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My love for events started at the tender age of 16 when instead of going to college I decided I wanted to get to work instead, so I decide to opt for an apprenticeship scheme. It was lucky that I was fussy as otherwise I would be selling telephones, but I waited until I felt I found the right company to work for. Luckily enough for me it was for an events company who were in the process of organising the London Flower Show which was to be held at Alexandra Palace in London, then later we organised an exhibition at Hatfield House, Hertfordshire. (which is very odd as at the time I remember saying I could live in Hertfordshire and 15 years later I am…spooky)

Unfortunately the company went into administration and I began to work my way up the career ladder, next working for my local newspaper working in the events team where we organised careers fairs, homes exhibitions and where I organised and led my first event on my own, it was a B2B technology event.

Fast forward 12 years or so and my last role was working as a Channel Marketing Manager for Exponential-e, a network & IT company in the city. I got pregnant in January 2013 and our gorgeous baby girl Molly was born in October. I planned to have 9 months off, but by the time 6 months came I was thinking how could I possibly go back to work full time and be a mum. I had no family near me, a long commute now we had moved out of London into Rickmansworth, and childcare as you all know is very expensive. So I started looking into other options - Homeworking? – there weren't any options I felt were suitable. Flexible work ? I couldn't make that work with my employer.  Getting a local job part-time perhaps? Nope – they didn't pay enough so it wouldn't be worth the childcare.  So that was the time of my conundrum about what to do about work, once my maternity leave was over.

 I had always wanted to start my own business, all had flopped big time! It’s actually quite funny,  I tried to set up a website selling CCTV as I thought residential CCTV would boom, but I didn't know the first thing about it. I tried to be an Amazon affiliate and set up an affiliation website to no avail, and before launching Little Fish I even tried selling breast pumps online – ha ha ha oh dear.

So I started thinking, I knew for sure that my passion lied in events and that is the business service I could offer and be 100% confident in delivering. So I started researching and planning, I conducted a survey, a marketing audit and wrote my business plan. The survey results did it for me as they always do, 60% of respondents said they would potentially use an event management company so I just went for it. I found a website platform which is cheap as chips and a designer who could build it in hours meaning he was cheap, the website platform we use is called Webflow – I love them. I wrote all my copy, started to create content for marketing purposes and started to compile a list of target clients.

I launched Little Fish Event Management on 2nd June 2014 and gave myself only two months before I would have to consider finding a ‘real’ job. Luckily cold calling worked for me and low and behold I had my first hot lead, the Skills Funding Agency. I created my very first quote which was to help them organise the National Apprenticeship Awards in November 2014 – I had a sad phone call which said I lost out. But two days later they called me back saying the other company dropped out and they wanted Little Fish.  You can imagine the scene – being cool on the phone, saying they were still pencilled in so we still have the capacity to work with them.  As soon as that phone went down, oh my, the fist pumps, the tears of joy and the adrenalin that made me feel that yes, I had done it. I had no fear whatsoever about working and delivering somebody else's event – it was just pure elation and excitement to get working.

It took 3 months of planning and two months to securing my first client,  a lot of work but really a short space of time.  The only reason I think I suceeded was becuase I have never doubted that I could - if you don't have utter confidence and a love for what you are doing then you can't suceed - how can you possibly fake it?  That's why it never worked selling CCTV for me as I didn't love it nor know much about it.  

Little Fish is now 16 months  old - the challenge now is how to grow.

Next blog……. How I got started on Mums Enterprise Roadshow.

Check out www.littlefisheventmanagement.com

And our website platform www.webflow.io