Last night I attended Marie Claire’s How to get into Business event held at the Marie Claire offices in Southbank.  The evening guaranteed budding entrepreneurs to walk away with tips from two incredibly successful businesswomen, and it certainly did not fail to deliver. Karen Gill MBE, co-founder of everywoman Ltd and Thea Green CEO of Nails Inc spoke on a panel in front of 100 women, which was moderated by Charlotte Moore the deputy editor of Marie Claire.  Karen and Thea certainly did not hold back – I, along with the rest of the audience, left with a vast amount of knowledge given by two incredibly knowledgeable women in their fields.

Here are the top tips I learned on the evening from Karen and Thea.

Thea Green, founder of Nails Inc on starting a business:

1)      So many people are frightened about other people stealing your ideas; but share them. You'll learn from others around you and you never know will be on hand to help.

2)      You may not be an expert in all fields – but other people are. Talk to your friends, family and colleagues.  You never know what areas of expertise they may be able to share with you.

3)      Try and be as unique as you can be.

4)      Employing people that are smarter than you is really rather smart.

5)      Create a business plan every year – and stick to it. There is a difference between creating your business plan and doing your business plan.

6)      Don’t give up. So many businesses fold because so many people give up.

Karen Gill MBE, co-founder of everywoman Ltd on networking and cost-effective ways to grow your business:

1)      Create a networking plan and stick to it.

2)      Know what you want to say. Don’t be frightened to tell people what you do.

3)      Take a friend. Sometimes it’s more comforting to network with someone you know.

4)      Get into a room with key-people and think about what you want to achieve.  It’s the thinking that gets results.

5)      Make time for your business. It’s incredibly important to work on it rather than work in it.

Looking around the room there wasn’t one attendee who didn’t have their pens to papers the whole evening. Thea and Karen certainly provided amazing insight for any woman interested in how to grow business. For those who are looking to start their own business, or are already well-established the night was a definite success.