I attended a Women's Executive Network (WXN) breakfast event on Thursday the 22nd July at the Conrad Hotel, Dublin with Sarah Newman as the main speaker. Sarah is an English entrepreneur living in Ireland who sold her business needahotel.com for a sizeable sum. She is also the only female on the Irish Dragon's Den (see photo).
Sarah gave a really inspirational talk focusing on her life to date, her childhood, schooldays, her apprenticeship with Gulliver, the discount hotel room supplier in London, run by an Israeli Jew who congratulated her on her chutzpah – which Irish entrepreneur Bill Cullen refers to as liathroidi (balls).
She came to Ireland initially because she married an Irish man with whom she had two children Grace and Patrick. She then started her business using Gulliver as her supplier of cost price hotel rooms, which she subsequently sold on to Irish tour operators and from there to Ryanair.
What came across was her passion, determination, strong work ethic and commitment to her business and her staff. All staff, she believes, should be bought into the success of the company; all staff are rewarded financially when the company does well and need to take the hit when grey days are looming.
Recognising that while still making a significant profit, the margins in needahotel.com were diminishing her management team and herself decided to sell the business. She was very much involved in pushing the deal over the line and spat and shook on it with the new owner of the company. She then decided that she would reward each employee individually on a pro-rata basis from the profit she made and her management team bought into that idea sharing some of their profit as well, which in my opinion demonstrates tangible leadership qualities.
I was particularly impressed that from her time on Dragon’s Den she has made the decision to invest in hand crafted hurleys, contributing her expertise in web site design and marketing. The hurleys are now being pre-ordered from all over the world.
I see Sarah as a fantastic example of : a woman achieving great success in business, of an English business woman seeing a future in a traditional Irish craft and an unique, indigenous Irish sport and the strengths that can come from that partnership. Liz O'Donnell, expressed similar sentiments as she was wrapping up the session.
As I think you can tell, I really enjoyed listening to Sarah and felt highly motivated by her. She shared the best piece of advice she ever got – from her Mum - reach for the stars, there’s one with your name on it!
On a personal level, I met some really interesting, lovely people at the event with whom I spoke about my confidence building business and who in turn told me about their businesses, so hopefully we may work together or pass on each other’s details to interested parties in the future.
We also got a very nice goody bag. Who doesn’t like a little treat at 7 in the morning? There was a copy of the Rte Guide, a reusable shopping bag, an Rte keyring , a very useful Weight Watcher’s starter pack and a Weight Watcher’s pen. There were also complimentary copies of The Irish Times available and a great raffle with a gorgeous Clarins hamper as the first prize - which sadly I didn't win!
Goodies, good company, networking opportunities, a truly motivational speaker and a fine breakfast in the Conrad Hotel in city centre Dublin – not bad for €49. I’m looking forward to more events like this.
