Sam gets yet another award

Ok so I think you probably know my opinion on this one!  Given that my company What’s On 4 runs a number of industry awards programmes and I have won awards myself!

Awards do make a difference both personally and professionally, I have experienced this and I know many people that have too.  For someone running their own business gaining an independent endorsement of what you do and how you do it is a big pat on the back.  And more importantly it’s something that existing customers can be proud to be part of and that new customers will want to be part of.

But it’s not all good news.

What if you don’t win?  Lots of people don’t win of course, I’ve not won many many times!  But the process of applying is a good bit of business therapy as you have to tell someone what you have achieved.  There is a lot to be gained by this alone.

And being shortlisted or a finalist is pretty impressive and you can still use it for some good publicity.  Look at how many finalists in the X-factor have gone on to have successful careers!

There are a huge number of awards programmes for anything and everything so it can be quite daunting when you’re first considering being part of an awards.   I always look at the organisation running it, sponsors and previous winners to see if I want to be associated with them.

There are awards for employees, products and services as well as businesses so don’t forget these parts of your business when applying.  You could then be a multi-award winning business.

So a quick plug for the 6th What’s On 4 Junior awards now open for nominations in the UK and Australia

If you don’t know, the story is about a working Mum and her failing juggle to manage her family and a very stressful job with an employer who has no tolerance of her family commitments.   She spreads herself so thin that nothing works and she barely exists as she is torn between her children, husband, job and everything else.  It’s a comedy and of course situations are exaggerated to make it a good read but it also pressed my serious button.

I didn’t go back to work after having my baby because I knew that this could have been me.  This book really did make me realise that I had made the right decision.  I don’t have it perfect but I have it a lot better than if I’d gone back to my previous job as a financial services project manager.

So this morning, as I start a new year of work and get back to What’s On 4, I’m glad that I’m not on a packed train to London, I’m glad I’m not sat in an big flashy office, I’m glad I’m not preparing for meetings but I’m glad that I had to brave the gales and rain to take my daughter to school and I’m glad I’m writing this blog now!  Happy New Year

Sam during the workshop - Just call me 'Ms Willoughby'! *

Well it certainly felt like that when I went to Queen Mary College in Basingstoke last week to take part in a Business and IT day for the students.

There were about 80 students from 2 colleges, a mix of business studies and IT, aged 16 or 17 and I presented 2 workshops on Internet Business and was one of the people on the open questions panel.  The other workshops covered topics including social media, cloud computing and business planning – all really good stuff.

One of the questions I was asked was from 2 of the IT lecturers who wanted to know if I had any tips for encouraging more girls into IT.  I’m not sure I know the answer to this one as I’ve always been in IT and have seen a fairly even balance of woman and men in the companies I’ve worked in.  What I could stress was how my background in IT has given me the perfect basis for my business now which is about as flexible as it gets.  And that’s not just for the Mums but for the Dads too, our Irish franchisee and USA master franchisee both fall into this category! But I don’t suppose many 16 year olds are thinking about when they become a parent, I know I didn’t!

My workshop ended with my top tips for having your own business so here they are:

*I’ve just borrowed the watermarked version of one of the photos taken on the day for the Basingstoke Gazette whilst I wait for my copy!

On Sunday 13^th November 2011, diddi dance owner Anne-Marie Martin, Croydon Franchise owner, Melissa Lodge and Brighton Franchise owner Laura Gardner went to the seaside to perform live on stage with Phil Gallagher, CBeebies creative king, AKA Mister Maker!

A massive crowd of 4500 people from 23 different counties came to the event which diddi dance was very proud to be headline sponsors of.

With everything on offer from pushchairs to nappy cakes, the Brighton baby expo had a huge number of attractions but it was diddi dance that stole the show with the performance of the weekend.

Nearly 100 children joined in as the diddi dance team, Mister Maker’s Phil Gallagher AND Number Jack 4 wiggled, jiggled and jumped their way through a brilliant diddi dance session.

Diddi dance were also on show in a prime location in the main hall. New Mums and Dads flocked to the diddi dance stand to hear the word about diddi dance classes, nurseries and parties in their part of the UK.

Franchise Director, Arabella Gunn was also on hand to talk to a number of visitors who were keen to find out more about setting up their own diddi dance business.

A rip roaring success of a weekend for everyone ended with hundreds of new diddi dancers going home happy, thousands of new mums and dads seeing and experiencing diddi dance for themselves and one CBeebies star having being made an honorary diddi dancer!

So I knew it was going to be an exciting and busy weekend but I didn’t realise I was going to factor up both the excitment and work by atleast 100!  I don’t think I have worked so hard in all my life.  I certainly didn’t realise how many miles I was going to have to walk or how intense the whole experience was.  The show was a huge success with record visitor numbers and exhibitors. 

Our old friend Phil Gallagher from Cbeebies Mister Maker and Jo Tantum the baby sleep expert were hugely popular and I had to look after them for most of the day.  It was big responsiblity but also lots of fun – especially as they are both such lovely people.  I also helped out with reception, trouble-shooted as needed and tidied/unpacked/packed anything and everything.  Doesn’t sound a lot but it seemed to occupy every minute of my time!

I did find time to ’bump’ into Patsy Palmer aka Bianca from Eastenders who came with her children to visit the show!

mumandworking were also there as sponsors of the very popular Flexible Working Zone and our www.whatson4me.co.uk master franchisor, Marilyn Bradshaw, made the long journey south to join us too!  And we announced the start of the What’s On4 2012 Junior Awards that will be running from January alongside the What’s On 4 2012 Junior Awards in Australia!

Our whole team worked so hard, dealing with everything that was thrown at them with such dedication.  We really do have top people working at What’s On 4!

So this was ’my’ BabyExpo experience and here are some of my mobile phone photos…Oh and check out the Brighton Mums Live Blog from the day including Phil Gallagher from Cbeebies Mister Maker dancing!  Official vid and photos will be online at www.brightonbabyexpo.co.uk/baby-show very soon.

Me and lovely Phil Gallagher from Cbeebies Mister Maker

A Numberjack Joined Us for the Day

The Stunning Amex Stadium - We weren't allowed on the pitch though!

A very fuzzy photo - am sure pro ones will do her justice!

I ache all over and I’m exhausted! I haven’t taken up cage fighting but I have been part of the team organising the BusinessMums Summit and mumandworking 2011 awards ceremony that took place yesterday in Brighton.

The day was amazing and could have gone better. There was such a positive vibe that didn’t let up at all.

Personally I was inspired by the speakers particularly Laura Tenison MBE of Jojo Maman Bebe, Kate Garraway of ITV’s Daybreak and now her own business goodypass.com aswell as the ladies behind Yummy Lollies.

I am also taking action, as was stressed throughout the event, and have a couple of things in hand.

And I must not forget our mumandworking awards and the very worthy finalists and winners.

The BBC South East news programme featured the event last night and ITV Meridian will be as well!

Very much worth all the hard work!

 This sounds quite simple when you first hear it but  really believing is REALLY hard.

First lots of little niggling doubts creep in: ‘You’re asking for too much’ ; ‘It will go wrong’ ; ‘This is stupid and won’t work’!  I’ve found it takes practise to quieten these little voices asking these annoying questions but it can be done.

Secondly you have to take practical steps to demonstrate your belief.  So if you want to see your turnover increase to £1 million then put that in your cashflow, increasing each month or write yourself a massive dividend cheque and start looking at holiday or car brochures if that’s what you would spend it on.

I’m not into mumbo-jumbo at all – and maybe the idea came for me at a time when I needed something to pin my dreams on – but I’ve tried to apply The Secret techniques to my business and, although I don’t know how it works, I do believe it does.  I believe it works because I’ve franchised my business in the UK and Internationally, I’ve a fab business partner and our company bank balance is happier than it’s ever been.

However, I often find myself failing to apply the principles of The Secret when something rubbish happens or I fail to put enough effort into it.  The voices ask the questions louder and the doubts and negative thoughts creep in.  

But I now find it easier to pull myself up again, once I’ve consciously registered it has happened, and get back to my positive thoughts. 
So why not give it a go?  It may also work for you…

I ask a lot of them and they always amaze me how they attack each new challenge and project with such

Me and some of my fantastic team

enthusiasm and good humour.

I really couldn’t do it without them.

So when my team get abuse on the phone and by email it makes me so angry, I feel so protective over them.  It happens surprisingly often.  There are degrees of the abuse from short abrupt emails to out right rudeness and even swearing down the phone.  Of course we all have bad days but there really is no excuse to treat anyone like that.  We do our best to sort problems and if we’ve made a mistake we correct it and compensate for it.

I also experienced this sort of abuse recently on a Google Group when trying to get action on an issue important to me (nothing to do with work). 

It’s easy to say ‘don’t take it personally’ and ‘rise above it’ but we are human, and we do what we do because we believe in it and care about what we do.

But I’m especially thankful that I have such a flexible job when something like this crops up.  Taking that extra week to be there for her and in the days afterwards wasn’t even anywhere on my list of worries or things to sort out.  I can imagine if I had a ‘normal’ job that it would be near the top.  Of course a lot of employers are sympathetic and accommodating when children aren’t well but it’s still something that is an extra worry and an arrangement to make. 

I hope my team also know that it should never be a worry for them if they have similar circumstances.  

So Alice is absolutely fine and hopefully back at school in the next day or so.  I’m glad it’s all over!  Thanks to all our lovely friends and family for their messages and cards too x

- Back to school
- Winter boots and leggings with sloppy jumpers
- Crisp, bright mornings
- Open fires

Also it’s our busiest time of year at What’s On 4 and when a lot of the projects we’ve been working on come to their finale. 

It’s busy because of the start of the new school year with parents looking for new activities for their babies and toddlers and new groups for their older children over on www.whatson4littleones.co.uk and www.whatson4schoolkids.co.uk.  Lots of new classes and activities do start in September with teachers starting new types of groups or expanding into new areas.  I love the fact that parents don’t have to hunt around for activities as we a great bit of kit that just sends them emails of new listings in their area saving them time!

Because of the new school year www.mumandworking.co.uk also goes crazy!  I think a lot of parents whose children are starting school for the first time suddenly find they have quite a few more hours in the day but they still need a flexible job or business so they can still do the school runs and be there during school holidays.  Thankfully there are so many choices now and I hope we will again match many hundreds of parents up with their perfect flexible job this autumn.

And this autumn I have some amazing days out coming up all in the name of What’s On 4 but I’d be part of them anyway!  Firstly the BusinessMums Summit in Brighton on October 10th means I get to meet a lot of old and new friends plus meet and listen to some powerful speakers.  Last year I came away buzzing and with even more energy to see What’s On 4 grow as I know hundreds of other mums in business did.  It really is one not to miss.

Anyone who knows me will we be sick of me talking about meeting Phil Gallagher from Cbeebies Mister Maker again at the Brighton Baby Expo on Nov 13th!  I met him last year and he’s such a lovely guy, amazing with all the children that love his show and my little girl too.  He even sent her a get well message from his BBC tour in Asia this week.   We’re also launching the What’s On 4 2012 Junior Awards at the show and have a special mumandworking flexible working zone to showcase some of the best flexible working options plus give lots of support and advice as well.  There’s so much more on the day – a wonderful place for all parents-to-be and new parents and families to visit. 

So it’s going to be an exciting, busy and fun autumn for all of us at What’s On 4 but I will also be enjoying plenty of walks on those bright mornings and relaxing in front of a nice log fire or two as well!