Finalist at The National Entrepreneur Awards 2014 for ‘Best Business Enabler Award’

Sitting in the ICC in Birmingham surrounded by 1500 amazing entrepreneurs and business owners waiting to hear my name being read out by Alistair McGowan as a finalist at The National Entrepreneur Awards 2014 is a memory that will stay with me forever! Honoured, humbled and blown away were some words I’d use to describe it.

Being a finalist for The National Entrepreneur Awards has been incredible. The awards were held on Sunday 21^st September.

The evening was hosted by the brilliant Alistair McGowan and here’s what he said in his introduction – “Tonight we’re celebrating the great work done by some of the most dedicated and switched on entrepreneurs in the UK. A total of 393 entries were received from so many different kinds of businesses; some big, some small; all with three things in common – ambition, action and results. Tonight’s finalists – and in fact, everyone who entered, and everyone IN THIS ROOM – represent the future of business in the UK. You are the people who will steer the UK economy over the next few years. You are the people who will maintain this country’s proud reputation as the birthplace of some of the world’s most ambitious and forward-thinking enterprises. And judging by some of the truly outstanding stories we have for you tonight, we’re in very safe hands.”

Here is the lovely introduction I had from Alistair when he was announcing the finalists for the award for ‘Best Business Enabler’ –

“An actress and a voiceover expert, Rachael has made it her mission this year to help others in her industry to achieve the success that they want. By launching The Voiceover Network, Rachael is able to help voiceover artists, producers, sound engineers and casting directors to make connections, build a list of prospects and promote their businesses.”

This has meant the world to me and I am incredibly honoured to have been recognised for the work I’ve done this year to bring the voiceover community together, helping people to connect and ultimately get work. I believe that bringing people together to help and support each other is very important. It’s an incredibly competitive industry but I believe that by coming together in a positive environment instead of fearing each other will steal work is a much more healthy and productive thing to do.

The VoiceOver Network started in July 2013 when I went for a drink in Richmond with 3 other voiceover artists. I realised how useful and helpful it was to meet up with others in the industry and share our knowledge so I went on to organise a West London voiceover artists meet up which then grew very quickly. It wasn’t long before voiceover artists from other parts of London were asking if they could come so it made sense at the end of last year to make it a central London event. I now run these every month and they’ve been very popular, the last event on 1^st October the tickets sold out in less than 90 minutes! I’ve got lots of exciting things planned for the future of The VoiceOver Network! Here’s a video from the Summer Party –

This was the second year of The National Entrepreneurs Awards which were part of The Entrepreneurs Convention which ran on Sunday 21^st and Monday 22^nd and they’re run by The Entrepreneurs Circle. Speakers at the event included Steve Wozniak and Debra Searle as well as the brilliant Nigel Botterill! It was an amazing and incredibly inspiring event.

Here’s me with Steve Wozniak –