Isle of Man Finalists in North West Women in Business Awards

Two Business Women from Isle of Man gain recognition in Forward Ladies Women In Business Awards for North West and Isle of Man.  Shelia Dean, Managing Director at Equiom for International Business Woman of the Year and Torie Kissack, founder, Imagination Station for Young Business Woman of the Year.

The success of women business leaders is being showcased at the inaugural Isle of Man and North West Women in Business Awards held by Forward Ladies, with the quality of business women on the Island being represented in two categories.   There are nine separate award categories as well as an Outstanding Business Woman of the Year award chosen from the nine category winners.  The awards will be presented at a prestigious awards ceremony in Manchester on 10^th November 2011.

Kate Lord said: “In April we were encouraging professional women to participate in these awards, which are new for us on Isle of Man, to showcase and celebrate female talent.  We had a good number of applications from Isle of Man and the quality and talent of the businesswomen on the Island is represented by us having two women in the finals, even though we are a small community and share the awards with the North West.   I am particularly pleased that the Island’s women are being recognised in the categories for International Business and Young Business Woman.” 

Forward Ladies is a women’s business support community involving more than 12,000 professional women across the north of England and the Isle of Man.  

Sheila Dean of Isle of Man global trust & corporate services business, Equiom, is shortlisted in the International Business Woman category, sponsored by UK Trade and Investment, while Victoria Kissack who runs Imagination Station – an entertainment and events company which supplies face painters, clowns, jugglers and entertainment artistes for events is shortlisted in the Young Business Woman category.

Sheila is a Fellow of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (FCCA) and has overall responsibility for Equiom's strategic direction and operational control.

In addition to her role as Managing Director, she is a relationship manager on a portfolio of international clients and is also a key contact for intermediary relationships. She plays a proactive role in driving business development and growth of the company's international business. A leading member of the Isle of Man business community, she is also a respected figure in the global trust and corporate services sector.

Victoria (Torie) originally started with children’s entertainment, but with a plan to expand the business to incorporate many more elements.

After only two days in business, she landed a corporate contract with Isle of Man radio station 3FM and has since worked with the Isle of Man Government, the Tourism Board, schools, charities and many more corporate clients. Due to customer demand she now has a team of self-employed circus performers, two more face painters, dance troupes, DJs, discos, and bouncy castles with more artistes added all the time.

Other finalists from the North West of England include care home owners, telecoms and television production managers.

Isle of Man Agricultural Advisory Service from DEFA

Today BIC learned about this great service from Isle of Man Department of Environment, Food and Agriculture  (DEFA).

The DEFA agricultural advisory service is a free service for all agricultural businesses in the Isle of Man, providing help and advice on a wide range of topics, both technical (what and how much to feed animals, crop husbandry, and so on) and business (cashflow, budgets, investment appraisals, account analysis, business planning, etc).

Through this advice provision DEFA brings together farms and related businesses who wish to diversify, either agriculturally (e.g. novel livestock such as milking goats) and non-agricultural (equine enterprises, holiday accommodation, and so on). To help facilitate some of these ideas Andrew McDonald, Senior Agricultural Advisor at DEFA has been running an action learning sets with farming groups.  Assistance had been provided on the basics of farm diversification, in terms of the planning and market research, business planning, risk analysis, etc.

For more information on DEFA and the Agricultural Advisory Service visit http://www.gov.im/daff/ .

Notes from a small island | Opinion | The Engineer

Notes from a small island Opinion The Engineer

The Isle of Man is one of those places that many people in the UK know little about. Ask around, and most can dredge up a fact or two: cats without tails; a flag with three legs; a notoriously dangerous motorbike race; kippers. But other important details aren’t so well-known. When I told friends I was heading there, one person asked me if there was a time difference. I said I thought it was about 40 years.
And in some ways, I was right; it’s certainly a slower pace of life up on the little island in the middle of the Irish Sea. The capital, Douglas, has a horse-drawn tram service along its seafront promenade; there’s a flourishing steam railway, used by locals and holidaymakers alike. But in other ways, the Isle of Man is far ahead of the rest of the UK, and could teach it some valuable lessons.
.Back in the 1980s, the island’s government, like the rest of the UK, decided that the future of its economy lay in financial services and built up a large sector. However, some 20 years ago, it took another look and realised that the economy had become unbalanced.
‘It really was a matter of not putting all the eggs in one basket,’ explained Adrian Moore, head of the Isle of Man Aerospace Cluster, a group of 17 aerospace companies now flourishing on the island.
The government took the decision to encourage the establishment of a high-tech manufacturing sector to bring some variety into its economy. Building on the presence of three large aerospace companies which had been established on the island for some 60 years — Ronaldsway Aircraft Company, whose roots are in ejector seat manufacture; valve specialist Swagelok; and GE Aerospace — it used a system of financial incentives to persuade companies to take root on the island. As a result, when the credit crunch hit three years ago, the Manx economy was more cushioned from its effects than the mainland’s.

Moore admits that some of the methods used by the Manx government would not be available to the UK; for example, the island’s corporate tax rate is zero, something which would not be possible here.
But asking around some of the companies, such as micro-turbine specialist Bladon Jets, laser optics producer CVI Melles Griot, component prototype maker Kiartys and body composition scanner manufacturer Bodystat, the key seems to be easy access to government and regulators.
‘We know who eveyone is, and we know that if we have a problem, we can talk to someone and get it sorted out,’ said Kiartys sales director Steve Riding.

Much of this is a function of the small size of the community. However, it’s undeniable that it’s working. The island has a growing reputation as a centre for innovative high-tech; a fledgling space sector is now taking shape, and is home to one of the entrants in the Lunar X-prize.
Moore is now looking at establishing a technical college and forming links with universities in the Northwest region, where the Manx economy already has many links, with a view to fostering the skills needed by the sector and to attract university spin-outs to the island.
Perhaps that famous motorbike race, the TT, has fostered a different attitude to risk among the Manx community. But there certainly seems to be something in the air on the UK’s tiny neighbour which the UK government should take notice of. The Manx economy is doing many of the things that the UK seems to be still only talking about, and we could do a lot worse than take a look.
Read more: http://www.theengineer.co.uk/opinion/comment/notes-from-a-small-island/1008352.article?cmpid=TE01&cmptype=newsletter&cmpdate=200411&email=true#ixzz1KAY0HUAp