“It’s our turn to fight for choice,” said entrepreneurs at International Women’s Day event

FORWARD LADIES’ International Women’s Day event last week brought together a room full of entrepreneurs and business leaders to learn from some of the most successful women in business.

Griselda Togobo, owner of the Forward Ladies organisation, and her team had organised a lunch at The Leeds Club with guest speakers retail entrepreneur Laura Tenison and former director of an international building supplies firm Jacqui Miller-Charlton for the event last week.

Ms Togobo said: “”The IWD event was a poignant reminder that in our own small way, each one of us can contribute and give back to those less fortunate than ourselves.

“Laura and Jacqui, two truly inspiring female leaders have shown us that – we can use our businesses and positions as a force for good no matter our age and background. Each one of us can make a positive difference in our communities and beyond supporting and empowering other women along the way,” she said.

Laura Tenison founded parent and baby brand JoJo Maman Bebe. She launched the business in 1993 with two part-time staff, in their first year turning over £30,000. Now the business employs 700.

At the event, she said: “It wasn’t so long ago that women had no legal right to the money they earned. Our lives are pretty amazing compared to some women in the rest of the world.

“We can chose. Some women don’t want children. Some mothers love staying at home with the kids. It’s our turn to fight for choice, for ourselves as well as men. Choice without prejudice.”
Now her business is evolving, bringing in her first director from outside the business, and introducing a minority investor.

She said: “What I wanted to show is that this ‘touchy feely’ feminine way of doing business can grow profitability.

“The way we do things increases staff loyalty, increases productivity, we have lower levels of absenteeism. The benefits of offering ethical employment are largely ignored in a corporate environment.”

It hasn’t all been plain sailing and she had her stories to tell, including taking a risk on a Colombian manufacturing programme attempting to prevent people falling into the drug trade. She got early batches of high quality babygros and other products in small volumes from there, before moving production closer to home once the volumes had increased.

Despite JoJo’s success, Ms Tenison said: “Our sense of achievement comes from much more than purely financial gain.”

She has visited Syrian refugee camps herself, as well as becoming a trustee for Mozambique charity Nema, which has enabled child mortality in the area that they work to go from a shocking 30% to 4%.

On the other end of the scale in terms of business was Jacqui Miller-Charlton, board member of Miller International with her two brothers, and director of the business before she stepped back from the operational side of the business two years ago.

Blazing the trail in a male-dominated industry wasn’t easy, she said. It required determination, confidence and vision, and initially she wasn’t taken seriously, as a 26 year-old director, having been in the business eight years.

She was candid about the struggles the business had faced during the recession years and stepping back with her brothers from the day-to-day running of the business.

“Construction is always first in and last out of a difficult period like that.” she said. “We went into a tail spin, but we’re still here because we were resilient, because when you’ve built something like that, it’s worth fighting for.”

“My advice for any woman in a man’s world is to be who you are, listen to what people want and use empathy.”

“There is still a lot of prejudice. We hear mainly about male success. Our foremothers worked hard to get us the vote, and we have come a long way on this long journey. Now it’s down to choices, and men are the part of the solution, not the problem.

She finished: “There is no magic bullet. It takes time, energy, drive and determination.”