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Interview: Karen Davis of Be-Fabulous, The Lifestyle Networking Site
Karen Davis – a mumpreneur and marketing consultant – talks to The NextWomen about her new online networking site Be-Fabulous, and the value and future of online networking.
The Fabulous Karen Davis
The Fabulous Karen Davis
Can you tell me a bit about yourself?
I’m a 37 year old mum of one (16 month old Max) from Buckinghamshire. I run two businesses, a marketing consultancy (chicken/egg) which I set up in 2004 and Be-Fabulous, a lifestyle networking site for women, which I launched in January of this year. I’m constantly exhausted but have never felt happier!
Can you tell me about the site?
The core proposition behind Be-Fabulous is giving women a place where they can share, support, inspire, motivate and feel empowered. The site offers:
TALK: forums that cover everything from business advice, top tips for networking to recommendations on books, films and restaurants, plus you can share your take on the recent celebrity gossip or tell your own life-story and inspire others – we’ve also recently created member-run sections where you can discuss certain lifestyle and health issues.
MEET: our event calendar is free for all members to promote their own events, plus we post interesting events that we’ve discovered. So if you’re looking to join a business networking group, looking for courses or workshops or maybe just want to try something new or spend a day/evening at a pamper event then you can find it here.
INSPIRE: each month we publish articles that have been written by members and other inspirational women. Our articles cover a whole host of topics and our main criteria is that they get you thinking, get you motivated and inspire you to think differently. We’ve had everything from how to drink gin and how to use NLP techniques in business, right through to what style tribe you fit into and how to find your perfect man – so a real mix!
INIVTE: we’ve produced 4 e-cards, with gorgeous images, that you can use to either tell your friends about the website or simply send to let someone know that you’re thinking of them.
BOOK OF GEMS: the sites directory is a place to discover real hidden gems of business that you might never have discovered, members can promote themselves and we’re now starting to talk to companies and businesses to build up a great directory that will be your first port of call when you’re looking for beauty treatments, gifts, coaching, restaurants, hotels and fashion etc.
We’re also in the process of introducing a real-time chat room plus a way to find new friends within your area so you can meet other like-minded fabulous women!
How did you come up with the idea?
Be-Fabulous was an idea that had been brewing for a couple of years. I was watching local women-only networking events just take off, and an increase in women using social networking sites, and it gave me my ‘light-bulb’ moment. I wanted to create somewhere that was a hybrid of the two!
My inspiration to set up the website stemmed from my belief that women can, and should, inspire and support each other rather than wasting time competing for men, jobs, shoes etc.. We are more than capable of empowering ourselves to be who and what we want to be – but sometimes we just need a little helping hand to realise that.
You also run your own marketing company. How did you find the time to launch Be-fabulous?
The recession has had an impact on my marketing business and this year I’ve gone from having 6 retained clients to just having 2, so although that’s impacted on my financial situation it’s also allowed me the time to launch Be-Fabulous. I have 3 full working days within the week when I divide my time between both businesses, plus a lot of the work for Be-Fabulous I can do in the evenings and at weekends. Mondays and Fridays, when I’m a full-time mum, I work around nap times.
The ‘freemium’ business model seems a tough one in the current economic climate. How does the site make money?
For me it was important to have the site as a free place where women can join and use all the elements on offer, but I also wanted to create a sense of ‘belonging’ to something a little bit more special. I therefore introduced a Premium membership, which for a nominal fee (£18.99 per year) gives members a membership card; access to all offers and discounts in the Book of Gems and ‘unlocks’ paid-for events giving users complete access to what could work out as 100s of pounds worth of savings.
We also make money through charging for inclusion in the Book of Gems. If you want something more than a basic listing – to really stand out in the directory – an annual fee of either £120 or £150 (ex. VAT) gives you live email and web links, and images and text. We’ve currently been running a 50% launch offer (so £60 or £75) for a year and businesses are seeing the value in getting themselves in front of a targeted group of women.
You obviously rate networking highly. Could you put a value on it?
Up until about 6 months ago I was very unsure about business networking. I’d tried it for my marketing business and never really got anywhere. For me anyway, most of my work had come from word-of-mouth or recommendation and from my own marketing to my target audience. However, for Be-Fabulous it’s a whole different story. I went to a couple of face-to-face networking events, and it was great talking with women who immediately understood the concept of Be-Fabulous and what’s more would happily join up once they’d got back to the office. Online networking can be time-consuming, but it’s a great way to promote a business like Be-Fabulous. Twitter especially has been an invaluable tool for me to spread the word about the website and also to promote my members events and articles etc. We’ve got over 600 members predominately in the South but with about 10% across the whole UK – we want to be national though!
Do you accept both male and female members?
The site is predominately for women, but I do have a couple of male members, more-so because they run great businesses and wanted to get in the Book of Gems. I’d also very happily include articles in INSPIRE written by men, so I’m not locking them out, but I think the whole look and feel and concept is more appealing to women!
Where do you see the future of networking? Online? Offline?
I think both will expand equally – you get some people who feel more confident online whilst others draw their energy from meeting people. I think our generation are happy to keep the balance of both, and enjoy both but I worry whether the younger generation will lose touch a little with the whole ‘face-to-face’ experience. They seem more compelled to stay behind the computer screen so I do think it’s important to carry on pushing both to the same degree.
Are there any experiences you feel other women setting up a business could learn from?
Being organised is the best piece of advice I’d share with others. Take the time before you launch into something to plan your strategy both from a business and marketing perspective. Get your office in order and create files and spreadsheets for the year in advance so you keep on top of your filing. It might all sound too obvious but I know plenty of business women who get to year end and are desperately trying to get their books in order and find those receipts from 6 months back. Just being organised at the beginning, and then setting aside an hour each week to file and update your accounts makes a huge difference.
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4 Responses to “Interview: Karen Davis of Be-Fabulous, The Lifestyle Networking Site”
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Dear Karen,
Congratulations. Be Fabulous is a great idea and I like your concept.
I am also a mumpreneur from Latvia who has created my own story and online bussiness-Dream shop. I am also a subscriber of Next Woman and thus I got news about your bussiness Be Fabulous. I would like to clarify whether it would be possible to find a bussiness woman trough your site who might be interested building her own bussiness and working with me on a franchise basis. Below I provide a short summary of my Dream shop how I started it :
After we(me and my husband) have wandered through the shops and malls of the city we came to a surprising conclusion that it is very difficult to find and purchase truly beautiful, colorful and quality bedding sets. So that is the reason why we decided that it is time to create Dream world of our own, where it would be possible for everybody to find things he is looking for and dreaming of…. and what is not less important to purchase his dream bedding set for reasonable price!
After long contemplation and „brain storms” at the beginning of the year 2008 the LLC SolSanno was established and the Dream shop created. Dream shop is the place where everybody can find something beautiful for heart and soul, place where it is possible to choose the gift for special person and place where it is possible to find nice presents for weddings and birthdays.
I have a great plan as well for the future of the Dream shop, I would like to offer to you stylish and magnificent tableware for deliberate tee evenings, festivity dinners and Sunday evening dinners.I would like to offer to my clients the flatware, tablecloths and interior objects for your home, which will create warm cosines and warmness all around customer place.
All goods I am offering we have discovered and found myself, I have tested and tried myself and I have given these goods for testing to our friends and family members. The feedback we got was very positive! That it the reason why we are sure that our clients love our bedding items as well!
My supreme goal is to create the world of Dream shop where one would love to stay in for a while and in time while making a choice regarding the goods clients want to purchase they would feel our warm attitude towards them. For us each customer is very important and significant, that is why we would love to offer individual solutions regarding the delivery of the goods, regarding the making up of gift wrapping. Our true wish is to offer very high and friendly customer service so everything we do we do with the highest sense of responsibility.
Please respond about the possibility to find a partner in UK trough your site.
Sincerely,
Inese Sikle
http://www.sapnuveikals.lv/en
Hello Inese
Why don’t you drop me an email – karen@be-fabulous.co.uk and we can discuss further.
Kind regards
Karen
Hi Karen,
just stumbled across your site, it’s very inspirational! What a fantastic idea.
I have 2 boys, who are absolutely fantastic and really amusing, as well as absolutely exhausting and really bonkers. It’s great to have an arena where that is a given, and you don’t have to explain yourself. – ‘yes, I’m working hard at my business. and yes,I’m working hard at my family life.’
I’d love to join your network.
Regards,
Linnie
Hi Linnie
Thank you for you kind comments – I do hope that you will join us on Be Fabulous then!
Karen
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