Well I’ve done it – I’ve achieved my first year in business!  I don’t know where the time has gone, but I do know that I started out last September and already the twelve months are up!

And what an interesting time it’s been.  I’ve managed to meet up with people that I haven’t seen for years and it’s been fabulous to rekindle those lost relationships.  I’ve also met a lot of new people who are extremely positive and energetic and have turned out to be great colleagues, making me proud to have them as part of my network.
One of the biggest learning curves for me during the last twelve months has been that of working for myself, by myself.  It takes a great deal of self motivation and drive, but also a wide knowledge of skills from PC support to marketing, administration and above all, time management!  I’m getting the hang of it all, but it’s taken time.

What has been great is the work that I’ve had the opportunity to do.  I’ve been fortunate enough to be involved in a variety of activities thanks to some very special friends and colleagues.  It’s been as extreme as organising staff opinion questionnaires and providing feedback for their action plans for improvement, carrying out research, running facilitation and customer care skills workshops, running sessions to prepare for interviews including CV writing, personal coaching,  speaking at conferences and being a judge for the National Customer Service Awards.  I’ve also carried out some cultural audits and I’m in the process of helping one company to go for national accreditation.  All the feedback has been very positive, which gives me the courage of my convictions to carry on doing the things I love to do, ie help others develop their potential.

I’ve spent an awful lot of time recently updating my suite of workshops, specifically

• Time management skills – managing your time more effectively by working smarter
• Internal communications – how to write communications that are understood first time
• High performing teams
• Customer Care skills that make you stand out from the crowd
• Facilitation skills to get the most out of every meeting

And I have to say that I’m really pleased with the outcome.  Each one is highly interactive.  Delegates go away from each workshop with renewed energy, a whole lot of practical hints and tips to put into practice as soon as they get back to the workplace as well as an action plan to keep them on track.  If you’re interested in any of the above workshops or would like to discuss some other development need specific to your company, please give me a call on the number below.

Not only do I continually look at what is best practice for others, but I also like to keep my own skills up to date.  This year I have become

• a self managed learning advisor with the Centre for Self Managed Learning
• an accredited facilitator for Business in the Community
• accredited in psychology through Study House

I’m also in the process of becoming an accredited user of a diagnostic tool for measuring cultures in organisations – something that you all know is close to my heart.  It brings additional credibility to the work we undertake in developing organisational cultures through the delivery of hard measurement.  This should help businesses recognise how important it is to develop a culture that fits their business strategy rather than dismissing it as the pink and fluffy stuff as it’s been seen in the past!

Another venture that I’ve branched out into is starting up a monthly women’s networking meeting.  It’s part of 1230 The Women’s Company which enables local women to share their business interests, offer support and collaboration over a lunchtime meeting.  We meet every 2nd Thursday at The Golden Bengal in Friern Barnet between 12.30 and 2pm.  If you’d like to find out more about this please give me a call or look on the website – www.thewomenscompany.com

As the Chair of the Barnet Education Business Partnership I have enjoyed working with the board and the team to make sure we continually improve our proposition to the 14-19 year old population.  We have had an interesting year, being assessed in November last year and I’m pleased to say that we were accredited with flying colours.  We work with schools to prepare their students for the world of work.  We are extremely reliant on business volunteers to be involved in our programmes.  If you’d like to volunteer to help out on workshops such as Presentation Matters which helps students to present more effectively, please contact one of the project managers at the BEBP on 020 8359 3420.  Most sessions last for half a day or less.

And finally to keep me busy, I have also started working with a company called The Best Practice Club.  They are a  membership organisation that facilitate the promotion and implementation of best practice through a host of activities ranging from benchmarking events, action learning days (workshops), networking events and online business help through notice boards as well as case studies.  The membership is diverse covering both the public and the private sector.  If you’re interested in finding out more about them, either visit the website on www.bpclub.com or give me a call.
Plans for the next 12 months are well underway.  I’m going to be doing more of the same but utilising some of my workshops in different ways.  In addition to what I currently do, I’ve decided to run sessions locally so that if you only have a couple of people that have a specific development requirement that is one of my specialities, you can send them along.

That’s it for now.  Please give me a call to discuss any of the content in more detail.  It would be great to hear from you!  All the very best …