Craft Your Way Through the Recession with 'Hours of Fun'

Craft enthusiast Rachel Garner is hoping to bring ‘Hours of Fun’ to Liverpool and beyond. Rachel’s haberdashery and craft shop can be found online at www.hoursoffun.co.uk and retails both homemade items ready-made, and craft kits to be able to make your own bits and bobs and maybe save some money during the recession.

Having come from a family of teachers, 32 year old Rachel had always felt the pressure to pursue a structured career path. She found herself working in admin and HR, but couldn’t resist the pull of her true passion which was crafts and creativity.
“I have been making my own cards and other bits for 10 or 12 years now”, said Rachel. “I just love making things. When I completed my certificate in training practice through my day job and found I’d got a distinction, it got me thinking about what else I could use those skills for.”

A friend Rachel met through a cake decorating course told her how The Women’s Organisation had helped her to set up her own business. Rachel decided to get in touch and see if she could turn her hobby into a business. Having never done a business plan before Rachel was really grateful for the help from her business adviser at the organisation and said “The template they gave me was amazing”.
At first Rachel felt a little overwhelmed having never run a business before and said “after my first meeting I went home and said to my hubby ‘I just can’t do it’. It’s great to see where I am now. I couldn’t have done it without The Women’s Organisation”.

Rachel also attended training courses around book keeping and understanding tax and national insurance with the organisation which she found were “really useful and good for meeting other people”.

As well as an online store ‘Hours of Fun’ are going to be launching training courses in the new year, offering opportunity for adults to meet together to learn a craft such as card making, or to add a bit of fun to a children’s party decorating your own cup-cakes, or painting your own pots.

“My dream is to bring crafts to all ages to inspire creativity and home crafting” she enthused. “Crafts are really back in fashion. I think with the recession people are looking for cheaper options. Crafts can be the fun and affordable way forward.”
Reflecting on the currently popular show ‘Kirstie’s Handmade Britain’ with Kirstie Allsop Rachel said “Much like Kirstie I just love trying lots of different crafts and like to think of myself as a ‘jack of all crafts’, but my favourites at the moment are card making and felting.”

Having turned her dream into reality and launched her own business, Rachel said “It’s been a huge learning curve. I am lucky to have a good support network of family and friends who all have a variety of skills and have been able to help me along the way. If someone else were to ask me for advice on setting up a business I would say contact The Women’s Organisation before you do, attend all the classes for the information and the people you meet, and do it at a speed that suits you. I am a person who likes to carefully research things before jumping in. Sometimes in doing that I found myself making excuses to other people as to why I wasn’t pushing things along faster. But I have realised that it is better to go at your own speed and do all the research first.”

To find out more about Hours of Fun, visit their website www.hoursoffun.co.uk or email Rachel on Rachel.hoursoffun@yahoo.com

If like Rachel you would like to turn your hobby into a profitable business then contact The Women’s Organisation to see what free support is on offer on 0151 706 8111 or info@thewo.org.uk

Maggie O'Carroll is 'Woman of the Year' - Livercool 2011

Downtown Liverpool held their prestigious 'Livercool' awards ceremony celebrating local business success in Crowne Plaza last Thursday night. The Women's Organisation were delighted to see a number of our clients among the nominees including: Emma Dolan of Your Business Ezine - Nominated in the Marketer 2011 category, Kayleigh & Talia Baccino of Trendy Vend- Nominated in the Young Entrepreneur 2011 category and Victoria Brown of High Performance Consultancy who was the eventual winner of Young Entrepreneur 2011.

The biggest cheer of the night came when our very own CEO Maggie O'Carroll was deservedly named 'Woman of the Year'. Maggie founded The Women’s Organisation (formally Train 2000) in 1996 and has grown it into the largest UK-based women’s economic development social enterprise. This has enabled Maggie to pursue her passion for women’s enterprise - having a real, positive impact on women’s lives, whether nurturing new businesses towards a viable future, driving improvements in legislation and power structures or contributing to social awareness. This year the physical realisation of her commitment to women's economic development came to life with the creation of WICED (Women's International Centre for Economic Development). The £5.3m development opened its doors in Liverpool to the first groups of local women in January 2011 and is continuing to build momentum as both a centre for women's enterprise and development, as well as an international research hub to promote gender equality.

A massive congratulations to Maggie and all of the winners and nominees.

Conference and Meeting Centre - 54 St James Street

54 St James Street is a stunning and unique new building conveniently located between the pioneering Baltic Triangle and Liverpool’s China Town and minutes’ walk from Liverpool One and Bold Street.

Completed in January 2011, the centre is designed to provide a light, modern, welcoming and distinctive addition to city life.

This fully accessible and flexible venue is a perfect location to host business meetings, conferences or private events. A range of individually styled rooms appropriate for gatherings of 2 to 150 people are available for hire for as little as an hour.

Our private garden provides relaxing external space within the venue, and the two fourth floor terraces provide chilled-out, music enhanced, reception spaces with excellent views of the City.

With friendly reception staff, complimentary wireless access throughout the building and a range of audio visual facilities including integrated data projectors, blu-ray players and smart boards; plasma screens for projection or TV; and video conferencing facilities this building meets the needs of people who require a highly professional service in a contemporary setting.

Our Rooms











Roddick Rooms
A sophisticated venue with fabulous views of the River Mersey and Liverpool City, these rooms can be used as one or divided into two or three separate areas. Fully equipped with integrated audio-visual equipment these are elegant training, networking or social spaces.
The Roddick Rooms are very versatile; located on the fourth floor of the building and have easy access to external terraces.

Fawcett Room
A light, airy semi-circular room on our second floor the Fawcett is appropriate for networking and training events, can accommodate 36 cabaret style and 40 theatre style, or can be left as an open space for free circulation for slightly larger groups.

Keller; Parks and Simey Suites
The Suites are located on the first, second and third floor of the building, each is styled differently, but all have the same facilities of plasma screen; TV; integrated audio visual and IT. The Suites provide smart environments ideal for hosting client presentations, board meetings and staff development sessions.

Bebbington Lounge
The Bebbington Lounge is a relaxed yet vibrant space ideal for more informal meetings or interviews. Also works in conjunction with the Simey Suite as a reception and breakout space for development days.

Suu Kyi; Butler; Rathbone; Curie and Amos Rooms
These smaller meeting rooms are stylishly and comfortably designed to facilitate meetings of between 2 and 6 people.

We offer a 10% discount on room rates to tenants of the building and smaller charities/social enterprises with an annual turnover less than £250,000

For further information, including room capacity, viewings, a competative quote and bookings please phone Sandra, 0151 706 8100 or email venue@thewo.org.uk












54 St James Street is a development of The Women’s Organisation which works for women’s economic progress. The Women’s Organisation has been a non-profit distributing company since 1996 (formerly known as Train 2000). Our outlook is international. We promote entrepreneurship, innovation and sustainable business growth. We aim to enable women to achieve success and greater prosperity, to become leaders and to connect with each other. The building is a tangible representation of our values.

All rooms have natural ventilation as well as locally controlled heating and cooling systems. Sustainability is integral to the building design and in line with BREEAM Excellent standards.

On street parking is available for visitors, we have limited car parking spaces which can be reserved in advance for disabled visitors. A bicycle store and shower facilities are available for cyclists using the building.
Refreshments are available through our in-house team, catering is currently offered through local women led small businesses or social enterprise providers.

The Women’s Organisation, 54 St James Street, Liverpool, L1 0AB

From Redundancy to Self Employment Success for Stockport Mums

When facing redundancy friends of 9 years Sharon Edwards and Shelley Garrett saw it as an opportunity. Using their wealth of experience in the field of educational consultancy they set up ‘Quality First Training & Consultancy’ in Stockport and haven’t looked back.

Sharon said “When the government cuts came, Manchester was hit harder than anyone anticipated. Myself and colleagues within the field of education were offered severance packages. It was very daunting the thought of giving up a well-paid job, but the offer of the severance was both a push and a cushion at the same time. The opportunity to work for ourselves was scary and exciting in equal measures.”

Sharon, Shelley and other colleagues who were also facing redundancy and considering self-employment decided to share their contact details so as not to lose touch. Before they knew it they had created their own network of support for their fledgling businesses. Meeting the first Wednesday of the month at Metropolitan Pub in Didsbury, the former colleagues share information, offer emotional support to one another and share their wealth of skills and ideas. The group who also keep in contact via email circulation has proven invaluable for support and was the starting point of Sharon and Shelley finding out about the free business support available through The Women’s Organisation.

“The help from The Women’s Organisation was excellent”, said Sharon. “Our business adviser there Lisa was so clear and organised. We hadn’t really understood the need for a business plan really. I suppose we were just of the mind of ‘go out there and start doing’. But putting together the plan with Lisa’s help has really focussed us. We refer back to it constantly to see if we are meeting our targets, and the blurb that took us time to pull together for the plan we now use in our marketing. So it was well worth it.”

Both Sharon and Shelley’s friends and family have been a great support in helping them develop their business. Shelley’s partner offered support with photography for their promotional materials, Sharon’s daughter is helping them all the way from New Zealand to set up their website, Sharon’s brother in law supported them with accountancy advice and Shelley’s 15 month old son has been offering plenty of supportive smiles along the way.

Sharon said of their journey “We were always very resourceful in our previous employment, so I guess that prepared us for self-employment and learning new skills as we go. Having come through redundancy it’s almost like we rose from the ashes. Things are going well so far and the people who have accessed our consultancy services and attended our courses have given us very positive feedback so we are feeling optimistic about the future.”

Quality First Training and Consultancy offers specialist support in behaviour and attendance, emotional health and well-being and coaching. Between them, Shelley and Sharon bring a wealth of experience. Having both started out as classroom teachers then working as Behaviour Needs teachers they were asked to take on the role of Behaviour and Attendance Consultants. They were then able to roll out the national ‘Social and Emotional Aspects of Learning’ programme to Manchester schools, where their work was recognised nationally. With the added bonus of having worked in both primary and secondary education settings they can fully understand and appreciate all aspects of the day to day issues facing local schools and educational organisations. Quality First Services are broken down into 4 key areas:

• Quality First Consultancy
Offering schools, academies and settings bespoke consultancy in any area of behaviour and attendance.

• Quality First Training
A range of training packages available, e.g. behaviour management, improving attendance, using solution focused approaches, SEAL. These are available for delivery to whole staff or groups during staff meetings, twilights or training days. In addition support can be offered to plan, deliver and evaluate bespoke training events in your workplace and across networks.

• Quality First Behaviour Reviews
Behaviour reviews of various lengths, starting from 1 day, are available tailored to the specific focus identified and / or size of your school, academy or setting. A written report will be compiled with recommendations and discussed in detail at a follow up meeting.

• Quality First Coaching
Whatever your needs Quality First offer skilled and experienced coaches who can provide professional and personal coaching to support you to develop your capacity to find sustainable solutions to your challenges.

For more information on what Quality First Training and Consultancy can offer visit their website at www.qualityfirst.uk.com or contact them on 07415 705653 or info@qualityfirst.uk.com

And if like Sharon and Shelley you are looking for support to develop your own business then why not contact The Women’s Organisation on 0161 833 8800/0151 706 8111 or info@thewo.org.uk for more information on the FREE support available to women.

Stockport's Sian Finds 'Top Venues'

Having gained 10 years’ experience in the hospitality industry working for other people, Sian Pelleschi could see great potential for growth and slicker ways to run things. She said “Working for someone else there are always channels to go through before you can get a full ok on any decision.” Sian decided it was time to take the bull by the horns and set up her Manchester based company ‘Top Venues’.

Top Venues is a free and impartial venue finding service focusing on conferences, exhibitions, training, meetings and incentive events. Ensuring that the “focus is quality”, Sian is keen to let clients know that “we take it seriously. We work with clients from start to finish, find out preferences, budgets, what they are trying to get out of it. We’ve got a lot of good contacts with venues across the UK so can offer really good rates, sometimes better than if the client went to the venue directly. We go out and see the venues ourselves. We have the relationship so we can personally work out any problems. We act as a one point of call for the client, liaising with the venue and the client throughout the whole process right through to confirmation. We take a commission from the venue, which isn’t added onto the rates we quote the client, and even then we don’t leave you hanging. We follow up and see if there have been any issues.”

Having contacted Business Link to find support to start up, Sian was directed to The Women’s Organisation where she met with a business adviser locally to look over her business idea and work on her business plan. She said “It was really good. For the most part I felt like I knew what I was doing as I knew the industry, but I did just need that extra support and expertise in the areas I didn’t know about. I also went on some of the courses with The Women’s Organisation. It was great to meet people at the same stage with their business as me and to bat ideas around.”

It wasn’t an easy decision and Sian knew there were things to weigh up. “The scariest part of stepping out of employment and cutting a salary off was considering that I have a mortgage to pay. But I had lots of support. My family and friends were all pushing me to do it. Sometimes the people closest to you know more than you what your capabilities are. It’s surprising how many people said ‘yes you should go for it’. It’s going well so far and I’ve already started meeting new clients and helping with their events.”

Sian said of running her own business “It is the best thing I ever did. I feel so much more in control. I am able to meet clients personally, visit venues, make decisions of how to push things forward. The part I enjoy most is meeting new people, making contacts. There is a real sense of fulfilment when you can find the right venue for them. I am really looking forward to pushing this business forward, to have the type of company I always wanted to have. That’s the focus and that’s the drive.”

The most important thing to consider when starting a business according to Sian is to “make sure you are clear on what it is that you want to achieve. Prepare yourself for what you need to do, be aware of the legalities, do everything in an order, plan, put a date line in place. You can end up back tracking otherwise.”

As well as venue finding, Sian and Top Venues are branching out to offer full event planning services at an additional cost. If you are interested in finding out more about how you can use Top Venues to help you find the right setting for your event then contact help@top-venues.co.uk 0844 870 9963 or visit the website www.top-venues.co.uk

And if like Sian you are a woman who is interested in starting up your own business please contact The Women’s Organisation for free advice and support on 0151 706 8111 /0161 833 8800 or email info@thewo.org.uk Alternatively visit www.thewomensorganisation.org.uk

The Women's Organisation WICED Development

The Women's Organisation unveiled a first image of the proposed £5.3 m Women’s International Centre for Economic Development (WICED) back in September 2009. Work soon got underway on the development which is located in the Baltic Triangle area of Liverpool, on the corner of St James Street and Norfork Street.

What was a patch of bare wasteland now houses the fantastic new building which will provide a range of enterprise support services, including space for up to 80 business units to help women start and grow their businesses as well as serving as an international research hub for women's economic development.
The 2,000sqm centre aims to ‘break the gender gap’ in starting businesses and is expected to help 3,000 women set up businesses in the next 10 years. The project has been jointly-funded by WICED, the North West Development Agency, Future Builders and Liverpool Council.

The Women's Organisation have now started to house their first tenants and are happy to show interested parties around the building. Rates for rented office space depend on the size of the room and any additional services required e.g. telephone services. Those interested can express their requirements and receive a quote tailored to individual needs.

The virtual office and meeting room rates start from £15 plus VAT per month to rent a virtual office. Meeting rooms can be rented from £60 plus VAT per day with half day rates also available.

Tenants receive 10% discount on the cost of meeting room hire and by doing business in our new building, you can tap into a wealth of valuable resources including networking and business advice and support.

Call The Women's Organisation on 0151 706 8111 or email info@thewo.org.uk to arrange a viewing.

Photos by www.tonywestphoto.co.uk

Liverpool Woman Turns Photography Passion into a Business

Having worked for 10 years as a photographer for other people, Liverpool resident Emma Hillier took a moment to reflect. Her choices we apparent – either be a manager of someone else’s studio, which would involve less photography and more paperwork or branch out on her own and carry on doing what she loved – taking photographs.

Emma said “The whole thing was quite daunting at first. I didn’t know where to start and, as all the kit I had been using belonged to the studio I was employed at, I needed money for equipment so it was like starting from scratch. But I figured if you don’t try, you’re never going to know if you could do it.”

Not knowing where to begin Emma contacted Business Link for advice who put her in touch with The Women’s Organisation where she was linked with a business adviser. She said “I had a lot of help from my adviser. The whole thing with looking at the business plan was great. It helped me to realise what I wanted to do and put it in order. I could see where I was and where I wanted to go.”

Using her initiative Emma took photographs of friends’ weddings and portraits of friends’ children to start building up her portfolio again and things developed from there. Her friends and family weren’t surprised that she took the bold step to branch out on her own knowing her passion for photography and how keen she was to be behind the camera more.

As a tip to other women setting up Emma advised “You must do your market research – see what your competitors are doing, and you’ve got to be passionate about what you do and motivate yourself. I think being a woman in my industry can give me the competitive edge, particularly in photographing children. In my experience it seems that mums can be more trusting of other women and feel more at ease.”

Emma also took advantage of the FREE courses on offer at The Women’s Organisation around basic book keeping, understanding tax and national insurance and promoting your business online. “It can get lonely working for yourself” said Emma. “I have gone from working in an office with a team of other people to working on my own. That’s why I enjoy the courses and events: it helps you feel less isolated.”
Online networking through sites like facebook Emma has discovered to be invaluable for building links and word of mouth marketing. In fact she said she has gathered more work that way than through any other marketing.

Starting her own business Emma says is “The best decision” she ever made. Emma Hillier Photography specialise in children and family portraits and weddings, also producing landscape images as art for the home. For more information on their services you can search for their fanpage on facebook or get in touch via contact@emmahillierphotography.com or 07919 091 211.

And, if like Emma you are interested in starting up your own business call The Women’s Organisation on 0151 706 8111 and find out about the range of FREE services we can offer. You can also email info@thewo.org.uk or visit www.thewomensorganisation.org.uk