Mary Flavelle's Blog

Proud to be British

maryflavelle — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 19:30:06 +0000

Partied at the Weekend at Cliveden Rocks. Rolling Bones and Abba again were awesome. We went last year and what did we forget? The rain! There it was again in all its glory – peeing down. One of the best things about being British is whatever the weather – deal with it. So we packed picnics, chairs, food, drink, candles and of course umbrellas. In true Brit-Grit style we dug in. Found our spot amongst the rest of the fab almost 4000 people and rocked away to music full of memories and better days. The firework display was incredible and no matter what the weather we will be back again next year. Never mind the Recession = I am joining the band of Brit – Grit – it has so much more going for it.

Posted in Keller Membership, Ladies Who Latte, SHEplc, Women in Business Tagged: Abba, Bones, Brit-Grit, British, music, Recession, Rolling, style

Entrepreneurs of the future

maryflavelle — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:09:13 +0000

Two little girls aged 11 knocked my door and asked if they could clean my car for £2.50. It was pouring with rain, but they seemed so keen. I agreed and handed them both bin bags to shelter inside whilst they worked. I have a webcam on the drive and watched them scrub and wipe. Worried for the coat of my lovely little MG I spotted one of the girls taking photos. These days of technology and me a camera freak – I secretly photographed them cleaning the car, also just in case I needed it for police evidence at a later date in case I got robbed!! Not paranoid as you can see. I was so impressed I paid the little darlings £2.50 each and mentioned the photo they had taken. Because my car was so nice they wanted to show their Mums that they were working. I surprised them with a present as a Thank You. 4 photos of the pair of them at work – how cool was I – well at least the girls thought it was cool. Bless them I hope they come back next week. (They will probably be back tomorrow). Moral is – don’t be bored – go out and get a job no matter what it is and things will happen you never dreamed of.

Posted in Women in Business

Mary goes International

maryflavelle — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 18:38:43 +0000

Had an amazing day today and met some very influential ladies from Malaysia. There is a lot of support for women in business in Malaysia and this group have been selected to support all women in business by the Malaysian Government. Networking has become big business in Malaysia. Our first successful meeting of a Declaration of Interest to launch in KL met today. Mary is now associated of The Federation of Female Entrepreneurs, Malaysia, and looking forward to the future.

Posted in Ladies Who Latte, SHEplc, Women in Business Tagged: associated, Business, Declaration, Entrepreneurs, Federation, Female, future, Government, influential, Interest, Ladies, launch, Malaysia, networking, partner, successful, support

Ladies Who Latte

maryflavelle — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 22:26:53 +0000

Our Latte Leaders are very special ladies. Their business is supporting women who would like to start their own business -no matter how small, and offer friendship, advice, contacts and business leads. People do business with people they know and women are such great communicators – there is no problem getting down to business as soon as you arrive and meet all others in the group. You can chose to have a ’round the table’ chat and introduce yourself to everyone attending, or just move around groups which seem to form naturally. Venues range from coffee bars to hotels and restaurants. We have been welcomed everywhere, after all we are bringing business into some places at a very quiet time of day. All the ladies have to do when they turn up – is purchase their own coffee and join in, it is as simple as that.

Larger companies are beginning to approach us with special offers for days out and discounts, all of which are being passed on to our members.

One year after it’s conception Sharon Connelly asked “Networking Queen” Mary Flavelle to hop on board and assist with the running and promoting of the organization which continues to thrive, and grow.

We have amazing success stories of women making connections and being given opportunities that they never could have dreamed of finding on their own.

We are women with imagination, drive, enthusiasm and hope and we are enjoying sharing out success because:

There is no point being fabulous on your own

Posted in Ladies Who Latte Tagged: advice, Business, coffee, communicators, connections, contacts, drive, enthusiasm, fabulous, friendship, imagination, Ladies, Latte, networking, success, venues, women

Do your own PR

maryflavelle — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 14:36:20 +0000

Recently I had Tessa Harris, Editor of Berkshire Life as a speaker at my SHEplc event. Tessa adviced everyone in business to get into the habit of writing their own press releases and keep sending them to all the local papers and magazines. They may not all get published but media will call upon reliable people and those who always have something to say. Check out how well you are doing by putting your name into Google and see how many spaces you take up on the first page.

Do not underestimate the power of the pen – it is still strong stuff and can be free of charge. You can sent your CV to Berks Life, they are always looking for new information. Check out the advice from Tessa on their website: www.berkshire-life.co.uk and get into the habit of writing down what you do and sharing it with the business community. If you are not in print – it is your own fault, so do something about it.

Posted in Keller Membership, Ladies Who Latte, SHEplc, Women in Business Tagged: adviced, Berkshire, Business, CV, Editor, event, free, Google, habit, Life, local, Magazine, media, papers, power, press, releases, reliable, sharing, SHEplc, speaker, underestimate, writing

Creating the wrong impression by email

maryflavelle — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 17:01:35 +0000

Some people really have the art of writing a great email, you can almost see them smiling when you read it. Others who state each word very clearly and detail what you have done wrong or how much they have been inconvenienced by your error - really come across as rude people you don’t want to know. Also you have never met this person so how do you reply?

Don’t reply is the first reaction, and then you realise you can’t do that – a reply is needed, so I managed a factual one apologising for all the inconveniece and how much time I now too had wasted trying to send a polite reply.

Fair Call?

Posted in Ladies Who Latte, Women in Business Tagged: apologise, email, error, fair, inconvenienced, reaction, realise, reply, rude, wasted

Mary’s blogging!

maryflavelle — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 13:24:08 +0000

Networking opportunity for Women in Business to meet and greet at another forum. My business is knowing your business so I can drive clients in your direction.

Thanks to Alice from the fabulous Design Your Marketing I have now got a blog to bother you all with. Watch this space!!

Posted in Ladies Who Latte, SHEplc, Women in Business Tagged: Business, clients, design, marketing, networking, opportunity, women