SORT OUT YOUR GIFT PROBLEMS WITH WRAPLY.COM

Following our last event, we asked one of our guests, Kamila Miara, if she would like to write something for the LWMB blog as we thought she had a fantastic new idea with her business Wraply.com. Here's what she had to say (a glowing testimonial for LWMB!); do take a look at Kamila's website as it's such a simple but really great idea.

Ladies,

Last week I attended my second LWMB meeting - for the first time ever I was representing my brand new business - Wraply.com. I just want to say thank you so much to you all - everyone I met is an expert in their field and you have given me greatly encouraging feedback as well as many valuable insights.

By way of thanks, I've listed just a few of the women I met below, along with how they helped...

Maaike of Let's Just Create is the person I spoke to first about my business, Wraply. She welcomed the idea with so much genuine enthusiasm, that straight away I felt really pleased that I'd chosen LWMB as the first ever event for Wraply. Many of you followed with just as much great enthusiasm, but it's not only the fantastic feedback I got from you that made it really special (though it did make it special I must say :-)). LWMB know how to ask the right questions!

Lena from One's Company has asked me about why she should use Wraply and how I am going to convey to people the fact that it solves the problem of unwanted gifts and creates the perfect ones (I am a member of One's Company now by the way, so she had her sales pitch sorted!).

Karen from 73dpi Multimedia immediately came up with new revenue streams; and I will always bear in mind Kathy's four V's! Also, through talking to you, I have realised that it's us, the women who know what we want, who will use Wraply.com to get the gift we really dream of, or to club together with friends to get what we know our friends really want.

So in short - networking with you has been both fun and educational - the best combination. I'm looking forward to more!

For those I haven't managed to meet yet and who are wondering what I mean by Wraply... Wraply.com is a website that makes group gifts so much easier to organise - so you can club together with friends to get the perfect present. No more smelly candles!

I would like to finish by saying how much I appreciate Melanie and Dawn's work that gives me such a fantastic oportunity to meet strong, wise and inspiring women.

See you all soon!
Kamila
Wraply.com

COULDN'T MAKE OUR OCTOBER EVENT? THIS IS WHAT YOU MISSED.

Thank you to all of the fantastic ladies who attended October's London Women Mean Business meeting. A great atmosphere once again, lots of good connections being made in the room, and for those of you who were unable to attend, this is what you missed:

The fabulous Kathy Ennis of Envision Training who talked to us about the secrets of The 4Vs Principle©, her method of creating a strong personal brand for business growth. Some great tips and advice on building a personal brand which made us all think about our brand names, colours, and how we communicate both verbally and in writing. Kathy runs Personal Branding Masterclasses with small groups of up to 10 people, in addition to offering Personal Brand Individual Mentoring and Presentation Skills training. Click here to learn more.

We then had 3 ladies talking passionately about what they do in our 5 minute slots:

Lena Benjamin of Ones Company - Lena talked to us about unleashing your power, how important it is to think positively and then great things will happen! Lena runs Onescompany.co.uk, the one stop shop to personal and business development for women (events, products, news, business advice and coaches/mentors). Women can join free by clicking here while Coaches/Mentors can also join free here (men also welcome!!). Promote your services on onescompany.co.uk, join the coaching/mentoring community, increase your exposure and attend networking events. Lots of other fantastic benefits can be found online.

Piya Khanna of Change to Succeed - Piya spoke about how it's imperative for us to communicate our offers so that people who need our services can find us and benefit from them. We need to love selling and see it as communicating our value & offer and become comfortable with sales. Piya helps women to get more clients, make more money, get promoted in their organisation and achieve balance in their lives by helping them become more confident, better negotiators and excellent sales people. Piya is offering all LWMB ladies a no obligation, FREE 90 minute strategy session. Interested? Email Piya directly at piya@changetosucceed.com

Temitope Obasa of TT Denim - Temitope arrived armed with samples of her fab jeans on which she has spent several years perfecting the design. They are made to suit all shapes and sizes, with no gaping at the back and with several different leg lengths. Perfect for those of us who are vertically challenged! TT Denim jeans will be available online initially, and if anyone has a contact within small boutiques or indeed large department stores (Selfridges, Harvey Nicks, Debenhams etc), then Temitope would love to hear from you!

There are a few events coming up soon which we thought may be of interest to you:

Sunday 17th October - Akua Deaba is hosting a charity dining event in aid of Eat So They Can. Details of this event and more info on the charity can be found here. We realise it's short notice and diaries are busy, but if you're not able to attend it's still possible to make a donation.

Tuesday 19th October - Bella of RareWorld is hosting a networking event at Jewel Bar in Piccadilly, beginning at 6pm with a drinks reception followed by a workshop on networking skills at 6.45pm. For more info click here.

Wednesday 20th October - City Business Library - "Under One Roof" networking event. 6-8pm. An opportunity to network, speak to library staff, sponsors & exhibitors, and listen to speaker Stephen Jones OBE. Click for further information.

Thursday 21st October - London Women Mean Business and Innovate London are hosting a joint evening of networking. This will be an opportunity to hear guest speakers and to speak to Innovate London about how they can assist your business to be more innovative through helping to engage with London’s world class knowledge base. Although we now have our limit of 30 people signed up to this event, please still let us know if you're interested as we may be able to offer some additional places. Email us to register your interest.

So if your diary was looking empty for next week (unlikely!), then one of these events might appeal.

Next month's LWMB meetup takes place on Thursday 11th November. Hope to see you there.

Until then, happy networking!

NEXT EVENT - THURSDAY 14TH OCTOBER

Don't miss our next evening of networking at The Embassy Club which takes place on Thursday 14th October 2010.

In addition to Kathy Ennis of Envision Training who will be speaking to us about personal branding, we have our 5 minute slots for 3 lucky (!) people in the group to talk to us in a little more detail about their business. And if you attend on Thursday you too will have the opportunity to be chosen to speak at next month's event.

Registration is from 6pm, with the presentations beginning at 7pm followed by further networking until 8.30pm.

Venue is The Embassy Club, 29 Old Burlington Street, London, W1S 3AN

Entry is free, you just pay for your own drinks.

If you'd like to join us, RSVP to londonwmb@googlemail.com.

Looking forward to seeing you!

Dawn & Melanie

IF YOU COULDN'T MAKE OUR SEPTEMBER MEETING, HERE'S WHAT YOU MISSED!

It already feels so long ago since our last networking evening as winter seems to have suddenly arrived. The summer evening that we enjoyed last week is but a distant memory!

Another amazing evening, with over 70 women enjoying the surroundings of The Embassy Club - thank you once again to everyone who came along and made it such a wonderful evening.

Sarah Pennells from SavvyWoman, a well known personal finance journalist and broadcaster who is regularly seen on the BBC was our guest speaker for the evening. Sarah made what can be either a daunting or boring subject sound interesting! Finance for women was the topic , and through asking several questions it appears that the London Women Mean Business guests are above the national average and are indeed financially savvy! Always more to learn though, so look out for Sarah's post on this blog coming soon with notes of her talk, or indeed visit her website.

We then had our 5 minute slots for guests attending the meetings, and this month's speakers were:

Angela Coulson from London Brokerage talking about the opportunities available to small businesses in terms of business support and training. Do contact Angela for further details as this is a valuable free service.

Jenny Lamski of JRL Coaching who spoke about the importance of time management, something that we all need to exercise when running our own businesses. For more information about Jenny, take a look here at her website.

And finally, the lovely double act of Natalie & Hayley Bystram from Bowes-Lyon Partnership. Bowes-Lyon is an exclusive introduction agency specialising in matching high calibre individuals that just don't have the time to find that special person. Bowes-Lyon are offering a free consultation so if you are alone and don't want to be, why not contact them - more information available here.

So, September is almost over and hopefully business is going well, you are well and truly back in business mode following the summer break, and we hope our meeting was one of many networking events you attended throughout the month to help promote and grow your business.

Your feedback and comments are always very much appreciated, so if you have anything you'd like to tell us, what you'd like to see happen at the LWMB meetings, who you've met at the meetings and perhaps worked with or have built an alliance with - anything at all, then just let us know. You can post a comment on this blog, or send us an email.

See you next month!

A CELEBRATION OF DIVERSITY

Tomorrow's Generation invites you to a celebration of diversity on Saturday 30th October 2010 at Wandsworth Civic Centre.

The event begins at 5pm, running through until 1am as in addition to hearing some great speakers (some of you may remember Usha Penumuchi and the very engaging talk she gave at LWMB a few months ago) and the opportunity to network, there will also be a collection of drama and dance performances plus a dining experience with cultural food tasting.

If you have a product or service to promote, tables can be booked but be quick as the booking deadline is 30th September.

Below is the line-up of guest speakers and drama & dance performances you can enjoy on the evening:

Speakers

• Genny Jones (Confident Queen) has been selected as one of the top 100 businesses by the Barclays Bank Trading Places award
• Usha Penumuchi, Commercial Services Directorate, Houses of Parliament
• Diane West- Management Consultancy / Training (specialising in the voluntary & community sector)
• Conrad Sackey (Chief Operational Manager, Windsor Fellowship)

Drama & Performances

• Daintynik South Africa and Uganda group
• Kabaslot EN Kotoku) – From Freetown, Sierra Leone (West Africa)
• De Champ & His Dance Group
  

For more information or to book a stall, click to contact Ellen Davies via email and she will be happy to assist with any questions you may have.

A DATE TO REMEMBER!

21st-28th October - the dates to remember!

Jamaica - the place to be!

The Caribbean Personal Development Retreat is taking place at Pimento Lodge Hideaway Hotel in Jamaica.

• Do you dream of having more time?


• Do you want to redress your work/life balance?


• Reduce stress?


• Gain clarity of thought?


• Or do you need time to identify and plan your next steps, define your goals in terms of career and personal life?

Then why not devote a week just to you?

Take your own Personal Development Retreat with personalised 1-2-1 coaching, massage, daily personal fitness training and much much more!

Run by Personal Development Coach, Dionne Edwards, for full details, click here or call Dionne on 07899 801118.

We promise you will return feeling more focused, energised, fitter in mind and body!

RE-SCHEDULED SEPTEMBER NETWORKING

We decided that the tube strike won't beat us and we are still going to hold a networking evening in September. We've now re-scheduled the event from earlier this week to Tuesday 21st September.

Details as before - see earlier post.

Please email londonwmb@googlemail.com if you'd like to attend.

We look forward to seeing you there!