Well, I can hardly believe that we’ve been at Beetham Farm for over a year now! I think I might have to do a 2011 picture blog at some point to catch you all up on what’s been going on.  There’s lots of changes afoot and at the moment I am busy planning all the various threads of our lives for 2012 – but more of that later

For now, I’m pleased to report that 2012 has started in the way we mean to go on – immersing ourselves more in country life.  Hubby has had a week off and has been revelling in the fact that he’s had lots of time out and about on the farm – and I’m loving the fact that my list of jobs for him is finally going down.

Yesterday was fabulous weather in Somerset, which was a stroke of luck for hubby as he was off on a hedge laying course in a nearby village.  We’re based on the Blackdown Hills, which is an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty http://www.blackdownhillsaonb.org.uk/ and  there are a number of organisations who dedicate their time to improving the area and maintaining traditional skills.  One such organisation is the Blackdown Hills Hedging Association and he had booked to go on their introductory course (for more details click here http://bhha.info/pg/hlc/main.aspx).  He had a great day out on the hills and came back full of enthusiasm for hedge laying.

It’s important to have a range of habitats across the holding to encourage all the different species, and as Beetham has not been touched for about 15 years, we have got a lot of wildlife which we want to help conserve.  We will be keeping some hedges wild and woolly but others will be laid.  We’re learning as we go and we’ve got some great people working with us, so it’s all a great big adventure!

Here’s some hedge pictures for you:

The hedge at the end of the course Ancient boundary

The Wild and Woolly hedge

Ancient boundary

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It seems that so much has happened this past year, that it’s hard to know where to start!  So I’ve decided that rather than worrying about what I haven’t written, it’s better to actually start writing something!  I will post a montage of photos which sum up the year, but for now I’ll concentrate on the here and now…

We’ve had a long held family wish to try and live a bit more sustainably - mainly inspired by Brigit Strawbridge and her family in a BBC2 programme called “It’s not Easy Being Green” which aired in 2007.  Until that point I had considered green as a go/no go colour. By that I mean that I thought you either had to be fully committed to living completely sustainably or not do it at all.  Brigit and her family showed that it is a journey, along which you can tread at a pace you are comfortable with, you don’t have to be perfect overnight! So we started out cooking more of our own meals, shopping less, growing more and even keeping our own pigs and sheep.  Roll forward a few years and here we are with a few acres of land and embarking on the adventure of becoming a real smallholding as a family.

With each new thing we attempt, we usually get more wrong than right but we earn important lessons and get it right the next time.  The fun bit is learning together and knowing that we are equipping our two boys with some important life skills.

This summer we’ve had our first litter of piglets – see if you can see the odd one out.  She’s been named Spotty Botty and the boys are on a campaign For her to become the farm mascot.

We share a small herd of Dexters with friends from another farm – they arrived to eat some of our grass – Mack the bull arrived soon after and has been busy paying attention to his ladies ever since!

We’ve had a good crop of pears, apples and blackberries – which have been keeping us busy and we’re really looking forward to the sloe crop.

We’ve also been spending time considering what we want to do going forward, weighing up various options, but not really making any
decisions just yet.

I hope to keep you up to speed with what’s going on via this blog – and I’d be interested in your tips and help as we learn more about ourselves and our smallholding.

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Sometimes the most simple, but beautiful things bring a good leadership lesson to mind.

This morning, I took the dogs out into a field I have walked them in many times before – it was a beautiful sunny morning and the grass was dew moist. This particular field has patches of grass and reeds and the dogs love to play hide and seek in it.  As I walked down and idly gazed across the field, I noticed web after web waving in the slight breeze – it reminded me of a busy bazaar with each of the stall holders proudly displaying their wares.  Intricately placed between anchor points and each one a mini-masterpiece of individual toil, they were a real sight to behold, a veritable field of dreams!  As I turned and looked behind me, I realised that they had become invisible – the sun and where I stood made the difference between seeing them and missing them entirely.  I must have walked past hundreds of webs previously and not noticed them, a particular set of circumstances had highlighted their beauty and the work they entailed.

As I walked back to the house, I was musing on how many times we as leaders must miss the efforts of the individual, only noticing the times when the hard work comes into stark focus – yet at other times toil and trouble go unnoticed.  How powerful it would be to notice this effort at times when it is not waved in our faces – to recognise that each and every day, many people weave an intricate part of our organisation into being.

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I love this time of year, the lovely surprise of still-hot summer days and the depth of the days starting to suggest Autumn – I find myself longing to light the log-burner and to sit beside it with my boys – snuggle-cosy warm.

But before we get to that stage, we have been gathering the fruits of the hedgerow – our hedges are wild and woolly and hold all sorts of hidden gems; cobnuts, beechnuts, rosehips, blackberries and elderberries are hanging waiting to be picked.  We love to go out as a family, dogs included, round the fields – shouts of delight from the boys when treasures are found, blackberry-stained mouth signalling that the berries are sweet and delicious.  We follow the country code and pick randomly, gathering fruits for us but remembering that there are animals who rely on these wild crops to get them through the winter.  I smile to myself as I realise that nobody has told the squirrel about sharing – trees which were nut-laden a few days ago have been stripped bare by very efficient squirrel pickers.  However, I did manage to find a few and will use them to make “Honeyed cobnuts”, a favourite of ours from the River Cottage Preserves book (***insert link).

The blackberries will be transformed into jellies to sweeten yogurt, with some more frozen to combine with our apples in the depths of winter to make a warming crumble.  When I’m cooking crumble, I always cook a batch of crumble on its own in a layer on an oven tin – the crispy, crunchy mixture can be frozen to make a crumble topping later – it avoids the sogginess you sometime get on the underneath of the crumble layer of a fruit crumble.

When we moved here we were delighted to see lots of blackthorn, heralding the promise of a good sloe crop – not ready for picking yet…but being inspected daily – we’ve already made raspberry and blackcurrant vodka – but our favourite is sloe vodka – a lovely winter warmer.

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We keep chickens and as a result, we eat a lot of eggs – my boys love them – boiled, baked, poached, scrambled or fried! I used to put the shells in the compost, but now I collect them in a bowl and let them dry out. Then I get a wooden spoon and bash them (good for those frustrating moments in life!) – the resulting mosaic of shells is perfect for sprinkling around plants that the slugs love in your vegetable garden. Evidently the slugs don’t like the scratchy texture – any more good slug repelling tips out there?

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Well, we first viewed our new place last June and really didn’t think that we would ever be able to manage to pull off getting it – but we did . I have to confess to the fact that I still walk around with an inane grin on my face – which our new neighbours probably find a bit strange, but it’s just because I’m so happy to be here. I’m loving the silence at night, broken only by the soothing sounds of the owls hooting to each other from their trees. The early morning is a different matter though, as the crowing cockerel cacophony starts early doors – might be time to have a bit of a cockerel sort out!

The animal numbers are starting to mount; we’ve managed to get the pigs out into their new home, so they’re enjoying rooting up bramble roots and the field in general; we’ve got a lot of chickens now and it will soon be time for the Goose Fair in Buckland Newton and we’re going, but don’t tell my hubby!  You can read more about this here on my blog.

It’s been a bit stressy-busy at work for the last few weeks, even more so than normal, so I’ve also discovered that coming home in daylight and taking five minutes to explore the happenings of the day in the garden has a wonderfully restorative effect. We moved in last November, so the garden has just been “there” during our first few months – but now the hidden treasure bulbs are springing through from their winter slumber and I discover a new plant or bud every day! I’ll take some pictures and start tracking what’s going on as I’m sure the changing garden vistas are going to be beautiful.

The veggie garden we’ve inherited needs some sorting out as well, but there’s all sorts of plants springing through – I really do think I need to find someone to give us some advice before we start ripping up things we shouldn’t.

It feels like it’s been a bit of a dark winter this year, the stirrings of Spring promise haven’t come a moment too soon, and I’m looking forward to discovering more about our new home as it all unfolds.

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Despite the best will of mice and men – I had to let something go at the end of last year, and indulging myself by writing this blog was the thing that had to give. I kept up with the business blog at www.portfoliodirectors.com and a really 1busy time for some of our clients – but, I hear you say, that’s situation normal. So what did cause the overload?? Well, I hinted at it in my last blog entry (omg, was it really as long ago as September) – the thing that was so nearly, really happening that I didn’t dare mention it.  I was feeling very superstitious about it all, as it was something that we, as a family, have wanted to do for a long time. So here goes with your update…

I have to confess to being a serial house market watcher – we moved down to Somerset 14 years ago now and as I have a would-be landsman for a husband, we started small-holding in a small way a few years ago – inspired by the BBC2 series “It’s not Easy Being Green” .  The yearning has long been there for somewhere with a bit more land – hence the house market watching.  We had been pipped at the post on a few properties and early last year made the decision to sit tight and stay where we are for a few years.  Then serendipity intervened and as usually happens when you stop looking, we came across the place of our dreams!  We viewed it in late June, it went to sealed bids in July and much to my (screaming!!) amazement, we got it.  I then spent the whole of the Summer working on finance and property related things – I’m sure many of you have been through the “heart in mouth” house-buying process.  We finally completed in late October, and then the work really started – lots of cleaning and re-decorating ensued…

So, all that activity consumed an inordinate amount of time, I am so in awe of the people who manage to blog through everything – I think my head would have gone bang!!  But now, the mists are starting to clear a bit, and as a family we sat down and agreed the things we were going to try and do better this year – our list of “Betters”, some of which are based around health and eating, and some around functioning better as a family.  For me, I wanted to try and capture things as they change and develop – and to share our experiences with others and learn from them as well, so time to get back to my (much enjoyed) blog writing.

I’m going to try and improve my blog writing at the same time – so bear with me while I work out the improvements and please feel free to offer advice and tips, I’d love to hear them.  I’ve been reading around various resources and have really enjoyed the advice from http://michaelhyatt.com/category/social-media and http://www.copyblogger.com – both are great resources.

I look forward to sharing more with you over the next few months

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Well, what a summer it’s been – busy at work but we still managed to keep to our New Year’s Resolution and go away with the kids – that’s a first! We’ve also been working on something that could potentially be life-changing, but it’s so excitingly maybe-near that I hardly dare think that it might happen, let alone write about it. So dear reader…I’m afraid that, like me, you’ll have to wait a little bit longer for that one.

So, the summer then! What have we been doing. Well, firstly we’ve made time to go for walks with friends, which the dogs are really pleased about. In addition to this, I seem to have turned into a fishing widow as at the princely ages of 8 and 6, my two boys have discovered fishing and it’s all they want to do – much to their father’s delight!  It evidently involves procuring lots of kit (and here was me thinking that only girls had to accessorise to the hilt!) and then going and standing on the beach for hours at a time.  Our eldest son can stay there for hours, but unfortunately for him the younger one soon gets bored.  The thing I really don’t understand is that they haven’t actually caught anything yet, but it only seems to make them go and do it more??

In August, we set off in our car and then picked up an old VW Type 2 camper van in Keswick for a week long camping holiday.  We didn’t go too far, only over to Ravenglass on the coast.  We had fabulous weather all week – just one afternoon of rain, so we definitely picked the right week to go.  The camper van (aka Billy Bling!) was brilliant, it was so good to just kick back and amble around (amble seemed to be the fastest we could go) – and amazingly other road users just waved and smiled as they passed us – no road rage!!  The boys made new friends within 10 minutes of arriving at the campsite, and so we fell into a routine of hanging around the site in the morning and going off fishing or sightseeing in the afternoon.  We went up the coast to Whitehaven, which was lovely and then across to Ulverston and the Laurel & Hardy museum.  Our slapstick loving boys were absolutely transfixed by the godfathers of comedy and we ending up buying a DVD which they now adore, provoking real belly laughs from them both!!

We also walked from the campsite to Muncaster Castle, which was well worth the visit – they had entertainment, owl displays and a great playground.  I managed to slip away and do a tour of the castle rooms, for once I picked up one of their audio tour guides and it was narrated by the family who live in the castle – which made it very engaging.  We had lunch there and the food was lovely and great value for money – so the boys final requirement for a great day out (food!) was well and truly ticked…

Finally, we had to reluctantly pack Billy up and take him back to his owners, the boys didn’t want to give him back and wanted us to book next year’s trip there and then!!  We headed off to Ulswater after we dropped Billy off – more fishing, that was a surprise   While I was sitting and watching them, I started chatting to a lady who was also there with her lake-splashing children, nothing unusual in that – but within a very short time, we had meandered through the conversation and realised that we had some places in common, as well as both being Mums.  Now I’m not going to break any confidences, but we ended up having a long conversation about a particular thing that was obviously a key concern for her on that day – and I’d like to think that I was there to listen at just the right time for her.  Now I’m not claiming to have special conversation powers in me or anything – but it did stick in my mind for two reasons.  Firstly, that my complete detachment from the situation obviously helped her to be very open about it – which in a funny kind of way underlined to me how important it is to be detached when I’m doing pure business coaching for individuals.  The second reason was that I felt a curious regret when she drove away – it was a bit like I’d met someone that I instinctively knew might have had the potential to become a great friend, but we didn’t swap contact details or anything, so I’ll probably never know…

Anyway, back to the holiday…we moved across to Guisborough, to see my hubby’s brother and his family – and on with them to Castle Howard the next day – what a fab place to visit!  Late that Friday afternoon, we headed back down to Somerset – a straight run home, the traffic gods were kind to us that day

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Well, I like to think that I can come up with plausible reasons for my actions – but I have to confess that even I pushed the boundaries recently.  I’ve written previously about our smallholding and our various animals and go green initiatives, and we’ve been pressing on with growing our own veg.  My hubby has a bit of a weakness for old tractors and farm tools, and I love my chickens – and I’ve got quite a few!!  We keep extending our chicken run and I saved up and treated them to a chicken palace from a great place near us called Flytes of Fancy so in my mind that meant that I had room for more chickens.  I had seen an article about a Charity Goose Auction held twice yearly at the Gaggle of Geese pub in Buckland Newton and so with a determined air, I set off with all the family in tow.

Well, I was expecting a few pens of chickens for sale, but it’s a massive affair with over 400 lots of chickens, ducks, geese, turkeys and even peacocks.  My hubby was happy as they also had a cider tent and a hog roast on the go, with lots of things for the kids to get interested in as well – so a bit of a day out for the whole family.  I set about the serious stuff of watching the poultry auction and unfortunately for hubby, the bidding bug bit and I was off!  By the end of the auction, we were proud (me), and bemused (him), owners of the following:

5 Aracuna blue-egg laying chickens

A bantam and three tiny chicks

4 point of lay bantams

2 frizzies – they look like exploding chickens!

3 Marsh Daisy chickens

2 Lemon Fantail ornamental chickens

3 runner ducks (OK so I promised I wouldn’t get ducks but they were only £8 and I couldn’t leave them there…)

As I was bidding, hubby was getting ever more anxious and I, desperate to justify getting more chickens, heard myself saying “but they’ll make great material for my blog” – the best excuse I’ve ever come up with for unrestrained purchasing!!

Hughie, Dewie and Louie

My boys were really excited by all this activity, so once we had packed them into crates and set off for the car, my hubby took the opportunity to point out that we’d got too many chickens and what on earth was I doing buying “bloody ducks”.  I ignored him and later that night, as I introduced the ducks to our geese, I was a bit concerned that he might start a campaign to get rid of the ducks. However, I needn’t have worried as the ducks launched a charm offensive of their own, and the very next evening I found him laughing his head off as the ducks all stood neatly in line for him to spray them with the hose – one converted husband!

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With two children, two businesses and an embryonic smallholding, I always think that it’s important to try and get some time together as a family, so as promised in my New Year’s resolution – I did book some time away at the start of the year. We’re half-way through the year now, so I thought I’d report back and let you know how it’s going!

First off – the one that our two boys aged 8 and 6 had been begging to do for years – Legoland in Windsor.  It was only a day out and we kept the costs down by taking our using Tesco Clubcard vouchers to buy the tickets and taking our own sandwiches.  The boys were beside themselves with excitement – and our youngest gravely pronounced in the back of the car that he’s been waiting to do this “all his life!!”  We went on a Saturday, lots of people about, but not too packed although we were told it was a “quiet” day!  The boys managed to get us on the wettest ride first, but luckily it was a sunny day.  We went on a lot of rides that day, and on the way home I asked what their favourite was – only to be astounded when the answer was “panning for gold” which was a completely non-techno attraction which involved water baths, sand and finding nuggets of gold!  Just goes to show that sometimes simple is best!

Panning for Gold

The next pre-booked time-out was a trip to Wales for my husband’s birthday – we wanted a weekend away, somewhere different, but definitely based outdoors.  We normally go camping, but we decided to have a treat and go to the Yurt Farm, near Lampeter in Wales – and what a great choice that proved to be!!

We followed the directions and arrived at an idyllic spot in the countryside.  We parked our car, transported our belongings across to our Yurt by wheelbarrow and settled into our home for the weekend.  The Yurts provide simple luxury based on sound eco-principles with candles and paraffin lamps for lighting and a log burner for heating.  If you’ve always wanted to camp, but can’t do the whole sleeping on the ground thing then this will be ideal for you.  There are only five yurts on the whole site and you literally have acres of field surrounding you – kick back, relax and enjoy!

Laurie and Thea, who run the Yurt Farm, are absolutely lovely and couldn’t do enough for us – printing out maps of places to go and just generally making sure that we had a great time.  They offered to take us on a tour of their organic farm, which is next-door, and on the way back we purchased fresh vegetables and meat from their farm stall.  Each yurt has it’s own private campfire area – so lamb burgers cooked over the embers were much enjoyed by everyone that night.

The facilities on site consist of solar showers (so much better than I expected), compost toilets (ditto) and a lovely area for communal cooking and eating if required – with another log burner for my pyromaniac husband to play with!  The kids were straight in from the word go, disappearing off to make friends with the other children on-site and generally having a fab, outdoor time.  Our youngest had pestered Daddy to bring pocket knives, so we went walking to find hazel sticks that could be whittled and transformed into thumb sticks for walking – cue hours of whittling outside the yurt and lots of wood shavings.

The inside of one of the Yurts

Come Monday, we were extremely chillaxed and very reluctant to leave – but it was time to go and so we set off back to Somerset – stopping off for a detour at a local pottery – Daniel Boyle Ceramics - on the way, as recommended by Laurie & Thea. We rounded off the treats with Fish & Chips in Lampeter and arrived back in Somerset in time for tea!

So, booking at the beginning of the year is really working for us, as it doesn’t offer the opportunity to duck out pleading that we’re too busy.  We haven’t spent a lot of money, but we have gained so much in terms of family-time and reaping the benefits of down-time to return to work with a renewed vigour!

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You dragged the business up out of the ground, probably kicking and screaming….you’ve had the sleepless nights, the tears and the tantrums and the pleasure of seeing it grow and finally you seem to be getting somewhere.  If you’re a parent, this probably sounds very like the joy, trials and tribulations of bringing up children, but I think there’s a difference.  We all expect our children to grow up and take the next steps in their development – in fact we’re eagerly awaiting some of them (like walking and talking) and happily push them forwards.  We do feel a bit lost and aimless when they leave home (I’m imagining this bit, my boys are only 7 and 5!!), but we know they need to assert their independence and accept their rites of passage.

But when it comes to business – it seems to be a lot harder to let go.  As entrepreneurs, we’ve done some really hard work to get it started, we were the ones who made everything happen and just when it finally seems that we’re actually getting a bit of success and some recognition, things start getting harder again.  Quite often this is the point at which some entrepreneurs realise, (usually a little bit too late really), that they need to employ someone. The problem is, the business is you and everything you do, and along comes someone else and the temptation is, because it’s all about you, to insist that they do things your way – because obviously it’s the best way   Often, we don’t listen to ideas and we don’t take advantage of those fresh eyes in the business to examine what we’re doing for better ways of working.  But, the sad thing is that what we’re actually doing is failing our business, we’re like a parent who isn’t letting our child taste independence, or to spend time with anyone else to broaden their thoughts.  We’re not doing this maliciously, it’s usually an outcome of the fact that to get the business started we had to be single-minded and driven, and we forget that we need to moderate that as the business grows.  Just like our roles as parents change as our children grow and become more capable, so should our role as leader of the business.

As new input comes into the business, we need to clearly communicate our vision and what’s expected and in the early days we may still be working alongside people,therefore need to remember that how we are is likely to set the long-term culture for the business.  If we’re domineering and blame people, it’s very likely that we will stamp out any sparks of initiative within the business, if we create a culture of trust and respect, then people are more likely to follow suit.

We also need to recognise that in order for the business to grow, other people have to be empowered as we can’t possibly do everything ourselves.  It’s still all about you but in a different way – and here’s where the parenting bit comes in again - we should be looking ahead for the times when the areas we focus on change - and making sure that we, as leaders, are equipping ourselves and the business to cope with those changes.  It is still all about you -but to succeed you need to become a much more selfless you, who is motivating and leading people, who you trust to get on and do the job – or, at the very  least, to recognise that style of operating is what’s needed and find someone to do that bit for you.

So, back to the parenting analogy – did your children learn to walk, or did you teach them????   How does that apply that to your business, as an ancient proverb says “the best leader is the one who the people do not notice.  When the best leader’s work is done, the people say “We did it ourselves”….”

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As some of you may have gathered by now – I quite often find inspiration for improvements in the way I do things from the world around me.  If you read my 2010 New Year’s resolution blog (http://www.emmawarren.co.uk/?p=67), you will know that I resolved to make sure that we made a bit more time for family fun this year. I’m pleased to report that we have booked some holidays (yay!!) and that this inspired me to make sure that I created some “me-time” as well.  I am very good at creating time to go and do Continuing Professional Development, as I consider this an essential part of what I do - my clients pay for my expertise, so I need to make sure that it is current.  I find it refreshing and inspiring to challenge my thinking on a regular basis – but I realised that I wasn’t indulging my little inner self at all – lots of time on business and family was making Emma a two-trick pony!

So, despite the fact that I was convinced I had NO time left in the diary to play with, I have put in some things into the diary that are really starting to pay dividends.  The whole office has signed up to do a 20km walk for charity at Just Walk in May (http://www.acrossthedivide.com/index.php/products/events/-/pt-0010/psc-0027/-/0/9/index.html).  This meant that walking our dogs turned into a training exercise and it’s been really invigorating, as well as beneficial to the waistline!

Continuing with the pony theme I mentioned earlier, I’ve had a yen to go horse riding again for quite a while – I rode until I was a teenager – Thelwell’s pony had nothing on me!  A few weeks ago, I finally got around to booking up a Saturday pony lesson and have managed a few more since then.  I asked for a small dobbin-like horse, but ended up with a giant that has a slight tendency to spook at nothing occasionally – which in the beginning was quite daunting and made me think that this wasn’t such a good idea.  However, through my leadership network, I recently made the acquaintance of a lady called Pam Billinge at Equest Partnership (http://www.equestpartnership.com/who-we-are/pam-billinge.html) who runs a fabulous course which helps people develop their leadership skills through the medium of exploring non-verbal communication skills by working with horses.  I remembered her saying that horses are very tuned to our “inner story” and that you have to be very “in the moment” and presenced in order to get the best from them.  So, instead of going along to the lesson and spinning a multitude of things around in my head (multi-tasking as usual!), I decided to concentrate on the horse and my riding – and what a difference it made!  I felt more in control and less nervous, and the horse obviously sensed this as she started responding to me much more positively – and hence I enjoyed the lesson more.

The final piece in the story is that as usual, this sparked a thought across to my work life – we often spend our time supposedly listening to people, but quite often, because we’re busy, our ears are listening but our minds are elsewhere -  and we’re not truly connecting with the person that we’re engaged with.  So I’ve spent the last couple of weeks making sure that I am connecting, rather than superficially listening and believe me it’s made a real difference – try it and see how the quality of the conversations that you are having improve.

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I work as a non-executive Director for several businesses and I feel very privileged to be part of their development.  I am generally recruited to the Board to help with growth and/or change management, usually in Small to Medium Enterprises (SMEs).  I am passionate about the contribution that small businesses make to the economy, whether it be home-office start-up or larger companies with many employees - I love the energy and vibrancy that you can feel in entrepreneurial businesses.

However, there are various stages in company development that can sometimes prove difficult to get past, such as;

• Delegating your precious business to employees when you first start out.
• Making yourself concentrate on your vision (instead of all the ideas that keep popping up).
• Getting funding from the bank for growth.
• Realising that your company needs some processes and procedures rather than relying on verbal communication.
• Creating a Senior Management or Board structure.

Many entrepreneurs also struggle to recognise when their business moves into the phase where they are no longer the right people to run things any more - growing a business is like a relay race, different runners will perform better on different stages.  All of the above are ideal areas where a good non-exec can add value.  There’s a common misconception that non-executive Directors are only really good for bigger businesses, when actually they can provide the objective outside viewpoint and support that’s needed to move smaller businesses forward.  Oh, and while I’m on misconceptions, I’m rubbish at golf and I don’t turn up at Board meetings just to eat the sandwices (biscuits are a different matter!!)  Appointing a non-exec is a way of getting affordable chunks of time with someone who has experience that can be added to your own – and hopefully together you come up with a solution to get past the sticky patches in your growth curve.

So why the Masterclass??  Well, I think that the best way to understand what a non-executive does and can do, is to let people talk to some real live specimens, and more importantly to peer companies who have already taken the plunge and appointed someone.  A good non-exec can bring contacts, valuable experience and more importantly – a sounding board when you need to talk things through with someone who has been there and got the video.  However, make sure that you select the right person for the right reasons – check out their background, the fit with your existing Board and their ability to impart information and advice – an impressive career does not automatically mean that someone will make a good non-exec.

I’m running a Masterclass in conjunction with the Somerset IOD on 16th March at Dillington House and the idea is that you can get the opportunity to talk to companies who already have non-execs in place – details attached in case you’re interested.  Also please comment on this article - I’d really love to hear your experiences of non-execs  – good or bad!

Non-Exec Masterclass - download the details HERE (.pdf)

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I love my job and what I do and as a result I spend lots of my life seeing and hearing things and then being unable to stop myself relating them to being a good leader and what makes organisations work.  I guess if I was a musician I’d always have songs in my head!

A few days ago we were doing a long journey in the car and we put story CDs on in the car for our young sons to listen to - and so, for the first time in ages, I heard Aesop’s Fables.  Initially I wasn’t really tuned in and then I heard this one and BANG my mind was back in work mode again:-

The Belly and the Members Fable
An Aesop’s Fable

One fine day it occurred to the Members of the Body that they were doing all the work and the Belly was having all the food. So they held a meeting, and after a long discussion, decided to strike work till the Belly consented to take its proper share of the work. So for a day or two, the Hands refused to take the food, the Mouth refused to receive it, and the Teeth had no work to do. But after a day or two the Members began to find that they themselves were not in a very active condition: the Hands could hardly move, and the Mouth was all parched and dry, while the Legs were unable to support the rest. So thus they found that even the Belly in its dull quiet way was doing necessary work for the Body, and that all must work together or the Body will go to pieces.

As I listened, it occurred to me that we so often feel that we are the ones who are doing all the work, whether it be at work or at home – and we forget that there are other people in the team who are doing their bit too, but in a quiet, often overlooked way.  I regularly facilitate in situations where someone is convinced that the other departments or individuals aren’t pulling their weight – and I get them to understand and/or work in each other’s departments and also encourage them to make sure their own house is in order before they start casting around to give criticism.  These approaches get good results, but I think I’m going to add this fable into my toolkit as it underlines the point very succinctly and is a great model for good organisational design.  I probably need to pin it on the fridge at home too!!

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My wake up picture!

Rush, rush, busy, busy – the never-ending cycle of being working parents running businesses and children – with barely time to breathe.  We get so caught up in this mad hurry of life that sometimes we forget to enjoy the simple things like family, friends and the scenery around us.

The view that made me stop and stare...

The recent snows forced us to slow up a bit while we were driving home one late afternoon, and we were all alone on this nearby country lane – so we stopped and looked and it was so breathtakingly beautiful that I felt moved to try and capture it – with my amateurish phone photography!  I haven’t done it justice by any means – but it reminded me that we are lucky enough to live in Somerset – a beautiful area of the country and we haven’t looked at it lately, I’ve also captured the picture I wake up to every morning, with it’s ever-changing seasonal vista – how lucky am I??

Amazing Tree

We moved to Somerset over ten years ago and as newbies we walked and drove around marvelling at the views and promised ourselves that we would never forget how much they took our breath away – and most of the time we don’t.  But just recently, it’s been so busy that we hadn’t taken a few minutes here and a few minutes there to stop and enjoy the scenery – it takes so little time but it adds so much colour and depth to your life.  As I was thinking about that, I realised it wasn’t just the view I was rushing past, I haven’t taken the time lately to waste time with my most precious assets - family and friends!  So I’ll share my motto for 2010  – be busy, be successful, be loving but also take a few selfish minutes every now and again to just look around you – you’ll be amazed at what you see!!

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Well, I don’t know about you but I really can’t believe that it’s 2010!!  I was working over Christmas, but had bits and pieces of time off and the time just seemed to whip by.  We spent New Year with friends near Tavistock and had a lovely time but all too soon it was time to come back.  We were back at work on Monday and it looks like it’s going to be a busy few weeks coming up. 

This year, I decided that I would make a New Year’s resolution for the rest of family – given that I usually make mine and break them within hours – so I decided that we would book our holidays soon to make sure that we spend some quality time together.  Oh, and I sneaked another small one in, namely that the boys have got to put their toys away after they’ve finished playing.  I know that technically it should be their resolution, but I might be waiting a long time for that to happen – lol!!  In a way it does benefit them, as it will mean that this working Mum might not do her impression of a pressure cooker about to explode when she finds a trail of toys on the floor!

Apart from that, we’re going to try and eat more veg, grow more veg and hubby is taking up smoking (the food variety) and I’m hoping that we should be able to smoke one of our lamb fillets in the near future – will be yummy, can’t wait!!

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Burton Bradstock - Boxing Day

Santa-spotting, tumble-funning, present-ripping, share-shouting, sprout-hating, cracker-joking, sweet-eating, high-flying, crash-burning, sleepy-headed, dreamy-hugging, Christmas making, awe inspiring, did I really make them, luscious lumps of loveliness…xxxx

Our two boys are 7 and 5 – Christmas was so much fun for them this year, I loved their energy and enthusiasm, their capacity to believe in Santa because they so wanted him to visit them and the way they lit up our day too.  Thank you boys xxx

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Well, it was a frosty, but no snow to speak of Christmas down here in Somerset.  We had a lovely family Christmas, with a table full of people here for Christmas Day and a relatively stress free dinner on the table for 1.30pm – how civilised.  Hubby excelled himself and made sloe gin mincemeat (homemade) mince pies (hand-made pastry) so I promptly declared him the pastry chef from now on!

We got our two boys (aged 5 and 7) a cookbook and aprons for Christmas and they proudly produced their first dish yesterday – a very colourful salad – and had us in stitches at the theatrical kitchen antics – priceless!!

Me – well I’ve been catching up on some outstanding work and reviewing Portfolio Directors’ new website – yay!!  I’ve also been indulging in my love of cooking and in the past couple of days have made tomato soup; roast parsnip and blue cheese soup; leftover turkey, chorizo and veg soup (for lunch tomorrow) and some oatcakes from Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall’s Everyday Cookbook  (one of our Xmas pressies) – they’re on page 87 and they were pronounced delicious by the family cooking critics!!

Anyway – it’s stupid o’clock and I couldn’t sleep, so signing off for now!

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Here at Portfolio Directors, we like to do things a bit differently and we really value the fact that we are a home-based business. As the team is growing we are trying to make sure that as well as the ongoing updates that we have, we make time to do a formal appraisal and today was the day.
We were just trying to decide where to go and the idea came up of going to sit by the log burner in the lounge, so that’s where we went – we drew up two chairs and sat and had a cosy chat about how things were going – sounds lovely doesn’t it?? But as we were talking, it struck me that we had removed a layer of formality that always seems to makes appraisals a bit nerve wracking – and for the appraisees that can only be good!! So from now on, I’m all for appraisals in a private -but slightly less imposing atmosphere – something that would have been difficult for me to achieve in my old corporate business life.

While I’m on the subject of appraisals – here’s a few of my top tips:-

Firstly – make sure that you’ve both prepared for the meeting. A written form that is filled in beforehand is a good idea – but do make sure that you ask the questions that you as a business are really interested in – don’t just blindly use a template form.

2 Try and ensure that your communication is good all year round and as a result that the topics that you raise in an appraisal don’t come as a shock. If your employee didn’t have a clue that they weren’t meeting expectations then your ongoing communication has not been good enough.

3 Put people at their ease and listen to them – appraisals are meant to be a conversation not a monologue by you!

4 Make sure that you give good feedback and are clear about successes and issues that need addressing. Encourage the appraisee to say how they thought they got on and how they would address issues.

5 Agree and document actions and objectives – and make sure that you ask them for feedback on how you can improve your management of them – appraisals are a great opportunity to get feedback on your performance as well!

It’s a big topic and I’ve just covered off a few relevant points above – properly conducted appraisals can be extremely useful and motivating – but badly conducted ones can do more harm than good!

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Well, we’ve all been working hard for the past few weeks, trying to get our shiny new brand ready.  Our friends over at Hello (www.01134.co.uk) came up with a lovely new look for us and we’re loving it!!  We wanted something that really represented who we are and what we’re about – and that would be flexible enough to grow with the business – and they delivered it for us in spades.  We love the different colours and we’ve all adopted a colour and an icon – can you guess who belongs to which icon??  Perhaps we’ll run a competition…

I’m so lucky with the people who work with me in Portfolio Directors, they are as passionate about the company and our clients as I am – and as an added bonus we all love cooking!  We always try and make our clients feel completely at home when they come to the offices, so we came up with the idea of serving them with tea in proper cups.  We all got quite enthusiastic about it and before many days were out, we had cake stands, china tea cups and an oak trolley that we used as a printer stand was put back to it’s original use as a tea trolley.  There’s a story to be told here as my husband’s lovely Granny bequeathed this trolley to us in her will – she used to wheel it in with home-baked goodies on it and china tea-cups – how lovely that we’ve resurrected a tradition.

So, to bring my ramblings into relevance – we came up with a great, and fitting, way of launching our new brand – a proper afternoon tea party!!  The girls baked themselves into a frenzy and we invited a few clients and friends over to see the new brand.  Heather from Hiho Silver (www.hihosilver.co.uk) baked us some lovely cup cakes with our new icons on them and Amanda, our Finance Assistant (I can’t cook!!) suddenly developed the ability to bake divine butterfly cakes.

A big thank you to everyone who joined us – we had a lovely afternoon and did the new brand proud!!

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Ann Cullum (Exeter University IOD Progrmme Manager) passed this on to me – thanks Ann!  It may be of interest to some of you?

In this series, Jo Malone one of Britain’s most successful female
entrepreneurs sets out to help these businesses to become successful &
recognisable British brands. By the end of the programme the ambition is
to launch viable companies, capable of supporting the families behind them
and creating jobs and economic opportunities for all those involved.

Ed’s looking for a really broad range of companies producing everything
from a new toy or game, to design sensations or simply something special
for the home and garden essentially we are looking for exciting, quality
products that just need that extra push in the right direction and who
could benefit from a showcasing on BBC1.

Ideally to include the following product categories
Home and Garden, Food and Drink, Accessories and Toys and Children.

Included is a press release below.

Anyone interested can either call Ed on 0207 438 4294 or email him on
ed.phillips@twofour.co.uk to find out more and request an application
form.

Press release:

Jo Malone comes to BBC One and launches a search for Britain’s
Brightest Entrepreneurial Talent

Jo Malone, one of Britain’s most successful female entrepreneurs, comes to
BBC One next spring with a new 4-part series which gives budding
entrepreneurs the chance to take a product they have created to the next
level. The nationwide search for applicants launches today.

Jo is looking for people who have an original product or range which they
believe has the potential to make the leap from kitchen table to high
street. Those who are chosen by Jo will benefit from her expertise,
experience and guidance. For more information and to apply visit
bbc.co.uk/beonashow and click on New Brands.

Each of the four episodes will focus on a different category. Once Jo has
selected those who she believes to have real potential, she will guide
them through the world of branding, public relations and business, and
prepare them for a pitch to a major retailer. Will they be able to
convince them to take a chance on a new product during this period of
commercial uncertainty? Growing and sustaining a business during a time of
recession is a great challenge. They are set to discover how much it takes
to try and make a small business work. Jo knows how hard it is but with
creativity, sheer hard work, direction and, perhaps, a bit of luck, there
are possibilities out there.

Talking about the series, Jo Malone says: “In a previous recession I was a
small business trying to become more successful. I learnt so much from
that time. Through this series, I will support and encourage a range of
entrepreneurs to try and realise their dreams and fly the flag for British
retail. I hope that by empowering people with the belief that they can
succeed we can help these fledgling businesses meet the challenges they
face at this time.”

Jo began her career as a therapist and in the early 1990′s she created her
first product – a scented bath oil – which she hand-mixed at home and gave
to her facial clients as a thank you. The gift was an instant success and
by 1994 she opened her first store. The company grew into an international
brand of luxury fragrances, skin care and lifestyle products. In 1999, the
brand was acquired by Estee Lauder Companies and Jo remained Founder &
Creative Director until her departure in 2006.

BBC Executive Producer, Alison Kirkham, says: “Jo Malone is an exciting
and formidable new talent for BBC One. With her entrepreneurial flair and
passion for creativity, she is sure to inspire anyone looking to take
their fledgling business to the next level.”

The series is made by Twofour. Executive Producers for Twofour, Nav Raman
and Melanie Leach; Series Producer, Nicole Streak. BBC Commissioning
Editor, Jo Ball; BBC Executive Producer, Alison Kirkham.

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One of the great things about blogging is that we can all learn from each other, so we thought we’d share some of the things that we’ve learnt from setting up our home office.

• Even if you are only doing a few hours a week, create a space to work in, it doesn’t have to be grand but try and have all the things you will need to hand.  It can be as simple as a large laptop or work bag that has all you need in it, ready to work at any time.
• If you are setting up your own permanent desk space, there are lots of neat desk solutions, even ones that offer a roll-out office if you need to tidy things away completely at the end of the day (try www.argos.co.uk, www.ikea.com or www.johnlewis.com).  For a permanent desk area, an under-the-desk keyboard tray is also very useful as a keyboard can take up a lot of room on a work surface. Similarly, a laptop or an Acer Revo (tiny desktop PC) is space friendly as it minimises the desktop space you need (and it’s lighter to lug around!).  If you have more space but are a bit pushed for start-up funds then try Freecycling http://freecycle.org/ as a great way to pass on your unwanted items and obtain desks, chairs and filing cabinets (with the added benefit of polishing your “green” halo!).
• Stationery-wise, if you have children, get your own pens, pencils etc and keep them with your office set – or you will waste lots of time retrieving pencils from under the sofa!  Lever Arch files are also really useful as you can put all your paperwork in one place and not worry about it being lost whilst moving heaps around.  If you get the colour coordinated ones, you can use different colours for different clients.
• Try and create some specific times to work, even if most of the time you snatch a few moments here and there – a concentrated period of time will help you feel that you’ve achieved more.  I always have a “To Do” list running, it’s a great way of keeping me organised and it feels great when I can cross something off – I give myself a mental pat on the back! Put it in a place that’s easily visible too, so that you won’t forget about it.
• If you are trying to run a business, the home and look after children – take a look at the things you do and see what you can do to help make your day easier to manage.  I try to put washing on before I sit down at my desk and then hang it out when I take a break.  If I’ve got lots of phone calls and a pan of food to stir, I plan to do phone calls whilst stirring!
• If you are phoning clients and have children/dogs/anything potentially noisy around, try and do the calls while they’re occupied/not around as it will fluster you and may create a bad impression on your clients.
• Explain to family and friends that you are working – there’s nothing more annoying that setting aside time to work and then someone pops round for coffee and doesn’t take the hint!
• Check out your insurance and mortgage conditions as sometimes you need to notify if you are working from home, especially if clients will come to your house http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/entrepreneur/article3107456.ece has a very useful section on who you will need to inform, and what you need to inform them about.
• It can get lonely working from home, so try and join in with local networking activities to get you out and about and to meet valuable contacts.  Networking groups are springing up all over the country, just google networking and your local town name to find your nearest one – and go to a few to find the one that most suits your networking needs.
• If you can’t always get out then try virtual networking.  Facebook is one that many people are familiar with, it allows you to connect with your friends and business colleagues, but it does have a downside as there are several highly addictive applications (games) that you can play on it – a great excuse for not applying yourself to that boring report! You can also connect with people via Windows Live Messenger or Skype, which gives you the ability to have live text, video and voice chats with contacts. Twitter is another great way of virtually meeting like-minded people and potentially getting referrals. It allows the user to give brief snapshots into their day to day activities, as well as following some Twitter-savvy business people and celebs.  Twitter help is quite useful or visit this site http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/ to find out how to get started on Twitter if you haven’t already given in to the bug.

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We’re supposed to be moving into winter, but here at Portfolio Directors it feels a bit like Spring because there’s lots of new things springing into life!  Firstly, we have two exciting client projects that we have been working on:-

Across the Divide (ATD) launched their new website in October and we have been giving commercial and project management advice to help out along the way.  We think the new site looks great (Julie and Mark in the ATD office have been doing a great job) and more importantly it has dramatically improved the information for their clients – and there’s been lots of good feedback so far.  See the new site at www.acrossthedivide.com

We’ve also been heavily involved in the development and production of the first catalogue for Hiho Silver (you can see it at www.hihosilver.co.uk).  We had a big input into the creative ideas and layout, as well as nearly going cross-eyed whilst proof-reading and checking it before release.  Initial customer response has been extremely positive and the slightly innovative format has been a big hit.  We worked with the ex Marketing Director of Joules Clothing on this project and she and the Hiho team were all great to work with.

On the Portfolio Directors front, we’ve been working on a new look, which we’re quietly trying out on this blog.  We always have a problem explaining to people about what we do, as we cover a lot of disciplines.  Basically we’re an SME Support system – we can either help or will know someone else who can – and in doing so We Grow Businesses.  We hope that the new brand is a bit more representative of where we’re going.  We’ve also been working on some exciting new developments – so more coming soon…

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Here at Portfolio Directors, we are very excited to have helped Hiho, previously known as Hi Ho Silver, reach the finals of the CIMA (Chartered Institute of Management Accountants) Annual Awards 2009. The winners will be announced at a ceremony in London on 26 November.

The 2009 CIMA President’s Dinner and Annual Awards will recognise the success of the people, teams and organisations who are leading the way within management accounting.

There are 12 award categories, and Hiho is short-listed as one of four finalists – and the only small to medium size business – in the Unlocking Business Intelligence award category.  Each award acknowledges the determination and dedication of individuals, teams and employers who understand the importance of the finance sector and use the principles of management accounting to drive the sector forward.

To be crowned winners of the Unlocking Business Intelligence Award Hiho will need to demonstrate how they’ve successfully implemented a business intelligence (BI) project, giving evidence of success via improved efficiency of the finance team and performance of the business.

Specifically, Hiho will need to show a significant improvement in the company’s performance; a broader range and more insightful analysis of management information than standard financial reports.  And additionally demonstrate how the finance team has played a key role in implementation of the BI solution; and that      finance personnel are working alongside non finance colleagues to support decision making and help improve performance.

At Portfolio Directors, Emma Warren has assembled a small team of industry specialists, all with their own individual skills to develop and nurture businesses. In her role as Financial Director of Hiho Emma comments, “The PDL team has helped to make a difference by developing and aligning Hiho’s business’ strategy going forward, ensuring that we have good accounting processes and working with the in-house accounts department to ensure that we provide good management information rather than data.”

Hiho has built its reputation as the best place to buy amazing sterling silver jewellery and homewares.  From stunning outdoor lanterns, beautifully designed trinket boxes and photo frames to decorative bowls and jewellery stands, Hiho has something to suit all tastes at an unbeatable price. Hiho has 14 retail stores, an online shop at www.hihosilver.co.uk, and can be found at prestigious shows across the country, including Henley, Goodwood, Badminton Horse Trials and the Veuve Clicquot Gold Cup.

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Emma Jones with the Girls at Portfolio Directors (Helen, Me, Emma Jones, Amanda, Claire, Gemma and Harvey Dog)

Oooh, great flurry of excitement in the office yesterday!  We were honoured to be included on the Enterprise Nation Home Business Road Trip of the South West.

Working from my converted garage plus flexible working options for the rest of the team has enabled us to do what we love on a professional level and still be there for our children and the things we’re passionate about  (oh, and Harvey the Office dog!)

Emma Jones and her film crew should come down more often – can’t tell you how much  we’ve benefited from the mass tidy up.  Not that it was that messy to begin with of course,  but it takes the thought of a film crew arriving to make you go that extra mile with a duster!

Even Harvey the Office Dog’s bed got a dust-down.  In fact, he managed to get in every shot (wonder if he was a K9 filmstar in a previous life?).

We proudly showed off our ‘Portfolio Lives’ and evidenced that we can and do manage to mix working at home with presenting a professional image and helping other businesses grow.

Even our  remote teleworker, Sarah, managed to get involved in the action via Messenger Video and had a ‘virtual’ cuppa with us.

Thanks for the visit Emma, there’ll always be a fresh pot of tea and a home-made cake waiting for you here if you pass this way again…

Emma Warren, Managing Director, Portfolio Directors Ltd

www.portfoliodirectors.com

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We are proud to announce that we are backing a local student and theatre company, with an event sponsorship investment.  We have joined together with our clients Hiho Silver and UK Precision to offer sponsorship to the Illminster theatre group ‘Act’, providing much needed funding for its future performance, Curtains.

Emma Warren, managing director, says, “We are very pleased to be linking up with such a great project and hope that as main sponsors of the show, we are providing some financial and business support to ensure that the production runs smoothly.  The Musical Director for the production, Gemma Down works in our office during the holidays and we are pleased to be able to repay the valuable support that she provides for us”

Musical Director, Gemma Down says, “Curtains is a brand new venture for me, and it is really exciting to be a part of it. There is a lot to be done and without the sponsorship from Portfolio Directors we wouldn’t be able to achieve it.  The cast has been rehearsing since June and I hope that we will see a huge interest among the local community.

Emma has inspired me to achieve my best in all that I do, and this includes the Musical, which I’m sure will be a real success, thanks to the sponsorship from Hiho Silver, Portfolio Directors and UK Precision.”

The broadway musical ‘Curtains’ is due to be shown by the group in November. Members of the Alive community theatre are delighted to be taking part, as it is the first group in the UK to be given rights to perform the production.

Information on how to attend the performance can be gained from http://www.thewarehousetheatre.org.uk/curtains.html

Further information: Emma Warren, Portfolio Directors Ltd, Tel: 01460 477 774 or email: ewarren@portfoliodirectors.com . Visit: www.portfoliodirectors.com

For further press information, contact Kate O’Sullivan or Sophie Quartley on Tel: 01460 241641 or email: kate@adpr.co.uk or sophie@adpr.co.uk

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It’s September, autumn is closing in and although we didn’t exactly get the record breaking summer that we were promised, it has been a pretty good one all told. Unfortunately the end of summer heralds short days and lots and lots of rain. However, it’s not all winter blues here at Portfolio Directors, as the end of summer means awards evenings and black tie dos!

Portfolio Directors have been shortlisted for work with Hiho, one of their clients, as a finalist for the Unlocking Business Intelligence Award run by CIMA (http://www2.cimaglobal.com/cps/rde/xchg/SID-0A82C289-F8AE9B56/live/root.xsl/32279.htm), and spirits are high in the office, with Helen sending an invite to everyone’s Outlook for “Dress Shopping in Street”. So here are our top 5 tips for getting on that shortlist:

• Always read the criteria and the questions you are being asked. Keep them in the back of your mind whilst writing each sentence, so you get the correct ‘spin’ on it.
• Understand your audience, they may have never heard of a “hand-held refractometer”, even if you use it every day.
• Keep it concise, and under no circumstances go over the word limit. Keep rereading what you have written so that you don’t repeat yourself.
• Use a lot of visual images. No one really wants to see several solid pages of black text on white paper with nothing to break it up. An image isn’t included in your word count, so you can use as many as you want (within reason). However, don’t use lime green curly fonts on bright pink scented paper because it would be discarded without so much as passing throught the judge’s hand!
• Stick to what you know and stick to the facts. ”One lie spoils a thousand truths”.

Good luck with those award applications!

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Amanda, Claire, Andrew and Helen (the Birthday Girl!)

Here at Portfolio Directors, we work with some lovely people. This week, Helen had a birthday and as you can see we celebrated in style. We got a takeaway cream tea from Fordwater (http://www.fordwater.co.uk/) and it was delicious. Sarah and Gemma weren’t with us that day – but we ate extra to make up for them not being there. Emma’s hubby tried to get in on the act – but didn’t get very far!!

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We are very excited to annouce that we have appointed a new office manager, Helen Roden, who has joined our growing team of professional and talented individuals.

Previously Helen worked as finance and office manager for a London based genetics charity as well as working part-time for a marketing and promotions company in Yeovil. Naturally the appeal of Somerset became too great to resist and Helen has now relocated to the County and is delighted to be part of the team at Portfolio Directors.

She says, “The attraction of Portfolio Directors is the variety of clients that the company works with as well as the general diversity of the role itself and the real potential to expand my skills.”

Emma Warren, managing director of Portfolio Directors comments on Helen’s appointment, “We’re delighted that Helen has joined us as it will enable us to roll out more training courses so that we can broaden our support to other businesses.”

Emma Warren explains, “We aim to make a real difference to our clients by working as external members of their teams to ensure that the new capabilities remain after we’ve moved on.

“We make a difference by being able to align a business’s strategy going forward without the business owners losing their own sense of self – we close the gap between a business’s goals and their personal goals and aspirations.”

Further information: Emma Warren, Portfolio Directors Ltd, Tel: 01460 220041 or email: ewarren@portfoliodirectors.com . Visit: www.portfoliodirectors.com

For further press information, contact Kate O’Sullivan, Tel: 01460 241641 or email: kate@adpr.co.uk.

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South West based Financial Director Emma Warren has reached the final of the prestigious Fast Growth Business Awards 2009 and is hoping to be awarded the coveted title of Financial Director of the Year.

The Fast Growth Business Awards is an independent scheme designed to raise awareness and celebrate the UK’s fastest growing businesses and the people running them.

Emma Warren has won her place in the final thanks to her role as Financial Director of family business Hiho Silver, a retailer of unique silver jewellery and aluminium house ware products.

Emma is a professional Finance Director and has spent fifteen years working in a wide-range of industries gaining practical experience in senior management and directorial positions. This experience, combined with an MBA in Strategy and Operations Management, has given her invaluable insight into the workings of businesses both large and small and led to the formation of Emma’s own company, Portfolio Directors Ltd, in 2005.

At Portfolio Directors Emma has assembled a small team of industry specialists, all with their own individual skills to develop and nurture businesses. In her role as Financial Director of Hiho Emma comments, “I have helped to make a difference by developing and aligning Hiho’s business’ strategy going forward without the business owners losing their own sense of self – so closing the gap between the business’s goals and the owner’s personal goals and aspirations.” 

Organised in conjunction with Growing Business magazine, the T-Mobile Fast Growth Business of the Year Awards are judged by a panel of entrepreneurs, industry experts and business journalists including James Caan, star of Dragon’s Den, Oliver Chivers, Head of Business Marketing, T-Mobile (UK) and Adam Shaw, Business Journalist.

Winners of the Awards will be announced at an Awards Ceremony in London on Wednesday 18 March.

Further information: Emma Warren, Portfolio Directors Ltd, Tel: 01460 220041 or email: ewarren@portfoliodirectors.com . Visit: www.portfoliodirectors.com

For further press information, contact or Kate O’Sullivan, Tel: 01460 241641 or email: kate@adpr.co.uk.

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Last weekend, we went out for a walk with two other families and went to Lamberts Castle in Dorset – great place to go for a walk, but I wanted to make it a bit more exciting for the kids. I remembered that a few weeks ago, James Cracknell had been in the paper and had been Geocaching with his family. If you haven’t come across it, it’s a form of treasure hunting, except that when you find the “treasure” (litlle bits and bobs in a container), you write in the logbook with the cache and you can also log the find on their website (www.geocaching.com ) and then you replace the treasure and leave it for the next person to find.
I typed in the location as Lamberts Castle on their website and there was a cache to be found there – so I downloaded the encrpyted clue and towards the end of the walk we set the children the task of seeking it out. They absolutely loved decoding the clue and finding the treasure (after a goodly search) and can’t wait to go and do another hunt. We found the “treasure” in the area described by the clue, but would never have noticed it otherwise. How many other things are out there that we just walk past!!

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