Startup feature: Women On The Web

techround-women-on-the-web

Company name: Women On the Web
Founder: Carol Mann
Sum up the business: Carol is on a mission to raise the “digital literacy” of business women across the world, starting in the UK.

About Carol Mann

Carol, by her own admission, is a bit of a geek! A rare commodity amongst female entrepreneurs in the UK, and globally too.

Carol was born in London but her father also had a house in the south of Spain where she spent much of her childhood and early adult life. One of the benefits of this dual-location upbringing was that Carol is totally bi-lingual, even down to having a bit of a “cockney” Spanish dialect particular to that region of Spain!

In 1985 Carol started working in London for an overseas property company. Overwhelmed with having to deal with hundreds of leads and enquiries, Carol remarked to her boss, “Why don’t we put all of this client information on one of those computer things?” …. her boss replied, “Good idea, go and do it!”.

So, Carol did just that and, with the help of a computer coder, she mapped out and had built a system where all the enquiry information was collated and filed electronically making everyone’s life a lot easier in the company.

Since then, she has been hooked on everything digital and helping small businesses use the power of digital media and digital tools to help create and promote their businesses and make their own day-to-day lives a little easier too by just ‘getting’ digital! Carol has a BA Hons in ‘Visual Communications’ and did a course in ‘Digital Excellence’ with the Chartered Institute of Marketing back in 2009.

Carol now runs a successful website & SEO agency based in North London, We Get Digital. Because of dealing day to day with mainly female entrepreneurs, Carol has become increasingly aware of the lack of digital literacy among women in business and this is really holding women back in their business lives. She really wants to help and has therefore recently founded Women On the Web; a web platform aimed at helping business women to understand and to use the multitude of digital tools and platforms available to them.

What is the business?

My new business is called Women On the Web – a membership website delivering short, succinct, really easy to understand video tutorials on all things digital. The tutorial videos are delivered by a select group of “Contributors”, businesswomen who, like me, have run the ‘digital’ gauntlet in business and now provide help in their particular expertise.
Members pay a monthly subscription to Women On the Web which gives them full access to the content and the contributors on the site, they can also request a tutorial if there is something they are struggling with that is not currently available… a very useful feature.
In return for uploading video content to the site, contributors will get exposure for themselves and their businesses, encouraging members to contact them and potentially become new clients.
It’s a win-win scenario.
Our mission is to make sure that all businesswomen have the confidence & knowledge to tackle business digitally and online.

What are your plans for business growth?

We are launching Women On the Web in the UK on September 1st 2018, with some great introductory offers for our founder members.
We aim to expand quite quickly into the US market, hopefully by April 2019 and then on to other major English-speaking countries.
With my Spanish skills, I have already begun a Spanish version of Women On the web although this is not expected to be ready to launch until mid-2020.

What are the challenges you have faced?

During my 20 years plus heading up my own businesses, I have faced many challenges.
It was very scary when I first went from being an employee to becoming an entrepreneur, no set salary, no-one to share decision making with and no guarantee that I would succeed… scary stuff!
Also, I tried to be a bit of a “jack-of-all-trades when I first set up my business, I tried to cover every aspect of digital marketing and services. Bad move. I have since learned that it is way better to focus on one or two areas and niche yourself there.

What advice would you give?

I would say that you must be tenacious and resistant. Believe in YOURSELF! If you have a passion and the right skill set then, with determination, you can succeed in business.
Also, don’t be shy…. Promote yourself wherever you can and don’t be backwards in coming forward to ask for help and advice, others love to be asked for help.