Blogs

Do you have a picture on your LinkedIn/Twitter profile? And is it actually picture of you and not a cartoon dog? I was trying to track down some old uni friends. Figuring that by now they should be pretty high in whatever career they had gone into I turned to LinkedIn. It is, after all, [...]

The BWN is taking the Farleigh’s Hospice Challenge. AGAIN   The Business women from this great organisation have 3 months to turn £50 into as much money as they can. And just like last time we’ve made a naked calendar. To launch this brave (or stupid you decide – it was snowing on some of [...]

Is there any good news among the doom and gloom? Well, yes there are  few measures to help reduce tax bills: – a new employment allowance from 2014 will give all employers a reduction of £2000 on their NI bill, excellent news for current and new employers! – as previously announced the personal allowance has [...]

We know, you keep hearing about passwords. And you keep mean to make your’s better but you have to much to do….. If you still need convincing then this post I wrote on my own site – The IT Fairy might convince you…. Why passwords need to be secure and why Admin is bad name You [...]

If you were part of The BWN 18 or so months ago you will no doubt remember the calendar.If not, pay attention! Farleigh Hospice issued a £50 challenge, asking businesses take £50 from them and see how much money they could turn it into for the hospice. So what did we do? We stripped and made [...]

A former X-Factor contestant was prevented by her (male) PR adviser from answering the question “Are you a feminisist?” So The Gazette newspaper ran a feature and asked me to write a piece answering the question “What does feminism mean to you and can women really “have it all” with a career and a family?” [...]

Not having worked in a long time, doesn’t mean my mind isn’t constantly thinking of great ways of sharing business techniques for success. Since I’m living in bed, my rather lovely hubby said we needed a new mattress…..ok less of the smutter ladies! The only way to shop when ill is to speed shop, that [...]

Over the years we’ve noticed that January tends to be a bit quiet on the networking front. People are full of New Year optimism and rightly so. It’s a new year, a new start and they don’t need any help. None whatsoever. Not a bean. February comes around and things haven’t taken off too well [...]

This month’s guest blogger is Susan Canning, Maths Tuition I started going to BWN meeting about 3 and a half years ago. My work as a private tutor means I spend long periods alone working on lessons and long periods with teenagers, so I joined mainly for the adult company. A cup of tea and [...]

This is a guest blog by Elene Marsden from CorazonIT  There’s a simple shortcut in Microsoft Word to convert Upper Case text to Title Case (or camel case as someone once described it to me!) highlight the text and select Shift F3. There’s no shortcut in Excel but if you use the formula shown in this [...]

(Or How To Upset Customers And Ensure They Don’t Repeat Buy From You) This week I’ve been at the hands of 2 businesses getting their words very wrong, and because of their words it has directly impacted on my view of their organisations. Think that’s no big deal? Which in hard facts translates that I’m [...]

Our guest blogger is Jenny Eaton who recently spoke to The BWN in Colchester and will be speaking the Chelmsford Business ShowCase on 14 Nov 2012 (we recommended Jenny to the organisers)   The artist Henri Matisse once said that ‘there are always flowers for those who wish to see them.’ I love this quote, [...]

It’s a serious questions every business woman reading this should be prepared to ask themselves. Because if your business is not making sacks of cash, it’s not a business it’s a hobby, and let’s be honest most hobbies are rather expensive. And businesses are supposed to generate money not consume it! So if you feel [...]

The IT Fairy just told us that people don’t always own the domain name they think they own! Which means that their websites could just disappear. Pretty scary!  But, as we dusted ourselves down, she said it’s really easy to find out if you do own your domain name and generally not too tricky to [...]

The Why? Julie Sawyer, Marketing Manager & Voice raiser for Essex based Farleigh Hospice cornered BWN Founder Mandie Holgate at a BWN networking event and said the following…..”here’s £50 can you come up with an inventive way to a) raise some much needed funds for our charity, b) spread the word about the hospice and [...]

I’ve got a question for you;  (it’s business related in the weirdness way….honest!)   Ask yourself this did anyone ever say to you “Hey don’t lay with your head that end of the bath, you’ll have taps in your ears”? Now at first thought you’re going to say this business coach has lost her marbles, [...]

This is a guest blog by Elene Marsden from CorazonIT  If you’ve created YouTube videos, take the extra step to add free overlay ads to your videos so that your viewers can link straight back to your website. Its free to set up but you do need to create a Google AdWords account first. Watch this [...]

Those of you that know me life know that has been sending a fairly substantial wicker basket of lemons my way and it’s really got me thinking.  Have you heard the saying about “When life throws you lemons make lemonade?” Is that really the best approach? When that happens in business, should you be reaching [...]

This is a guest blog by Elene Marsden from CorazonIT  The easiest way to grow your contact list is to add a web form to your website, blog or  Facebook Business Page. It works best if you can offer an incentive to your readers in return for their name and email. On my websites I [...]

Hi world of wonderful BWN business women, Thanks to everyone that has kept in touch to send your best wishes and get well messages. To save poor Clare’s ears at Essex & Suffolk BWN events I just thought I would say a quick hello and give you an update. Well if progress is what we [...]

From 7th January 2013, child benefit will be subject to a tax charge, where one member of the family earns over £50k. The charge will increase by 1% of the amount of benefit for every £100 earned over £50k so that by the time you reach £60k, the charge will be equal to the benefit [...]

Have you thought about using your smartphone to help you with your record keeping? If so, you may be interested in the new Record Keeping Apps. There is a list of these on HMRC’s website, although they are not endorsing them in any way. It might be useful for those of you who are always [...]

There are often news stories about the internet and privacy. Clare Lauwerys aka The  IT Fairy built up a pretty full profile of a stranger just from a phone message and using Google. Find out how she Knows who he works for What his hobby is And his “romantic” intentions All this and more  - [...]

Bridget Greenwood, our Norfolk co-ordinator, shares this from her own blog Karren Brady shares the 6 key ingredients she believes makes a Leader, what qualities would you add to the list and why? Leadership – A real leader faces the music even when they don’t like the tune, how do you behave when you don’t know [...]

Have you played Angry Birds? Do you realise what a great lesson it teaches you about business? (Are you now beginning to think I’ve lost the plot?!) Angry Birds, for those of you who haven’t come across it, is a game where you fire birds with different powers out of a catapult at green pig creatures that [...]

Bridget Greenwood, our Norfolk co-ordinator, shares this from her own blog Richard Denny shares his top ten tips and when a man who has won praise from the BBC  claiming”Richard is a legend on the international speaking circuit”, the Daily Telegraph describing him as “The UK’s guru of motivation” whilst the Times says he is [...]

If so, you may be trading, and you may need to contact HMRC to disclose any undeclared trading income from previous years. HMRC are not interested if you are clearing out your loft and getting rid of things you don’t want any more, but it is targetted at companies and individuals who regularly acquire items [...]

Worried about how much tax you need to pay? If you would like a quick and rough response, you can log onto HMRC’s website and click on the Calculators and Tools tab. In there is a self employed ready reckoner which will allow you to enter your expected net income (ie sales less expenses) to [...]

Are you one of the group of sceptics who thinks that social media is a waste of time and that it has no place in business? If so, you are going to get left behind. Using social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook can help you find new customers in a low cost way and new [...]

The other night, as I was taking my medicine, I reflected on how easy it was to do compare to when I first started. The medicine in question is an immunosuppressant drug called Cyclosporin. I had a lung transplant back in 2008 (rare lung disease called Lymphangioleiomyomatosis as you’re asking – see LAM Action for [...]

  Like likes like. This is the core of sales: people buy from people who they like, who they feel understand them and their needs. Previously this used to be about making a good impression when you knocked on someone’s door, or served them in your shop. A little later having a great phone manner [...]

It’s a funny question but it’s one that needs asking “When did I turn into a Radio 4 gal from a Radio 1 girl?” It may not seem that relevant a question to ask a website laden with business women traffic, but bear with me here. Seriously since I can remember I’ve been listening to [...]

As I’m running The Business Womans Network while founder Mandie Holgate takes a sabbatical for her health, I found myself saying to someone “I’m being Mandie” On the way home that day I asked myself what did that mean and realised it had some important lessons for anyone in business. Here’s what I learned. I [...]

 If going into a networking event seems scary look for someone on their own and ask if it’s their first time at the event. If it is you can give each other moral support, if not they will probably introduce you to other people  Don’t go to sell sell sell! Be genuinely interested in other [...]

It’s almost the end of the tax year and some of you may be wondering how to deal with those receipts that come in around this time of year and how to account for them. In accounting terms this problem is known as ‘cut-off’ and literally means to look at your receipts and make a [...]

Meg Reid, co-ordinator for Suffolk and highly experienced coach, looks at what’s urgent and what’s important and why you need to know the difference!   I was listening to the radio when a sentence leapt out at me.  “The important gives way to the urgent” It’s so true. My coaching clients tell me that they feel they [...]

Speaking to strangers should really be simpler shouldn’t it? Yet when we see someone that we really want to say ‘hello’ to, inspiration nearly always fails us, and we end up reverting back to terrible conversational habits. Let me give you an example. Imagine a time that you really wanted to speak to a stranger: [...]

Lorraine Dale from Rightway Accounting Services has supplied us with this brief guide to the 2012 Budget    I am sure budgets are getting more boring! There never seems to be anything truly revolutionary, and this budget is another case in point. Welcome news is the increase in personal allowances which will benefit everyone and take a [...]

Here are some things you might not know about The Business Womans Network The BWN had its first meeting in  March 2009 in a small cafe on Mersea Island.  It was born out of founder Mandie Holgate’s frustration that there was no local support just for women in business.  Our first speaker was Lynette Allen,  an [...]

Last time I spoke about how to write a great blog and if its a great blog what it would be doing. If you missed it you can read that here. Now what do you do to ensure that people actually find it? Firstly ideally it will be on your website for a variety of [...]

I just wanted to thank you all for the mountains of emails and messages I received after my announcement last week. Your kind words were a very powerful tonic – Thank you. Here’s just a few of your lovely words, It’s wonderful to hear that working with The BWN and me has been so beneficial [...]

Okay you finally wrote a blog, you finally appreciate that the world and his wife is writing blogs not just because they have a passion for writing as I do) but because it actually is a little god send of a free marketing tool for your business, but now what? The fact is the world [...]

I have a great opportunity to represent Mandie and BWN at a breakfast meeting tomorrow (Friday) with the representative for the Bank of England. If any of you business women would like to share views for me to forward to bank of england. Please email me on tina@thebusinesswomansnetwork.co.uk

In just 14 days, Elene Marsden owner of betterACTnow had gained the support of over 150 businesses and won the prestigious Best Loved Business in Ipswich Award. How did she achieve this success? Elene sells ACT software and trains businesses to keep in touch with their client base so she knew she had the systems [...]

At any networking event I could guarantee to get every woman’s hand in the air, if I asked the question “Whose busy and never seems to have enough time?” You see as business owners, there is always a glut of jobs that could be done. The key is to prioritise what is most important, outsource [...]

This was a question I posed at The Colchester BWN yesterday in a 5 minute promo slot (incidentally I didn’t talk about my business at all and gained 2 new clients yesterday - there’s a powerful message in there about how to do a promo slot right?) A good thing or a bad you ask, right? [...]

Many businesses ask what are the most important things they need to know about Intellectual Property so here goes:- 1.      If you have an idea or invention DO NOT TELL ANYONE. To be protectable by patent a new invention must be novel and inventive.  As soon as you tell someone you have destroyed the novelty [...]

Hi Guys, So yesterday a client says to me thats its hard work sending out individual emails to everyone and what results do they get anyway? Thus I mentioned Mailchimp – its free, I can keep in touch with clients/potential clients/ and business women looking to grow their business effectively, knowing who reads it, how [...]

Lorraine Dale from Rightway Accounting took yesterdays promo slot at the Chelmsford BWN event to share some top tips for this critical time of year for business (Ok so all year is critical – but this is the time of year accountants live off of coffee and get panic calls from last minute worried business [...]

As Essex Coordinator I often get told “There are so many networks to chose from, how do I know yours is any good?” And its a fair point. There is a ton of choice out there – which is great for the consumer…..and the network. You see we never placed ourselves as a rival, on [...]

Is a question I got asked today from someone new to Twitter who was yet to get to grips with how wonderful social media and social networking is for business, but then its a question I get asked a lot. But really why bother with Hootsuite (or Tweetdeck - the choice is yours, and personally I love [...]

New Year – New Life? It must be the New Year! Suddenly, stories are everywhere of women making big transitions in their lives. I open Good Housekeeping, and there’s a piece on four women who successfully made it through their own personal transitions. One of them won a national triathlon just after she turned 50. [...]

Bridget Greenwood is not just our fabulous Norwich BWN coorindator, she is also a Go To Girl and with years of experiences in the financial industry as an IFA has created a tailor made course for IFA’s to benefit from social media, here Bridget explains why IFA’s need something extra special…. “As of 2012, we [...]

The Business woman that neglects her body neglects her business. No it wasn’t Confucius that said that but Brenda Seaborn. Brenda Seaborn from Banish Stress has worked for corporate clients such as • ACE • Magnox • BBC Essex • Colchester Borough Council • Colchester Hospital University Foundation Trust, working throughout North East Essex and Suffolk [...]

Elene Marsden comes to our Suffolk events. Elene cornered us at the end of the event this week to tell us what The BWN was doing for her business success. And we just love to hear that it’s not just business ideas, support, motivation and empowerment….. I just love attending the Business Women’s Networking sessions. [...]

Stuart Goudge from The Light Bulb got in touch, because they want to spread the news about how beneficial a apprentice can be to your business growth and success. To prove a point they sent us a testimonial from an Essex based business on the benefits. Not only good for your bottom line, but good [...]

  Thanks for sharing with us what BWN networking does for you and your business – we look forward to doing a ton more to help you and your business success in 2012. By The Way – Other included – motivating you, inspiring, supporting you, being there when you felt isolated and like no one [...]

  If you missed our most recent newsletter then you missed Jill Poet from Organisation for Responsible Business Owners talking about how to stand out from the crowd and care for your community, the environment and it all be good for your business (that includes your bottom line.) Thanks for sharing Jill….. Will you stand [...]

There seems to be this new breed of people – the procrastinators (sounds like something out of Star Trek doesn’t it?) A lot of business women describe themselves as procrastinators and search for ideas and ways to deal with what they procrastinate about because of the impact it can have on their business success. If you find yourself exploring [...]

Every month we will introduce you to business women you can expect to meet at the BWN. If you would like to be highlighted so that at the next networking event, people have a ton of questions, ideas, synergies and opportunities for you, get in touch.   “Hi My name is Sue Cook I work with [...]

If you run your owns business you’re bound to have had days where you think – Why AM I Doing This? It can be lonely. Demoralising. Hard work with little satisfaction. Demotivating. Exhausting. Soul destroying. Disappointing. The list is pretty long!But don’t forget it can also be a rewarding and a fantastic one. So how [...]

Some very lucky BWN business women had a great day out and a great opportunity to promote their business for free in Essex Life - that covers the whole of Essex. Here Lauren Godfrey and Holly Eells from Essex Life tell us more…  Ladies from The Business Womans Network (BWN) took time out of their busy schedules to [...]

Jo Hockey shares with us why its good for your business to get to know your local charities; “I will start with a little story that really quite shocked me when I attended my first network meeting as a charity employee. Having run my own business and also after spending many years working for large [...]

….Asked a fabulous business woman this morning on Twitter, and since I’m stuck in bed having used up too many spoons (ask @ClareLauwerys about that – its to do with your health and ME) after a great night of partying Friday night as we were finalists in the Colchester Business Awards (no shiny awards but [...]

As the title asked, seriously are you in love with your website? Unfortunately the question is not if you are in love with your website but are your customers? And more importantly, your potential customers. Many of you already know that it takes about 3 seconds to work out if the website you are on [...]

In life you know how you get so used to something and then you cast your mind back and you can’t remember when that first came into your life? Well that’s what it’s like for me with my best friend. If you knew me, you would know that my best friends in life tend to [...]

In various meetings, seminars and sessions with clients this week. A word has cropped up time and time again….. Transparency. But what is the big deal? Why are we all using this word? I found myself thinking about this, and I think this has something to do with it. We have been through a time [...]

Business Premier Pack Owner Samantha Fricker from frameworks shares with us what they really do….   I attended a fantastic event hosted by the Business Womans Network on Monday and after listening to Mark Rhodes (a truly inspirational speaker) got chatting to a number of people about the qualities that make businesses exceptional.    One lady commented [...]

If we had a £1 for every time we had heard the above statement, we would be very rich little bunnies. However we don’t so we make sure our marketing brings in the customers. (and a nice little finalist in the Colchester Business Awards for Excellence in Marketing for the second year in a row!) You see an [...]

Small Business Saturday Small businesses are the heartbeat of the UK economy, providing jobs and preserving communities.  The 4.5 million men and women micro business owners (less than 10 employees) represent 75% of all business activities. Yet for all their massive contribution to the UK’s wellbeing, these real-life heroes of the marketplace – men and [...]

Mandie Holgate shares a thought. If you have the premier pack you are welcome to blog for us anytime. To the man on the phone that just insulted business women that run “Life Style businesses” and “Hobby Businesses” I post this: Whether you work from your kitchen, your coffee table or grand offices – be proud. [...]

Here are some examples of what the BWN does everyday for business women like you; Business woman A worked for a large organisation and was great at her job, but now she needed to be good at marketing and networking too. Despite attending many events she was not getting the results she wanted. Thanks to [...]

Mandie Holgate shares the unexpected positive effects of being Blackberryless. Okay so if you own an i product you are smirking and laughing at folks like me right about now.  Ironically Blackberry fails when I have 3 days out of the office including 1 in London. It would ideally be a great time to have [...]

Yesterday because our children had deserted us for a day of kites flying and eating E-numbers with grandparents my husband suggested a leisurely stroll around the shops. As we walked through a rather glittery department store (don’t you just love those? I feel they are like toy shops for women!) We walked through the cosmetic department. [...]

There are some true greats in our world today. And today we lost one. We read this and had to share it with you. Steve Jobs was co-founder and former CEO of Apple, and today died far too young at the age of 56 after a long and highly public battle with cancer. He truly inspired a [...]

If I had a £1 for every time I had heard the above statement, I would be a very rich little bunny. However I don’t so I make sure my marketing brings in the customers. You see an effective marketing strategy WILL deliver leads, and if you are getting quality leads then guess what that [...]

Okay so I’m no copywriter (although I did once gain a client out of a copywriter who noticed grammatical errors on my website and emailed me!)  But I do know, writing great blogs and fabulous web content is pretty pointless unless you are directing people to it. Recently I was running a BWN workshop on Blogging [...]

Karen Fiddes recently was our guest speaker with Mandie Holgate talking about Blogging For Business at our Suffolk event. One business woman was so taken with the results of this workshop that she was up writing blogs the following morning at 6am! So thanks Karen for sharing some more ideas here; I never truly understood [...]

So the BWN website is getting an overhaul. I personally got raked over the coals for being too good at marketing and driving too many business women to the site and it couldn’t cope. Now that is the kind of telling off I like! But the outcome is my IT Fairy (no really we have [...]

When it comes to promoting your business a very powerful opportunity can be a business stand. Notice the word “can” in that sentence though, because many business women make critical mistakes when it comes to having a stand at an event. You see it’s not just about what you do on the day – the [...]

The power of networking with BWN I was searching for an alltenative networking group to replace one I had been a member of for some time and having attended a couple of the BWN events, I was impressed by how vibrant the meetings were; I always came away feeling uplifted having met several like-minded business [...]

This is a blog from Julie Philpot, in which she tell us what the BWN has done for her this year. What do you think? I received an email in January this year from Mandie telling me that ITV were auditioning for Britain’s Best Dish and why didn’t I apply to go on it.  I [...]

Just a quick blog since I have had business women this week saying “I’d love to come to your talk on social media next week but …. a)      I’m busy that day. b)      I’m a techno phobe so it won’t work for me. I’d never suss it! c)       I just don’t see how it can [...]

I have yet again had to do some data recovery for a client. It amazes me the stories I still hear about people losing their work. Precious files, photos, emails, business documents of all shapes and sizes. But why? Do we forget? Do we have that “I’ll do it later” attitude? Or is it because [...]

When it comes to running your own business there is so much to consider and do right? But what’s the most important thing? I would say one of the most important things is to always be appreciating the needs of your customers. In that way as markets change, as customers buying power or trends change [...]

The buzz around the BWN has always been positive, motivational and guaranteed to help you in your professional life. But with the launch of the BWN Nude Calendar this Thursday the buzz has gone to all new heights. I wanted to share with you just some of the comments from business women that got involved. [...]

Can you be professional naked? This is a question that many business women from the BWN are finding themselves asking over the next week as the date of the shoot for the Naked BWN Charity Calendar draws near. But to be honest with you, since I (stupidly) suggested this at our Colchester event (and they [...]

Thanks go to Tamara Unwin of the beautiful Stoke By Nayland Golf Course, Spa and Hotel where we host our Suffolk events for sharing this fascinating and incredibly motivational story of a families passion, determination and ability to achieve their goals. We hope it inspires you as it did us. It is perhaps a surprising [...]

I’d like to share something with you that I see on far too often an occasion to not share the ideas with you. I believe that if you see something in your business affecting your customers then its highly likely it is affecting other people that are not even aware of the impact on their [...]

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

I’m Too Busy to Network They are 5 words that always set my alarm bells sounding. Why? Well it is all too easy to assume that while you are away looking after your current influx of customers no one else is filling in the gap you left behind. And as I often say, you can’t dictate [...]

I suppose if someone had asked me a few months ago, what networking does for your business I would have listed the obvious; I would have said it connects me with my ideal clients, it finds me solutions to my business, it basically ensures that I have what I need to succeed in business through [...]

Who remembers our Christmas event? The stands, the networking, the shopping, the business? Business women not only promoted their businesses that day but made money, signed business women up and made the sales. So what better way to celebrate our 2nd Birthday than with an amazing speaker and everything the Christmas event had and more. [...]

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

I often get asked “why should I come along to The BWN, what makes it any different to the other networks out there?” And up until now I have had a wide variety of reasons for joining The BWN. (Don’t forget every business woman that has ever walked through our doors is considered a member [...]

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

Running your own business gives you the highest of the highest and the lowest of the lows, and I know from working with business women as their business coach, exactly what that looks like first hand. I personally too know that scary feeling of “aaaaa there is someone else doing what I do, it’s the [...]

When I first heard of Business Woman’s Network I was sceptical, my personal experiences of women in the work place hadn’t been great, pettiness, aggression, bitchiness and moods seemed to be the order of the day, behaviour that was seen in the early episodes of the current series of ‘The Apprentice’.  There is of course [...]

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

When you run your own business I believe it is imperative for success that you do everything according to your values and beliefs. Some of the biggest and most successful businesses in the world didn’t start with pages of business plans and projectory of how many buckets of money they could make, just a mission [...]

Meet Carolyn Scarrow from CSCS who really gets Networking Newbie November, and is spreading the Business Love. Are you next? I only met Kathy a few weeks ago at an Evolve training session on ‘Realising Your Potential’.   We got on really well, met for coffee a couple of times and went along to see [...]

The Business Woman’s Network has become a power house for women in business across East Anglia but they faced a backlash of complaints from the business men across the region, complaining that why were some of the best business speakers in the country coming to a women’s only network. So on the 26th of October [...]

Networking your way to better business We are so lucky at The BWN to attract such a diverse range of businesses and organisations and one of our favourite for businesses from sole traders to national corporations that will look after you regardless of the size of your turnover is Essex Chambers.  We invited them to [...]

Okay so a blog has many uses, obviously it raises your profile, it raises awareness of your brand, it builds rapport with clients and gets potential clients to know about you and your company. It gets you known as a thought leader and it allows you to share your knowledge and ideas with a wider [...]

Networking Newbie November – Share some business love. You know Networking can work incredibly well for getting you in front of potential customers and to help you learn new skills and grow your business, but do you know someone who is still not getting great results with networking? Did you know this October The BWN [...]

When we run our own business or are passionate about the success of someone elses it is all too often possible to end up working in the business instead of working on it. We know that right? But this got me thinking, you see. As a business coach I have my own coach and mentor and [...]

Carolyn Scarrow, wife of best selling historic novelist Simon Scarrow, has launched her own writing business. However this is writing of an altogether different sort and she says she has absolutely no plans to start competing with her husband for the Number One best seller’s spot!   “Having worked in marketing and publicity for many [...]

At our Suffolk launch we had a lovely surprise for 2 business women. A day at the gorgeous Stoke by Nayland Spa, Golf and Hotel for them to enjoy. But how did they go about winning that? Well, we wanted their stories of achievement, overcoming adveristy and all round women in business brilliance. And we were [...]

Running The BWN is not just a job, or even a vocation, it is a passion and most importantly an honour. Women in business have endless talents, skills and attributes but I am always impressed by their level of honesty with me and my coordinators about the areas of business that need a bit of [...]

At The BWN we want you to always be in front of the best speakers on key areas of your business. This month got off to a great start in Chelmsford with Jane Malyon, who had the audience laughing, aaaaing, thinking and sympathising all while learning some new ideas for their presentation skills. So we [...]

We are about empowering you to get amazing results in your business. Thank you Kathryn for sharing your inspirational story and we hope it inspires you too.  Last Friday was one of those Eureka days, you know the ones, the days you acheive something you never expected you could. On Friday I finally beat my [...]

Could you be living in fear within your business? Seems unlikely, right? Well actually many business women fear public speaking, cold calling, networking just for starters. Others procrastinate over accounts or legal matters for fear of getting it wrong, so they do nothing instead. If you are honest with yourself, is there anything you fear [...]

I find myself asking this, because I remember recently a social media Business whiz told me that Generation Y uses email less and they concentrate on the beloved free tool available to every business – social media. This thought leader from the world of online marketing was explaining that within 20 years email could be a thing [...]

The Business Womans Network feel incredibly passionate about business women’s success, and because of this from day one we have had a mission statement. It means from the very first time we meet you we can always be sure that at every event, every email, every contact with you we are reminded of our commitment to you. [...]

I am surrounded by business women every day and its great I can tell you. However I am not blogging today just to tell you how much I like my job, the reason I am blogging today is because I get asked (a lot!) “What do I need to do to make my business more successful?”   This is [...]

As the world cup starts, lets just say I am not the bigggest fan. But South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma said words that I loved; “Football is not only a game. Football is connecting people.” He told the huge crowds a the concert more than just this is the start of the 2010 world cup. He took [...]

Yesterday’s event was great fun both for us presenters and for everyone that attended. But more importantly it was good for business and great for helping with the things that you hate but you know you should be doing for business success. Okay so we all know that we should be able to jump up [...]

When we launched the BWN, the idea had just been to support local restaurants and hotels on their quiet days and get a few business women together to share ideas and opportunities. It’s turned out just like so many businesses, very differently. Because of the proactive nature of the BWN and the fact we really [...]