An Interview with Sarah Austin, Founder and CEO of Really Helpful Club
It all started on the touchline at a rugby match when a fellow parent was looking for a solution to a problem and asked Sarah if she could help . In this rare instance, Sarah didn’t have the answer but she knew someone who did!
How many times have we all been in that situation? For Sarah, it was a lightbulb moment when she realised the importance of our networks across every aspect of our lives. She took that conversation and expanded it – what if you could take all this knowledge we have gained from our busy and eclectic lives, pool it together and make it accessible online to help anyone find the solution to their problem? It wasn’t long before the Really Helpful Club was born.
“It’s all about solving problems; using the power of the network, leveraging the reach and scale of the internet, to help find trusted, recommended solutions as quickly as possible in our daily lives. ”
We caught up with Sarah recently to talk about Really Helpful Club’s new branding and her vision for the future…
You’ve recently launched Really Helpful Club’s new branding and website – what do the core pillars Wellbeing, Prosperity and Home & Leisure represent to you and your community?
They’re all about what we as a community can do for each other. Whether you’re looking for support in caring for your elderly parents or understanding the emotional needs of your teenagers, getting back into the workplace or looking to progress your career, or some inspiration for your next home project… each core pillar represents key areas in our daily lives: Prosperity represents careers and businesses, Wellbeing – the challenges we face in our health and wellness and Home & Leisure is all about working towards a happy home and family life.
At Really Helpful Club, we give people a safe space where they can connect, collaborate and consult with like-minded, knowledgeable people and find the support and solutions they’re looking for. It really is a trusted network of people that can help you with valuable advice, useful tips and information that can support us through every stage of our lives.
You launched your Back-to-Business conference a few years ago with great success… what was the inspiration behind the conference and how does it benefit people in business today?
The Back-to-Business conference was inspired by the Women’s Boat Race which was hosted in London in May 2014 on the River Thames for the first time in its history. This landmark race was the catalyst to launch an event focused on women and the importance of equality in every aspect of our lives. We hosted a talk with 100 members of our newly-formed Really Helpful Club in a room overlooking the river. The talk was based around empowering women and our younger generation. I invited a former Olympian rower, who talked about her own experiences and the importance of keeping girls engaged in sport as well as the need for equal opportunities for men and women across every aspect of our lives.
I stood there, in that room, and looked around me at a gathering of talented, engaged, professional and resourceful women, keen to share their experiences, valuable advice and information. Someone said to me at that meeting that if we started a company right there and then, drawing on the skills, talent and experience in that room, you would have more than you would ever need.
Another lightbulb moment – I wanted to give my community members an opportunity to learn from these amazing people, helping them take the next step in their careers, and their lives, free from judgement. Literally 8 months later, we held our first Back-to-Business conference.
To date, we have helped more than 2,000 women take their next step in their professional journey. Our annual conference aims to encourage and empower our members and guests, to re-engage with the workplace, find the help and support to advance their career, whether that’s a promotion or starting a business, learn the skills to grow and develop, boost their confidence and expand their network with like-minded women.
What challenges do you believe businesses are facing today? How has the recent pandemic changed the business outlook
The advancement of technology, and particularly the growth of social media and the internet, has on the one hand opened up new opportunities and channels to reach new audiences; but on the other hand has brought with it the challenges of servicing them effectively. In a way, it has become a far more complex process to reach customers, but it has also levelled the playing field in that small businesses now have the chance to really compete with larger corporations.
Small businesses are able to adapt and respond more quickly to various situations, are more flexible to changing conditions, which puts them in a much stronger position to seize those opportunities.
The pandemic helped in many ways as a leveller. Being forced to move more online, the recognition that small businesses could connect and engage with potential clients more easily, rather than having to wait and meet in person, further extended a business’s reach – their world literally became their oyster!
But right now, small businesses are facing a perfect storm. Uncertainty about things over which they have no control – inflation, rising energy prices and the cost of living crisis are impacting consumer demand and spending, as well as the effects of the Russia-Ukraine conflict on supply chains – are proving difficult, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t things that can be done to ease the pressure
Finally, what’s your vision of the future for the Really Helpful Club?
Well, firstly I am very excited about our new branding and website! We’ve improved the user experience and we’re receiving fabulous feedback. I really feel we are in a great place and on the cusp of accelerating growth; expandinging the scale and reach of our network.
I’m also excited about our rapidly growing corporate and schools programmes where we take the best of Really Helpful Club to support and respond to a real thirst for knowledge and understanding in both sectors. Our programmes focus on the important and critical topics that are totally relevant to employees, students, teachers and parents today.
What’s really exciting is that the feedback we’ve received shows we are making a positive difference; we offer real, tangible benefits to everyone involved in our corporate and schools programmes, which we will build on in the future.
Sarah is founder and CEO of Really Helpful Club, a free and supportive online community of like-minded, inspirational people who share their experiences and a lifetime of helpful tips, ideas, valuable advice and honest recommendations to support everyone in their personal and business lives.
Our community, our greatest asset, at Really Helpful Club is about accepting and embracing people from every facet of life, bringing people together in ways where ideas and experiences are shared, offering unique opportunities for people to grow, and empowering each other to achieve what they might have thought impossible.
