Tag Archives: business

LS Media’s lawyer & client scoops Mumpreneur Award

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Suzanne Dibble

Dragons’ Den veteran Duncan Bannatyne was among the judges who voted business lawyer Suzanne Dibble’s venture Lawyers4Mumpreneurs a winner at the national Mumpreneur Awards ceremony on Sunday 25 September 2011.

The accolade recognises Suzanne’s growing practice for the outstanding support it provides to smaller, family-run businesses, since launching in 2010. The only law firm in the UK to do so, Lawyers4Mumpreneurs focuses solely on mumpreneurs’ needs in setting up and growing their businesses, offering friendly, cost effective, jargon-free business law advice. Suzanne spotted her opportunity in a market where many small businesses need legal help with protecting their business and growing it. Mumpreneur clients have kept her busy ever since, seeking and receiving high calibre advice and support on such matters as brand and data protection, advertising compliance, limitation of liability, franchising, licensing, contracts, distribution and investment agreements.

Commenting on the win, Suzanne says, “I’m delighted to be recognised at the Mumpreneur Awards, because the organisation really does stand for everything my clients are and hope to be, approaching business success in the same way as I do. With a high calibre and entrepreneurial judging panel including Duncan Bannatyne making the final decision, I feel it’s a tremendous accolade, which inspires me to do even more for the mumpreneur community and in support of my current and future clients.”

Lawyers4Mumpreneurs is unique in focusing specifically on mumpreneur businesses. Using primarily social media, Suzanne has established the practice’s reputation in the sector and grown her business from nothing to over 70 clients in less than two years, working part time around her now 14 month old baby and being available when it suits her clients. Growth this year has been largely fuelled by recommendations from scores of delighted clients. She has recently taken on two colleagues and plans to expand her staff to ten within five years, to meet the demand for flexible and user-friendly legal advice and services.

With 14 years of corporate law experience behind her, at DLA Piper LLP, Virgin, ITV Plc and on the main board of property firm Hamptons International, Suzanne’s professional excellence is assured. In her own practice she makes this expertise accessible to business mums, turning the potentially daunting experience of hiring a lawyer into an easy, pleasant and constructive one. She explains: “My clients love the fact that I am one of them, speak their language and explain things without legal jargon. I am passionate about helping their businesses grow and have structured what I do specifically to address their needs, offering a completely flexible service.”

Suzanne’s blend of experience means that she is a trusted advisor to her clients on both commercial and legal matters. Her input is so valued by some clients that they have asked her to join their boards of directors.

Sam Willoughby, multi-award-winning founder of parenting e-business What’s on 4 Limited, sums up the value of Lawyers4Mumpreneurs:  “Suzanne’s involvement in our franchising has made all the difference to us making it happen.  She took the time to understand the business and asked lots of questions to ensure we had considered every business and legal aspect of franchising.  She really understood the pressures of a small business and particularly the juggle of being a parent running a small business.  She delivered as promised, responded very quickly to emails, didn’t confuse us with legal jargon and was very fair and clear with the costs.  After four years and three other solicitors, I have finally found one I can recommend and that I will use again.”

For further information about the services provided by Suzanne Dibble, recent blog posts, testimonials, awards and accreditations, please visit www.lawyers4mumpreneurs.com.

 

James Caan praises LS Media’s client, Talk to the Press

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Natasha Courtenay-Smith

My client, Natasha Courtenay-Smith, has been praised this week by former ‘Dragon’ James Caan. He comments, “To the lay person who has no idea how to get their story published, I can imagine finding Natasha would be a relief to a lot of people. I like the conscientiousness and due diligence here.”

Earlier this year, Talk to the Press director Natasha was selected to attend James Caan’s business academy, The EBA, in which she is guided by his team of business experts and mentors as Talk to the Press grows and develops.

The EBA’s managing director and serial entrepreneur Bev James adds: “Natasha is playing to her strengths, skills and passion and it’s evident she is set to become the leader in her niche. Reputation is everything in business and Natasha really knows this and is building a great brand through her people skills as much as her professional skills.”

Talk to the Press is an agency that helps individuals manage press attention in their lives, or to sell their story to national newspapers and magazines. The agency has helped nearly 1000 people since launch in 2008, and has represented individuals such as Ann Timson, who made national headlines when footage of her foiling a gang of robbers with her handbag went viral.

James and Bev aren’t the only well-respected names to comment on Talk to the Press. MP Esther McVey recently posted on Twitter, “If anyone is ever thrown into the media spotlight, check out @TalkToThePress.”

For more information, visit www.talktothepress.co.uk or contact Natasha Courtenay-Smith on Natasha@talktothepress.com

 

 

LS Media nominated for Best Business Support award

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nominatedawardbadge

For the second year running, I’ve been nominated for a Mumpreneur Award in the Best Business Support category. The awards are run by MumpreneurUK, a not-for-profit organisation aimed at supporting and celebrating parents who juggle family life with running an enterprise. The judging panel, which this year includes BBC Dragon, Duncan Bannatyne, will be assessing all nominations after the closing date this Friday and a shortlist will be announced within the next couple of weeks.

I’m delighted to be nominated yet again, especially after such a key year in LS Media’s history. We celebrated our fifth birthday, have witnessed the runaway success of our brand new DIY PR Bundle, simplified our pricing policy to keep transparency are the forefront of the business and won a number of new and exciting clients, including projects for CampInMyGarden.com, Swarovski Optik and Copperdot Designs. We were also listed in a PR Hall of Fame at the beginning of 2011, further recognition for the hard work we put into our campaigns.

For further information about MumpreneurUK, the Mumpreneur Awards and the Mumpreneur Conference which takes place in September 2011, click here.

A flurry of new business

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newclientsapril2011

Thanks to the crazy combo of school holidays, bank holidays, Easter holidays and Royal Wedding holidays, I knew April would be a hectic month, especially as a mum juggling business around two small children who’ve suddenly found themselves at home full time for the best part of a month! But even I couldn’t have predicted how busy things would become this month when suddenly I started to see the fruits of my new-business-sourcing labour…

I’m thrilled to be so busy and am taking this opportunity to welcome aboard an exciting and eclectic collection of new clients:

Copperdot Designs – creators of Scrabble-tile art pieces, I’m helping them secure inclusion in forthcoming Father’s Day gift guides

CampInMyGarden.com – providing PR expertise for the launch of this exciting new website aimed at matching people attending great leisure events in the UK with locals who can turn their back gardens into temporary campsites

The Nutrition Coach – working with renowned nutritionist, Kate Cook, to generate some trade press publicity around her food consultancy business

Serenity Retreat – helping generate awareness of the various solo-holidays available to relaxing retreats in Greece, Cyprus and the UK

Shh! Lose Weight in 20 Minutes – launching Alex Buckley’s ridiculously no-nonsense common-sense weight loss plan

The Best Man’s Guide to Organising Stag Weekends and Bachelor Parties – handling publicity for MX Publishing’s 2011 Kindle/iPad edition of this popular guide book

There are a couple of others I can’t talk about just yet but as soon as I can drop the cloak and dagger, I’ll post the news here. Suffice to say, I’m excited about the next few months and how the business definitely feels as though it’s shifting up a gear… Just in time for our fifth birthday in May!

PS – my magic trick for getting work done ‘around’ the kids during the school holidays? Jaffa Cake bribery. Feel free to share your own tips and tricks below…

Meet The Team

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LS Media is five years old this year and I’m proud that it experienced its biggest and most rapid growth over the past twelve months. I’ve taken on more clients and responsibility and expanded my offering in response to client demand. In turn, I’ve nurtured a strong network of specialists who often work with me to help deliver the best results possible for all my clients, regardless of budget.

They’re all amazingly talented individuals with thriving businesses of their own and together we prove that teamwork is still very much alive and well among us one-man/woman-bands. So now’s your chance to ‘meet the team’ and my chance to showcase the breadth of talent and expertise available to LS Media’s clients:

Name: Natalie Trice
Business: Tally PR
Specialist areas for LS Media: creative sounding board, hardcore media plugger, all-round consumer PR extraordinaire

There are definitely times when two heads are better than one, so I’m glad I’ve found my kindred PR spirit in Natalie Trice, founder of Tally PR. Her contacts book is enviable and she works confidently across the media spectrum – when she gets her teeth into a decent story, she won’t stop pitching until she gets the very best result, and her relationships with the press are second to none.

Natalie has over 13 years’ experience, working with brands including Adobe, Cartoon Network, CNN, Discovery Channel, Epson, Hewlett-Packard, Sense and Turner Classic Movies. With both in-house and agency experience on a local, regional, UK, EMEA and global level, Natalie really understands client needs and objectives. She’s an articulate, dynamic and creative senior PR consultant and offers clients not only a wealth of experience, but also passion and a creative spark which have proved to be a winning combination time and time again.

Name: Charlie Hobson
Business: The Wordsmithy
Specialist areas for LS Media: creative and factual copywriting, ghost blogging

A specialist writer for seven years and before that a corporate marketer for ten years in the retail, mobile and services industries, Charlie creates all kinds of written communications materials for practically any on- or offline medium you can think of, from press releases to white papers to packaging to web pages. Since setting up The Wordsmithy in 2003, she’s worked for clients in most industries, from sole-traders to major corporates including Sainsbury’s, Vodafone, IBM and GAME. Charlie enjoys the challenge of thinking herself into the audience’s mindset and getting to grips with client priorities and messages quickly – a useful skill when faced with the tight deadlines that beset so many of her clients!

Name: Kelly Cairns
Business: KC Virtual Solutions
Specialist areas for LS Media: admin support, social media strategy and implementation

Kelly’s been supporting my business since the beginning, providing ad-hoc admin support to free up my time to focus on the frontline PR and client counsel. Over the past year, she’s been sharing her extensive knowledge of the world of Social Media, ultimately enabling LS Media to offer clients an increasing number of SM packages and bolt-ons – everything from Facebook Fan Pages and Twitter set-up and management, through to complete 360-degree social media campaigns utilising multiple platforms to engage directly with consumers. Her straight-talking, sharp wit and ability to deliver on time and on budget make her an invaluable member of the team.