Women's Business Magazine Winter 2018

Winter 2018 £2.99

WOMEN’S BUSINESS MAGAZINE

Flashback!

CELEBRATING THREE YEARS Of

MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine

How do you know your website is performing well?

Why business owners are bordering on insanity

MAXIMISE FASHION

“Because It’s Summer Somewhere”

Maximise Conference & Awards 2017

A look back over the highlights, award winners and feedback

WIN! Breakthrough Session with My Fit Life Coaching

Angela Spang The Serial Entrepreneur

General Information Meet The Magazine Team

Editor-In-Chief Angela De Souza

Creative Director Lorah-Kelly Beard

Head Copy Editor Eric De Souza

Copy Editor Nikita Tejaa

Letter from the Editor It’s a brand new year full of possibilities. You can choose to look back and see all the mistakes you’ve made or look forward to all that you can learn from them! Like most of you, I have made many mistakes, but I see them as stepping stones to a great and bright future. Let 2018 be your year. The year you break through those barriers, the year you step up and move on and the year that you proactively turn your dreams into a reality. Well, it’s entirely up to you, but that is what I plan to do both personally and professionally.

This year we proudly celebrate our 5th birthday! The Women’s Business Club has broken through the most talked about business barrier - the five-year mark. Only 20% of businesses make it to this point and we are one of them. In this issue, we are going to do a lot of looking back. We will look back at our humble beginnings, at our first magazine and how all of these past memories will spur us on and into a successful future.

What is your business story? We would love to hear from you and share your journey too. Get in touch and share your story with us and let’s make 2018 our best year yet together as we connect, support and empower each other!

Angela x

angela@womensbusiness.club

@wombizclub

@wombizclub

Maximise Women’s Business Magazine - Print and Online FOUR EDITIONS EACH YEAR DELIVERED TO: Bath | Bristol | Cardiff | Cheltenham| Gloucester | Newport | Southampton | Swindon | Wimbledon www.womensbusiness.club/magazine (c) 2017 Women’s Business Club All images and text subject to copyright.

You may NOT reproduce, in whole or in part, any of the pages from this magazine or quotes of no more than two or three sentences with full credit attached to quote. If you wish to reproduce more than this, please contact the editor-in-chief. While endeavouring to make sure that all published information is accurate, the publishers cannot be held responsible for mistakes or omissions. The Women’s Business Club cannot be held responsible for any errors or omissions or endorse companies, products or services that appear in this magazine.

Contents

Angela Spang - The Serial Entrepreneur|Page 06 ck

ne | Feature| Flashba

’s Business Magazi

MAXIMISE Women

Flashback

e and enter s Business Magazin the Maximise Women’ e three years of This year we celebrat year. fourth highlights and our excitedly into our we’d share our issues, we thought over our previous back look a on. e has been As we take journey this magazin stories about the

g to sleep shifts and strugglin home in the when she was gettng 2015 to gently stroke mornings. I used s until she her back and shoulder by Winter 2015 started £1.00 magazine Our fell asleep. set out to accident, we didn’t fact. in all at started gettng produce a magazine As a teenager I to allow six surrounded The original idea was panic attacks when on the I could never businesses to advertise n card by a lot of people. fearful of, was I what back of our A6 promotio understand funding INSIDE: overwhelmed for a small fee thereby Reviews & Ratings I just used to get initiative didn’t feel Business Fashion our own marketing by emotions that some of our found out whilst supporting PLUS like mine. I later Breton s at the same cing energy Exclusive with Alison member’s businesse Idea” that I was experien “Time For A Good of this idea I was result end that The and time. transferences twenty-page and Empowering other people’s was our very first Inspiring, Equipping Women picking up on with us UK Business and taking magazine! We started was so negative emotions not? It on the cover, why them on as my own. our creative exciting to see myself, ly Beard and family a by Lorah-Kel director the cover. Our to massage therapy es, Natalie Bell on I was introduced massage one of our franchise the magazine a mixture of sports as our team, loved friend, who used severe shoulder And so members, as well to treat me for to make it a ‘thing’. and kinesiology and knew on 6th so much and decided immediately hooked Magazine was born tension. I was people, both our Women’s Business that I wanted to heal then and there January 2015. gically. physically and psycholo and have Featured article ies as soon as I left school I started training

Issue #1 January

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Kayleigh Purser Holistic therapy vocation, a drive.

Therap

is a passion, a is not a job; it

before I a natural born healer night I found out I was My mum was working even started school.

www.montpellier-lodge.co.uk info@montpellierlodge.co.uk 01242 262 666

never looked back.

about t to continue learning healing, I feel it’s so importan and methods of holistic different therapies student with perpetual therapy I have become the and heal. a passion to help

MAXIMISE CONFERENCE & AWARDS |Page 26

AUTHOR HUB: Angela De Souza |Page 32

Montpellier Gardens Lodge Montpellier Walk Cheltenham GL50 1SD

Unique dining in a friendly, relaxing setting

Page 11

FAHSION: “Because It’s Summer Somewhere” |Page 38

Why business owners are bordering on insanity; New Year resolutions, FLOW and the art of goal setting |Page 42

Member Interview Chani Martin: M&M Promotions

Page 34

Mother Duck Taking the Leap into Business as a Single Mum

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COMPETITION WIN two £100 gift vouchers

Page 39

Andrea Sexton PR What sport has taught me about business.

Page 46

CROSSWORD PUZZLE

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COMPETITION WIN A Life Coaching ‘Breakthrough Session’

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Bitcoin, Litecoin or Ethereum - Which Cryptocurrency is Best and is Blockchain the Way Forward?

Page 04

Editors Choice Liv Oliv Nailpolish

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Fleur Sexton Taking a personal stand for education

Page 20

CROSSWORD PUZZLE Solutions

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How do you know your website is performing well?

Page 22

Women’s Business Club Members Directory

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Member Interview Nadezhda Hardiman: From Russia with love

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MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine |Feature Aricle

Bitcoin, Litecoin or Ethereum – which Cryptocurrency is Best and is Blockchain the Way Forward?

Bitcoin, Litecoin or Ethereum – which Cryptocurrency is best and is blockchain the way forward? There are many questions and possibly a great deal of money to be made for early adopters.

But is it too late to be called an early adopter? Quite possibly as Cryptocurrency isn’t new anymore, it’s been around for quite some time now. According to Fortune, those who invested in with a mere £100 in 2010 (Early investors paid just six cents for a Bitcoin) would be worth $28,341,266 today!

Saying that it’s not too late to still get on board and enjoy a good piece of the pie.

Let’s look at the basics and some terminology.

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What is Cryptocurrency?

Cryptocurrency is a digital currency that uses encryption (cryptography) to generate money and to verify transactions. *Angela’s paraphrase: Cryptocurrency is computer generated electronic money.

What is a Cryptocurrency Address?

In order to receive cryptocurrency, you need a public address which is a unique string of characters. *Angela’s paraphrase: Cryptocurrency Address is the address of where to find your money!

How do you use Cryptocurrency?

Set up a digital wallet to store the currency then transfer funds in or out of your wallet using your public addresses. *Angela’s paraphrase: Your wallet is where you keep your money.

What is Block Chain?

The blockchain is a continuously growing list of records, called blocks, which are linked and secured using cryptography. Although commonly associated with Bitcoin, blockchain technology has many other applications. *Angela’s paraphrase: Blocks are electronic records and a blockchain is the list of all the blocks (records).

currency system. *Angela’s paraphrase: Mining is what happens when the crypto money is made.

What is Altcoin?

An altcoin is the community accepted name for any coin that isn’t Bitcoin – yes there is more than one cryptocurrency, in fact, there are over 1,037 different types of cryptocurrencies. *Angela’s paraphrase: Any cryptocurrency that is not Bitcoin.

Find out more at www.womensbusiness.club/bitcoin Written By Angela De Souza

What is Mining?

Mining is the processing of transactions in the digital

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MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine | Cover Story | Angela Spang

Angela Spang The Serial Entrepreneur Former Ballerina and working mother of two becomes First Women’s Entrepreneur Of The Year 2017

Angela is the founder of 7 companies including June Medical and The London Medical Academy, LMEDAC. Not only is Angela a successful business woman but she is overtly passionate about making a difference with the companies that she has created.

Her desire to expand knowledge provides real benefit to many women and shows how passion in the search for excellence can often go hand in hand with success. Angela serves not just as a successful business woman and entrepreneur but also as a true role model for those both near and far. Angela is a very worthy winner of the First Woman Entrepreneur of the Year Award and no doubt there will be many more awards to come.

Tell us about your dream job as a child.

When I was 8, I wanted to be a vet. I had convinced my parents to get me a pet (after the 100 or so pet snails I had collected escaped into my dad’s garage, they were keen to ensure my needs were met), my love for animals was stronger than anything else.

Then when I realized I couldn’t save all the animals, I moved on. I think I wanted to be a lawyer after that (to put the bad people away).

Why did you go into business in the first place?

When there was an obvious gap in the market, and I knew I was skilled, experienced, knowledgeable

Page 7

and well connected, the opportunity was too good to pass up. It also gave me the chance to really do good again and a big part of what I do is non-profit work.

What or who has been your greatest influence in business and why?

My dad. He has given me the confidence to try, the ability to do and the humour to manage failure. He has taught me that your word is more important than any written contract, and that if you can be kind, you should. I live by that every day.

What did you most fear in the early days of your business?

That we were going to have a cashflow problem, or that we were too early and wouldn’t be able to really shape the market the way I knew we had to.

What we are doing with London Medical Education Academy is so big and so important, that it terrifies me.

What is the best and worst decision you’ve ever made?

Best decision was to start my companies. Worst decision was to not send back a lot of stock to a company that went out of business - thinking

Page 8

it would be useful. That was a very expensive mistake. Ethical, but expensive.

What do you think is the most significant barrier to women in business?

For Women: The informal decision making groups that women aren’t part of until they are 50/50. I am watching the countries where mandatory quotation is implemented, and the results are obvious: everyone benefits.

I also want to see mandatory parental leave split

between parents so that the playing field is level.

For Parents: The ridiculous working hours, and the lack of work life balance. We have part time, flexible hours and I frequently tell people to stop working and go home. Family comes first, always!!

What’s the best advice you have received in business?

97% of those who give up will be employed by the 3% who stuck at it. Don’t give up too soon.

Tell us about winning First Entrepreneur Of The Year 2017!

Women’s

Winning Entrepreneur of the year 2017 was a

big shock, but a very welcomed one. I was truly honoured (and slightly intimidated) by just being a Finalist, and couldn’t in my wildest dreams imagine taking the award home!

I attended the night to applaud and honour the Finalists and Winners, feeling inspired and motivated by the sheer talent in the room. I was so proud when my name was next to the household names on the screen, and then absolutely floored when Dale Murray called my name!

What do you do for fun?

Anything outside, preferably in 24-27 degrees and sunshine. Close to water if I can be, with my fiancée and our two daughters.

What’s next for you and your business?

Dream up new products and solutions. Build our own lab and storage facilities. Change the way doctors learn new procedures, so they don’t injure patients in the process.

If you could tell your younger you something what would you say?

Hang in there sweetheart, don’t be so sad. It will get better, I promise. One day you will be happier than you ever thought possible.

Angela Spang www.angelaspang.com

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MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine | Feature| Flashback

Flashback This year we celebrate three years of the Maximise Women’s Business Magazine and enter excitedly into our fourth year.

As we take a look back over our previous issues, we thought we’d share our highlights and our stories about the journey this magazine has been on.

Issue #1 January 2015

shifts and struggling to sleep when she was getting home in the mornings. I used to gently stroke her back and shoulders until she fell asleep.

Our magazine started by Winter 2015 £1.00 accident, we didn’t set out to produce a magazine at all in fact.

The original idea was to allow six businesses to advertise on the As a teenager I started getting back of our A6 promotion card panic attacks when surrounded for a small fee thereby funding by a lot of people. I could never INSIDE: our own marketing initiative understand what I was fearful of, Reviews & Ratings Business Fashion whilst supporting some of our I just used to get overwhelmed member’s businesses at the same by emotions that didn’t feel PLUS Exclusive with Alison Breton time. The end result of this idea like mine. I later found out “Time For A Good Idea” was our very first twenty-page that I was experiencing energy magazine! We started with us transferences and that I was Inspiring, Equipping and Empowering UK Business Women on the cover, why not? It was so picking up on other people’s exciting to see myself, our creative negative emotions and taking director Lorah-Kelly Beard and them on as my own. one of our franchisees, Natalie Bell on the cover. Our members, as well as our team, loved the magazine I was introduced to massage therapy by a family so much and decided to make it a ‘thing’. And so friend, who used a mixture of sports massage our Women’s Business Magazine was born on 6th and kinesiology to treat me for severe shoulder January 2015. tension. I was immediately hooked and knew there and then that I wanted to heal people, both Featured article physically and psychologically.

Kayleigh Purser Therapies

Holistic therapy is not a job; it is a passion, a vocation, a drive.

I found out I was a natural born healer before I even started school. My mum was working night

I started training as soon as I left school and have never looked back.

I feel it’s so important to continue learning about different therapies and methods of holistic healing, I have become the perpetual therapy student with a passion to help and heal.

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MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine | Feature| Flashback Issue #2 April 2015 We very quickly realised that having our own magazine Spring 2015 £1.00 opened doors Laura for us and our Tenison Ihhhhh Ah hxcluhhvh hhhhhvhhh members so Rhvhhhh & Rhhhgh Cash Flow, Buhhhhhh Fhhhhhh Outsourcing, we got bold Mhhbhhh Ahhclhh Confidence, Rhchuhhhhhh Sphhlhghh and Brand and asked COMPETITIONS Consistency well-known b u s i n e s s women if we could interview Why finding sales leads is so tough them.

Issue hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh 2 saw Laura Tenison on the cover with her dog. We had a fantastic time with her at the JoJo Maman Bébé headquarters in London and learned so much from this inspiring woman. The bug had bitten and the Women’s Business Magazine was going to be a collection of inspirational stories along with expert articles and Lorah-Kelly and I were going to travel the country interviewing amazing businesswomen.

Featured article

Shires Chiropractic A staggering 64% of women are wearing the wrong bra size!

This figure is according to a study by Swiss lingerie company Triumph. They found that globally nearly a third of women had never had a proper bra fitting before, and us Brits were among one of the worst countries!

If you aren’t wearing the correct sized bra it could be putting unnecessary strain on your back, affecting your posture and causing joint and muscle pain. In 2008 the Chiropractic Association (BCA) first looked at this issue. A survey was carried out among women who had claimed to have suffered back pain at some point in their life, 47% of the women said that they believed that their breast size was a factor.

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In addition to back pain, wearing the wrong bra size can lead to a number of problems, including, restricted breathing, abrasions, breast pain and poor posture. Bras that don’t fit well will affect the shoulders and chest, and will almost certainly cause back pain as you get older. When a bra isn’t fully supporting the breasts the strain is often felt through the mid back and around the rib cage, which can cause a curved back. If a woman is bending forward because of insufficient breast support, muscles in the the upper back and neck over stretches and this, over time, can lead to headaches. A well-engineered, well fitted bra is essential to ensure your shoulders don’t end up doing all the work.

Most bras don’t stay the same size with repeated wear and washing, and are expected to stretch up to as much as four inches over time. In addition, the right size for you from one manufacturer may not be the same for all brands so always try on before you purchase.

Firstly you need to look closely in the mirror for the tell tale signs that you’re wearing the wrong size bra.

Read more in Issue #2 www.womensbusiness.club/shop

Issue #3 July 2015 Issue 3 took us back to London, over to Stroud and across to the Forest of Dean for more inspiring stories and articles. The magazine had grown into a nice chunky 68-pages and we introduced a lovely new perfect bound spine. It was very quickly becoming obvious that our magazine was not only great for inspirational stories but also expert content. We realised that this content had to be catalogued and made available to the public for quick reference, so we started posting our articles on our website too and shared them through our social media channels giving the magazine a much greater reach for all to benefit from.

Featured article

Malt House Miracle Miraculous is the only word that I can use to describe Helen Tweddle’s story of the explosion of her business. The Malt House Emporium, located on the A46 near Stroud, was built in 1822 on the Manor of Painswick, owned by William Bliss since 1439. Back then it was used as a malt house but today, nearly 200 years later, Helen turned it into the majestic emporium that it has become.

The sheer size of the building is impressive but as you walk inside you are blown away by how many beautiful vintage things are available to feast the eyes on. A superb collection of Antiques, Retro, Vintage large and small pieces all available under one roof. I had already picked up a gorgeous little Fortnum & Mason basket on my way up the steps before I even entered the building and I knew that I could easily furnish my entire home with the lovely pieces big and small in the Malt House Emporium.

Helen’s story started less than a year ago when she had come from the corporate world in the big city to retire and enjoy country life. After three weeks she got bored and began trading in antiques just for fun. She very quickly took on a little bay in Gloucester but still wasn’t satisfied.

So on 19th November 2014 after a quick turn around with estate agents, she opened the doors to the Malt House with 9 dealers.

Within four months she has sold out all of the available space in the two story 14,500 square foot building and will have turned over in the region of £1,000,000 by the end of her first year of trading.

Summer 2015 £2.00

Feature Interview

Safia Minney Founder of People Tree FEATURED ARTICLES Meet the Women Behind The Business

Being a Women in a Man’s World

FASHION

Peek into a Business Women’s Office

Jada Sezer

Plus size model shares her story.

Jane Dare: DO YOU LOVE FASHION ?

DOES FASHION LOVE YOU?

Inspiring, Equipping & Empowering UK Business Women

Trying to find the catch I dug a little deeper to find out how Helen did it. Helen simply replied that she did some Facebook promotion and got in touch with some traders that she met along the way.

That’s it!

So I tried to dig because this still didn’t make sense, so I asked about her struggles to which Helen replied, “There haven’t been any, everything has gone smoothly.”

The next steps for this amazing business woman is to open a grand, fully licensed restaurant by the end of the year. Workshop space is also available for £100 per day so that people can teach their trade to others. Events, fayres, live Jazz and much more is in the pipeline and if you really want to spend some money, Helen will even open the Malt House Emporium for private shopping in the evening by arrangement.

MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine | Feature| Flashback Issue #4 October 2015 Well known celebrity, movie start and property businesswomen, Fiona Fuller, made the cover of the next issue of our magazine. Lorah-Kelly and I completely overstayed our welcome at her home as what was supposed to be a quick interview and photo shoot turned into a fascinating few hours with this incredible and very humble woman. It was difficult to tear ourselves away and leave but of course, we had to in the end!

Autumn 2015 £2.00

FASHION

Sophie Belinda

Young woman in business success story

Jane Dare

How to look and feel your best!

Bond Girl to Business

Featured article

Fiona tells us about her incredible journey.

Charlotte Poole Graham: Will you really be ready for retirement?

This year’s new ‘pension freedoms’ have attracted a great deal of interest, but as a nation we remain seriously underprepared for retirement. A recent survey by insurers Aegon UK found that only 7% of the population is on track for retirement – meaning that they have realistic expectations about their pension and are saving enough to achieve them.

The last 12 months have been momentous for pensions, which have enjoyed the most radical overhaul in nearly a century. Anyone over the age of 55 can now take their workplace or personal pensions as cash if they choose, and they are no longer obliged to buy an annuity. For many, these savings represent their second-biggest asset after their home, and there will be significant tax implications for lump-sum withdrawals above a certain level. This is likely to cause more people to seek advice, as they consider their options.

Pension freedoms, however, will have no effect on exactly what is inside peoples’ pension pots

STORIES

FIONA FULLERTON

Being a Woman in A Man’s World

Smashing targets and making sales history

The Woman Behind the Business

Lady Wimbledon makes an impact - how Bombshell M.D injects personality into the brand

Empowering, Equipping and Inspiring Women Executives and Entrepreneurs.

and whether this is sufficient for a comfortable retirement. If people have not saved enough then, quite simply, the freedom to take benefits is of little material value.

Automatic enrolment means that more now have a pension through their employer – an additional five million since the programme began two years ago.

However, the Aegon study suggests that, whether they have a workplace or a private pension, many are not fully engaged with it. It shows, for example, that more than half of people in the UK (55%) have never checked the value of their pension savings.

Two in five do not know how much they are paying into their pension pot, and three out of five do not know how much their employer is contributing.

Read more in Issue #4 www.womensbusiness.club/shop

Issue #5 January 2016 Winter 2016 £2.00

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Lorah-Kelly and I continued driving around the UK visiting and interviewing amazing women such as this issue’s cover ladies, Cynthia and Jan from SoSensational, but the trip for Issue 5 had to be our final road trip together as Lorah-Kelly was pregnant and expecting her first baby! How exciting, but also, this magazine’s trip was exhausting and we realised that it wasn’t sustainable physically but also was not a financially viable way to run the magazine. The road trips sadly came to an end and we agreed to stop travelling as much and conduct the interviews electronically where possible.

Featured article

Women’s Business Club and Safe From Slavery Unite Against Modern Day Slavery.

Women’s Business Club is pleased to support several charities in 2016, including Safe From Slavery, a local charity with international outreach whose aim is to ght modern day slavery and protect, heal and restore victims of sex trafficking and sexual exploitation.

WBC Regional Coordinator, Angela De Souza and SFS Chief Executive, Sue Carter met at Maximise Conference in 2015 and discussed the potential of a strong collective of business women using their intelligence, ingenuity and business savvy to help the fight against the injustice and exploitation of people trapped in slavery.

Human Trafficking is the fastest growing crime in the world. According to the United Nations statistics on Human Trafficking and Slavery there Issue #6 April 2016 Something interesting started to unfold in our magazine and that was Jen Hall’s journey FASHION FOOD unfolding right before our eyes. Little did we STORIES know that we were watching history unfold Shotgun and Chelsea Bun Club right before our eyes FINANCE Victoria Knowles-Lacks in our little magazine!

SOCIAL Previous issues had featured her as The Empowering, Equipping and Inspiring women executives and entrepreneurs Spirit Sanctuary and this issue sees her with her new brand, The Life Buddy, but keep reading to see what happens next. Our little magazine was proving to be an important record of some of our member’s journeys.

Spring 2016 £2.99

The Healthy Girl Is your food ageing you?

Read more in Issue #5 www.womensbusiness.club/shop business? Do you wonder if you are ever going to make a profit?

Would you like to know how to manage your critic, gain clarity of what you want and leave with absolute confidence in your next step?

Caryl Hodgson

Breaking barriers - When age and money just aren’t enough

Recipe King Prawns with Lemongrass & Coconut

Woman Behind The Business How crisis can build business Woman In A Man’s World Dancing with spitfires

Empowering women of all ages, shapes, backgrounds and abilities

are more than 32 million victims of modern day slavery. Sex trafficking is commonly controlled by devious organised criminal gangs who prey on vulnerable women. While victims’ stories are varied, the common element used by traffickers is one of violence and death threats to victims and their families to force compliance. Every day vulnerable British and foreign women are trafficked for repeated sexual exploitation. Safe From Slavery’s advocacy informs, influences and helps to raise awareness of the devastation of slavery to victims and their families, as well as working with law enforcement, social services and medical providers to help vulnerable women who have escaped or been rescued from slavery.

Implications of changing from being self employed to trading through a limited company

Exciting news from our members!

Babies, Awards and Magazine interviews

Featured article

Step by Step: Manage your critic – Manage your life Do you have a little voice in your head that is constantly criticising you? Perhaps your critic is someone you love?

Are you left with self-doubt about your

Then I would like to share with you my journey as a self-employed business owner who then separated from her ex-husband only to find I still lacked confidence even though he was no longer nagging me, then my mum died and I discovered I still didn’t like myself that much and she was no longer around nagging me and lastly when my own daughter started self-harming unable to communicate how she felt I found myself on the phone to parent line crying and asking.

“How come I can help my clients to be more successful in business and I can help them communicate better at home but I can’t help my own daughter?”

The young man on the phone said “What would you tell your clients to do?”

That day changed my life forever.

Read more in Issue #6 www.womensbusiness.club/shop

MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine | Feature| Flashback Issue #7 July 2016 As the Women’s Business Club grew so did our magazine. More and more clubs were being launched which means we automatically had more and more readers as well as content to choose from and members stories to capture. We made an important decision, we decided to keep adverting costs affordable for all business sizes so that small business would always have a place to be seen in a lovely glossy print magazine. Our magazine was fixed at £2.99 and our advertising rates would remain affordable and available to small businesses as well as companies with large marketing budgets.

Featured article

Fiona Jones: The Woman Behind The Busines Fiona Jones is a talented jewellery designer living and working in Cheltenham, Gloucestershire. She has overcome many obstacles to get to where she is today, and is happy to share her journey through ME and a career change into the business world.

What made you make the leap into business?

I developed a chronic condition. It is known as ME (Myalgic Encephalopathy), CFS (Chronic Fatigue Syndrome),PVFS(PostViralFatigueSyndrome),CFIDS (Chronic Fatigue Immune Dysfunction Syndrome) and now SEID (systemic exertion intolerance disease). It meant that working at a high level on a day in, day out basis, was out for me. It affects every system including temperature and breathing, not just muscle pain or tiredness, so it is really annoying!

increased I was able to match it with my desire to return to the working world and the need to find money to pay off my mortgage. I looked at what I was able to do and chose to use my creative skills. I put part of my redundancy pay into buying gemstones and silver so I can make higher class jewellery, rather than wood or glass, as I did when I was a student or a child. Then I practiced selling around to friends and then beyond.

Read more in Issue #7 www.womensbusiness.club/shop

I lost my job and ended up on benefits, trying to live in a house with a mortgage and no way to be able to prevent it being repossessed in the future. For a few years I could only do a small amount each day and needed to rest both morning and afternoon after doing a bit. Gradually, as my energy Issue #8 October 2016 Siobhan Freegard was to be our keynote speaker at our Maximise Conference so we decided it would be fun to feature her in our magazine ahead of the big day and get people excited about meeting her in person. It was a great idea and we hoped it would become something we could keep up for future Autumn issues. We are so grateful for businesswomen like Siobhan who are willing to give up their time chatting to us and inspire businesswomen across the country.

Featured article

How to get the most out of your magazine adverts Advertising in magazines is something that hasn’t changed over the years. They are there to help keep the cost of the magazine itself down and are the reason some are free. But how often do you look at the ads? Do you look at all of them?

What is it about those ads that you end up paying attention to? And, most importantly, how can I get my ad seen?

Most ads in a magazine end up being just a small bit of information about the business, its logo and some colour. This ends up being just another block in a sea of other boring blocks. If you are paying for ad space, why not make the most of it? There is potential there that very few businesses are taking advantage of. Here are a few tips for advertising your business in a magazine.

Read more in Issue #8 www.womensbusiness.club/shop

Issue #9 January 2017 It was time for a sudden general election after the Brexit vote shook the nation. Although we did try to get an interview with Theresa May she was understandable busy at that time, however, Justine Greening did us the honour of allowing us to add a little bit of politics into our magazine. We are passionate about our role in this nation’s politics as businesswomen. We carry influence and a responsibility to be a part of making the UK the best possible place to live and work. We don’t complain about our government but ask what we can do to be a part of the solution.

We also saw a major change in our branding and magazine layout with many new features introduces and a new name - Maximise Business Magazine and black and gold colour scheme to make it more gender neutral.

Featured article

Which Legal Framework Best Suits Your Business?

Sally McFadden is Head of Commercial Property in the Business Services Department of Thomson & Bancks, offering packages to both start-up and established businesses to help them manage their legal a airs more efficiently.

Here, Sally provides us with her advice on choosing the legal structure for your start-up.

• Sole Trader • Partnership • Limited Company • Limited Liability Partnership • Community Interest Company Read more in Issue #9 www.womensbusiness.club/shop

MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine | Feature| Flashback Issue #10 April 2017 A strong theme of tragedy to success dominated this issue of the magazine, it was encouraging to hear from women who had faced life-threatening situations and used them to change their life for the better. We also introduced the Author Hub, a place for authors to share their work and stories. Lorah-Kelly introduced her new section under her brand, Mother Duck, it was great to see how she was learning to juggle a new baby and business. I am sure many mothers were eagerly watching what she would do next too as the story unfolded.

Featured article

Mother Duck: A New Mummy in Business I have been a mummy to Baby Duck a whole year and three months this April. It has been my first time navigating the world of motherhood and parenting and honestly, I have loved it! Not to say it hasn’t been hard, because it truly has. But the reason for going through these challenges and life altering events is all for the most amazing little person, who I have the joy and privilege to call my own.

Before this wonderful adventure began, I ran my own business with my husband. In fact, I have run a few businesses in the past, as it is something I love and something that our family has always encouraged. I took the necessary maternity leave from working in my business but

found I never really came back in the same way I had left of. Things were different. I didn’t have the concentration, the time or the headspace to continue doing what I was doing. Although I loved my business, I felt a shift.

My priorities had changed, of course they had! I was a mother, responsible for keeping an actual person alive, happy, loved and thriving. I loved my business, but I loved my baby more.

Read more in Issue #10 www.womensbusiness.club/shop

Issue #11 July 2017 The new branding wasn’t working, I didn’t feel good about it and many members said that they didn’t relate to it! Oh well, you have to try things out, don’t you? We reverted back to a Women’s Business Club branded magazine but retained the name Maximise as it worked well and everyone was much happier. We were back on track and focused on what we wanted to achieve with the magazine and who it was for. It was and is a Women’s Business Magazine by women and for women but as always men are always welcome to join in. The magazine exists as part of our overall vision and that is to connect, support and empower UK businesswomen. Our cover lady was Jade Lisseman, not a celebrity but one of our very own members.

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Featured article

How Brand Ambassadors Can Help You First of all let’s start with who a brand ambassador is.

Your biggest fan. Someone who will “big up” your business and brand.

A genuine user of your product who spreads the joy of your company via word of mouth, social media and blogs.

An employee who is loyal, totally involved in the business and the brand and shares love.

You, the business owner. 24/7 you represent your brand.

Read more in Issue #11 www.womensbusiness.club/shop

Issue #12 October 2017 We were happy and settled with our magazine at this point and happy to continue the journey in pink, and since this magazine was by us and for us we decided to run an extended feature on the fast approaching Maximise Conference & Awards. It was a fantastic issue where everyone had a little feature of some sort and the general feel of the magazine was starting to feel like a family photo album with good quality business content in between. I hoped many copies would be kept for posterity as they really were becoming collector’s pieces.

Featured article

How To Care For Your New Kitten Every loving home should have a British Shorthair kitten. We believe that a house is not really a home until you have one. Therefore, we wrote this guide as a starting point for you and your kitten to enjoy a happy and healthy life.

• Diet • Cat litter and tray • Grooming Read more in Issue #12

And that’s it! 12 issues in 9 pages. We do hope you’ve enjoyed reading through our journey, and that you continue to support and enjoy the magazine in the upcoming year!

All 12 past issues can be purchased on our website and downloaded. The most recent issue as well as upcoming issue can be purchased in print or digital format. www.womensbusiness.club/shop

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MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine |Feature Article

Fleur Sexton, taking a personal stand for education.

Fleur Sexton, the managing director and cofounder of PET-Xi Training in Coventry, West Midlands, risked everything from her own health to the family home in her quest to build one of the UK’s most successful training and education operations.

The Present

The Beginning

We work with youngsters heading for a failed grade at GCSEs by running a week of intensive coaching to ensure students achieve a pass and we have helped over 100,000 youngsters from Northumberland to Cornwall reach their academic potential.

The idea to set-up a training and education company started when I was working as a teacher at a special school with blind students who were struggling to learn a language and I wanted to change that.

We now run programmes for schools, courses for businesses and individuals and vocational programmes throughout the UK from our offices in Coventry and Sheffield.

I devised a course and it was so well received, I decided to launch PET-Xi Training from a spare bedroom in our house in 1995.

Achieving grade C or above particularly in Maths and English improves the choices for students whether that is in higher education, an apprenticeship or traineeship.

Over the next five years, I continued to work as a teacher so that we could afford to pay our bills as well as fund the business and then when we were established, I left teaching to concentrate on the business full-time.

An expanding area is training and upskilling for people at work (business courses). Our research showed many women who were returning to work after raising their children had the personal skills but needed to update their IT skills.

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We are one of only three centres in Europe chosen to run Microsoft Office Specialist programmes to teach and accredit highly-employable IT skills in Microsoft Word, PowerPoint and Excel.

Difficulties My eldest daughter, Kate, was very ill when she was born and was in intensive care for six weeks.

who are not currently working to improve their employability.

Two weeks after giving birth, the government changed their policy on vocational programmes which meant our staff could have lost their jobs.

As Businesswoman of the Year 2017, I to encourage other women to celebrate achievements because it is important to other women they are capable of achieving than perhaps they might think.

I would look at Kate in the hospital and think, if you can keep on fighting, then I can keep fighting too.

Fleur Sexton www.pet-xi.co.uk

I wrote a range of revision products for GCSEs to coincide with the new September term and we risked our family house to fund them.

It proved that you should never give up even when the going gets tough because these High 5 revision courses in subjects from Maths to Spanish account for the majority of our business – and Kate is now a lively 12-year-old.

What are your best qualities?

I am hard-working, loyal, tenacious and optimistic. I have always loved breaking down barriers and that is one of our aims at PET-Xi Training – to never give up on any young person or adult.

I think it is important to keep focused on the big picture to help your business become a success but it is also important to me to create a family atmosphere among our 500 full and part-time staff.

I launched the PET-Xi Foundation in 2014 to give support to young people, to break down barriers and help their progression – that has involved everything from buying clothes for job interviews to funding a prosthetic leg for a young girl.

The future We want to double the size of the company by working with companies to improve the skills of their employees and with adults

want their show more

MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine |Member Article

How do you know your website is performing well?

It’s all well having a website, but is it performing well? You should find out.

These days everyone knows that having a website designed with your audience’s needs in mind is crucial. They simply sit back and wait for traffic, sales leads and conversions to pile in. But very often this doesn’t happen.

Why? The reason for this is simple. You can spend lots of money, time and effort building a website that stands out, but it’s likely to all go to waste if you do not take the second, perhaps even more crucial step: monitoring and evaluating its success.

There are myriad ways to alter how well your website performs. These are not always large-scale or structural changes; rather, they are nothing more than simple tweaks and alterations to make sure visitors are enjoying the most optimised experience.

While the changes may be simple, ensuring your website is fully optimised with Mobile and Desktop versions and monitoring its success is not a one-off task. Rather than think of it as a one-time work of art, framed and put on permanent display, think of it as an evolving, living installation which you must constantly update, monitor and adjust to keep it dynamic and thriving.

If you’ve built a website and you’re wondering why it’s not performing or delivering the results you had hoped for, there is every likelihood that you can fix the problem by implementing monitoring tools.

Use Google Analytics: As Google is the predominant search engine through which most visitors will discover your website, using their analytics platform is essential to determine how visitors are finding your webpages and what they’re doing once they get there. There is a huge variety of elements you can measure, but some key metrics you might consider are: how many “engaged visitors” are there, your conversion rate

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and bounce rate (how quickly people bounce off to another page after landing on your site).

Remember that in most cases people are far more likely to discover you via a search engine than a direct hit on your homepage, so figuring out the most common path of discovery for your visitors is essential.

Track keywords: Every business and industry has key search terms that potential website visitors are likely to search before they even know about your products or services. This, again, is an ongoing process. The keywords that were dominating your field six months ago may have changed— this can be influenced by trends, current events, competitors etc—so in order to maximise your website’s success, you need to constantly be monitoring what keywords are the most likely to drive people to it.

Run a crawl test: No website is perfect, and problems like broken links or missing page titles can leave a bad impression on first-time visitors, potentially losing them forever. Use software that runs a “crawl test” on your website—services like Xenu, GSiteCrawler, Custom Crawl, or Crawl Service in the Web App help you do this —to help you assess your website’s accessibility and spot any problems.

Name www.blacknovadesigns.co.uk

Business Lunch Friendly business networking where you can build genuine, authentic relationships over a healthy lunch. www.connect.womensbusiness.club

Member Interview

I am Nadezhda Hardiman and my business name is From Russia with love. I provide ladies with makeup and hairstyling, skin care consultations and eyebrow services.

How long have you been a member of the Women’s Business Club and why did you join?

The first time I joined Women’s Business Club was 4 years ago, I was in my very first year in the UK and I was heavily pregnant. I did not know much about networking and to me it seemed to be a very strange business, but somebody recommended that I go to women’s networking to find new clients.

After my first year at the club I still did not get the idea of it and I decided not to continue my membership, but after a nearly two year break I realised what the Women’s business club is for and what high-quality support, inspiration, knowledge and empowerment I can receive. I have joined the club again but now fully understanding my why.

This time I wanted Women’s Business Club to help me with personal and business growth. Now the monthly Business Lunches have become my treat.

I enjoy going to lunches to see my group members.

I get the feeling like they are my siblings now.

How does your local club help you as well as your business as well as your connection to the national network?

With every talk I come away with something to change in my business to make it better. I am very thankful for the ‘Wonderbra’ sessions. They helped me with increasing likes on my pages, customers reviews, etc. I love the Maximise Women’s Business

Magazine which contains articles about business questions and inspirational stories from ladies. It’s all helpful if you apply it to your business.

What have you gained thus far from the Women’s Business Club and what do you still hope to achieve?

I gained the confidence to talk about my business.

I learned from the experience of others. I have got directions of monthly growth. I see how I can collaborate with other businesses and create new events and new services. I have found the most amazing venue for my events through the club and I’ve met the most wonderful clients too. I am still expecting more of my personal growth, I still have a lot to learn about business skill I need to develop.

What would you say to others who are considering joining the Women’s Business Club but are not sure what to expect?

If you are looking for a change in your business through the club, you need to open your heart to people and your mind for new ideas. No one wants to be a target for someone’s goals. Treat yourself with quality time at a business community, learn from others, collaborate, be open minded, build simple human friendship and you will see how Women’s Business Club will work for you.

Nadezhda Hardiman www.nadezhda.co.uk

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MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine |Main Feature | Maximise 2017

sessions with the speakers which included private Q&A sessions and an Author Hub with 8 published authors sharing their stories, knowledge and expertise.

Business women from across the country came together to connect, support and inspire each other at the Maximise Women’s Business Conference and Awards in Cheltenham this past December.

The conference aims to not just celebrate women in business but bring them together to he make connections, learn from each other, share experiences, recognise each other’s success - and have fun.

Maximise Conference, sponsored by Simply Business, was set up by the Women’s Business Club in 2013 making this event the fifth annual conference and awards.

Astounding positive feedback suggests that we have achieved our goal, and have ended the year with a bang and with a rejuvenating push into the new year!

We saw 200 women coming through the doors to listen to in depth talks from business experts, network and enjoy a top quality fashion show, Dragoness’ Den and Awards ceremony and most of all celebrating members of the Women’s Business Club.

Angela De Souza, founder Women’s Business Club, said:

Some highlights of the day included speed networking with Truly Tailored Recruitment, VIP

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“Our members say that they love the unique mix of support from like minded ladies and serious business advice they get from being part of Women’s Business Club.

“Our 5th Maximise Conference & Awards in

The Dragoness’ Den Cheltenham, was such a wonderful day and it was great to welcome so many business leaders to the Cotswolds.”

Talks by business experts included

The ‘Dragoness Den’ saw female entrepreneurs offering up an innovative range of business ideas, with Lynda Taverner being chosen by the judges for her family mentoring company Raindancers.

• International speaker, author and philanthropist, Jillian Haslam on what sets women in business apart.

This years panel of Dragoness’ included Abi Howel, Director of Truly Tailored Recruitment, Charlotte Poole-Graham from St James Place, Sallyann Rolfe from House of Robinson and Jonathan Pfahl from Rockstar Hubs.

• Women’s Business Club Founder, Angela De Souza offering proven sales techniques to save time and maximise profit.

Maximise Fashion – Cheltenham’s Ultimate Style Guide Live!

• PR guru Andrea Sexton giving five ways to promote your business for free.

• International Business Clarity Coach, Jen Hall on how to go from being ‘fluffy and bland to a whitehot-kick-ass expert’.

• Business Coach Robin Waite on how to be fearless with your business.

• Author, Sheryl Andrews on the power of writing and becoming a published author.

The fashion show was a huge highlight this year, organised and presented by the wonderful Holly Thomas and Lola Royle of Pops & Lo, a fashion creative styling company.

We saw outfits styled for the everyday business woman, turned into evening outfits for after office hours with brands such as Phase Eight, Hobbs London, Karen Millen, Jigsaw, NoLoGo Chic, L.K.Bennet, Hicks & Hides and Osprey London.

To find out more and to book your ticket for Maximise 2018, go to: www.maximise.live

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MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine |Main Feature | Maximise 2017

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Photography by Lis McDermott - Headshot Diva www.headshotdiva.co.uk

Absentees

Excellence in Business: Zaina Zahid Leader of the Year: Sue Walsh Venue of the Year: Jurys Inn Cheltenham Man of the Year: Justin Slade

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MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine |Main Feature | Maximise 2017

The Dragoness’ Den Winner 2017 Lynda Taverner - Raindancers At Rain Dancers we delight in seeing children and families living to their full potential. To support, encourage, equip, strengthen and empower children and importantly their families too.

We address the gap in Mental Health resources, bringing hope and a positive future. Offering a therapeutic and advisory service, we highlight and celebrate talents, encourage and nurture self worth, build resilience and remove barriers to learning. Helping them to understand that they are loved and full of purpose.

We work with compassion and understanding along side laughter and fun. Individually tailoring

our expertise to bring out the very best in the children and families we see.

THE PARENTING PERSPECTIVE COURSE Laying the Right Foundation for Positive Parenting Having spent a considerable amount of time looking at other parenting courses I’ve come to realise that they are missing a foundational, fundamental first stage process. That gap being our need to address the manner in which we as adult’s parent before teaching and correcting the children we care for. www.raindancers.co.uk

Winner’s Prize Package 2017 • One years’ mentoring worth £1,500 from Angela De Souza • One years’ business accounting worth up to £1,000 from Eden Chartered Accountants • Silver membership worth £350 from Women’s Business Club • Breakthrough Session worth £350 from Robin Waite • 1-year online silver membership worth £300 from Client Creation Academy

NEXT YEAR...

Does your business have what it takes? Submit your idea to the Maximise Dragoness’ Den 2018! Entries cost £50, BOOK YOUR PLACE at www.maximise.live/register Page 30

#MAXIMISECONFERENCE “The build-up to the conference began long before December 6th. Things started to come together when I booked my delegate ticket and trade stand. Little did I know then what would come from Maximise 2017. A few weeks prior to the event I had been nominated for an award and had also decided to enter The Dragonesses Den!! At the beginning of December I found out, to my amazement, that I had reached the final, so Maximise was holding an awful lot of opportunity and possibilities.

Throughout the day, I was able to share with many interested delegates my passion for Raindancers Child and Family Mentoring. Encouraging conversations and good contacts made. I would have come away happy if it had stopped there, however, things took an exciting turn. I won Best New Business and was blown away by also winning The Dragonesses Den. Their encouragement and enthusiasm for what I’m looking to achieve have been amazing and my prize for both will, without doubt, catapult me in the right direction for fulfilling my dream.“ “Maximise was full of buzz and potential for every delegate that attended.”

Lynda Taverner

Raindancers Child and Family Mentoring

“Maximise is a great annual conference to be part of because of the quality of speakers, celebration of women in business and their inspirational stories and the networking opportunities with other businesses across the South West under 1 roof!”

Lucy Sherry

TThomson & Bancks Solicitors

“I was really pleased with my stand size and location. I made some good contacts.”

Isobel Turner-Cross RosaMae

“It was fantastic and I gained lots of contacts from it. I will definitely be doing this again next year.”

Henny Maltby

Pink Elephant Media

Proudly Sponsored By www.simplybusiness.co.uk Page 31

MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine | Main Feature | Author Hub

AUTHOR HUB Angela De Souza The Ultimate Business Book Angela De Souza

The Ultimate Business Book is based on The Ultimate Business Course which is a 15-module course for anyone wanting to have an in-depth overview of the knowledge and skills required to starting and running a business. At the end of the course, you will have your own detailed business plan, marketing plan, sales strategy, brand and identity, social media plan and financial plan.

This is not just a book but a toolkit for any business owner that can be referred back to over and over again during their business journey.

Free downloads, templates and extras included.

COMING 2018 - PRE ORDER TODAY

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Stop Running to the Well Angela De Souza

Stop Running to the Well Proven Sales Techniques to Save Time and Maximise Profit

Build Your Business Pipeline and stop running to the well!

Proven Sales Techniques to Save Time and Maximise Profit Buy the book or attend the Bootcamp and get strategic support in building your business pipeline.

You will achieve: – Faster business growth* – Quicker increased revenue* – More predictable cash flow – Clearer job descriptions – Standardised systems – Working hours of your choice

Angela De Souza

* In some cases there may be an initial dip in growth and cash flow as you take time out to build your pipeline but you will quickly catch up and overtake your competitors once it’s built.

COMING 2018 - PRE ORDER TODAY

I Did it in My Pyjamas

Being You

There is no recipe for business success.

The most powerful thing that you have to offer the world is the authentic you. You are indisputably original. Understanding your value will unlock your potential and take you to places that you never dreamed possible.

Angela De Souza

Angela De Souza says there are few rules when it comes to setting up and growing a successful business, and even some of those can be broken if they stifle your creativity or approach to working.

Angela has written a book that is quite unlike other books about starting and growing a business – though packed with tips and advice it is not so much of a ‘how to do it’ book but rather a ‘how I did it’.

Angela De Souza

Being You shows you how to begin your journey of self-discovery and capitalise on your own exclusive, unique brand – the authentic you! Get ready to turn your life around and live life, simply by being you!

www.angeladesouza.com Page 33

Member Interview How does your local club help you and your business as well as your connection to the national network?

Running your own business can be lonely at time, the Women’s Business Club not only fills that gap, it offers real information and business advice, not only from the great speakers every month, but also from fellow members. The Mastermind sessions have forced me to look into areas of my business I avoided – and it is growing stronger by the day because of it.

What have you gained thus far from the Women’s Business Club and what do you still hope to achieve?

M&M Promotions work closely with our clients to understand their business, their customers and the marketing strategy. With that information we are able proactively suggest and help to plan a promotional merchandise campaign that is individually tailored to your business. We started out selling mugs pens and rulers, and we still sell a lot of those items, but we were getting so many enquiries asking for products ‘next week’ we realised that companies were planning their marketing budgets and forgetting about the merchandise. With some careful planning it is easy to incorporate your merchandise needs into your marketing plan.

How long have you been a member of the Women’s Business Club and why did you join?

I joined last May, I had purposefully avoiding networking events up until then as I couldn’t see how they could help my business, I honestly thought my time would be better spent trying to generate leads and customers from my desk.

However I happened to speak to Angela for some advice after a particularly bad business experience, and she suggested I go to a Mastermind session, I had no idea how much support I could get from regular networking.

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I have been on a very sharp learning curve so far with the Women’s Business Club, I am now looking forward to giving a little back.

What would you say to others who are considering joining the Mastermind Boardroom but are not sure what to expect?

If you are ready to move your business to the next level, the Mastermind Boardroom is absolutely worth it’s weight in gold - It’s like having your own board of directors. I have dissected my business– written a marketing plan, and am about to rewrite my business plan. You not only agree to complete a KPI each month, but also look at the reasons why this is the right KPI for your business. The female mastermind colleagues are brutally honest, they will not hesitate to tell you if your monthly goals are unachievable, which is really important setting realistic goals will grow your business more quickly and make it stronger, simply because you will achieve them each month, and just in case you forget you will be reminded of them halfway through the month. I have to confess the month homework was to bring along a cash flow I was up until 2am the night before writing it, but I don’t know how I ran my business without it.

Chani Martin www.mmprintingpromotions.co.uk

Mastermind Boardroom Intimate peer to peer meetings where we get down to the nitty gritty of your business over breakfast. www.mastermind.womensbusiness.club

MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine | Mums In Business

MUMS IN BUSINESS Taking the Leap into Business as a Single Mum Abi Howell is a passionate, single mother of a teenage boy, as well as the director of thriving recruitment company, Truly Tailored Recruitment.

I first met Abi at a Mastermind Boardroom meeting with the Women’s Business Club. At that time she was doing really well as a director of a recruitment company. She was driven, focussed and very professional. I could tell straight away that she was the boss of a few people! As I got to know her more through these monthly meetings, I learned that she had a son, and as I got to know her even more, I started to see a whole new side to Abi. Abi, the mother.

At first, my impression of Abi was that she was a fierce business woman (in a good way!) But when I got to know Abi the mother, there was something even fiercer there. She is passionate about her boy, and would do completely anything for him. I just love to hear her talking about him and their journeys and adventures together. I have been inspired by what an incredible mother she is, and just how much she would give to provide and create a life for her son.

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Abi has since left her original role in the recruitment company, and started up a new company together with a trusted friend and colleague. And I love watching the business grow from strength to strength under her leadership.

So here is a tiny glimpse into the life of Abi Howell, Director of her own recruitment company and a passionate mother to her teenage son!

What was your reason for starting up your own business?

There isn’t a singular reason but more multiple reasons that brought me to the point to know that it was the right thing for me to do. One of my main reasons is my son; I am a single mum and wanted to make sure that I was being the very best role model to him that I could be. I wanted to make sure that I was providing for him in all of the ways he needed, financially and more importantly with time that he needs for his mum to be there, which is not always easy when you are employed and need to work strict contracted hours. I do feel that there are not enough companies out there that will offer working Mums the opportunity to use their

amazing skill sets that they have developed over many years if they feel they need to have part time or flexible working hours.

How do you juggle being a mum while running a business?

This is not always easy and sometimes I wonder myself how?! It takes a huge amount of organisation and managing and lots of preparation! Work know my home commitments but when I am in work I am totally committed to work and I try my very best not to let it interfere. It is the same with my home life I try my very best not to let my work interrupt.

However, both sides of my world are amazing and understand that sometimes it is not as simple as that and unfortunately to enable me to be a success at both of my “jobs” sometimes they do encroach on the others time and there really isn’t anything I can do about it.

What does a typical day look like in your family?

Up at 6:30am and the chaos ensues! Sorting out a 13 year old boy and a puppy and myself with the aim of getting out of the door by 7:30am as my son catches his bus to school. I then head on to work to open up the office and have a good 45 minutes alone to prepare my day before the rest of the team start at 8:30am. I then work in and on my business until about 4:20pm when my son arrives at the office for his lift home. It is this time every day that my 2 worlds do collide momentarily and the team at work make a huge effort with my son and he always asks about what is happening in the business! Then we head home for homework, dog walking, cooking & eating dinner, washing, drying and ironing of laundry, sorting out the house and keeping on top of chores, down time for an hour together usually cwtched up on the sofa watching some TV! Then bed ready to begin again tomorrow!

What advice would you give to any mum wanting to start their own business?

Be organised and make sure you have “work” time and “home” time as it is too easy to “work” all of the time. Being organised for me is the key to this and when you are in work make sure you work and then at home enjoy your home time.

What advice do you seek being a mum in business already?

I suppose mine is now less advice it is more about kindred voices as sometimes it does all become too much and can be overwhelming and it is good to be reminded you are not the only one trying to make 2 successful “jobs” run concurrently. It is great to hear from others that they have the same issues as you and although there sometimes (very often!) there is no fix to this it is not the end of the world! The business won’t close overnight if you need a home day and vice versa!

How has the Women’s Business Club been there for you in your business journey?

I have plenty of kindred voices I can hear and seek advice from if I need it. The biggest thing for me though is as a working Mum I very rarely take a break so the Connect lunch is the one guaranteed time in a month I take a break, connect with other working Mums and actually eat a great lunch!!

Interview written by Lorah-Kelly Beard for www.motherduck.uk Abi Howell - www.trulytailoredrecruitment.co.uk

A hub for mothers looking for inspiration, ideas, support and encouragement.

Facebook.com/motherduckuk Instagram.com/lorahkelly motherduck.uk

MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine | Main Feature | Fashion

MAXIMISE FASHION NoLoGo-Chic

“Because It’s Summer Somewhere”

“I have journeyed far and wide in my career as a designer, from Italy to India, Paris to the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong and beyond. I have been honoured to design alongside inspiring crafts people, working tirelessly to continue traditions such as block printing, hand embroidery, batik, dip dye and tie dye techniques and weavers who create magic at their looms. Many garments have the crafts person’s heart and soul worked into it.

These pieces have a story to tell.

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I was named by the high street guru, George Davies, as the most prolific designer on the High Street. A career spanning many years I have designed collections for many stores, Next, Monsoon, Laura Ashley, Anokhi, Daniel Hechter in Paris, Per Una and more. I have won numerous awards for design, including the Christian Lacroix Award for International Linen Design, and I worked as an adviser to the EU in Brussels to promote good design for Indian manufacturers.

With this wealth of experience, I bring to you NoLoGo-chic. An online store delivering to you beautiful clothing, each carefully designed and sourced, with its own unique detailing, in gorgeous natural fabrics which you will grow to love more and more. And, because it’s summer somewhere in the world, there is a range of holiday clothing available all year round.

NoLoGo-chic clothes are cut to fit real women.

The detailing goes beyond fashion. Manufactured at sources I have known and enjoyed working alongside for years.

Alongside our best selling Easy Jersey Dress, the collection is continuously developing, new styles are being added frequently. Very soon our hand block printed nightwear in gentle colours of milky white, powder blue and sleepy pink will be launched. Every garment wrapped in its own embroidered cloth bag.

Please take look. I hope you will feel inspired to purchase our items, each with an essence of ethical luxury. Clothing and accessories which will become favourites. To keep. To treasure. To love.“ Tina Malhamé | www.nologo-chic.co.uk

COMPETITION WIN two £100 gift vouchers to spend with NoLoGo-Chic!

Enter at www.womensbusiness.club/nologo Page 39

MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine | Main Feature | Fashion

Our Top Picks!

Floris Flower Tunic Dress - £99.00 A little Woodstock, a little Gauguin, a lot of flowers. A wonderful print in a wonderful best selling shape. As ever, the fabric is beautiful mid weight linen with our special soft wash handle.

The sleeves have a deep double cuff and the hem has a double border. A narrow row of seashell real pearl buttons open from a neat V-neck. Loose fit.

This tunic dress comes in so many different colours and designs, there is guaranteed to be one perfect for you!

3/4 Sleeve Easy Jersey Dress - £45.00 The most PERFECT JERSEY DRESS EVER. The clever design is not tight-fitting, rather it is neat and eases beautifully around the body.

Complete elegance in one dress. Made from soft Viscose jersey with a touch of stretch, is washable and packable. Available in Summer Navy and our pretty Water Flower Print. No zips, no buttons. This easy jersey dress is cut to fit to suit most figure shapes.

As seen worn by Angela at the Maximise Conference & Awards 2017! She can testify that it is indeed one of the most comfortable and flattering dresses she has ever worn.

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Havana 3/4 Sleeve Top - £64.99 A perfect linen tunic top. Made in a beautiful mid weight linen with a soft wash handle.

Soft White Lined Swish Skirt - £19.00 Lovely and very flattering, our 100% cotton poplin skirt is pretty perfect. It is fully lined in cotton poplin. The poplin fabric is treated with a special laundered finish to create the softness.

Pink with Cream Dot Shawl - £20.00 Perfect for travel. Made from the softest mixture of fine wool and silk.

This feather weight shawl is a pretty statement piece.

Pale Pink PJ’s - £25.00 Precious nightwear, hand block printed by master craftsmen. All wrapped up in our pretty cloth bag. The pyjama bottoms have a soft elastic back and drawstring at the front waist with 2 deep pockets. Made from the softest cotton cambric.

MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine | Main Feature | Health & Wellbeing

Why business owners are bordering on insanity; New Year resolutions, FLOW and the art of goal setting.

They say that doing the doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different outcome is the first sign of madness. Yet making, and failing, at New Year’s resolutions has been going for some 4,000 years since the ancient Babylonians.

In the Babylonians case, they were bargaining with their Gods that they would pay off their debts and return all borrowed items in return for a favourable year ahead. Early Christianity and some Evangelical denominations now still practice setting resolutions for the year ahead based on the previous year’s sins.

These days, we tend to make promises to ourselves rather than the Gods, promises that

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involve improvements to both our business and our personal lives. The practice has become part of our self-improvement culture. The biggest puzzle is that while most of us do it, we are all equally aware that the statistics of success are truly appalling. 8% is often quoted as the figure of those who stick to their new found resolves. So why does it have such low success rate?

The first reason is that many of our resolutions are not authentically ours. From childhood, we absorb other people’s ideas and philosophies of how we should be and how we should behave. We then spend most of our lives striving (and inevitably failing) to match this imaginary person. If you cast

“We are often obsessed with financial and material success... but material and financial success by themselves do not bring happiness.”

your mind back to childhood, what did you dream of doing? Be it a dancer, a doctor, a traveller, only a few of us end up following that dream.

In Western cultures, we are often obsessed with financial and material success, so we are usually striving to grow our businesses or careers because that is the “done” thing. But material and financial success by themselves do not bring happiness.

We don’t stop and check to ask ourselves the big question as to why we think we want this. If we did, we would more often find these are not our resolutions.

From what we have absorbed, we put down New Year’s resolutions that stem from other people – that we must get a bigger business, career promotion, cut down the hours of the job we love. Because they are other people’s ideas, your own emotions won’t be engaged. This is could be why you have failed when someone has told you

to lose weight or give up smoking because it is a good idea. If on the other hand you have had a life threatening scare, your emotions will be awake and raring into self-preservation mode, really wanting to make that change.

Even in business, we sometimes forget to apply SMART goal systems and we hardly ever use them in New Year’s resolutions. SMART is an acronym for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results focussed and Time related. In setting ourselves a goal of growing our business by getting ten new clients, we too often forget to specify details of those clients – like their size or profitability. We pull figures from the sky full of wishful thinking, somehow believing that ten new clients will simply drop into our laps because we wish it so, rather than work out if that is realistic or how we are going to connect with these people. We forget to give this wish a time scale – ten new clients by 2nd January or 30th June.

In the same way, we will vow to improve our work

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MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine | Main Feature | Health & Wellbeing

life balance without mapping out the “how”, or the “when” of achieving this. Lack of clarity in goal setting is one of the biggest de-motivators.

Dis-satisfaction with our selves or with our lives tends to be the root of most resolutions. We think that by going on as normal in 90% of ways but selecting a random group of fairly superficial changes, happiness will magically appear. We then are amazed that having added some more failures to our list of disappointments, our happiness levels have not increased.

Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, a Hungarian psychologist, and pioneer of the science of happiness, identified what he described as an optimal experience. He saw it first in artists and creatives, who became so absorbed in their work they lost any awareness of

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their surroundings. He called it being in FLOW. If you think back, you will be able to identify FLOW moments you have had. It may have been reading a book, learning a new skill or doing the very best bits of your job, but whatever it was, you will have been so fully absorbed not only will you have been oblivious to all that was going on around you, you would also have remained in full control of the activity without being remotely scared of failure.

Yoga and mindfulness at their higher levels have similarities to being in FLOW. Being in FLOW makes us both exceptionally happy and means we can massively heighten our achievement levels.

McKinsey carried out a ten year study of top executives and found that they could achieve literally five times as much in FLOW. Translated,

this means you could achieve the same amount on a Monday in FLOW as you could in an entire week out of it. The science behind this is that when in FLOW the brain produces 5 neurochemicals which between them tighten focus, block pain or other distractions, prompt lateral connection, increase our ability to acquire new skills and knowledge and generally make us feel good.

Certain components are essential to attaining FLOW. One is clarity of goals, another clear ways of measuring progress. The next is the goal having a balance between existing skill and challenge. If you set your goals too high, you will fail too much.

Self-belief is also essential. All of this sounds very similar to SMART goals. When we are in FLOW, we have the sub-conscious ability to shut out all outside interference, so we give the goal absolutely every bit of our attention and our best abilities.

Both being in that state and what we achieve makes us happy, and because we perform so well and we are totally in love with what we are doing, we have no need to overwork or over-stress.

Undoubtedly, we need goals and resolutions because without them there would be no measure of success. We need them in both professional

and personal lives. Success and happiness in both areas are inevitably inter-dependant. If we are unhappy in one, there will be some knock on effect in the other, if only in the shape our physical or mental health.

But for 2018, instead of randomly selecting some superficial New Year’s resolution, try instead two new things. Think back to when you were young and re-connect with your childhood dreams, the real authentic you. And also look back and identify those times in your life you have been in FLOW and what you have been doing at the time. Put the two together and you start finding the life you really truly want, not the one you think you ought to want.

And if the thought of not bothering with New Year’s resolutions is too scary, you can always do New Year all over again in March which is when New Year used to be alongside the planting of new crops. But the best possible way to start any year is to identify and replicate FLOW states in all aspects of your life. Be authentically you, and be happy.

Written by Jan Cavelle www.jancavelle.co.uk

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MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine | Advertiser Article

What sport has taught me about business.

I’d like to tell you a story about a shy and quiet little girl…

At 9 years old I was quiet, shy but a pretty sweet kid (if I say so myself!). I’d had several operations on one of my ears which meant I’d missed school and didn’t have any close friends. I don’t know what drew me to want to ride horses but there was definitely a pull and I was completely fascinated by them. I was very lucky that my Granny took me to a riding school and I have to be honest and say I was completely petrified at first and I made poor Granny learn to ride as well. Most weeks I used to say to her “Nana I don’t think I will ride this week, I just want to brush the ponies” and of course I’d brush them for a bit and then gradually I would feel more like riding and I would enjoy myself.

Through riding I started to find a confidence that I’d never had before. Whilst I was at senior school I was lucky enough to have my own horse and my best day of the week was Wednesday as we finished early and I could go riding. My tutor knew that if she got me talking about horses that she could steer me onto the school subjects she needed me to talk about. If she had asked me her “real” questions straight away she would have had a very different response (in fact probably no response!). During my late teens I became a much more confident person and I followed my love of equines to Bristol University to study Equine Science. Nowadays I love to speak in public and I am certain that my experience with horses and the way they built my confidence have had a profound impact on the way I am now.

Not only did horses help me with my confidence but they also gave me skills that I use daily in business.

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I did quite well at equestrian competitions during my teens and I enjoyed the process of picking out the events I wanted to do and training my horse for them. This was my first taste of goal setting. It’s still a process I really enjoy (that might sound a bit odd!) I learned from a young age that often you set a goal and then something happens to make you have to change it and make a new plan. Now I run my own business I utilise my planning skills every day, and I enjoy that part of my day. As I have 3 small children and run a business it’s amazing how many times plans and goals have to be altered.

One of the other favourite things I learned from riding as a child was “Keep it simple stupid!” (KISS).

When I started riding I read many books and studied the top riders. One of my hero’s then was Ginny Leng (now Ginny Elliot). Her trainer Dot Willis was famous for keeping everything very simple.

Horses can’t cope with too much information and you have to be very clear. I am definitely that way in business and always try to keep things simple. It makes it easier to work and makes the relationship with my clients much easier as well.

There is so much that sport has given me and I’m glad that I can share a few insights of my experiences with you. Now I have my own children I will certainly encourage them to find a sport or activity that they love and to have fun with it. Sport will give them so much more than fitness, it will provide them with skills they will be able to use throughout their whole lives.

Andrea Sexton runs a PR company in the UK. She specialises in sports, B2B, and event PR and Marketing and works with various individuals and companies from all over the world. When not working in her business or playing with her 3 children, Andrea enjoys running, reading and cooking. www.andrea-sexton.com

MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine | Competitions & Games

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New Year Crossword Across

Down

1. A public procession, especially one celebrating a special day or event.

2. A Scottish poem written by Robert Burns in 1788 and sung to the tune of a traditional folk song.

5. A handheld firework that emits sparks.

3. A chart or series of pages showing the days, weeks, and months of a particular year.

7. An assembly or meeting, especially one held for a specific purpose.

8. A white sparkling wine.

9. A firm decision to do or not to do something.

10. Cheerful and jovially celebratory, relating to a festival, especially Christmas.

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4. The transmission of customs or beliefs from generation to generation.

6. Twelve o’clock at night.

8. Small pieces of coloured paper traditionally thrown over a bride and bridegroom by their wedding guests.

- Solutions on Page 54 -

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“A breakthrough session enables you to work with me for 90 minutes on any topic of your choosing. In this time you gain clarity over your goal and develop a next steps plan to help you stay focused.

This works as a standalone session to understand your motivation and commitment to your goal and provide you with some bespoke strategies to maintain the discipline needed to stay focused.

With clarity comes confidence and the ability to achieve anything you dream about.’

Competition ends on 20th March 2018 and can be entered at www.womensbusiness.club/breakthrough Don’t forget to share this competition with a photo of the Maximise Women’s Business Magazine on social media tagging @wombizclub and tell us why you would like to win this amazing experience.

Worth £150 Page 49

MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine | Editor’s Choice

Editor’s Choice Liv Oliv Nailpolish Susan from Liv Oliv very kindly send me some of her nail polishes to review and I absolutely love them!

The most obvious thing to start off with is that her Liv Oliv nail polishes are Cruelty-Free, Non-Toxic and Vegan and have a strong recycling policy.

They recycle everything where possible, re-using packaging from parcels from their deliveries and buying in recycled packaging for things like the tissue paper used in the gift boxes.

I chose a deep red colour called Restore and a top coat. The colour is perfect, just what I was looking for in a red, not too bright but equally not too dull - it’s just right! Applying the polish is easy, the first coat glides on and dries quickly and the second coat just makes it richer and finishes the colour off nicely. My nailcare routine is always rushed so I apply the top coat almost right away which is great as it actually speeds up the drying time and adds that layer of protection that I need as I am very hard on my nails.

Having nicely painted nails always makes me feel more confident and successful as a

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businesswoman but equally, I enjoy the little bit of time that I set aside to paint my nails to remember to take care of and value me.

Liv Oliv is a great brand with a heart as they also support a charity called Angel Wishes, a support group for children in Northern Ireland fighting cancer-related conditions. So buying Liv Oliv nail polish not only pampers you but also makes a difference in the lives of poorly children. www.livoliv.com

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MAXIMISE Women’s Business Magazine | Competitions & Games

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