ElevEase

The O2 Women Mean Business Awards was a great day out altogether. We kicked off the event with a lovely pink bag full of goodies which Dave, our Managing Director was absolutely ecstatic about!

Sarah Newman from The Irish Dragon’s Den started proceedings with her story about how she made her millions from scratch. She was very down to earth and honest and told us about how she struggled with cash flow etc. and basically had to jump over all the hurdles that all entrepreneurs do from small, medium to large businesses. It is always refreshing to hear that the really successful ones were once where we are now and pulled through it against the odds.

Michael Doherty then took over the reins and spoke about how he heals people with problems from back pain to depression through using positive energy. To be honest I was a bit sceptical which is a habit that I’m trying to drop as it is generally about being a bit negative. He told an interesting anecdote about when he started his business, he printed off a blank cheque, wrote a seven figure sum on it and hung it on the wall.

The logic behind this is that you have to visualise something and believe that you can do it to achieve it. A few months later he got a call from Michael Flatley to help him when he was ill. He was so amazed at how he heeled him that he called a press conference and since then Michael Doherty has been very successful. The lesson there is that you need to be positive and believe that you can achieve things.

We then did a bit of networking and settled into a lovely 4 course lunch and an a glass of wine which then brought us to the awards ceremony. There were four categories. I was in the “Big WMBig Idea Award”. It was very Oscar like as an image of the four nominees flashed up as our names were called out. Drumroll and the winner is…not me, it wasn’t my time to shine but fair play to Lynne Whelan from Whitelite Gael Renewables who took the award home.

Sahar Hashemi rounded the event off with her story of how she moved from the comfort zone of being a solicitor to setting up a chain of coffee stores with her brother, Bobby. She basically spotted a gap in the UK market for the US coffee experience of triple double decker coffees or whatever they are called these days! They started off with one shop and sold the business with a chain of 1,000 Coffee Republic shops. She has also written a book and launched a new product, Skinny Candy (sugar free sweets).

I found her really inspirational as she started off her speech by stating how papers love to say that businesses are an over night success but that it took her 15 years to build it up to a stage where they could sell it on for millions. Again it takes the pressure off when you hear really successful entrepreneurs coming out with some home truths as entrepreneurship is a constant battle of insecurity if you don’t sell a million units a week!

The general vibe throughout the event was that we need to be more positive and pull together to move out of this “R” word. It was a great day out and a brilliant networking opportunity as I made a few good contacts. Just off to print myself off a blank cheque so I can right down 7 digits on it – it’s worth a shot!:)

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 4th, 2009 at 3:42 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.