Strong Woman Chronicles

In the Entrepreneurial Habit

Monks know a thing or two about business. They understand the core components of top companies.

In the sixth-century, the Rule of Saint Benedict asked monks to take vows of stability, conversatio[Latin], and obedience. Stability emphasized the need to work for the good of the community. Hence, all actions taken were in the context of "will this be of assistance to all rather than just a few?"

Eileen McDargh tells us why conversatio is so important in the workplace.

And if you need more convincing that Monks can show the way beyond the rosary, consider the case of one of the USA’s top ‘fast 50’ Innovators. LaserMonks is headed up by Father Bernard McCoy, Abbey Steward at the Cistercian Abbey. He is perhaps not your average monk.

He has a pilot's licence, is an avid racketball player, is proficient in five musical instruments and started his first business at the age of 12.

And now he runs a very successful e-business venture selling printer and imaging supplies. "I was looking for a toner cartridge for use here at the monastery, and it struck me how incredibly expensive black dust actually was," explains Fr McCoy. "It's a product that everybody needs that is sold with an extraordinary mark-up. And I thought: 'there's got to be a better way'." And there was.

The monastery was looking for a way to raise money, both for their own living expenses and for use in charitable endeavours. “Traditionally, monks used to sell what they produced on their own property, but today you simply can't do that. There are only five of us in the monastery, and we asked ourselves, what do we have, what are the resources we can use to support ourselves?”

He voiced his idea of selling cut-price printing supplies to a couple of manufacturers, who were "delighted" to hear from him.

By making deals directly with manufacturers and selling over the internet, LaserMonks typically save consumers 30-60% on standard retail prices. Obviously the knock-down prices are a significant factor in their customer appeal, but Fr McCoy thinks there is more to it than that.“Our customer service is following on our order's tradition of hospitality. We try to transfer monastic hospitality into commerce hospitality, if you will. We try to treat every single customer with kid gloves”.

What I love is how LaserMonks use their passions and strengths, aligned with their values, to create a profitable modern business. Great eh!

When Passion meets Profit

One of the joys of working with people who want to align what they do with who they are is I hear of all kinds of business ventures that tie-together passion & profit.

Cynics among us say this just isn’t possible. That is, making money at what you love doing.

TOSH!

I work with plenty of people who do just that.

One client swapped his Operational Director’s post to run a ski chalet business; another swapped a Directorship in a corporation for 3 days heading up an export business and the rest working on the family farm; while one client traded a senior post to re-train as a chef and after an entrepreneurial spell is about to re-enter the corporate world – this time with food as the centre, because that’s his passion.

Here then is a super duper example of someone bringing together passion [in this case literally] with profit.

Coffee, Cake and Kink is the brainchild of Alan who dreamed of a stylish space where he could enjoy quality coffee and kink. His idea sprung from frustration with a lack of a stylish, upbeat space where he could enjoy three things he likes most in life - coffee, cake and kink!

With almost everything you see at the cafe for sale (with a possible exception of the personnel), customers enjoy cakes but also much more. From gifts, mugs, postcards and coasters to books, prints and art to cuffs and jewellery, all their merchandise is top quality kink.

Not satisfied just as a café, you can find classes on all manner of sensual subjects here as well as events featuring scrumptious art. I’m delighted to meet clients here for an almond macaroon and a steaming coffee – how clever Alan is to team up his desires so neatly.

I wonder then: how could you combine your passions and bring ‘profit’ to your life?

Work, Women & Success

What does SUCCESS mean to women ... and how is it different from what it means to men?

Melbourne-based businesswoman and close pal of mine, Pollyanna Lenkic, explores what's up in "Women & Success: 'This isn't a chick thing"

Take a look at Pollyanna's survey findings on what we women call success - makes for fascinating reading.  Her results show women in organizations are throwing down the gauntlet in a host of ways.

Let me know what you think, won't you!

Chief Family Officer

Today I've been clicking through the Yummy Mummy Careers website viewing all the north American family-friendly companies that are looking to hire mums. Sarah Fowles, started the site, free to mums, to help mothers balance career and family. The site explains, "Yummy Mummy Careers is about maintaining a healthy balance in all areas of your life. Whether you are re-assessing your career opportunities, looking for a position with a more flexible schedule or bringing your special talents back into the workforce, Yummy Mummy Careers is here to support and assist with your career goals’

Mums build a profile, post a resume, and browse for jobs. Employers use the site to search for candidates. Most jobs that I saw seem great for mamas who want to jump back into the workforce. The site is attractive, informative, and intuitive. Thinking about heading back to work? Had enough of Dora the Explorer? Then check out Yummy Mummy.

Oh and one last thing, I've asked Sarah if she's planning on bringing Yummy Mummy Careers across the pond - I'll let you know what she says!

Different Business Realities

Imagine the scene. The Chukka Bar in The Langham - one of London's finest hotels.

Sitting on a leather chair, mid-morning...I wait for the BBC producer I'm meeting to arrive.

With minutes to spare I look around the room. I'm hit by something so obvious & so commonplace, I chuckle inside.

I'm surrounded, literally encased, by besuited men. The sea of dark 'colour' - black, dark blue and deep grey - creates a blanket ambience across the room. Ties are muted, hair [if present] slick and tidy, moods serious. This is a place for wheeling and dealing, moving and shaking, and 'talking shop'.

I sip Earl Grey tea and eavesdrop, fascinated - ok... more than interested! One man is being quizzed by a duo. They sit behind me probing him for his 'aptitudes' and 'fit'. The interviewee has his back to me - I can smell his fear from my seat.

As I take in the entire shenanigans, a woman in a leopard print jacket brings a man a sheaf of papers. She leaves the Bar.

The interview ends - the interviewers discuss his merits. Except they can't find any - loudly they disassemble his appearance, his CV, his personality, his accent, his education. From my chair, I'd say he had a lucky escape.

Still no women are to be seen. There are no business women ordering pre-lunch wine to 'oil' negotiations. I am struck by the difference not only of where we women do business but also how we go about business.

Places I choose to meet potential and current clients ooze warmth, comfort, and an ease to be 'real' rather than play games. How I do business is premised on authenticity not mask, cutting through everyday corporate armour so that deep individual and organizational change becomes possible. Through relationships...

BBC [male] producer sans suit arrives - we hug one another [albeit briefly - it IS our first meet] and dive into raw and real conversation from the moment we begin.

Pitching to Editors

One of the best laughs I've had this month has come courtesy of this website . If you're a freelance journalist and want to see how not to pitch to editors, this one's for you. And if you happen to be an editor who's seen one too many duff pitches, prepare to laugh like a whale in mating season.

Unique as this interchange must surely be, we could all use a little help when it comes to pitching to editors. Just the other week, I had lunch with Susannah Pearce, gorgeous editor of the magazine, Your Family. In the absence of a lunch-slot with an editor, Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound shows us the way in her article, How to Follow up your News Release and Story Pitches

The Agony of 'About Me' Pages

This week I came up with, what I thought at the time, was a snappy little way to avoid getting down to writing my 'About Me' page. Here’s how I started,

‘I only just launched this blog (on Tuesday 4th October) and this was the last page on my to-write list. I'll have it done by the weekend next weekend soon. Until then, you can always email me at… blah…blah.’

See why I thought I was being clever?

Only I wasn’t.

With one-pager resumés, a speaking profile, and CV’s up to my armpits, what the hell is going on?

Folks, I’ve had a bout of that terminal disease called Self-Promotionitis Syndrome. Sufferers of this problem experience an inability to spread the word about who we are and what we do. The version of the SP Syndrome I suffer with is the one that paralyses my finger whenever I need to stand fully - yes 100% - in my power.

Once upon a time, my life was affected by a severe case of S-P Syndrome. It showed up only when I needed to write words about myself. I had no difficulty telling people about my accomplishments. Give me a keyboard, pencil/paper and a deadline and I'd be stricken with S-P Syndrome.

Nowadays. the bouts are short. I cotton onto the early symptoms - my procrastination, the way this to-do keeps showing up on my list yet doesn't take priority, and finally my eagerness for housework or admin. Most unlike me!

None of this, by the way, has anything to do with actual accomplishment by the way – did I tell you, for instance, I once won a scholarship to the Royal Ballet? Or that I’m one of the few Brits to be published in the prestigious Academy of Management Journal? Or, for that matter, how I coach top business leaders across the world? Or that I can knit a cool looking pair of socks?

No, I bet I haven’t shared that with you.

I declare war on this syndrome – and as a starter in banishing it, I pledge my About Me page will be up as soon as you can say, Strong Woman.

Maybe you know this syndrome too – I so hope you don’t.

Check it out. Where are you showing signs of Self-Promotionitis Syndrome? Let me know how you'll erase it from your life.

New VC Fund for UK Women Entrepreneurs

Hats off to Gita Patel and her team for launching, Trapezia Capital, a new investment fund dedicated to supporting UK women focused businesses. Raising cash through traditional channels proves near impossible for those women who try them. And for the rest, like me, who go it alone without seeking traditional investment, we create innovative ways of funding our enterprises. Big thanks to Great-auntie Winsome for investing in my first company!

Long overdue & sure to be a winner – go check it out at www.trapeziacapital.co.uk

Business Glue Comes Unstuck

I’ve been away awhile. The story goes like this. There I was one week in October happily leading day seminars, consulting, & coaching in my existing executive talent development business while at the same time building a new branded company serving strong women. Pfoof this changed overnight.

The glue that ordinarily helps me hold things together, at a practical level, is my VA and Nanny. Without these two people my ability to handle multiple projects and develop new business is compromised. Sure I can juggle running the business in a super-scaled-down way [no travel, doing the bare minimum] at the same time as caring for the children [running between schools, passing kids between my husband and myself]. I can also try and run the day to day stuff of business all alone. I’ve tried these approaches over the years and they both stink.

So what happened, you’re probably wondering? Two things… My trusty VA hit a major blip in his life – one that means he needs to concentrate on nothing other than himself. My nanny meanwhile, is fine [able to come to work in other words] albeit her 3.5 year relationship finished suddenly. The impact of one is enormous, the other less so.

My VA is no glorified secretary. He’s visionary and smart with skills that include blog management, web maintenance and customer relationship support - oh I could go on and on about what he can do – bottom-line he’s a profit generator in my business. The loss of him pulled me up short in a couple of ways. I hazard a guess they are universal factors any entrepreneur needs to consider unless they want the pandemonium I’ve experienced.

Once I’d taken the leap in attitude from seeing a VA as a profit centre rather than an expense, I set up a working relationship that gave me what I wanted. And here’s the thing that I tripped up on. I was so busy concentrating on the here-and-now of the business that I didn’t think to build systems with him that would mean if he dropped off the edge of the world everything would still work. Get it?

What was missing from our relationship was an explicit conversation about dependence and independence. I made myself dependent on him, in several respects and the key is, at the time I didn’t appreciate the depth of my dependence. I’m not exactly a pushover or space-cadet so realising this oversight caught me out.

Let me put this to you another way. I’ll bet there are things your partner/husband does in the home you never tackle. For me, it’s the central heating timer. Let’s just say your partner has to go away on a business trip when out of the blue that ‘thing’ he handles needs doing. It is through his absence you learn about the gaps in your knowledge. Enough said.

I now know far more about typepad, survey monkey, and techno-bits than a few weeks ago but that isn’t THE lesson. The top lesson for me is to learn to keep an eye on the balance between being independent [clutching info and responsibility tight to my chest] and dependent [giving it all to my VA] while at the same time being in the know of how things work should I need to take over the reins.

The next to top lesson I’ve learned is I’ve a tendency to wait just that bit too long before I move on. As I waited to hear whether my VA would be able to resume work, I noticed other clients of his take action, find a replacement from Andrea Lee's www.multiplestreamsteam.com & keep momentum. My wait, while respecting the relationship we built, meant my business and I felt in limbo. This patient waiting in other areas of my life– whether for client’s to pay or nanny to take more initiative, means ultimately I lose what I truly want and need. Wish me luck, I'm off to hire a new VA!

Impact in London

Within the first thirty minutes of leading today’s seminar ‘Living from your Centre’ I heard a full room of people, say in different ways, how they want to be able to get centred, feel solid in themselves, be who they are and not get knocked for six, or even when they do go off-centre they want to find ways of recovering their centre. Hearing so many voices articulating how important this is to them, hit me like a heady cocktail.

I was brought close up to the deep need this work is meeting. Of course I know this at a logical level yet this was probably the first time every single person in the room was clear about the crucial role being centred and off-centred has in their lives, businesses and relationships.

Funny how when I’ve held an unswerving vision and belief in this work, how shocked I am to have it confirmed back to me! I’ve love to hear how you respond when you realize the impact you are having – let me know.