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Francine Pickering

Profile
Francine Pickering
Location
Nottingham
Region
East Midlands
URL
http://www.womengetsmart.co.uk
Network
Smart Women Network Nottingham

I’ve been actively encouraging women to network since starting a lunchtime networking event in Nottingham in March 2006. Being a volunteer mentor for start-up businesses and for students on the Entrepreneurship course at Nottingham University, I’m always keen to encourage young women to make the most of every networking opportunity.

My online community for East Midlands business women set up I 2007 and the Smart Women site, www.womegetsmart.co.uk, has been going from strength to strength ever since. The site encourages inter-network networking and for women to post their own events to cross-fertilise contacts and opportunities.

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Q&A

  • What are your tips for being an effective networker?

    • Networking isn’t just something you go to; it’s a state of mind and you can do it anywhere.

    • If you’re feeling nervous about approaching people, remember they actively want to meet someone new – and that includes you.

    • Try out a wide range of networking events, and then stick with the ones that work best for you.

    • Anyone can learn to network; it just takes practice. But when you’ve become good at it, don’t forget to encourage the next newbies.

  • What is your advice to a young entrepreneur?

    • Do your research and develop your business plan, but don’t spend so much time on the foundations that you never start the building.

    • Remember you’ll need to market your business. Investing in your product/service is wise because if you don’t have that you don’t have a business. But if you don’t have customers you don’t have much of a business either and marketing is about getting those customers.

    • You’ll have bad days, we all do. But keep being persistent and it will pay off.

    • Keep learning.

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