After the Stepping into Success conference on International Women’s Day (March 8, 2010) we’re thrilled to close out the day with an additional inspiring speaker, Karen Darby.   Karen is a serial entrepreneur and the founder of Simply Switch which she sold for a reported £22m and recently launched a new venture called Call Britannia.

Karen got the idea for SimplySwitch in 2002 after being bombarded by sales people trying to get her to switch supplier after the deregulation in the gas and electricity markets.  She identified a niche; while people knew they were now free to choose which energy company they wanted to use, there wasn’t anyone telling them how to make the change or providing a switching service over the telephone, and so SimplySwitch was born.

Like a lot of entrepreneurs, Karen’s entrepreneurial spirit was evident early on.  At 22 she set up a telemarketing company called the Decisions Group, which she sold in 1990.  In 1991 she launched a consultancy under the brand Karen Darby Direct; in 2002 she launched SimplySwitch and sold it in 2006. She has now launched her fourth and most exciting venture yet ‘Call Britannia‘   and is on a mission to create 10,000 jobs for the unemployed.

Karen is a fun-loving, gregarious woman who has a very refreshing outlook towards life as an entrepreneur: “My friend thinks I’m lazy. I’m not. I’m just effortlessly effective! You don’t need to work long hours.’

Karen is testament to the fact that you do not need to necessarily be a specialist in a particular subject or have the cash yourself to launch your enterprise.  Sometimes all that is needed is the ability to spot a gap in the market and the ability to turn it into a business.  Sound like you?  Then jump onto this table.

You are welcome to join us just for the evening, Karen will be speaking from 6:00 – 6:30 and the networking will be going on until 8:30.

If you would like to join us for the conference during the day as well,  the networking is included.

International Women’s Day is a day to celebrate being a woman in business and we look forward to seeing you there.

Click here if you would like to read more about the other speakers that are speaking during the day, and click here for more information about our International Women’s Day conference

This evening networking event is a collaboration between, WITT, She’s Ingenious, Sister Snog and Women Unlimited

Feb 25, 2010. This month’s meetup features Alison Kemp of Swtich Vision.  Alison is a highly experienced Interpersonal Communications Trainer with background in the Performing Arts, Business and Psychology.  This month Alison is running a session called:

Why aren’t they listening to me?

This session is all about increasing your personal impact through your communication. It’s an interactive session combining theatre and business to inspire and innovate

Picture yourself at a meeting…you’re making a point you consider valid but no-one seems to hear you.  You repeat the point.  Again, no reaction.  Thirty minutes later, someone else makes ‘your’ point and everyone’s totally alert and on board.  And how about the feedback you gave that seemed to fall on deaf ears?  Whether you need to support, challenge or influence others you’ll need to be heard but with only 7% of your communication being verbal, we need to pay attention to the other 93%.  This fun and interactive workshop will give you some invaluable skills to help discover practical tips to help you grab and maintain the attention of others, enhancing your ability to persuade and influence.

Pick up tips to:

• Strengthen your self-belief and motivation
• Create more presence
• Feel more confident
• Increase your sense of control and influence
• Be remembered – for the right reasons!

Combining theatre, psychology and business skills, you’ll experience new ways to:

• Increase your awareness of the first impressions you give to others
• Instantly access a psychological state to create the right impression for the situation
• Enhance your use of voice and gesture to communicate with impact
• Maximise your verbal impact with language that conveys the point to hearing ears
• Discover techniques to redirect and steer conversations

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!

When: February 25, 2010

Where: 30/32 Procter Street, WC1R 4QG, London

Time: 18:00 – 22:00

Cost: FREE!  Can’t beat the price, but you do need to register.  Please sign up below.

September 30, 2009. Women Unlimited hold a monthly get together for women entrepreneurs and business owners. This is a fabulous opportunity to meet and network with other women who are in the process of starting or building their own business.

This month’s Theme: Twitter for business

After July’s fantastic meetup with Wendy Tan White (who had an incredibly successful campaign on Twitter in June), we decided to talk about how you can use Twitter in your business.   Twitter is a fantastic marketing tool for your business and is something that all businesses should be using to promote their business, but contrary to all the media stories the best way to use it is not to tell people what you had for breakfast!  But how can you use it effectively for your business?  Is it worth the time and effort?  Is it complicated?

Twitter is an incredibly easy tool to use and with a little forward planning can be a great way to spend some of your marketing time (and let’s face it time = money!) At Women Unlimited I use Twitter to post articles, engage with friends / contacts and promote our events and workshops.  And it works!  So I’ve put together this mini workshop to share with you all my tricks, tips and tools on how to use Twitter in your business.

In this  mini-workshop we will run through the in’s and outs of Twitter

1. Is Twitter for you?

2. How to get started

3. How to find followers

4. Getting familiar with the Twitter tools

5. What will make your tweeting easier

6. How to use Twitter for business

Come along for some fantastic networking and find out how to use my favourite (really!) marketing tool.

The Networking

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. There will be time for networking and engaging with other women who are in the same stage of business as you. 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  for a great evening

Time: September 30th from 6:00 – 9:30

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

Cost: £15 (includes drinks and nibbles) in advance (book by 29/09/09) and £20 on the door

July 29th, London. This month’s Women Unlimited meetup, will feature Wendy Tan White, the founder of Moonfruit a DIY website builder for SMEs and consumers to build beautiful websites simply.  Last year Moonfruit grossed over £9m in sales and they are growing at a very fast rate.  Any Twitterers out there will recognise Moonfruit as they were at the top of the Twitter trends for 5  days!

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 a multimillion pound company  and has massively accelerated the business while also raising a young family.   You can read more about Wendy and her success in the FT and on TechCrunch.com

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.

What Wendy will be talking about…

• How to turn a business around
• Tending on Twitter, what worked, what didn’t, secrets for success
• Growing a business during a recession
• Growing a multi-million pound business

If you are serious about your business, come along and learn from someone who is getting it absolutely right!

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 a limited number of tickets available, so make sure you book your place early – this is going to be a HOT ticket with success that #Moonfruit has achieved this month!

May 12. Kensington, London:  Women Unlimited hold a monthly get together for women who are either pre-startup or early stage startup. This is a fabulous opportunity to meet and network with other women who are in the process of starting or building their own business.

The Clinic

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. We will also have Shireen  Smith on hand from Azrights to answer any of your legal questions about creating your own business and Elliott King from MintTwist to answer your questions around small business marketing and websites.

The Networking

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.  There will be time for networking and engaging with other women who are in the same stage of business as you.  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!

This month’s theme

The theme for this month’s startup is about how to get a website.  This is a question that we get time and time again, so we have decided to deliver a whole presentation on making what is possibly going to be one of your biggest expenses when starting your business.

You have many options when you are starting a business and while we wouldn’t recommend starting a business without a website, there are a lot of things you can do that can do without it costing the earth.  Or if you have a brilliant idea that requires a professional presence, we can give you a good idea about what you should look for and what is a reasonable cost for your project.  We will cover DIY options, low cost options, fully designed sites and help you understand web sites and web design so you can start thinking about your own requirements with more understanding about where the  pitfalls are.  It will be quite informal and will have a Q&A session.  This is an impartial and practical session for you to get the most for your web presence.

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 startup up and creating a successful business

Time: May 12 from 6:00 – 9:30

Where: Dermalogica, 8 Lancer Square, Kensington Church Street, W8 4EH

Cost: £10

If you are unable to book via the website, please feel free to come along and pay on the door. We hope to see you there.

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

Women Unlimited hold a monthly get together for women business owners to network, be inspired, and learn from each other. This is a fabulous opportunity to meet, network and create connections with other women who are in the process of starting or building their own business.

This month’s theme: How clear is your vision

Do you have an idea for a business? Fantastic – but do you know what you want to achieve with it? Setting up and running a business is challenging and decisions have to be taken – if you are not absolutely certain where you are heading, it is possible to stumble, lose your way and ultimately miss out on success that should have been yours. Being clear on what you want to achieve deserves serious consideration – regardless of whether you are contemplating ideas, about to start-up or already operating a business – you need to know where you are heading.

Learn how to define your own positive and dynamic vision – a 50 word statement which really reflects your business and where you want it to be in the future. Your vision should be exciting and motivating – to you and to others – and will be a useful framework to help your business move to the next stage.

This session will be run by Emma Wimhurst. Emma is a High-Energy Business Mentor, Entrepreneur, ‘Millionaire Mumpreneur’, founder of EMPwr and a sought-after International Motivational Speaker & Presenter. She reached millionaire status, sealing her entrepreneurial, business and financial acumen, from the sale of her company, Diva Cosmetics, in 2003; the start-up she founded in 2000 as a young Mumpreneur, initially from home and with her firstborn on her hip.

The Networking

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.  There will be time for networking and engaging with other women who are in the same stage of business as you.  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

THIS JUST IN:  We will be holding a draw for a signed copy of Deborah Meaden’s new book Common Sense Rules. Come along for your chance to win.  This will only be available to people who pre-book their place as we will be doing the draw from the registration list.

Time: June 17 from 6:00 – 9:30

Where: MWB Liverpool Street, 55 Broad Street, London, EC2M 1RX

Cost: £10 in advance, £15 on the door

Many thanks to our venue sponsor MWB Exchange