Networking - the power of the 'Ladies that Lunch'

By Angela Bensemann

Never underestimate the power of lunching with like-minded individuals and where it might take you – you might even find yourself launching a new venture.  That’s how WorksWonders was born.

About seven years ago Catherine, Julia and I started regularly meeting for lunch, probably about once every couple of months or so.  We knew we were kindred spirits all having worked on the local government elections campaigns in 2004.
 
I guess we just clicked and once the election was over, instead of going our own separate ways we decided to keep on meeting – but this time for lunch.

Catherine helped mentor me into setting up my own business Halo Communications – she’d made the plunge into self-employment several years earlier herself.  Julia was still grappling with working full-time and trying to work out how she could juggle work and family better.

We became the tight three, bouncing work issues off each other and supporting each other through life’s traumas.

Over time we felt there was something missing – enter Jane Comben (the other half of WorksWonders).  Jane too had been grappling with how to work differently and spend more time with her family.

I introduced her to a potential client which was the catalyst needed to give up the fulltime job and join the ranks of the self-employed setting up Pogo Design.

So now we were four and somehow the name ‘ladies that lunch’ became our catch phrase.  It was somewhat ironic really when you look at the Wikipedia definition:

 “Ladies who lunch is a phrase to describe slim, well-off, old-monied, well-dressed women who meet for social luncheons, usually during the working week. Typically, the women involved are married and non-working. .. Oftentimes, the women simply gossip about trivial and frivolous things.”

But we were ready to embrace it.  Through our lunches we formulated strategies for dealing with clients, swapped business advice, provided a shoulder to cry on and then decided to get serious about looking for a new business venture.

We wanted to share our experiences of working in a different way and achieving the kind of work/life balance so hard to come by.  We started to get serious about what this business could look like.  We put our collective business brains together and came up with the idea of an online resource designed to help people achieve this - WorksWonders.

Jane and I decided to take the concept and run with it while Julia and Catherine had other commitments and ventures of their own to pursue. 

We still meet for lunch, we’re still the ‘ladies who lunch’ but if our partner’s ask – it’s called networking!