Success Stories from Making It
These ladies all know that it’s all about attitude; they all share these attributes and are all highly successful…………….
Emma Harrison – A4e Ltd
Emma Harrison is well known as the charismatic and respected chairman, owner and founder of A4e Ltd. She has succeeded in turning a small regional training provider, founded in 1991, into an international, multi award winning company. Her philosophy is to ‘inspire, encourage and elevate’. Her policy of business diversification has taken the company into new markets that enable the realisation of her overall goal to improving people’s lives.
www.A4e.co.uk
Steph Cutler Open Eyed
Open Eyed is a leading influence in the area of disability consultancy in the UK.
Founder, Steph Cutler is a popular writer and professional speaker. Her articles have
been published by the BBC, Disability Now! and Handbag.com. She has a commercial background and worked previously in designing, marketing, buying and sales for companies such as Ted Baker and suppliers to Marks and Spencer.
www.openeyed.co.uk
Josephine LaVey - LaVey Corsetry and Clothing:
Josephine designs and manufactures unique corsetry and clothing that caters for all sizes. Josephine overcame dyslexia and turned around a misspent youth to gain a degree, an award from Prince Charles, and has become a successful businesswoman creating and selling her products around the world. After trading for less than a year, Josephine began to export her original designs. Her business continues to go from strength to strength.
www.laveycorsets.co.uk
Sarah Pharo - Pharo Communications:
Sarah created a Public Relations company servicing the needs of the agricultural sector, based in Stoneleigh, Warks. She began the company while her family was still young, and built her business to great success. However, she feels she forfeited her family life in the process. Not achieving balance is a regret that she has addressed by spending more time with her grown up daughters and their families. To achieve this she has empowered her staff to make decisions and work with autonomy. Her company has recently expanded into South Africa.
www.pharoweb.co.uk
www.pharoweb.co.za
Dawn Gibbins (MBE) - Flowcrete Group Plc:
Flowcrete began as a partnership between Dawn and her Dad, for a £1 each. Dawn’s father devised flooring which could not be eroded by sugar in the garden shed whilst Dawn sold the product to companies such as Mars. Flowcrete is now the world’s leading specialist flooring and decking business, backed by a global support network of eight factories and 26 sales offices worldwide. Dawn recently sold the company for millions of pounds. As Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year, and voted ‘Most Influential Person in British Manufacturing’, Dawn was the youngest industrialist to be invested with an MBE for Services to UK Industry. A keen Feng Shui practitioner, she has devised a ‘barefoot philosophy’ which brings a holistic approach to UK lifestyles. She is now known as ‘The Barefoot Entrepreneur’ and has begun two new
businesses.
www.flowcrete.com
www.barefoot-floors.com
www.barefoot-laundry.com
As the founder of one of the UK’s most successful food companies, Perween was
originally inspired by the need to get better quality Indian food in stores. The company (named after her sons Sadiq and Abid) now employs 900 staff and has a turnover of £65m. It supplies major retailers in the UK and has now expanded into Europe. Perween was awarded an MBE in 1997, followed by a CBE in 2002. She won Woman Entrepreneur of the World Award in 1996, and was given a seat on the Confederation of British Industry’s National Committee in 2002. S&A has been the UK’s fastest-growing independent food manufacturer for five consecutive years. The company was a finalist in the 1997 Sunday Times Business Awards.
www.sa-foods.com
From stand up comic to founder of i-to-i. When Deirdre founded the ethical travel company i-to-i.com her aim was to challenge traditional ideas in the travel industry. Her company works in partnership with hundreds of locally run projects around the world. The company has grown into an international organisation with offices in the UK, USA, Ireland and Australia, with a worldwide team of 130 passionate, dedicated travel-lovers. i-to-i is now responsible for sending around 5000 people a year to support 500 worthwhile projects in 5 continents and also train a further 15,000
people as TEFL teachers. She has recently sold her company for several million pounds and has created a new role as a motivational speaker.
www.deirdrebounds.com
www.i-to-i.com
Karen Wilbourn and Fiona Oxley - Lello Ltd:
Lello is a UK-based design agency, set up by two sisters based in Leicestershire who
create and sell handmade cards in the UK and abroad. They are recent winners of the coveted ‘Henries’ award. Success to them is the family approach: bringing their sons to work, where they have set up an onsite crèche facility. They also employ many part-time workers, mainly women on term time contracts, and students. They have fantastic loyalty within their workforce.
www.lellodirect.com
Lynne Franks, SEED Women’s Enterprise Programme
Best known as a major figure in PR, who ran her own agency from the 1970s–1990s. Lynne founded London Fashion Week and started the British Fashion Awards. The character of Edina in the TV series ‘Absolutely Fabulous’ is rumoured to be based on elements of her character. Lynne sold her business when she realised that she didn’t like the person she had become and dropped out of the working world to discover who she really was. She returned to business to concentrate on women’s issues. In 2004 Lynne adapted her highly successful SEED Handbook (Hay House) into an in-depth training programme to teach entrepreneurial women how to start and sustain a business. The SEED Enterprise Programme is a four-month programme and the first of its kind. SEED is currently being delivered throughout the UK.
www.seednetwork.com