"Just get on with it!"

On the fourth floor of the Women’s International Centre for Economic Development myself and 100 other women (and three token men!) gathered yesterday for a special recording of Radio 4’s Woman’s Hour, focusing on women in business.

Though the weather was typically gloomy for a Monday morning up North we were still afforded a great view out over the Mersey and the three Graces.  But as the broadcast began it was pretty obvious that we didn’t just have Liverpool at our feet, but the world if we wanted it...

Presenter Jane Garvey and her panellists (including the founder of WAH! Nails, a co-founder of notonthehighstreet.com, a senior exec of Asda and a multi-millionairess entrepeneur) discussed everything from micro-finance to employer-employee relations to how to get the perfect work-life balance. 

Their frank and thoughtful advice instilled in the audience the confidence and drive to not only be as successful as them, but as the likes of Sir Richard Branson who was just down the road at the Global Entrepeneurship Congress, being held in Liverpool this week.

My friend Cathryn and I had gone along to the live broadcast to report on it for university.  But given the state of journalism today and the inspiring stories of the panellists I left thinking I’m definitely going into the wrong ‘business’.

Mind you, the advice that the panellists offered wasn’t just business orientated.  It seems that good advice can be applied to any field.

 “Just get on with it,” said Sharmadein Reid, founder of WAH! Nails and all round gorgeous woman and 

yummy-mummy.

She was addressing a woman having a panic about setting up her own dress-making business, but it is also perhaps the best advice I can be given as dissertation deadline day looms ever closer.

While each panel member could offer different guidance based on their own experience, the basics of their top-tips were the same:

• Dare to be different
• Learn the ‘language’ of the field you’re going into
• Don’t lose your femininity and your nurturing side
• Play to your strengths and be confident enough to ask for help with your weaknesses
• And, as said: Just get on with it (Something my mum regularly says to me when I ring home for a whinge!  She’s also a big proponent of the advice: “Katie, you don’t always have to talk!”)