The Directors of Write on Time – together with their close friend Helen Pritchard – have won a national blogging award for their unique voluntary project which celebrates female entrepreneurs.
Helen hosted the #SheCan365 project – challenging Michelle and Christian Ewen to tell the stories of 365 female entrepreneurs over 365 consecutive days in exactly 365 words.
Helen financed and built the #SheCan365 website, which was crowned ‘Best Blog of 2020’ at the Single Mums Business Network (SMBN) Awards on Wednesday, 21 October.
“Many of the women we interviewed for #SheCan365 were single mums,” said Michelle. “They may live in different parts of the UK and work within a variety of sectors, but they all have one thing in common: they have built businesses that not only afford them financial freedom, but also provide the flexibility to be present in their children’s lives.
‘We dedicate this award to every person who told us their story, championed the blog or donated to Kickstarter to finance the #SheCan365 book. We hope it will inspire single mums in business everywhere to find and follow their passion and purpose.”
The #SheCan365 project team were selected from hundreds of nominees throughout the UK, who were recognised across 14 awards categories.
Julie Hawkins, who founded SMBN, posted out the winners’ trophies in boxes marked ‘Top Secret’ ahead of the virtual announcement. She said: “Our network members fight day in, day out against stigma and misconceptions – fighting to find a way to work around childcare restrictions and not to be dependent on contributions. Work that recognises these incredible women – and their ability to organise, troubleshoot, problem-solve, empathise and manage – is so hard to come by. They refuse to be defeated and so they set up companies; they fight, they sustain, and they cuddle their children.”
Mum-of-two Helen, who has grown her multi-award-winning online marketing business into a seven-figure venture, added: “This accolade is very special to me as, when I first started out in business, I was a single mum, heavily in debt and struggled to get out there and network. I would, therefore, like to personally thank Julie and the judges for ensuring single mums in business get the support and recognition they deserve.
‘The best thing about #SheCan365 is that we are only just beginning… As a team we have ambitious plans in the works, and so we are super-excited to move into our next chapter as an award-winning platform.”
To find out more about #SheCan365, visit www.shecan365.com
PHOTO CAPTION: Helen Pritchard (left) is pictured with Christian and Michelle Ewen and their SMBN Award for ‘Best Blog of 2020’. (PLEASE NOTE: This is a Photoshopped image due to social distancing restrictions.)
