Episode 218: The Awards Email That Validated Everything with Saira Mashru

Saira Mashru read her finalist email again and again, convinced it had to be spam. It was not, and it changed how she saw her business. It's inspiration for any aspiring young entrepreneur, as the women's nutrition coach reflects on winning Silver for Best Young Entrepreneur at the Best SME Awards allied to a Shining Star award. Both have boosted her confidence, credibility and client trust. Saira, founder of Saira Nutrition, discusses building a nutrition business as a young entrepreneur. She explains how a healthy relationship with food growing up, combined with a background in dietetics and public health, led her to support women through sustainable, guilt free weight loss.  Saira also discusses the leap from part time side project to full time business. Illuminatingly, she shares the challenges of being taken seriously as a young business owner, including negative comments about her age and appearance. Finally, she explains how coaching on confidence and presence helped her overcome this.  **About Saira** Saira Mashru is a multi-award winning Registered Nutritionist and founder of Saira Nutrition. By combining evidence-based nutrition with psychology-led behaviour change, Saira helps women lose weight sustainably without diets, restriction or guilt. Her clients experience transformations that go far beyond the scales, ranging from sleeping properly for the first time in years to having the energy to run around with their grandchildren. She works with clients across 1:1, group and corporate settings and has delivered workplace wellbeing sessions for organisations including British Airways and David Lloyd.   **{2:32}** Why Saira became a nutritionist. **{4:13}** Saira's path from school. **{6:23}** What convinced Saira to start her business. **{9:02}** Who inspired her when she started her business. **{10:41}** School's failure to prepare young people for starting a business. **{11:34}** The challenges for young entrepreneurs starting out. **{16:13}** Deciding to work in her business full time, and the progress she's made since. **{18:09}** Saira's range of services. **{21:30}** Being a finalist at the Best SME Awards. **{22:55}** The feeling of validation being a finalist engendered. **{24:45}** The PR winning awards has created. **{25:49}** How Awards have brought in new business. **{26:41}** Saira's advice for young entrepreneurs. **{27:21}** Future plans.   Connect with Debbie at: https://thebusinessawardsshow.co.uk                                         https://bestsmeawards.co.uk/                                        Connect with Saira:  http://sairanutrition.co.uk/ LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/company/saira-nutrition/                 https://www.linkedin.com/in/saira-mashru-31a2b11b0/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/sairanutrition Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61556979441081&rdid=69kOotgnwrhUrx92&share\_url=https%3A%2F%2F