Shouting Success from the rooftops!

Mary Jane Kingsland wrote an excellent Women in Business column in the EDP on Weds 31st March filled with insightful observations about the challenges of being a “successful” woman in business.

I was recently fortunate enough to reach the finals of the East of England Young Businesswoman of the Year Awards. Now I guess what I should say rather than fortunate was that I was “successful enough” or just plain good enough to be recognised amongst these other outstanding ladies, but I’m a woman and shouting about my success doesn’t come easily. In the run up to the finals, every time someone congratulated me on my nomination or introduced me as “potential businesswoman of the year” I blushed and made some kind of derisory comment about having no chance of winning and it all being some kind of mistake. I was interviewed on local radio but couldn’t help feeling like something of a fraud as my slot came straight after a heart-wrenching discussion about coping with terminal illness and I almost felt I should apologise for being there. All that despite the fact that over the last 4 years, I have worked jolly hard with my business partner, Claire, to establish our marketing and design business from scratch but until recently we have never shouted our success from the rooftops because its simply not our thing.

I ended up missing out on the young businesswoman award but it ignited a competitive spirit which means we intend to enter an EDP Business Award and may also have a stab at the Future 50 too. With words of encouragement from inspiring ladies like Mary Jane I hope that we won’t be the only women putting ourselves forwards.