newcastlebusinessmums.co.uk

Newcastle Business Mums are pleased to announce the next networking event ‘Love your business’ on 28th February 2012, with guest speaker Nicola Cook, some speed networking, light refreshments and 60 second spotlight rounds.

The event will be held at Great Coffee, 81 Quayside, Newcastle at 7.30pm and tickets are £10 which can be booked below.

Nicola Cook is renowned for her engaging, energetic and passionate delivery style which inspires audiences all around the world. And she will be sharing her business story with Newcastle Business Mums at this event.

Nicola Cook the founder and Managing Director of Aurora Consulting has over 20 years experience at the cutting edge of Sales and Human Development. She is a professional speaker, trainer, consultant, business coach and international best selling author (and a mum to two sons!)

An international best selling author Nicola’s first book A New You: The Small Changes That Make the Biggest Difference to Your Life is available in eleven countries around the world. Her second book The Secrets of Success in Selling: 12 Ways to Achieve Exceptional Results currently available in English and Spanish reached the No1 position on Amazon for it’s category on the day of release and has continued to receive rave reviews ever since.

We have 5 x 60 second spotlights available so if you have any news or offers you want to share with the group please contact vicki@vickistonemarketing.co.uk with the details – the first 5 will get a spotlight!

If you can’t make it along to this event please ensure you subscribe to our e-news for latest news and events updates.

Tickets are now available to purchase for the 2012 International Women’s Day Networking Lunch this year taking place on Thursday 15th March from 12.30pm at the  Hilton Newcastle Gateshead and  kindly supported by Deloitte.

This year Elena Dickson, Marketing Manager from family business Dickson’s the Pork Butchers will deliver an inspiring speech about women in business. She said:

“I am delighted to have been invited to speak at this year’s International Women’s Day Networking Lunch, it is a great opportunity for women in business to not only network but also raise money for the Women’s Fund at the Community Foundation that is doing fantastic work enabling women from Tyne & Wear and Northumberland to reach their potential no matter what their background.”

Deloitte is also in its third year of supporting the lunch, Jane Taylor from Deloitte said:

“It is wonderful to be able to support the lunch for the third consecutive year. Deloitte is a very proactive company when it comes to encouraging women in business so to be involved with lunch is a great reflection of the company values.”

Diners will also hear from Kate Mukungu, Chief Executive of Tyneside Women’s Health which offers a range of mental health and wellbeing services from its base in Gateshead, about why such services are needed more than ever but are under threat from funding cuts.

Tickets at the early bird rate cost £30 each or £300 for a table of ten but will be going up to £35 per head or £350 per table of ten from Monday 20 February. To book your ticket call 0191 222 0945 or click here for more information.

Newcastle Business Mums
Love Your Business

£10

Have you heard about the Bizotunity B2B North East taking place at St James’ Park on 22^nd March?  It’s a great opportunity for you to promote the products and/ or services offered by your business to other businesses in the region.

The business sectors that are likely to be represented are across the spectrum, to include design, IT, corporate entertainment, hotels, marketing and promotion, vehicle leasing, solicitors, accountants, conference facilities, tax advisors, etc.  In fact, any business offering services to other businesses will benefit from having a presence at the event.

Invitations to attend as visitors are being sent to business owners and executives.  Previous experience of similar events suggests that 97% of the these visitors will be decision makers.  For further information visit www.bizotunity.com and follow the North East exhibition link; email enquiries@bizotunity.com; or telephone 01603 500678 and speak to one of the Bizotunity team.

Our whole reason for going into business in the first place was influenced by the desire to do things differently and on our terms.  Andrew and I,  wanted to have the work life balance that we value highly, and for that reason  the different phases of our family life has always had a huge influence on the different phases of our business and affect what we could do and when.

It was a long time ago that I set out my plan for a career that talked about working for myself after having kids, and after having achieved everything up to then that I had set my stall out to do, it took a while to remind myself that it was the next step was in fact a possibility.  Chance meetings, and a hugely encouraging husband, and much dipping of toes in the water finally gave me the bravery to ditch the day job and commit to building a business that would support us both in the long term. 

That phase was three years ago, and whilst it has been incredibly hard in the last year or so, juggling the level of work I had managed to build up with only 3 days a week childcare, it has been worth it.  There were times that I wondered if I was limiting the business by not working more days, but my resolve remained strong and I kept telling myself to bide my time, and push for growth only when we were ready to.  Now it’s time for us to move outside of what has bizarrely become our new comfort zone move the business into the next phase that our changing family life will allow us to do.

What changes am I talking about?  Well, my youngest started school in September, which has provided the magical ingredient of extra time, but also financially we are in a better position for Andrew to leave his day job.  Andrew has been as much a part of this business as I have for the last three years in terms of the decision making, donkey work and behind the scenes admin, but professionally has just not been able to be the face of WBS Accountants.

The extra time has also allowed us to refine what it is that we do, who it is that we work with, and have confidence that there is a place for us in the market.  This is huge lifestyle change for us, but one that is right for us, and will allow us to expand on the reputation we have established.   We are now ready to move into the next phase of our business – but on our terms and when we are ready for it.  

Here at WBS Accountants we offer a level of personal support to our clients not normally available at an affordable price throughout all their business phases – what phases of your life has influenced your business?

For more information on WBS Accountants visit their website or contact Dona info@wbsaccountants.co.uk 

Here’s our Vicki with a big cheesy grin at this years NE Women Entrepreneur of the Year Awards 2011.

Vicki won ‘The Best Women’s Network’ category for Newcastle Business Mums, which she set up in November 2008.

Newcastle Business Mums is the first business network specifically set up to support and encourage business between mums/mams with their own businesses in the North East. There’s no annual membership fee, you pay as you go to regular evening networking events (without children),  which makes it ideal for ‘mums on the go’.

Following a successful career in advertising, Vicki set up her own marketing and digital design company (Vicki Stone Marketing), which she runs with her husband and business partner Richard Stone.

Back in 2008 Vicki tried some local business networks, but felt a bit ‘rusty’ and decided that she hated networking.

Vicki says ” I was creeping around to get dressed before the kids were up to be at a breakfast meeting for 7am for a Full English and she thought, this isn’t for me, so had an idea to set up a mums network.”

After organising and running the first Gosforth Baby show in 2008, Vicki talked to many of the exhibitors (most of which were business mums) and felt inspired by others to go ahead and set it up. Then Newcastle Business Mums was born. 

“I’m really pleased to have come away with such a prestigious award and would like to thank my husband Richard Stone for all the support. We’ve always had a great ‘behind the scenes’ team with inspiring members like Dona Skaife from WBS Accountants, Debbie Donaldson from Pushy Mothers, Catherine Eve from Butterfly training and Sarah Parkin from Kids Deserve the best.”

We’re not part of a franchise. Vicki has created this network from scratch, with no outside funding which has meant lots of hard work and it’s certainly paid off.

In November 2011, Newcastle Business Mums will be 3 years old and to celebrate we’re holding an event on Wednesday 30th November 2011, 7.30pm at The Settle down cafe, Newcastle.

In celebration of our 3rd birthday Kate Emmett from Cake Poppins will be demonstrating the art of making cake pops and mums can even have a go themselves!

As always there will be lots of networking and a charity raffle.

We’d like Newcastle Business Mums to vote for the charity they’d like us to donate the money to, which will be drawn at random on the evening of the event.

When’s the event? Wednesday 30th November 2011, 7.30pm-10pm.

Where? Settledown Cafe,  62 Thornton Street, Newcastle Upon Tyne NE1 4AW.

How much? £12 per ticket & includes light refreshments (and cake pops). Online payments can no longer be taken, so if you’d like to come to the event please email vicki@vickistonemarketing.co.uk and you will need to bring cash on the evening. Thanks.

Looking forward to seeing you on 30th November!