ACPR Blog

Get inspired when you hear Antonia share her tips for promoting your business or talk about how becoming a mumpreneur changed her life, and can change yours too.

March 2010

24th March Practical PR For South East Womens Business Service in association with the Athena Network and 1066 Enterprise

April 2010

21st April Antonia is speaking to the West London Businessmums’ Networking Lunch Times and ticket to be announced shortly

26th April Antonia is visiting Networking Mummies Dorset to run two Masterclasses and answer questions over lunch

May 2010

16th May Get great Mumpreneur Tips, Harrow when Antonia Chitty speaks to Excelsya.

28th May Q and A with Mums the Boss Leicestershire

June 2010

27^thJune Brighton Baby Expo Brighton Racecourse & Conference Centre 10am-4.30pm

September 2010

18th September The Mumpreneur Conference

October 2010

5th October The Business Mums Conference Brighton

If you’re looking for an inspiring day networking and learning new skills to take your business, go to Women Unlimited’s conference on March the 8th.Women Unlimited have kindly offered readers the chance to win a ticket to the conference. Follow the link to let me know that you’d like to enter. 

All entries must be in by Midnight 28th February 2010. Find out more about the Stepping into Success conference here.

Check in every week with ACPR to get new ideas to help you market your business. This week we’re looking at your marketing your business through events. Events are a great way to reach new audiences, build your company reptation and grow your list of interested potential customers as well as make sales. I’m aiming to speak at one event each month this year: what programme of events could help you grow your business? Think about the following sorts of events and start researching ones that you could attend:

1. Conferences
2. Exhibitions and trade fairs
3. Consumer exhibitions, fairs and fetes
4. Festivals
5. Speaking opportunities
6. Seminars
7. Workshops and small group events

Ask the organisers for details of the sort of person and numbers attending so you can weigh up if the event is right for you. Build the events into your marketing plan so you can plan in advance and make the most of them.For more ideas to help your business grow, buy A Guide to Promoting Your Business: The Ultimate Workbook for Business Owners by Antonia Chitty.

The Retail Excellence masterclass, part of the We Mean Business events for female entrepreneurs, is tailored to women in the retail sector and focuses on how to increase sales and minimise costs to grow your profit margins.

After a decade of growth, the retail and service industry is facing up to a harsh new reality: only the fittest will survive. The need to streamline the business offer to ensure that profit is maximised without compromising quality has become a necessity.

The ‘Retail Excellence’ event is an engaging, content rich masterclass. This event includes the following sessions:

The right people, right service
Building effective relationships is essential to successful retailing. We will look at your relationships with staff, clients and suppliers. Are your relationships working for or against you?

The right product, right place, right time
Is your stock working as hard as you? This event will teach you the art of merchandising to ensure that stock is selling itself. We cannot be in all places at all times, so stock must be presented perfectly to maximise sales, after all, “retail is detail!”

Costs and profit
We will look at how you can cut costs and not quality, losing excess and becoming a leaner, healthier business machine. We must remember that a recession, although painful, is temporary and we must maintain our momentum for the future; cutting quality could be disastrous!

Book onto this event:
Wednesday 29 April 2009, 15:30 to 20:00
Cost: Free
Location: Tower Hill, London

Free Crèche facilities
Complimentary crèche facilities are available at the event on a first come first served basis.

The BIG Event 2010 by Herts of Business takes place on 4th March at The Fielder Conference Centre in Hatfield Business Park. It offers the chance for businesses to not only to hear what the best of the best are up to but also gain practical tips and advice as well as networking with key members of the business community.

The BIG Event is being organised by a leading independent Hertfordshire company and encompasses keynote speakers, workshops, roundtable discussions, seminars and networking time. Big Event Speakers & Panelists include:

- Julie Meyer
- Penny Power
- Andy Lopata
- Alan Stevens
- Mark Shaw
- Mindy Gibbins-Klein
- Christopher Jones-Warner
- David McQueen
- Grant Leboff
- Dexter Moscow (more…)

The deadline for generous early bird rates for the Prowess Conference is next week, Friday 16th January.  This has been extended by one week in response to numerous requests from delegates facing a post new year flurry!

The Annual Conference is widely acknowledged as the key event in the women’s enterprise calendar and always sells out so don’t delay in booking your place.  To take advantage of the discounted rates please book and pay for your place by 16th January.

The programme has been designed to deliver up to the minute information and debate in business support policy and practice in a creative and interactive environment.  Speakers and presenters include: Professor Germaine Greer, writer and academic, Ann Marie Almeida of the US Association of Women’s Business Centres, and Hilary Devey founder of Pall- Ex and one of Channel 4’s Secret Millionaires.  Full details of the conference programme are below.

If you’ve not already done so, and would like to benefit from the early bird rate,  book today – click here to download your conference booking form and fax it to +44 (0)1603 227090.

Watch on ITV and call in to vote: I’m  choosing Alison of Arabella Miller.

Have you seen Arabella Miller’s lovely range of organic kids wear? If you like it as much as I do, you’ll be pleased to hear that Alison, the mumpreneur behind Arabella Miller, has got through to the Northern Final of ITV’s Mumpreneur Competition. Alison says, ” My semi-final will be 20 October (that’s a Monday).
I’ve set up a Facebook group here - it would be great if you could join it. If you missed my heats, you can see an editied version here: (scroll down). The next stage on 20 October will be a viewer phone vote.”

I’ll be watching and voting for Alison – don’t miss it.

Entries open for Home Business Awards
Enterprise Nation is  looking for some of the UK’s best home businesses for the second Home Business Awards competition. This year the Awards are bigger and better than ever! There are more prizes to be won – and new categories too. Read on to find out how you can enter.

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