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About CanDoCanBe

CanDoCanBe was founded by Karen Skidmore in the summer of 2004. Having spent the majority of her career as a Director with a FTSE 100 recruitment group, she became disillusioned with her corporate career after returning to work after her second child.

Living in Hindhead, Surrey with her husband and two children, aged 7 and 5, Karen is an Accredited Coach with the European Coaching Foundation, workshop facilitator and
regularly speaks at women networking events and conferences. She explains her journey and how CanDoCanBe came to be how it is today.

“What is my story? Having climbed the Corporate Ladder throughout my 20’s and returned quite happily after my first maternity leave, I was reluctant to return after our second child was born. I was bored. I felt suffocated by the lack of career options and I needed a new challenge.

“Our eldest daughter would be starting school and I wanted something flexible - something Term-Time - so I could be there at the school gates to drop off and pick up at the end of the day.

“I went back 3 days a week but struggled for a long time to understand what I really wanted. The thought of finding another part-time career filled me with dread and becoming self-employed appeared to be the right option. But becoming self-employed in what was a huge challenge.

“After many months of searching for new career paths and business ideas, only to lose my confidence when following any of them through, I stumbled upon a coaching website. I haven’t heard of coaching before, but it felt right.

“I embarked on a Coaching Accreditation course, juggling my part-time career, studying in the evenings and running around after my family in the rest of the time. It was hard work, but in September 2004, our daughter started school and I became self-employed. I had big dreams to establish my very own coaching practice helping women back in to the workforce. I knew exactly how much I wanted to earn and had worked out how many clients I needed.

“Five months later and I reached an all time low. I realised that starting a business from scratch was far harder than I imagined. Despite my eleven years experience in Recruitment Sales, finding clients for “me” was very different. Without any marketing budget, little cash flow and minimal clients, I decided enough was enough. I had to go out and learn how to market myself effectively and create a business on my own terms.

“Today I now run CanDoCanBe, a business support community for women starting up and growing businesses from home. I share the lessons I have learnt and bring women together to benefit from affordable, fun and practical business advice. We have various monthly networking events attracting between 20 and 40 women every month, run sell-out Business Forums, offer downloadable Home Study Business Guides and deliver training through telephone conferencing.

“It is fabulous fun and I have achieved Phase One of where I wanted to be – establishing my own Term-Time business which gives me the flexibility of being at home during school holidays whilst earning the equivalent of my part-time corporate salary.

“Time for Phase Two!”

Karen Skidmore
CanDoCanBe