Santander hosted two ‘Women in Breakthrough’-themed events in April this year, reuniting members of business network Enterprising Women and the Breakthrough programme. Female delegates gathered at the two separate morning sessions to hear from a range of expert speakers, exchange their own views and renew links with each other.
“There were a huge amount of relevant points. It has definitely been worth taking time out from the business. You gain so much from occasions like this.” Teresa Boughey, JungleHosted by Leeds University Business School and in London at Westminster University, both events were introduced by Head of Breakthrough John Williams. He recalled the two previous ‘Women in Breakthrough’ trade missions to New York as examples of Santander’s support for female entrepreneurship. These missions took place in 2012 and 2013 and comprised all-female delegates from sectors ranging from publishing to forensic technology. The delegates on the first trade mission formed a LinkedIn group, which subsequently welcomed the second round of mission delegates the following year, allowing everyone to share contacts and insights. Women in Breakthrough Women in Breakthrough events aim to bring together female entrepreneurs who have already had some involvement with the Breakthrough programme. “Constructing a specific Women in Breakthrough element within the programme gives us a way of bringing women together so they can collaborate and hopefully benefit from each other’s experience,” explains Breakthrough’s Head of Partnerships, Marie Woodcock. “We also wanted to ensure that we created a platform that would enable people to stay in touch and give us a clearer idea about what participants want from Breakthrough and what they found the benefits to be.” Shaa Wasmund, founder and CEO of business network Smarta, and a speaker at at the London event, agrees. “There is immense opportunity for women in business and foremost within that is collaboration,” she says. The Leeds event The first session at the Leeds event was ‘PR For Your Business’ by Graham Poucher, Senior Press Officer at marketing company Welcome to Yorkshire. He explained how PR can be a powerful and cost-effective tool for SMEs looking to reach the public. Announcing a milestone event in your company’s growth is a worthwhile PR opportunity for small businesses. He also recommended developing relationships with journalists who can help get your message across, but to ensure that your news is relevant before approaching any media outlets.
"The whole day was tailored to us. This felt as if people were genuinely thinking about what we need. That’s what made it different.” Emma Hammett, Founder and CEO of First Aid for LifeGermaine Machin-Cowen, a solicitor at Walker Morris, was next to present with ‘Employment Law and Intellectual Property Rights’ and provided an overview of watch-points for small businesses as employers. She explained the importance of keeping up with changes in employment law and methodically following best practice across all aspects of recruitment and employee relations. Walker Morris colleague Samantha Lucas stepped in to outline the key points of intellectual property rights, highlighting the importance of protecting design, brands, innovations and all creative aspects of the business. She offered a key piece of advice: to check whether your company’s website design and the coding behind any transactional areas of the site are owned by the business or by a third-party website developer. Discovering that a third-party holds the intellectual property rights to such an essential part of one’s business is alarmingly common, Samantha revealed. Dr Nicola Bown, a Senior Lecturer in Organizational Psychology, gave the final presentation at the Leeds event: ‘Understanding Decision-Making: Getting It Right, More Often. She offered a fascinating psychological insight into how we often believe we are following rigorous criteria when we make decisions, when in fact we can all too easily fall into the trap of ‘satisficing’, that is, compromising on our most exacting requirements without considering the potential consequences. She also showed how we frequently take decisions based on what we think we know, when in fact our assumptions are faulty. Delegate Lucy Goetz, a freelance social media adviser, believed the Leeds event struck a good balance between valuable content and networking. “I’ve attended events that have been too formal and I don’t enjoy really informal networking occasions either,” she says. “This did seem to have the right tone.” The London event The London event opened with ‘Smarta, Social Media and Marketing For Your Business’, presented by Shaa Wasmund. She not only made a compelling case for the value of social media to small businesses, but also testified as to how building networks can provide a tried and tested route to entrepreneurial success, when combined with plenty of hard work, of course. Julie Jones and Frank Jennings of DMH Stallard Solicitors gave another presentation on employment law and intellectual property rights. Julie predicted that we will see more atypical employment contracts and a greater shift towards flexible working in the future. She also said that secondments – sharing employees between businesses, a practice prevalent among larger organisations – is an exercise that the SME sector could well benefit from adopting. Such insights into human resources were of particular benefit to Teresa Boughey, CEO of HR company Jungle. Teresa realised that several topics raised, from copyright to communication, would need her attention in the near future. “There were a huge amount of relevant points,” she says. “It has definitely been worth taking time out from the business. You gain so much from occasions like this.” Head of Breakthrough John Williams closed the sessions at the London event, with a seminar on business management. He explained how to secure the right kind of customer and prompted a lively discussion on the relative merits of transactional and relationship-based customers. A tailored event Emma Hammett, founder and CEO of First Aid training provider First Aid for Life, was particularly impressed by the London event, feeling that the sessions were relevant to her business. “I’ve been on courses before that have not been targeted well,” she says. “This [event] was very relevant to me as a small business. The whole day was tailored to us. This felt as if people were genuinely thinking about what we need. That’s what made it different.” ________________________________________