It has been just over a month since GVS Co. visited the Festival of Female Entrepreneurs in Bristol. This event was organised by Enterprise nation and was an opportunity to hear talks from a mix of different speakers, get advice from companies who offer help to start-ups and to meet other Female entrepreneurs.
The schedule was jam packed so we had to pick between all the events to make the most effective plan for the day and it looked a little bit like this:
- Show me the money
- How I built a business online
- Massive milestones – how to achieve your goals
- Finance your business
- How to turn a blog into a business
- Social media for small businesses
The image below is of the ‘How to turn your blog into a business’ talk. These woman had created three very different businesses online and it was interesting to hear how they had got there. For example we heard from Sophie Bush who set up My Warehouse Home and she had quite a direct route into the business, as she had come from a publishing background and sounded like she knew exactly the strategy she was going to take and where she wanted to get to. Natasha Courtney Smith however had fallen into it more by accident as it was a by product of her journalism career, but now her blog is a booming business and provides most of her work.
We also heard from the lovely lady who set up ‘Too Fat to Run’. Julie created this blog after she had started to run and was faced with a lot of negativity and a lack of support and information for people in a similar situation. She did a talk about hitting major milestones and in fact she was doing one herself by standing on stage and talking to a packed room of people. I had the pleasure of talking with her after and she explained how terrified she was by the whole thing and how she had been training for the past year to get her to that point. It was very motivational to hear about her journey and how successful she has become and I really loved the fact that she inspires people to get active and gives them a positive role model in occasions where might be very few to turn to.
The biggest thing that I took out of the day however, was my discussions with the Start Up Loans Company. I had always been quite worried about considering a loan as being in debt is always something I try to stay away from, however after speaking with people from the company and listening to a talk from someone who had received a loan, it definitely mad wit seem a less daunting idea and is something we are going to consider in the future. The other great thing about the Start-up Loans company is that they provide you with a dedicated mentor for a year to help you along the way and to ensure you are doing everything you can to create an effective business.
Two people that I also need to give a nod to are Emma Jones, the founder of Enterprise Nation, who is such an approachable person, an absolute font of knowledge and is happy to stand and chat to everyone, no matter how big or small your idea is. The second person is Alison Edgar, who has recently become the Enterprise Nation Champion for the South West and runs a company called Sales Coaching Solutions. She also was more than happy to introduce me to loads of interesting people and it was so useful to speak to someone with so much knowledge!
We really had such a great day at this event. It really kicked started a lot of progress for GVS Co. hence why it has taken us so long to write this post! As ever the company keeps progressing and we step ever closer to being able to launch the brand. We are very excited!
GVS Co. x
Copyright 2015 London Surf / Film Festival
