Our Story
It was while chatting on the touchline of her son’s school rugby game, that something sparked a much bigger conversation in Sarah’s mind. The more Sarah talked with other parents and friends, the more she realised that by sharing ideas and recommendations, like-minded people come together to solve their problems.
This inspired Sarah to start an online forum and a vibrant community grew. It wasn’t long before forum members were asking for services and features to help them network and share more ideas, tips and advice. The dynamic response to members’ requests was a directory of curated and recommended businesses, helping the Really Helpful Club’s burgeoning community fast track to the solutions they were looking for.
The next step was bringing everyone together in a place to meet each other and events were held to expand people’s knowledge and understanding, leading the conversation on topics that are important to our members. The aim was to shape the events around those topics that mattered and affected our community’s lives – health and wellbeing, family, careers and personal development – without doubt, they were hugely popular.
Members had an opportunity to be understood and feel inspired, connecting with like-minded people and learning new skills. Inspired by the Women’s Boat Race being hosted in London in May 2014, Sarah organised a talk with 100 members of her new-found community in a room overlooking the River Thames. The keynote speaker talked about the importance of keeping women engaged in sport; empowering women and the younger generation in every aspect of their lives.
What started out as a useful online forum where like-minded people shared ideas, asked questions and made recommendations has become today’s buzzing, inspirational and collaborative, 15,000+ strong community at the Really Helpful Club.
Small beginnings grow into great things; for Sarah and her team at the Really Helpful Club, great things really did come from a small beginning. Today we feel privileged knowing we can inspire and support one another on our life journeys, and we are all stronger in doing so.
It was a symbolic moment in so many ways; Sarah saw a room full of talented, well-educated and highly influential women – a unique network – and realised how important it was to offer them access to information and opportunities to help them take the next step in their careers, either to return to the workplace or to start and grow a business. The first Back to Business Conference was held the following January.
