Welcome to my new blogging site.

Over the coming weeks and months I’ll be using this blog to share with you my views on the issues that I’m passionate about and that are close to my heart.

This is a fantastic way for me to have a good rant about the things I care about - and to share some gossip about the things I get up to - and the people I meet.

So, starting at the beginning - why do I do what I do? For a lot of my life I have noticed that there are a lot of problems that are stopping people from realising their potential.  I love seeing what I can do to help people. I want to solve these problems and ‘improve people’s lives’. That might be by helping someone find a new job; learn new skills; build a business or tackle their debt problems. So my organisation, A4e is built on the foundation of improving people’s lives and that’s what we do every day.

In my blogs - if you get any jargon or waffle - shout - I can't stand it. I am looking forward to letting you know what I’m up to and how I think we can help people more.

I’ve recently been doing a lot of work trying to encourage a much more enterprising culture in the UK and was heavily involved in the recent Enterprise Week. I thought I’d share with you some of my tips for building a successful business. My journey from a schoolkid to a getting it right mostly entrepreneur has been a fantastic journey. I have had to learn some cracking stuff to move on from a truanting schoolkid to the head of an international company. So here are some of my top tips and thoughts:

• Follow your passion - don't pursue the money. I've seen examples of managers cost cutting and these are often the worst performing departments or offices. If we do good we do well.
• Lead people - leaders have moral authority, managers have formal authority. No-one told Ghandi that he could lead the county; he just decided that he would find a peaceful way to lead. Everyone is a leader with moral authority - you don't have to have formal authority.
• Inspire, encourage and elevate - very rarely criticise. Be ruthless on the issue but kind to the people.
• Work 'on' not 'in' the business - employ fantastic people and step up. Trust the people below you to do a sparkling job and give them the space to grow and show you how great they are. You need smart people in the organisation who know more than you.
• Always have a plan - how did I write the improving people's lives vision? Simple - spent time thinking about waht I really really wanted to do, got a piece of paper and wrote it down. When I'm mentoring I ask people - where are you heading? If they don't know, they will go round in circles surrounded by too much baggage stopping them going forward.
• Keep it simple - no wobble-gobbing. Incompetent people use fancy language - this hides incompetence. Be clear and get people informed. There will never be boring people running A4e and we'll always have passion.
• Have confidence to side step the dinosaurs - A4e will always improve people's lives and we will do it right. Ensure you're nimble on your feet and get round problems. I'm asked by women 'how do I deal with the glass ceiling?' - I walk around it.
• Marketing, marketing, marketing - talk to the world about what you are doing. Spot opportunities. I have a rule, every day I take a piece of paper and divide it into four and talk to four people in the outside world about what we do. Filing and tidying the toilet rolls will not secure the future and build people's careers

One of the most important things I have realised is that you learn from experience, by speaking to other people about their experiences and by asking questions. I learn something new every day.

Speak to you soon.

Emma