MAY ROUND-UP

A change of venue this month saw us at Red Bar near Carnaby Street, with a small intimate group which gave the opportunity for everyone to circulate and meet everyone else in the room.  Great for really building on those relationships and finding out a little more about what we all do and how we can all help each other.

 

Our guest speaker was Jo Rogers of North Star Legal Ltd.  Jo has spent her legal career to date advising international clients on mergers & acquisitions, joint ventures and company law requirements and now advises businesses how to reduce their legal risks by getting their businesses in ship-shape. She spoke about "Navigating your business through the legal unknown - 10 steps to guide you to safety". Something we all need to know, whether we are SMEs or larger businesses.

Here are Jo's top tips:

• Always read and understand the paperwork
• Avoid pirates: know who you are dealing with
• Keep a treasure chest of records
• Everything is negotiable
• Know the likelihood of something happening - avoid the storm
• Evaluate the consequences and effects upfront
• Keep things ship-shape
• Plan your next destination
• Seek wise counsel
• Be the captain of your ship

It did stir up an interesting discussion about how often we read the smallprint!  As Jo suggested, always print off the Terms & Conditions at the time of the transaction and keep them safe - just in case you ever need to refer back to them.  And preferably read them too!

 

 

APRIL ROUND-UP

Lots of fun and laughter on a gorgeous sunny evening in Marylebone!  The April London Women Mean Business meeting was another success, with some fantastic women who were delightful company. 

Our venue for the evening was Colony Bar & Grill, a buzzing restaurant and bar just off Marylebone High Street.  Okay, so not particularly conducive for a traditional networking event, but in spite of this the feedback was fab and much appreciated.  Lots of good connections were made and we saw several new faces, some completely new to the world of networking - and what a great place to start! 

And our speaker, Francesca Lubenko, was the perfect person to help those new to networking - even the more seasoned networkers also learned a thing or two - with some great tips and ideas on how to capitalise on the contacts made at such events.  With a change in plans, Francesca took the time to circulate the room to speak to everyone on an individual basis - and will be back to speak at a later stage to follow up on the ideas discussed.

Our next meeting takes place on Wednesday 11th May.  If you're not already on our mailing list, drop us a line at londonwmb@googlemail.co.uk and we'll ensure you're included so that you are kept informed of future events.

In the meantime, happy networking!

SPARKLING!

A roomful of sparkling ladies attended the first LWMB meeting of the year which took place at Swarovski Crystallized on Thursday 20th January.

Julia Macmillan

The bubbly flowed, the food was delicious, the company was wonderful and our guest speaker, Julia Macmillan, gave a fantastic talk about her experience in setting up her internet business, Toyboy Warehouse. Of course, for those interested in learning how to find a toyboy, there was ample time for a chat with Julia after her talk!!

Julia is a former fashion designer and artist, and began Toyboy Warehouse following a successful art commission, having discovered that she couldn't find what she was looking for on "traditional" dating websites.  From starting the site with open source software, and a group of friends as her members, she has now grown the business to a point where she is talking to investors and is about to launch internationally.  The ideas that Julia used in growing her business can be readily applied to most businesses - find a unique name that gets people talking; in addition to contacting newspapers etc, build relationships with freelance journalists so that they call upon you as an "expert" in your field; ensure you have a targetted (not Adwords) Facebook campaign if you have a digital business; offer added value eg. Julia now has a VIP section, hosts member events and a dining society and is planning to launch an online game.

Thank you Julia for giving your time to share your experiences with us.

Drawing the raffle

Congratulations to those of you who won a raffle prize - we hope you enjoy making use of the gifts on offer which ranged from a £100 Jaeger voucher, a bottle of Bollinger Champagne, to a relaxing floatation session, a massage treatment and a £500 voucher to spend at a hair & beauty salon.  And a special thanks to Cory Cook who offered half a day of her services in time management or organising your life.  Your generous donations mean that we raised £110 pounds for the charity Childreach.

Thanks are also due to our photographer for the evening.  You may have noticed Claire Swindale clicking away in the room.  Claire is an experienced photographer who has worked with such brands as Revlon, and we were delighted to have her with us on the evening.  Her photos of the evening are now on our gallery, and there is a separate blogpost about Claire with further details of her work, her special offer to LWMB and an invitation to her "meet the artist" day at her exhibition in March.

And finally, a thank you to Carrie and all at Swarvoski Crystallized who were wonderful to work with.  Several women in the room disappeared downstairs to the shop during the evening returning with a Swarvoski Crystallized bagful of goodies.  And who can blame them, with a 70% sale, or the LWMB 15% discount on non-sale goods to take advantage of!!

Thank you to all of our guests who made the evening so successful.  We hope you enjoyed it and look forward to seeing you again soon.

CELEBRATE THE NEW YEAR OF NETWORKING IN STYLE!

Come and join us for our first event of the new networking year at the Swarovski Crystallized Store in central London.

If you are interested in meeting like-minded business women, wanting to make interesting connections and form new alliances, then come along and network with us in a friendly and supportive environment, while enjoying a glass of bubbly & delicious canapés.

We will be meeting at the Swarovski Crystallized Store opposite Liberty near Oxford Circus. Swarovski have very kindly offered all of our guests a 15% discount on all finished pieces in store on the evening, so come along early so you have time to browse (& purchase) something sparkly! Then join us in the fabulous event space above the store.

Some fantastic raffle prizes will also be on offer, with all ticket proceeds going to the charity Childreach International, so do join us in celebrating the start of 2011!

Just click here to book your ticket. And be quick to take advantage of the early bird price which ends on 10th January!



We look forward to seeing you there.