Today Hannah Edwards is talking to Sabrina O’Keeffe of Charming Bee Accessories.

Her business came about when Sabrina was out of work. Having always been crafty, she did a jewellery course and some workshops, then started making sterling silver jewellery, and absolutely loved it.

Sabrina has only been an official member of Businesswise for around a month. She came along at the very beginning of her self-employed business journey, which is quite unusual. Having worked in the corporate world for 20 years, she was used to being able to bounce ideas off the people around her. Working on her own, she found it much harder.

She shares how generally she doesn’t like having to talk in front of people, or in fact talk about herself much, but after being welcomed into the room and group on her first visit, she decided to join.

Sabrina talks about loving the fact that because there are so many different personalities and businesses, many of whom have experience of being self-employed, they are happy to help and make suggestions about business-related things.

One of the things that she loves about Businesswise is the way that people ask about what you’re doing; share your posts on social media and genuinely take an interest in what you’re doing in your business.

Businesswise are quite a lively bunch of people, and although Sabrina finds it difficult to talk about herself the group have made it very easy for her, hence her joining! She’d encourage anyone else who is nervous about networking to just try it!

If you’d like to know more about Sabrina and Businesswise, visit https://businesswise.org.uk/