From Fitness to Business

With a career of over two decades in fitness, Louise Porter has long been a physical force to be reckoned with but she’s now taking on the business world.

Her illustrious career began coaching fitness and aerobics before becoming a fully qualified personal trainer. She has spent over 20 years in Hong Kong expanding her repertoire. Louise developed her interest in reformer Pilates when the health club where she worked purchased a machine. It took over two years for her to become qualified as an instructor, a process that requires true dedication and commitment.

Louise Gillespie is most obviously a shrewd business woman. Despite launching during the 2010 recession, Jessie’s Jewels has seen steady growth and, indeed, looks set to go further.

This Prescot based shop was started by Louise was an attempt to offer her then 15 year old daughter future financial security and independence, an endeavour that has most certainly been successful. Louise managed this whilst reeling from an expensive divorce and working four days a week.

 Find out how she became a successful entrepreneur in corporate wear and how the uniform supplier industry has changed since she set up JSD nearly 35 years ago.

You started out as a fashion model. Before you were scouted, what had you wanted to do as a career?

I was so young, I hadn’t really thought about it. I was 16. I was visiting a cousin in Mallorca. Someone took a photo and it appeared in the Daily Express with a story about my notorious aunt. Terrence Donovan saw it, called the Express and asked to cast me as a gypsy in a Silvikrin shampoo ad and that was the start.

Ema Wilkes is a woman who saw what her community needed and decided she wanted to help. Neo Community Café & Catering (www.neocommunitycafe.org.uk) was founded in 2013, starting as a small café in the heart of Leasowe offering healthy, nutritious food at a reasonable price as well as job and training opportunities. A small business determined to do their part to alleviate food poverty and excess waste.

Their efforts were soon recognised and they began to grow, offering their community assistance and support. The first food crisis bag was handed out in October of their founding year.

Beginning as a care assistant, Nanette Mellor has devoted herself and, despite coming from an underprivileged background, has worked her way up the career ladder and smashed through that glass ceiling.

Being a campaigns manager for a disabled charity in London, Nanette fought rigorously against disability discrimination, cuts to local services and regularly lobbied the government for positive change.

She eventually moved back to the Northwest and took the position of Chief Executive Officer at Neurosupport, a struggling charity that likely would have closed within six months.

Tomorrow’s Women Wirral is an organisation that launched in Septemper 2011, the almost immediate success of the project allowed TWW to have their own independent accommodation by April 2012 and they became a registered charity within a year of their inauguration. Proof of the dedication these ladies have to the women who come to them for help.

TWW is an exclusively female institution for any woman over the age of eighteen who feels they could do with more support. Whether it’s from feeling isolated, low self esteem or simply wishing to try and expand their horizons, TWW is genuinely dedicated to helping everyone who comes to them, including more serious concerns such as domestic violence or substance abuse.