If We Can, You Can

Author:

Nickie Gott

Business:

She's Gott It Ltd.

Published:

10/11/2008 11:14:00

One day I was walking with my daughter through a local playground. It was pretty run down and she said to me, ‘Mum, this place is awful, why has nobody put any swings in here?’ I felt as though I could do something to help so I started fundraising and organising to get the money to install some swings.

I’d made loads of connections in the local authorities, business community and communities and I’d really enjoyed the organising process so I started doing volunteering and casual work in events until I got a permanent post. The job came to me naturally, I didn’t have to be trained or shown what to do. I felt as though I was good at what I did but I still needed somebody else to recognise that despite the fact that I had nothing on paper, no qualifications, I was worthwhile.

I took the big step of leaving an employer and setting up on my own. I knew that the contacts I’d made whilst doing my fundraising would stay with me because I’d built up such a strong working relationship with them and they shared my passion for the delivery of events. They also knew that once I got my teeth into something, I wouldn’t let go of it and they trusted me to do a good job.

Despite that, it was incredibly nerve-wracking to start up an event management business by myself. I had half of our garage carpeted and just worked from there for the first fourteen months on a family computer. My mum sat at the kitchen table doing the accounts and then my sister sat on the other side helping me out before we eventually moved into an office when things started to pick up.