From banker to fashion - Libby London

Libby Hart, founder and owner of clothing line Libby London, launched her first fashion line in 2011, while she was still working in banking. Her career was rocketing fast and she was promoted to a senior directing role at the age of 28. She soon realised a massive gap in the market: good quality dresses that weren’t cheap looking, too expensive or uncomfortable.

“I hated dressing in suits and whenever I found dresses, they were either too mumsy, too boring, too expensive or too booby,” Libby says, explaining how she began to get annoyed by the low selection of quality business wear.

“If I didn’t want to spend a small fortune in a dress, the only options for proper business wear were basically places like Zara, but sometimes those dresses can be a bit inappropriate for a woman who wants to be taken seriously and works in the highest level of the game. They are a bit booby.”

Libby Hart

Tackling the problem first hand

“In my extreme naivety,” she laughs, “I decided that if I can’t find myself dresses, there is a gap in the market and I should try to fill that gap.” And so she did. 

She spent up to 5 years working as a banker by day and fashion retailer by night, until the growth of the business was too much for one woman to handle. Libby had to face the decision of either letting her career in banking, or her business go. We know what she decided to do.

“I really loved my career in banking and I had always been determined that I would be a chairman of Goldman & Sacks one day, but while doing this fashion business on the side, I started to realise that I could be a chairman of my own company and really give it a go.

“During my last year in banking the fashion business really started to take off and I was struggling to find the balance for both. It caught me by surprise,” she says adding that no-one really starts a business thinking that it will be the 'next big thing overnight.'

Positive attitude

Taking the final step of becoming an entrepreneur could feel daunting for some, but not Libby. Her positive attitude is without a doubt the reason she has done so well in everything she has put her mind into.

“I have always been almost stupidly ambitious thinking that everything is achievable for me. Not in an arrogant kind of way, more like thinking that there are always people who will make it as well, not only those who fail. 

“There are people who start and run successful businesses and I truly believed it could be me who can do that.” And she was not wrong.

Libby says that perseverance is the most important thing you need when starting a business and that resourcefulness is a great quality which will keep you going when you think you have hit the wall. 

“You will grow a thick skin over time for sure which is a painful process, but you need perseverance to succeed."

“People will help you in different things, but ultimately, you need to do things yourself and at first every little thing you don’t know is a massive challenge, but you learn along the way,” she assures.

Inspiration from powerful women

During her career Libby has both mentored, and been mentored by powerful women who have in time formed a close network which she often turns to for help and advice. 

“I have had some amazing mentors who have been senior people in the industry with a lot of knowledge and resources. I can’t say who they are, but they have been a tremendous help and an inspiration to me,” she says. Her own mentoring is also important to her:

“It gives me a lot to be able to mentor someone. It makes me appreciate where I started and how far I have come in a very small time.” The very tight network of other business women has helped her many times along the way. 

“Sometimes we share information like factory details, and sometimes I just need someone to talk to about my emotions or about some challenge and they have all been there. They know how it feels like and can support.”

101 for Women in Business

All the channels available today have, however, given the “internet national” generation a possibility to brand, sell and work themselves as a desirable employee purpose-built for their potential employer.

Never under-estimate how important social media is for getting noticed and being visible, but also how damaging it can be if not managed effectively. And remember, your LinkedIn profile might open you the door, but your personality needs to support your online brand.

How to start building your brand

Make a plan and spend a lot of time before your job search making sure you have a clear and specific goal on what you want to accomplish in your career or in the next few years. Think about who you really are, what you stand for, what your values are and what motivates you in life. What are your strong personality characteristics, your talents and strengths?

Make sure YOU know exactly who you are, so you will be able to sell yourself.

“New employers will be looking for authentic confidence, good personal presentation that is appropriate for the role you will be in and for their corporate brand,” said Lesley Everett, the creator and founder of Walking TALL which is a methodology for building original personal brands.

“They want to know about ‘you’ not just what you’ve achieved so far, and to ensure that your communication skills in all forms are of a high standard.“ 

We live in an even faster moving world, where we are forced to make decisions quickly, have limited attention spans and where trust and like-ability are at the fore-front of our sub-conscious minds when we chose to work with, promote, recruit and build relationships with individuals,” Everett said.

The part of social media

You must know by now that each post made on social media sites is a layer added to your personal brand. A certain carefulness is always good to keep in mind. Before posting, ask yourself: ’Would I care if my boss saw this?’

Also, those warnings your mother gave you are worth considering - whatever is added to the internet, could very well stay there even if deleted later.

The first steps in branding should always include taking a closer look on your existing accounts and ‘cleaning’ them up.

“I recently pointed out to a young guy, who has a lot of talent and drive, that his profile picture with his hand gesture as it was, and a certain comment in a post about the police should be changed immediately,” said Lesley Everett.

Her advice on social media use is: “You need a LinkedIn profile with a good, clear and professional head and shoulders photo and a strong summary statement. On Facebook make sure you have your settings so that when you are tagged in a photo you know about it to delete if necessary. 

“Twitter is great for building a presence if you have an area of interest or expertise, and great as a tool for research and following relevant people or companies. Always ask yourself before posting – is this in-line with my personal brand and how I want to be perceived in the professional world? 

“Just remember, that your personal brand is about being who you really are and being the best you can be. Just take time to define it, refine it and project it consistently in all you do,” she said.

Lisa Christensen

Women in business

Women in business can succeed if they remember one simple tip, according to Lisa Christen, the Founder and Managing Director of Christen Consulting. She said: “You have to take the action and control your own destiny. Don’t sit back and wait for others to recognise your work, give you a promotion, hire you for a job or tell you your opinion matters.”

“The best way to get noticed for a job is to network, network, network offline... and then use online to stay recent and relevant in a potential employer’s mind,” Lisa said.

The trick, Lisa explains, in selling your brand forward is to take part in the social media conversation. Weekly, post links to interesting articles or provide insightful and interesting comments on LinkedIn, XING, and other social media platforms. Show initiative and give your brand some coverage and visibility.

In the world of business, women should empower each other and surround themselves with other strong and confident women. Your brand should be one that works as a positive force for others.

In the world of social media and information, there is a great amount of knowledge your future employer can gather even before inviting a candidate into an interview.

Sexism in football

Women in Football supports female working in the industry 

Woman's Day at Wembley arena

Even after the incident in Paris where Chelsea fans brought the racism in football back to the media agenda, there has still not been much talk about sexism in football. 

This was changed by Woman in Football, an organisation which launched campaign to challenge discrimination inside the industry. 

The campaign group celebrates achievements of women working in the male dominated industry of football, lobbies and advises against sexism inside the sport and offers a network of support, contacts and mentoring for the next generation professionals.

To mark the International Women’s Day and to bring attention to the issue, the campaign group hosted a panel discussion in the home of English football, Wembley arena on 8th of March. 

Campaign hashtags #SheBelongs and #ShameOnTheGame were actively used by the audience which consisted of women working all around the industry. 

After a Google+ Hangout session, during which footballers from England and Scotland teams, currently playing in a tournament in Cyprus attended the conversation via video-link, football agent Dentaa Amoateng and the Head of Security and Operations at Wembley National Stadium, Julia Pendry, offered their opinions on the latest developments on the sexism in the game.

Women need to be competent

Pendry, who was awarded the Member of Victorian Order award for her leadership skills, made it clear that it was her competence that made her confident during her challenging career. 

She said: “If we start to bang the drums, we need to make sure that we are competent.

“What we don’t want is a situation where we are allowed in and we are actually not that good and can’t do the jobs.”

After a Q&A session, a sport law student Anna Storer said, that she almost became emotional while Pendry talked about women knowing their limitations and accepting they need to earn the opportunities equally to men.

“It should not be the way to take things forward that women should just get jobs and opportunities because they are woman,” she said. 

“We should only get the jobs if we are competent to do them. Not just because some organisation needs to ‘tick the female box’,” she said.

She added that there are very professional women out there who can compete with men and do just as well as them, but women who are not competent and get these jobs for wrong reasons, will not take the case forward in the right way, quite the contrary.

Fellow sports law student, Isabella Hislop, agreed, stating that “no-one can take skill away from you.” 

She said: “Sometimes I get these people who instantly think that I don’t know what I am talking about, but I can show them that I know. It just takes confidence to stand up for yourself in this business.”

A long time member of the organisation, Janie Frampton, who retired from refereeing to work on her own consultancy, says that female football has always been her passion, but male football has been her challenge.

She talked about the horrendous “banter” she got from the stands during her career and what she thinks needs to change.

“I asked the men if they would be offended when people shouted that they wish my family dies. They were and so was I when that was shouted at me. 

“They just think that because I am a women it would make me more emotional to hear that. It was over an offside and I struggle to understand what offside had to do with it.”

#SheBelongs is a month-long campaign, supported by Everyday Sexism, to raise awareness of discrimination and sexist abuse, especially on match days, and how to report it through #ShameOnTheGame. 

You can find out more about Women in Football by following them on Twitter: @womeninfootball and on their website: www.womeninfootball.co.uk

Tourists gathering around the iconic stadium

Wembley stadium is known as the home of football which made it the perfect place for the event.

Dolce Vita Editor Ida Aari celebrated Women's Day at Wembley

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