Starting all over again
One of the privileges that has come my way, since I achieved some business success, is that people seek me out for my help and interesting business opportunities come my way.
I’ll expand on each of these in coming weeks and months, because they give me an opportunity to actually put into practice what I preach about marketing and business management.
Almost two years ago, after being invited to speak to students at a local college, I met with the lecturer who was coordinating the talks, a delightful lady called Helen Hoyle.
I met Helen on a few other occasions, as I spoke on a few occasions upon her invitation. She also brought students to some of the relevant events I was chairing at the local branch of the Institute of Directors. As I spoke to Helen more, I began to realise what a different and remarkable person she was.
This is a single mother who was bringing up two teenagers and was preparing to undertake the Polar Challenge where, with two other team mates, she was going to cross the Arctic circle to the magnetic north pole. Helen successfully completed that challenge over Easter 2006.
During these times, Helen would discuss doing something more with her life and mentioned setting up her own business. This would be another challenge for her and, when successful, would help her fund similar expeditions to the one she’d just competed in the Arctic.
Between us, we hatched a concept to help people lose weight. Helen is an expert on nutrition and fitness and was appalled at the many dieting regimes and schemes where people lose pounds, mostly from their wallet, in a fruitless quest to lose weight. She felt there was room for something that was reliable and really delivered lasting weight loss.
We created Lighter Steps which creates diets for people (after a proper consultation), and delivers the food, twice-weekly, in ready prepared meals and snacks. Helen also introduces the client to simple exercise.
The results with the first clients have been very good. The weight that has been lost has not been regained and we’re learning more each day about the reasons why people gain weight and find it difficult to shed.
The interesting thing for me personally, apart from participating in this interesting start up business, has been creating the marketing behind it.
I’ll explain more in my next entry.
Tags: Dieting, Weight Loss, Business, Business Opportunity
