so she is someone who I respect and enjoy listening to …  This book is like having Emma on hand to give you advice at every stage of your business.

Firstly, Emma’s pedigree is about as good as you can get.  After working at Revlon, she decided that she wanted to start her own business and felt there was space for a new way to sell cosmetics.  Rather than create a cosmetic range of her own, she created Diva Cosmetics to allow stores to sell their own brand of cosmetics and she ended up selling to Asda, New Look, Claire’s Accessories and BHS among others.  Boom! is a compilation of the lessons that Emma learnt during her time with Diva and the techniques that helped her turn it into a multimillion pound company.

Boom! is written in a conversational style but don’t let that fool you into thinking that there is no substance.  Emma’s book offers a solid business expertise and advice that every entrepreneur would do well to follow.  The format follows the 7 key disciplines that will help your business grow:

1.  Business Strategy

2. Business Planning

3. Marketing Management

4. Practical Finance

5. Team Building

6. Customer Committment

7. Personal Development

Emma offers real and practical advice on what you need to do in your own business.  For example under Business Strategy, she has a section on creating your business strategy in 50 words.  This was the exercise that she completed with us at our meetup in June and it was a very powerful tool for creating clarity in your business and your objective.  The 50 word strategy becomes a model by which you can hold up your decisions against to help you determine whether or not you should act in a particular direction.  Is that decision going to serve you or hinder you?  By testing it against the strategy, you can be sure that you will stay on track with your wider goals.

The books shares case studies and stories from Emma’s own experience as well as those of some of the people that she has mentored and we get the benefit of the decisions and learning that they made.

Boom! is a great addition to any entrepreneur’s library and I highly recommend you pick up a copy.  It is going on sale today via Amazon or Emma’s own site http://www.boompreneur.co.uk

July 29th, London.   This month’s Women Unlimited meetup, will feature Wendy Tan White, the founder of Moonfruit a DIY website builderfor SMEs and consumers to build beautiful websites simply.  In Wendy’s words, she founded Moonfruit as a single over ambitious 28 year old during the dotcom boom, and is now managing to grow and accelerate the business while also raising a young family. Wendy will also talk about her fabulous success with Twitter marketing, so come along and learn from someone who is absolutely getting it right!

Before the tech crash in 2001 at the peak Moonfruit had 50 employees based in Soho, and raised significant capital from France and US.  They had lots of press and customers but on a free product/ad model, and therefore like many net businesses at the time had very little revenue and had spent a lot of the money on pointless TV advertising and over engineered technology.

Post crash the venture capitalist closed almost all of its 52 strong portfolio, but Wendy and her team managed to persuade the VC’s to allow them to buy what remained of the business in return for looking after the customer liabilities.

Then came the hard work.   Come along and hear Wendy share her story about how she turned Moonfruit around and started the road to recovery.  Even during these tough times, Moonfruit is growing at an enormous rate and achieved 70% growth in the first quarter of this year.

This is a fantastic opportunity to hear an inspiring turnaround story, and  learn how Wendy has managed to succeed against the odds.  She will share her learnings about what makes a successful business, the lessons she learned from the last 10 years as a business owner and how she has managed to keep going, even when thing seemed bleak.   Come along and learn from some one who has seen it all.

The Networking

You will also have the opportunity to meet and network with other fantastic women who are also passionate about business success.  We focus very much on sharing knowledge and experiences as a way of helping you move your business idea forward – so don’t be afraid to ask questions!

Come along and join us to ask any questions you may have about startup up and creating a successful business

When:  July 29, 2009

Where: MWB Liverpool Street, 55 Old Broad Street, London

Time: 18:00 – 21:30

Cost: £15 in advance, £20 on the door – includes drinks and nibbles

Only 50 places available, so make sure you book your place early – we suspect this is going to be a HOT ticket with success that #Moonfruit has achieved this month!

July 28, 2009. London. Hands down, email marketing is THE most effective way for you to market directly to your prospects and clients. No matter what type of business you are in, you should be using this fantastic, low cost method to be building relationships with your clients and making sales.

What you write and how you communicate through email marketing DOES make a difference to the success of your campaign and this workshop will give you the tools and strategies to make sure that your email marketing works for you.

This course is made for you

As always, we focus on the practical. You will come away from this workshop with an action plan that you can implement immediately to bring more clients and build stronger relationships with your clients and prospects. At it’s best, email marketing is a powerhouse marketing tool. For small businesses email marketing is a mandatory part of your marketing repertoire because it keeps you at the front of your customers mind just at the point they are ready to buy.

Smart businesses use email marketing. Why? Because it generates real business results. Here is an example from one of our previous attendees…

“I just wanted to say that I found the session very useful and relevant – I have been on lots of training sessions in the past that have been a waste of time (i.e. you could just save time and read through the notes instead!). There was a real focus on practical outcomes plus I got some great ideas from other attendees…We sent out the January email last Thursday to about 60 people and have had 3 tables (total 7 people) use the voucher. We have not had any response to previous emails so this is a great improvement for us! ” Sandy Reskaurat, Chang Thai Restaurant

What you’ll learn in the morning:

• How to get into your customers / clients inbox
• How to build your email list
• What to write and types of content
• How to improve your campaigns month on month
• When to send your fabulous emails
• How to get real business results from your email marketing
• How to analyse the results

What you’ll learn in the afternoon

The afternoon session is designed to help you quickly and easily master the Constant Contact system (we have chosen Constant Contact for it’s great value, loads of templates and great support). You’ll learn

• how to set up account options,
• add subscription boxes to your website and emails
• choosing your template and customising it to suit your brand
• how to import your list and add names
• how the reporting works
• images, where to find them, cropping and resizing

Email marketing is a great tool in your marketing repertoire and if it’s not generating results for you, come along on this workshop and find out how it CAN!

Why you should come to this workshop

• In the current economy you need to be marketing to your clients regularly
• Email marketing is low cost AND effective
• Email marketing is a powerhouse marketing tool
• Email marketing drives traffic to your website
• Email marketing builds customer loyalty
• You will learn how to get email marketing right for your business
• There is no other marketing tool that will give you better results for your money

Where: British Library, 96 Euston Road, London

When: July 28th

Time: 10:00 – 1:00 DIY Email marketing and / or 2:00 – 5:00 Build your email in Constant Contact

Cost: £45 for one session, £85 for both

This is the last time this year we’re going to be running this workshop through Women Unlimited, so make sure you make it onto this one!

June 30, London.  Are you thinking of starting a business? Give yourself every chance of succeeding with this Business Planning workshop. We know business plans can be difficult – however they are one of the most important areas for any new business.

This essential course will help ensure you make your business dream become a reality.

Already running a business? We all face more uncertainty than ever before. Plan the next stage of your companies’ growth with this business planning workshop.

Are you thinking of starting a business?

Give yourself every chance of succeeding with this Business Planning workshop. We know business plans can be difficult – however they are one of the most important areas for any new business.

This essential course will help ensure you make your business dream become a reality.

Already running a business?

We all face more uncertainty than ever before. Plan the next stage of your companies growth with this business planning workshop.

Take your company to the next level with this crucial course.

Agenda

9.30   The secrets of successful entrepreneurs.
The 6 things that every successful entrepreneur does and what we can learn from them. Even if already running an established business – this provides a crucial insight for success.

10.00   The essentials of a killer business plan.
What is essential and what isn’t. Your plan has to help you to drive the business forward and ensure that it survives in these difficult times. It may also have to help you to get funding and to give you a competitive market edge. It certainly has to allow you to sleep well at night, knowing you have done all you can to keep your business healthy.

10.40   What Investors look for in a business plan (the 5 key must haves and the 5 biggest mistakes).
Whether you are starting in business, or have been going for many years, there is always the opportunity to grow faster with additional funds. But do you know what potential Investors are looking for?

11.10 Refreshment break

11.25   How to construct a winning plan using Business Plan Pro.
We lead you through all the sections of a plan using the best selling software package Business Plan Pro from Palo Alto Software. Business Plan Pro is guaranteed to save you time and money completing your business plan.

12.05   The pitch – making the most of your chance.
You may be presenting your plan to Investors, the bank manager, partner companies or even customers, not only what you say, but how you say it can make a huge difference. Tips, tricks and advice on what works and what doesn’t.

12.35   Resources to understand your market, including intellectual property (IP) rights.
How do you protect your ideas? What about NDAs? How do you know if what you are thinking of has already been done? Do you know what your competitors are doing? Is there actually a market for your product or service? What is happening to your market, should you be looking to move into new business areas?

12.55   The next steps to put in place your winning business plan.
You take away your own personal plan of what to do next. This workshop will give you practical and useable tools to make your business a success in 2009.

13.15   Close

About your organisers

Lawrence Gilbert is the founder of Company Partners, the leading business matching service. Several hundred business plans are seen every year and he knows what works and what doesn’t. Lawrence has started several businesses and held senior management positions at consultancy and computer companies. He holds degrees in engineering and a MBA from Imperial College.

Alan Gleeson is Managing Director of Palo Alto Software Ltd, makers of Business Plan Pro 11.0 the best selling business plan software product. Alan previously worked for Barclays PLC for a number of years in a range of different roles. He has an MBA from University of Oxford and an MSC from University College Cork, Ireland.

The Jelly Effect was recommended to me by my co-trainer at the Mastering Communications workshop we held back in March and I have to say, I was not disappointed. 

This book is a great starting point for small business owners who want to be more  effective in their communications across the board.  Andy covers topics such as how to be an effective networker, improve the quality of your presentations and sales effectiveness.

The most profound thing that I got out of the book was the concept of ‘AFTERS’ . This is in the opening pages of the book and the foundation of everything else throughout.  I have read many books about being benefit focused, but didn’t really get it until Andy simply and clearly pointed it out (so obvious now!). 

On Amazon there are a mix of review mainly positive, but a few negative.  The negative ones focus on the over simplicity of the book, so if you feel that you already know a lot about communications, this book may not be for you (you might want to check out my all time favourite communications book Made to Stick), but if you would like some simple tools and practices that you can implement immediately, this is a great book to help you make small changes that will have tremendous impact.

Here is one of the Amazon reviews that I think is a pretty accurate perspective.  Check out the Jelly Effect, in my opinion, it’s worth a read.

“I  have read various sections more than once – looking for the catch! But there isn’t one. I am reading some of the most useful advice I have ever read in plain, normal English – just as if I were listening to a close friend. No business jargon, no over inflated business language – just plain simple, easy to absorb advice.

And the best bit is that it is all about how we make the best use of our verbal communications with other business people when selling, networking, referral seeking and presenting- something we all do every day. There is no academic, NLP layden, brain bending rubbish here – just everyday situations that business people face. “

May 13 in Manchester and May 19 in London.  This is 3 hours of inspiration and fun to introduce you to the Divas. You will also get to meet and listen to the amazing stories of some of the women that have already stepped up and completed our showcase weekend workshop – their stories come from the heart. So come out to play with us for an evening – here is what some past guests at our Diva Kickstart Events have said about the night…

• ‘Well organised, well paced, really loved Jane’s style and delivery.  A very inspiring woman’
• ‘Jane was so inspiring, I could have listened to her all day.  The lift I felt inside on the way home was priceless.’
• Thank you Divas for empowering us to be who we really are’
• ‘I felt genuinely cared about, empowered and positive. The Divas were open, warm and oozed love’
• ‘Unique and inspiring yet so simple and authentic.  More women need to hear this NOW!’
• ‘Girl power for grown ups – loved it!’
• ‘Wow, what an awesome concept! Congratulations for making the impossible – possible’
• ‘The aura and energy in the room was amazing.  Jane is phenomenal and I loved all the Diva stories’.

These events are a great introduction to Divadom and tickets are £25 each.7

Manchester

When:  Wednesday 13th May 2009

Where:  City Inn, One Piccadilly Place, 1 Auburn Street, Manchester M1 3DG

What time:  6.30pm – 9.30pm

London

When:  Tuesday 19th May 2009

Where:  Core Grill & Restaurant, 12 West End Quay, 1 South Wharf Road, London W2 1JB

What time:  6.30pm – 9.30pm

Click here to book via the Well Heeled Divas website

June 25, 2009.  London. In this interactive and transformative event we will be learning about self awareness and opening up our personal choices. The goal will be to feel more confident in showing up as the best versions of ourselves in our lives. We will learn how to manage adrenaline, create a greater ‘presence’, use our voices more effectively and handle tricky situations with more clarity and ease.

Main themes will include:

First Impressions
Non-verbal Communication
The Power of language
Stress Management
Influence and Inspirational Speaking

This day long seminar will be fun and invaluable to anyone who wants to think about the effect they are having, is willing to be even more authentic, wants to feel more free and truly raise their game in showing up fully in their lives.

This event is being run by Avril Carson and Success Intelligence.

Click here to download the flyer

Click here to book or find out more

Date: June 25, 2009

Time: 9:30 – 5:30

Location: The Columbia Hotel, Lancaster Gate, London

April 24, 2009, This event is set to provideyou with the hidden gems to creating true success both personal and financial in your business as well a the opportunity to meet prospective clients and alliances that could boost your business results and skyrocket your profits!!

The National Women’s Business Mastermind Conference & Awards CeremonyFriday 24th April 2009

Website: www.womensbusinessconference.co.uk

Do you want discover from those that walk their talk how to Skyrocket Your Business, how to Create the Competitive Edge and make 2009 your year of real growth?

* * * *
Learn from the UK’s leading entrepreneurs about their Secrets & Best Strategies of Success – advice normally worth thousands!

* * * *
Discover the Incredible Resources & Tools that will Increase Your Wealth Fast & Propel your business forward

* * * *
Discover and learn how to become an Expert in Internet Marketing, Influencing & Persuasion Skills, PR & Marketing & start adding ££ss to your business bank account

* * * *
The opportunity to network and connect with like-minded businesswomen from all over the UK and significantly raise the profile of your business.

With the opportunity for your business to get noticed by entering into the Awards…

Go to www.womensbusinessconference.co.uk

Investment: £89 Early Bird Ticket with bonuses worth £450 including recording of whole conference – Offer valid until 20th March, thereafter £150.

Location: St John’s Hotel, Solihull (Easy access to M1. M6. M42 – 20 minutes from Birmingham by rail or car)
To Book: Call 01788 822 090, visit website or complete and post form below with payment and further details will be emailed to you.

CLICK HERE TO BOOK NOW

 REFUND POLICY:  No refunds are given once booking is made.

CMA COACHING AND TRAINING RETAIN THE RIGHT TO REFUSE BOOKINGS AND ENTRY ON THE DAY.

April 16. British Library: From Concept to Market. Women Unlimited are holding a get together at the British Library on April 16th. This is a fabulous opportunity to meet and network with other women who are in the process of starting or building their own business.

We have a some experts on hand who have all been running their own businesses for many years and they will share their advice, knowledge and ideas about starting and running a business.  You will also have the opportunity to meet and network with other fantastic women who are also in the early stages of their business lifecycle.

The theme for this month’s startup is taking your product to market and we have Claire Collins on hand who created Violet May London, a luxury business accessories brand that Claire created, designed, had manufactured and is now a recognised business on the London fashion scene.

Claire will share how she did it and answer your questions about how you can do it yourself. We will also have Denise Herrington on hand from Barlow Robbins to answer any of your legal questions about creating your own business.  And a marketing expert to answer your questions around small business marketing.

This session will be valuable for any budding entrepreneur as we will be discussing all things that relate to creating your own business from scratch.  There will also be a lot of opportunity to network with each other.

Come along and join us to ask any questions you may have about taking a product to market. We only have 30 places available and last time we filled up in 3 days, so don’t delay and book your place today.

Time: April 16 from 6:00 – 8:30

Where: British Library