WOMEN IN BUSINESS: Vanessa Davey

Women love to talk and Tauranga woman Vanessa Davey has harnessed the power of word of mouth in her burgeoning business.
Mrs Davey started the Venus Club after discovering first-hand the difficulty of marketing a small business on a shoestring budget.
She had started her own business as a clutter coach but soon realised her true calling was in networking.
"I saw a gap in the market for a closed group of women who would all support each other to grow," she said.
The Venus Club is a "business referral community", designed for women wanting to grow their business and networks.
It started in 2008 with four clubs in Tauranga - each club has up to 20 members, who meet every fortnight.
And less than three years later, Venus Club now includes 280 members in 27 clubs across New Zealand, from Auckland's North Shore to Dunedin.
Mrs Davey's goal is to more than double that to 650 members by the end of next year.
In February, she's opening her first international branch in Sydney.
Something about The Venus Club has clearly hit the right note.
Members meet fortnightly for a meeting which Mrs Davey describes as "a cross between a board meeting and a coffee group".
Each woman is given a minute to promote her own business, while the rest of the time is spent learning about a set topic relating to growing a business.
As relationships were formed among the women, the members of the group essentially "become your sales force", Mrs Davey said.
"They are out there talking about your business all the time.
"You join for 12 months, and over that time people get to know you, like you, trust you, and then refer business to you.
"You develop strong friendships. It comes down to the whole thing of loyalty - people will do business with people who they like.
"You don't look in the Yellow Pages anymore for a service - you go to a friend or colleague, and ask who do you know or trust? Venus is about developing that trust."
Mrs Davey believed the success of Venus was partly because of the timing, as more and more women start their own business.
That, combined with the tough economy, meant that more aggressive marketing strategies were needed.
"You have to do something to get people in the door. It's not just a matter of putting a website up, you have to do some marketing."
Women who were working from home could often feel isolated and enjoyed being part of a group and meeting others in similar situations.
The groups include everyone from beauty therapists and graphic designers to caterers and owners of child care centres.
Mrs Davey's background is in sports and recreation and she spent seven years living and working overseas.
When she returned to New Zealand she decided to move to Tauranga and hasn't looked back.
As the business has rapidly expanded in the last six months, work has taken her away from her home base. But a change in company structure means she has now appointed five regional coordinators, to manage the 50 volunteer facilitators.
While she's thrilled with the rapid growth of the business, it has come after years of hard work.
"I absolutely underestimated how much work was involved.
"You read the stories of the overnight success and that's never the case - it's the hours of work that go in before."
After the first Venus Club opens in Sydney next year, the sky's the limit as to where the business will go next. Mrs Davey sees potential to expand into Australia, Canada and Britain.
"It's not about proving anything to anyone but if it's something that will work overseas, why not see if I can do it?"
It's certain that whatever she does, Mrs Davey will have the support of her networks of women.
"Women are strong in building communities and supporting one another so that we all succeed," she said. "I think women are brilliant at building relationships."