Jessica Chivers - The Thinking Woman's Coach

Jessica Chivers is what marketing spin doctors might call a ‘mumpreneur’. At 28 she’s achieved a lot as 'The Thinking Woman’s Coach' and as a new mother she’s seen fresh opportunities to develop women’s minds.

With a first in psychology Jessica had plans to go into retail marketing in the 90s.

"I read about Tesco’s decision to start stocking smaller melons on the advice of a retail psychologist. Apparently women make subconscious comparisons between melons and their breasts and as small ones were in fashion at the time the psychologists were telling them to swap large for small."

But in the end a great learning and development role came up in the marketing team of a large UK retail bank and that’s where she went until 2004 when she quit to do her own thing.

After a year of feeling like too small a cog in too big a machine she began a coaching qualification with a view to going freelance. She qualified as a coach almost a year later, when she set up her company, Be You But Better, and began marketing as The Thinking Woman’s Coach.

"While I was working towards my qualification, I was hatching plans to start my own business. Initially I moved the hours at my current job to four days a week for 9 months, before I left on my third anniversary of joining the company," she said.

Being perceived as ‘young’ was the biggest obstacle Jessica believes she faced when setting out, although she wonders how much that might have been in her head. "I often felt people were looking at me wondering how someone my age could be offering wise counsel to women twice her age," she said.

"But coaching is a skillset and my work isn’t about offering advice, it’s about listening and encouraging more than anything else. People are always telling me I’m a wise old bird and my coaching work in organisations like the BBC, Pfizer and The White Company speaks volumes about my credibility and usefulness."

Jessica says she joined Enterprising Women for the friendly female approach.

"Seeing practical things on the website like software advice made me think this was something more than a shop window for women to sell their wares," she said.

"Enterprising Women is about the real and practical needs of women in business. The team listens and are genuinely thinking about what we need. I really value that."

Jessica is behind the newly launched 'Thinking Woman’s Playtime' which she describes as mind food for mummies. She also appears in LOOK magazine every week, answering readers' career concerns and life dilemmas. You can read more about what she’s doing for women at www.beyoubutbetter.co.uk.