Member Article

Shropshire Connection Expert Encourages Founders To Indulge In A New Style Of Networking - Where Luxury Is Standard!

An entrepreneur from Bridgnorth, Shropshire, is making it her mission to encourage other business owners to take time out from their busy everyday lives, to make time for connection building, and a new level of networking that incorporates rewarding themselves, and investing in self care, whilst doing business, as she serving up her latest luxury experience.

Nicola Peake, 44, founder of Peakes Private Members Club, is planning to take business owners to Raymond Blanc’s coveted Le Manoir aux Quat’Saisons on 17 November, as part of her mission to provide creative, luxurious, rewarding experiences for self employed company founders who often work alone.

With stats showing that more than a third (39%) of women in business find working from home lonely - as indeed Nicola herself did - which led her to sell her thriving 6 figure business she created in lockdown - she has spent the last 12 months creating opportunities for business owners to network in a variety of unusual settings.

From spa days, comedy clubs, afternoon teas, drag queen tours and luxury retreats in Scotland, to now taking her guests to the fully booked luxury Raymond Blanc Michelin star country house hotel, Nicola is constantly seeking out new environments to help her clients network, exercise self care, and as a result thrive when they are back in their businesses.

Nicola, who left the financial advisor world in 2020 to create a business on her own terms set up Peakes when working alone proved to be incredibly lonely. Nicola found that she often missed the community and real connection of being within a bigger business, and she missed the perks that came with achieving at a certain level.

She said: “I started to realise that as entrepreneurs we treat ourselves terribly - not only do we isolate ourselves much of the time when we become business owners working from home, which can have a direct impact on our mental health if we are naturally people oriented, but we also forget to reward ourselves. Often as entrepreneurs we work even longer hours than when employed at a high level - and the stress levels are elevated too - but we don’t feel we deserve any downtime. When we are high achievers in the corporate world we get rewarded with bonuses, with perks, with events, dinners out -because our employers are saying thank you for our contribution. When we work for ourselves we don’t thank ourselves! -but we must!”.

She added: “After being in the online world for a while, surrounded by other high achieving ambitious founders, I began to realize that I wasn’t the only person missing the connection that came from being employed - and the perks.”

She started to explore existing networking events and groups but found that many were built around ‘cliques’ which made her retract back to feeling like the odd one out, from her school days, or she found they just didn’t suit her playful personality.

Nicola could see a great opportunity in building a business that would fill these gaps, for her and others. It made sense to build a community of other business owners who felt the same, who wanted support, in a friendly, community where genuine connections, and friendships were made, and fun was had.

Nicola has seen entrepreneurs win business, create collaborations, overhaul their business, create new services, and address personal problems and challenges, all through the power of her connections.

She said: “When you start to network in circles like this, you introduce, recommend, and realise just how connected the world is. No doubt you set a coffee date to explore potential collaborations. You walk away with new business friends, possible high-value clients, or an awe-inspiring collaborator. You know that by following up, you can more than double your investment in this event”.

Nicola is driven by her mission to support others in business to enjoy life alongside building their empires due to having experienced the flip side of the coin, when despite earning 6 figures in a career she loved, at the age of 41 life didn’t feel worth living. She has experienced huge growth over the last few years to really connect to her own purpose, and she is now well and truly living it.

Known as a chatterbox at school, and having built a 20 year career in finance from developing strong long term relationships, she is now tapping into her social and interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence to connect and empower other entrepreneurs - “especially those who don’t like to follow the rules!”, she adds.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Chocolate PR .