“The one wish I have is that those people who start out with a really good idea realise that you have to get certain things in place in order to get investment and make it a scaleable idea that is a sustainable business. I see too many business ideas that are great ideas but the business aspect of them isn’t really thought through – and so there is a high failure rate. My one hope, what I’m on a mission to do is actually make sure that people get the pieces of the puzzle in the right order, in the right way, so that they can build sustainable, scaleable business for themselves “ Cally Robson, Founder She’s Ingenious

I would like to take a moment to pay tribute to Cally Robson, coach, mentor and founder of She’s Ingenious (an online resource and community for women in business) who I just learned yesterday has passed on recently. Cally was a entrepreneur, champion of women in business and a real innovator in embracing online business and business communities online. Above is an interview I filmed with Cally back in 2010. In her own words she sums up what her work was all about. In this interview Cally share’s invaluable tips if you are on that path of building a business especially if you are producing physical products and / or wanting to build a business that you can scale and grow.

I first met Cally through the British Library’s Business & IP Centre where we were both partners of the centre delivering workshops / talks – probably around 2007. I was instantly impressed by Cally. She was a fellow coach – but much more than that. She was entrepreneurial. She was exploring the possibilities of the internet, online business, online business communities  and supporting a new generation of entrepreneurial women in business at a time when many had not really cottoned on to these things. She espoused the importance of understanding process, sustainability and scaleability and understanding technology.

She was and a fellow spirit soul who really understood the answer to the ultimate question ‘who am I?’  We would spend many a phone conversation talking about life, business, spirituality, purpose and one’s life’s work. She was instrumental in the birth of me self publishing my first book The Gift of Inner Success.  

I feel very blessed to have met Cally and I will treasure our conversations – which like her energy and magic will live on. That’s a lovely closing point. Cally was a strong believer that we are spiritual beings having a human experience. Our last conversation was probably over  year ago (I’m not great when it comes to timeframes – time is in many ways illusive, fluid and illusory). The cancer had already set in. I remember even when she was very unwell that she still went in and worked on the entrepreneurial programmes she had developed and delivered for, with and at Oxford Brookes University. In fact the last time we met was when she had arranged for me to talk at the University and she came up to hear me speak and to introduce me to the team – even though she was far from 100%.

Cally understood that we were far more than the physical body. So when we had our last couple of conversations – and when she was quite unwell – she was yet strong of mind and spirit. She was even more astute. The ever driving, striving entrepreneurial part of Cally had been overtaken by what was always at the core: the wise spirit soul who knew who she was and that this life experience is an opportunity to share of our gifts and to help others along the way.

Thank you Cally for sharing of you gifts and helping so many budding entrepreneurs and spirit souls along the way.

With love, Rasheed Ogunlaru, Coach – Speaker – Author