Sue Stockdale is one of those very determined women who has not only decided to invent, set and meet her goals but has also been able to create a career out of her remarkable success.

We asked Sue, who is a well-known author, to put together for PWA Milan an evening which not only dealt with her perhaps most famous feat – she was the first woman from the UK to ski to the magnetic North Pole as part of an international team – but also to explain how the same principles which she had discovered during that experience were also applicable to other real-life situations of women entrepreneurs. In fact, Sue's latest book - “Secrets of Successful Women Entrepreneurs” does exactly that.

Sue believes in a pragmatic step-by-step approach to goal-achievement, and she has also developed a EU-funded course for women – currently taught at two UK universities - that leads them through these steps in order to identify, and put into practice the actions necessary to open a business.

Her truly motivational presentation concluded with a small hand-out card that invited anyone interested to indicate their specific goal, with a personal promise to follow up on each one within a month's time.

The evening began with an illustration of the key “secrets” of success according to the 10 women entrepreneurs she interviewed:

• will to operate business on values of respect, integrity, ethics, honesty and a passion for excellence
• focus more on interaction with people and helping others than financial reward
• strong desire to control their destiny
• access to finance and work/life balance
• lead by promoting concern for others, team-working and openness

Sue then proceded to map these factors onto the elements (Seven Steps to Successs) she believes are fundamental for achieving any success, and were the result of her initial exploratory trip to the North Pole. In a simple phrase, her motto is “start with the end in mind”.

Each of these “seven steps to success” were identified and clarified with anecdotes from the entrepreneurial experiences of the successful women she had interviewed.

What are the steps?

1. First of all, the defining moment: for Sue's trip to the North Pole, it was the inspiration of Sir Edmund Hillary's initial exploration of the Artic –and imagining being able to do something similar. For many of the women entrepreneurs, the defining moment derives from passion, from disappointment with an existing product or service, from need.

2. The second step is understanding your environment: this step requires asking some hard questions, both personal and business-related. Sue related some detailed experiences, regarding both financial issues, product positioning, decisions to wait for the right moment if personal pressures were too extreme and timing not right.

3. The third step is create a compelling vision: this has to do with the very heart of the activity to be started, and some very interesting anecdotes made this really clear. Each of the following visions is the starting point behind one of the success stories in Sue's book:
   • to create shoes that I would like to wear myself
   • to have product in all places where the only soft drinks available are Coca Cola, orange juice and water
   • to create an organization that changes the way industry addresses women
   • to help women look and feel good in our lingerie
   • to provide contemporary yet accessible images and prove that buying art is not for an elite few

4. The fourth step is to prepare for success: this step includes the ability to analyze and develop personal qualities such as self-awareness of skills, determination, self-belief, focus, tenacity, decisiveness, competitiveness. At the same time it requires the access to finance, which can be one of the crucial start-up factors for women.

5. The fifth step is to start the journey: in particular, this involves an awareness of the single person's leadership style and how this will impact the venture itself. Sue mentioned several styles of leadership (Transformational, Networker and communicator, Single minded and controlling) and how these impacted on challenges such as finding and managing and retaining people, finance, balancing work and life, etc).

6. Maintain fitness and focus, the sixth step, is also a test in motivation: once the enterprise is on its way, many new questions can be asked, and will be the source of continuing improvement. What motivates you? Is it your desire to help others? Do you need to be in control of your own future? Do you like to receive positive feedback from others? Are you keen to prove sceptics wrong? Do you want to keep growing and learning? Is there a little voice inside saying “keep going”?

7. Finally, the seventh step is really taking a moment to think: what next? And the cycle starts over.

The conclusions of the evening were aptly summed up with a set of recommendations for any and all wanting to start on a new entrepreneurial challenge:

• Create a unique product or service
• Decide what type of person you are and employ the opposite
• Invest in technology
• Finance is key
• Get the right mentors
• Recognise you can’t do everything immediately
• You have to go through bad and good to appreciate the good

PWA extends their thanks to Sue for her fascinating, and inspirational, presentation.

Seven Steps to Success (pdf file, MEMBERS ONLY)