Diane Stephenson

The Women for Women project comes to an end!,

The Women 4 Women Project was a project which ran throughout 2007 and was a project which provided business start-up & business development support for women entrepreneurs in the East Midlands. It was run by an organisation called Employment and Training Links Ltd (ETL) after they were successful in securing the contract from East Midlands Development Agency (EMDA) to do so in the latter part of 2006. Organisations like my own Company Everything Solutions Ltd were then invited to deliver a range of Business & Management Coaching, Mentoring, Business Advice, and Business Training to women who signed on to the project and who needed our skills.

Listen to Diane Stephenson talking about the Women for Women project:

The project was funded by the EMDA with support from the European Social Fund.

It followed 4 phases where a range of business advice, mentoring, coaching and business training was made available to participants according to their individual needs:

• Idea development before individuals embarked on their business in helping them progress their business ideas
• Life planning – help in planning how they were going to juggle competing priorities
• Business planning - help to formulate the business plan.
• Post start-up & development mentoring – after the business was started there was help available to develop their business and ideas further.
  

Financial support has been available in the form of funding towards childcare and funding towards essential items of equipment, marketing or specialist training courses.

The project helped over 200 women in less than 12 months and even now after the project is closed; women are still coming forward asking if we can help them.

A key strength of the project has been that it was a flexible program which enabled us to tailor the support to the specific needs of each individual. Unfortunately the financial support for the project came to an end in December and unless we can find alternative funding there will be no more support available through this project.

To celebrate the success of the project everyone was invited to a big Awards Ceremony on 1st December 2007 at Clumber Park, near Nottingham.

What did the Awards Ceremony mean to ETL?

Well, it was a chance for ETL and, all of us who have provided business advice or coaching to the participants throughout the life of the project, to celebrate the success of the project with the women who have benefited from it. This was ETL saying thank you and well done.

What did the Awards Ceremony mean to the women who benefited from the project?

The event was a clear recognition of their efforts, their sacrifices and a chance to let their hair down a bit and celebrate their own achievements. For their respective businesses it has also been an opportunity for some extra publicity, especially if they won one of the prizes.

How popular has the project been?

The popularity of the program has been remarkable. What has been very evident is that there is a huge pool of talented women in the east Midlands who with a bit of financial support and business coaching have been able to make a contribution to the economy in the East Midlands. Many of these women will go on to become tomorrow’s employers.

A big ‘thank you’ goes to EMDA for funding the project. It really has been a fantastic kick start for many many women who would have struggled otherwise to start their own businesses. Also to Business Link, we have been very grateful for the support we have received from them and hope to have the opportunity to work with them on more projects in the future where we can continue the partnership approach we have enjoyed with them over the last 12 months.

Diane having her picture taken with the ETL team at the recent awards ceremony.

Left to right: Diane Stephenson, Managing Director of Everything Solutions Ltd and deliverer of business coaching and training throughout the project, Allyson Williams Financial Director ETL, Glen Williams Chief Executive ETL and Christina Williams Project Coordinator ETL