Inspiring Female Founder Spotlight: Samantha Sloan

Sam Sloan is Founder and Director of 123 People Development. Here she shares her entrepreneurial journey with us and some top tips for success.

Can you tell us a little about your background and the company?

My background started in retail management. I was in that space for 20 plus years and let quite large teams with the largest being up to 84 people, this role fulfilled me greatly and I loved the opportunity to develop people and generate sales.  when I had moved into the corporate space I quickly moved into the training team and I recognised the love for development and the correlation between the people development and training.  15 years later I have my own training business which I have had for the last 8 1/2 years I set this up recognising that I could impact more people in more organisations than I could in one corporate space.

How did the idea come to you for the company?

I wanted to offer impactful and effective training solutions for individuals and teams to develop them personally and professionally, people development in the title was at that point the only parts of the name that I had but that was the most important thing to me, 123 part came when I considered the steps that people take in their learning journeys.

How have you been able to gain funding and grow?

I have never explored the funding route, it is something I am aware of will never really looked at, maybe this should be a goal for 2023?

What are the key successes?

the key successes for me are the learning outcomes that we achieve, when teams of people work together more cohesively individuals feel more satisfied and they have undertrained greater self-awareness around not only their career paths but also their life journeys too.  all of the programmes we developpe are person focused with the performance outcome. I would most definitely consider that our biggest success.

What were/are the challenges and how have you overcome these?

One of the biggest challenges that we had was of course COVID, in February 2020 we launched our flagship programme coaching with purpose, it was a face-to-face event and we had bookings for later in the year. I am truly thankful for the training that I had done roughly 10 years previous in the virtual space for facilitation and design.  we quickly converted the material and continued with the programme ansu upskilling leaders’ individuals and coaches to gain that EMCC accreditation.  whilst we were doing that, we were supporting organisations who were quite frankly in blind panic because they were not familiar with the online space, so we spent a lot of time upskilling individuals and teams to create effective and outcome focused online learning and skills that are required to be a great facilitator.  we had an organisation approach us six months later to say that we had saved their business, what a great piece of feedback

What are your plans now/for the future?

We have plans to continue to grow, we are doing the world of learning conference in October at the NEC in Birmingham, we have just got another programme accredited through the CPD standards agency and we are always looking for collaborative partners to work with.

What would you like to share with others to encourage them to start their own entrepreneurship journey?

The biggest thing I would share around starting your own business is how do you keep yourself motivated especially at times when you are working alone and when maybe things don’t quite go to plan.  it’s exciting it can drive you and it can fulfil all of your aspirations, but understand what is involved.  long hours, sometimes working weekends, and answering the phone when you probably shouldn’t, but I wouldn’t change a thing.

Can you share your top tips for entrepreneurial success?

Complete dedication and have a clear vision, build a team around you with people that can do the things that you can’t, and listen.

Who are the 5 people who inspire you the most and why?

One of the people who inspires me is a chap called Stuart Beech, he is the founder of Resilient Pilot and I met him as I joined the organisation as a mentor.  He has huge aspiration and drive to challenge some of the well-trodden practises in aviation and to give the underrepresented disadvantaged the opportunity to fulfil their dreams.

What are your favourite inspirational /motivational quotes?

Always leave things better than you find them, especially people

when we speak we only repeat what we already know but when we listen we learn something new

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”

What are your Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn social handles and also website links so our readers can connect with you?  

linkedin.com/in/samantha-sloan-123pd

https://www.facebook.com/123.People.Development

https://www.youtube.com/c/123PeopleDevelopment

https://www.linkedin.com/company/17685282/admin/