Sister Snog

Feeling the pinch post-Xmas? Not me. I've just had a free Xmas. And that included a week in a cosy Cornwall cottage. And all the presents. And all the food and drink. And I could go on...well actually I will. Bet you're thinking well it wasn't really free was it. Strictly speaking you'd be right. I did pay for all those lovely things. However the money came from selling some old gold I'd had sitting at the bottom of my jewellery box for...oooooh too many years to mention.
 
Let's step back a moment to when Krista Waddell joined Sister Snog in August last year. She'd been introduced by Carol Webster who decided to hold a Pure Gold Party which she invited me to. It was all women apart from the lovely Romain who was our Gold Expert. He really knew his 9 carat from his 18 as his day job is with the classic jewellery house Chopard. While one of us was having our gold assessed (weighed, carated and priced) the rest of us were having our own little party with the drinks and nibbles that our hostess with the mostest had lovingly prepared. I was the last guest of the evening to have my gold assessed and gathered quite a crowd as the price of my stash was going through the roof. When it reached the £1000 mark everyone cheered! Especially me. I eventually went home with a cheque for over £1200. And all from gold I haven't worn for years.

So you see you can have a free Xmas. You just have to know how. By the way did I mention? Sister Snog's holding a Pure Gold Party on 19th January. So dig out your unwanted gold and bring it along. It might be too late for a free Xmas but just in time for January's credit card bill!

Girlfriends in High Places was an eye-opening study about the rise and rise of the New Girls Network. The study published in 2004 showed how these networks were forming an essential part of the business framework. Each with their own brand, identity, personality and loyal fans. Today that’s still the case. Even more so. If you’re in business, being a member of a business ‘network’ or two is essential if you want to build up your resources, enhance your reputation, create opportunities for your empire or career and get a step closer to your next customer or client.

The New Girls Network
Women have been networking as long as men, if not longer. The only thing is  women have been doing it slightly longer on a different and rather more subtle level. The fairer sex, have been getting together in far more imaginative settings than the golf course or a dusty private members club. In fact, a trip across the channel demonstrates the power, impact and far-reaching influence of women’s social networking dating way back to the seventeenth century.

The women of French Salons

Interestingly enough, by delving into history and looking to France we can find the forerunners of the intelligent, self-poised, clear-sighted, independent modern woman who now forms the backbone of the New Girls Network. These were the women who provided a beautiful, unwitting blueprint for today’s entrepreneurial woman. Their remarkable variety and originality made the French Salons of the seventeenth century so influential. The Salons were a place where intelligence blended with practical knowledge.  These progressive women were usually very clever and rather brilliant. And it was their cleverness and brilliance that was exercised to bring into stronger relief the talents of their friends. They may have taken centre stage when it was their turn, but they also made sure they dipped into the wings at the appropriate moment. Everyone should know when their fifteen minutes of fame is up and it’s someone else’s turn! Their peculiar gift was to inspire others and that’s the case with today’s inspirational women.

Similar but not the same
By the same token, the real New Girls Networks don’t see men as a threat.  Quite the opposite. It’s all about equality in terms of ability but different in terms of make-up. Similar but not the same. The differences are complementary and should result in harmony. Men and women simply do things differently, relish different things and operate at their best in different environments.

A curious nature
Women are also naturally curious with a healthy appetite for information and want to find out about each other. And this hunger for tasty tit bits goes way beyond the business arena. In fact, business talk often comes way down on the agenda at the early stages of a relationship.

Balls in the air
Women share certain characteristics.  And multi tasking is one of them. They know what it’s like to juggle work and home by looking after the children, cooking for the freezer, making sure legs and armpits are hair free, keeping the team at work happy, balancing the balance sheets, being energetic in the bedroom and ensuring clients and customers are totally and utterly delighted.  Phew!

The ultimate trump card


It’s certainly not a major disadvantage to be female in business. Actually it’s a trump card if played well and with confidence. The only barriers to success are personal demons coupled with a lack of drive, determination or dedication. Why did Sex And The City become a must-watch-series and a blockbuster? Because it glamorised different female stereotypes. What’s more it made it more than ok to be one of those stereotypes. There’s no doubt there’s a breed of business woman who gives the V-sign to convention and actually sets her own standards.

Lunching or lobbying
So, if you are a woman in business or climbing the career ladder and you haven’t joined forces with a bunch of like-minded business women you’re missing opportunities.  Whether you’re into lunching or lobbying it doesn’t really matter. There’s a club or group that will ring your bell and open doors for you that may have otherwise remained shut.

So, what are you waiting for?

Why don't you twitter this blog post?  

Kathryn and Nicola are hands-on Directors of Lime Food Design. A zesty catering company with a little citrus twist that create fabulous-tasting-stylish-looking food for all occasions. There’s a three year gap between them. They’ve been Sisters in Business for 5 years.

Kathryn
What was it like growing up together?
Great. Very Play School. And we started many a café!

What do you have in common?
A work-hard ethic. A sense of humour.

What are your biggest differences?
I love presenting and exhibiting, sales & marketing. Nicola likes the operations side.

How do you divide your roles? I deal with the paperwork. Finances. Marketing. Nicola directs all the events on a day to day basis.

How would you describe your working relationship? Calm. Open. Honest. 100% trust. Couldn’t. Wouldn’t want to do it without her!

What do you most admire about your Sister? Her ability to just get on with it.

What do you think are your main strengths as Sisters in Business? We’re The A-Team with passion for our business.

Where do you see the business in three years? To be established in well known, as well as funky venues with a celebrity wedding or two under our belt. With two café outlets we won’t be stopping there.

Nicola
What was it like growing up together? Kathryn being the oldest would always look out for me. I would be chasing her on my bike trying to keep up. She also had the money making ideas. Setting up a library. Hiring out books whilst selling sweets to our friends. Raising money for Blue Peter Appeals. I would always be the organiser. Hmm! Not much changes.

What do you have in common? The will to succeed. A very strong work ethic.

What are your biggest differences? Kathryn is very much an ideas person. She can also be quite impulsive!  I like to think about all the options. Weigh up the pros and cons. Then make a decision.

How do you divide your roles? I head up the events and cost out new ideas. Kathryn looks at marketing and PR and manages the rubbish bits. Like the finances!

How would you describe your working relationship? Strong with shared goals. Trust. Essential when dealing with everything running a company throws at you.

What do you most admire about your Sisters? She’s always striving to find ways to make Lime bigger and better.

What do you think are your main strengths as Sisters in Business? We pick each other up on bad hair days.

Where do you see the business in three years? Have gained a reputation as being the caterers in London and the South with a fully booked diary for that year. And the next. And the one after that.

Who's Sybil?
Ever seen the film Sybil? An award winning TV production starring Sally Field as Sybil, a real woman possessed by 16 different personalities. It’s an absorbing account of Sybil's struggle with a multiple personality disorder and the 11-year psychiatric treatment that helped to integrate all her personalities into one. Bit of a tear jerker. Supply of hankies essential.

Inside out
Sybil isn’t the only one with multiple personalities and a number of characters to her name. Everyone’s pretty complex. How many times have you met someone with a Jekyll and Hyde personality. And what about the Id, Ego and Super-Ego. Different aspects of the human psyche. Studied by Freud. Characterised by Beckett .

Face the music
In fact there’s a train of thought that the way people embrace different social media channels speaks volumes about the type of people they are. According to Howard Lindzon everybody lies on Facebook. People represent a kind of false self, so that it’s hard to really know what a person is like from their Facebook profile. He feels differently about Twitter and holds the belief that people's tweets are a much closer representation of their true self than Facebook. In his view, someone who is a jerk on Twitter is likely to be a jerk in real life. On the other hand someone who is thoughtful and careful in their tweets is also like that offline.

Say cheese
Whether Facebook rocks your boat or Twitter rings your bell, they both have one thing in common. A rogues gallery of cheesy mug shots.

Strike a pose 
Let’s face it. Few of us are truly photogenic. They say the camera never lies but surely it depends on the camera. Why is it that so many online profiles include photographs that have a photoboothesqueness about them, at best. Or at worst, can only have been taken with a disposable camera. Not very flattering. Go on. Take a look. Ask yourself. Is this is really someone I'd like to go on a blind date with or find myself in their company on Come Dine With Me. Never mind connect with them in the digital world. You wouldn’t. Would you? First impressions and all that.

Mini me
So, why don't more people have some fun and create their online-alter-ego. The beauty is anyone can become immortalised as a caricature and join The Osmonds and The Jacksons. Step aside hip-hop celebs. There’s a queue in the cartoon hall of fame.

Cartoon yourself
Thanks to all those teckies with a big fat brain. There’s a world of avatars to discover. Even a film. Directed by Mr Cameron. With an avatar you can step into Toontown and become a Toonlet. Turn yourself into a Simpsons  character or a squat rotund brat from South Park. Fancy something arty and abstract? Feel like a manga? Or a zwinky? Find yourself a doppelganger. Play around. Cartooning yourself really is pretty ABC.

Sister Snog goes retro

Sister Snog likes the idea of being a Sister of the sixties. That’s why everyone at Snog Towers is crazee-mad for Mad Men. Hats off to the artist behind the vintage-y Mad Men illustrations. The very talented Dyna Moe. She’s nobody’s sweetheart!

Here at Snog Towers we’ve been thinking about autumnal pastimes. Of the outdoor variety. Things you could do with your local chums and loved ones. At the weekend. After one of those frantic weeks. Chasing business. Going to meaningless meetings. Lovin' up your clients. Pitching. Tweeting. Wrapping. Blogging. For starters. No more hanging out at platform 9 3/4 checking those useless numbers. Or loitering around in airport lounges in flares, crying over a plane with a silly nose. No more prodding at God's ickle fishies with a stick and an oversized cotton reel. Save the knitting, scrapbooking, decoupage for the winter. Sister Snog thinks leaf peeping's the thing.

Have you noticed autumns are-a-changin' and the leaves we're used to seeing are becoming more catwalk. This autumn stuff has taken off big time in certain parts of the world. There you’ll find folks who are mad for a bit of leaf peeping. They’ll spend whole weekends, weeks, even longer, looking for the best shapes, the most vibrant colours. Coach loads, spurning the dreary-drab city for the groovy, psychedelic trip that is God’s countryside. Chasers looking for colours and leaves - quality and quantity. And there’s money in them thar hills. People have done the natural thing and turned others’ obsessions into big bucks.

Hotlines have been set up giving best guidance on shape, tint and hue. “Looking for a bit of red sir? Well, go no further. We’ve found an intensely cerise Maple – just the thing madam”. Websites too, complete with “leaf cams”. Fantastic! Making a business out of a hobby. As the world's getting warmer this type of thing looks more and more likely to happen closer to home. At a park near you. Even in your back garden or your next door neighbour's. The dry weather in the run-up to autumn increases sugar concentration in leaves, which turns up the intensity in their colours. Mellow russet is becoming sassy scarlet.

Leaf peeping is a great reason to escape deep into the country. Your local arboretum will take the place of a trip down the shops, the flicks, the footy or your local gig. Leaves. The Next Big Thing. You’d better beleaf it.

Across the Pond people say “Fall” instead of “Autumn”. Apparently it’s got something to do with the leaves falling. Rather literal wouldn’t you say. Why yes ma’am. Interesting how two cultures that are Kissin-Cousins don’t really speak the same language. True to say the subtleties are often less than subtle unless you're really in-tune and are tuned-in. Have you ever wondered why the bathroom doesn’t have a bath? Or imagine going out in just your pants. And what would you put in your fanny pack? But what’s the worst that could happen?

And does it really matter though how you spell colour. Or is it color. Really. Isn’t it the little nuances that make us both more colourful? Colorful. Colourful. Oh, hang it!

What exactly is the difference between a chestnut and a conker? Well, for starters, you roast one over an open fire. The other you smash  to bits so yours becomes the prize fifty-er. At the World Conker Championships. An event that even captured Ben and Jerry’s imagination They sponsored it. Once. Long time ago. But did you know that they're not actually related at all? And that horse chestnuts got their name because they're "only fit for horses"? Neigh! Can you eat them? Of horse you can't. If eaten raw they're extremely poisonous. Although for some reason the Japanese have been known to flavour rice cakes  with them. Now that doesn’t sound very rice. Maybe they’re just horsin' around. Cue the song.

Pools. The winning rather than the swimming kind. You know. The Pools Man. Remember him. Used to call on a Friday night for your 'any eight from ten' coupon. Now the only man who calls regularly is the postman, delivering parcels of essentials ordered online. Your weekly shop, flowers, books,  DVDs and of course that got-to-have-bargain. The one you successfully bid for at the eleventh hour. So you’ve already got a drawer full – so what? It’ll might be worth a bob or two in five years’ time.

And have you noticed how, for every other caller, the doorstep has become a sacred threshold nobody seems to want to cross any more? Or if they do, it often seems to be sheepishly or reluctantly. Pizza-Men and Curry-Men, always in a hurry. Knock. Knock. Come to read the meter. Thanks. Bye. Why’s that?

But hold on. Go just beyond the doorstep and you discover a community that’s right under your nose. A whole world of local characters you could smile at on your way to the station. Now there’s a radical thought. And they smile back! Local businesses, shops and tradesmen (and women of course) to fix it, play it, clean it, re-wire it, unblock it, cover it, sort it, replace it, mend it, hang it, paint it or fit it.

Doggy walkers so you can have a lie in. Baby sitters so you can have a night out! And they’re all within easy reach, just a local phone call away, or a walk down the street. And they all replace what used to be on your doorstep. Like milk bottles. Or dirty boots. Or Mr Soap Powder and The Doorstep Challenge. Think about it. This could be your saving grace. Get back on the streets, embrace your local community. Say hello. Smile. Save the world.