It’s International Women’s day on March 8th – a day of celebration and sharing of love towards women in recognition of their economic, political and social achievements. For my newsletter this week, I thought I’d write about a woman who was a role model for me starting out in my own business, Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop.
I met Anita personally on a trip she made to Winnipeg when I was Sales Manager for The Body Shop at Home. Anita had the ability to motivate others through her endearing stories and down to earth work ethics. She was a leader who paved new roads in the cosmetics industry, was the first to prohibit testing on animals, and to promote fair trade. Since Anita’s passing in 2007, hundreds of thousands of women around the world will continue to benefit from the business paths she carved. I certainly benefitted from her company and am grateful to have known her personally.
You can watch and listen to an earlier interview of Anita Here >>
Anita Roddick was a mentor and a model to thousands of women around the world. She demonstrated how a woman with an idea, a willingness to put themselves out there and the tenacity to carry on when things got tough could be successful in business. She modeled how to be a savvy entrepreneur while maintaining the basic human and community values that she felt were missing in the corporate world.
Working for The Body Shop for eight years was an experience that I will always cherish. Those years were a launch pad for starting my own business. In 1996 my husband Robin was transferred to the N.W. Ontario town of Rainy River, pop. 1,000. Situated on the south shore of Lake of the Woods we thought it would be a wonderful place to live. Making the move meant being brave and taking a big risk as I had to quit a secure corporate career. At the time, I had a head full of business ideas and saw the move as a huge opportunity to start my own business.
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