Labeada® Lounge

The Centre was created specifically to host the Labeada® Lounge as well as Labeada® Dance – the Lounge is a warm and welcoming space, to host intimate business networking events, workshops, philanthropy and more.

You can follow the Labeada® Lounge FB page for details of events, and you can follow the eventbrite page here

at a glance:

BUSINESS NETWORKING – Tuesdays – Pod & Pastry

WORKSHOPS – Workshop Wednesdays – includes but is not limited to workshops for work, enterprise and wellbeing for parents; business planning; and business marketing & sales.

1-1 WELLBEING – As a qualified coach and therapist, I do offer limited 1-1 support, for those who need to improve their emotional or physical wellbeing. Please contact me for details of 1-1 wellbeing, or book a session here.

PHILANTHROPIC FRIDAYS – If you understand growth through adversity, this is likely to appeal to you. If you can spare £200 each month, ideally for ten months (but one month is okay) please read on.

When you have experienced hardship, or have bootstrapped in business, it is very hard to stand by and watch, or even worse judge others who are fiercely fighting, against the odds, to help themselves and their families out of hardship.

‘More than 1 in 5 people in the UK (21%) were in poverty in 2023/24 — 14.2 million people. Of these, 7.9 million were working-age adults and 4.5 million were children. To put it another way, around 2 in every 10 working-age adults are in poverty in the UK’
source Joseph Rowntree Foundation UK Poverty 2026: The essential guide to understanding poverty in the UK | Joseph Rowntree Foundation

Whilst we have so many suffering in the UK, we also have a wealth divide:

Wealth inequality is a driver of strategic risk to the UK as a whole, and this risk is seriously underpriced by politicians… It exacerbates a range of existential risks, such as social unrest, the climate crisis and the decline of democracy
source London School of Economics The UK’s wealth gap has grown by 50% in eight years – and poses a strategic risk to the nation – LSE Inequalities

As a business woman who has climbed from beans on toast, to disposable income, I believe in the proverb “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime“. You do not need to be wealthy to live a good life, nor do you need excessive wealth to help another live a good life, we all simply need the means to create enough income to keep a roof over our heads, put food on our tables, and enjoy some fun funds, to live life to our fullest! This is where I am calling upon those who have a few more fun funds than they may need!

I am asking for 9 local (not a strict boundary) businesses or individuals to pay £200 per month each, with me, so that collectively, we can award a £2000 prize fund to a local (Herefordshire / Wye Valley) individual, who needs a fresh start in business, without a loan debt immediately behind them.

This £200 is effectively a PR expense, as I am offering a full page in the Wye Valley Dance and Wellbeing Magazine & networking at our monthly philanthropy meetings!.

If you would like to chip in anonymously without the PR, or if you are an individual that does not have a business to advertise, please instead purchase a Labeada® Lounge Philanthropy Pen, priced at £200.

This is how it works:

You and I (ten in total) budget £200 each, ideally committing for ten months.
We meet monthly on a Friday (Philanthropic Fridays), in the Labeada® Lounge, (10am to 1pm) to read through applications, shortlist, and decide a winner.
We notify and award the winner, and I’ll promote them locally via my platforms when their business is ready with a landing page.
Each set of ten philanthropists has a cohort meeting to award one winner per cohort.

There are many reasons why people ‘choose’ self-employment; more often than not there is a barrier to full time employment; it could be a physical barrier, neurodiversity, childcare, age, or discrimination; but finding finance to support your start-up is near impossible if you have experienced difficulties, locking you into a pit of helplessness. Together we can change that story, for at least a few..

Micro enterprise is the UK’s unsung hero. Take a look at this brilliant blog article which takes the hard work away from me in needing to explain!

If you struggle to see how much £2000 can help, take a look at this other brilliant article, explaining ‘The £3000 problem’ – written by Richard Kirtley of Purple Shoots (refer to above mentioned ‘Project 100 Angels’ if you can donate to Purple Shoots).

Please contact me if you would like to be one of our philanthropists, either for Philanthropic Fridays, Project 100 Angels, or both. Thank you, on behalf of those who will imminently benefit from your kindness.

PLEASE SIGN UP TO THE NEWSLETTER FOR UPDATES ON WHEN THE FIRST ROUND OF APPLICATIONS OPEN.

If you would like to offer support as a charitable donation for tax relief, I would urge you instead (or also) to look at ‘Project 100 Angels’ a philanthropic project to find 100 Angels to donate to Purple Shoots – a charity that offers micro loans for individuals otherwise rejected for finance. Purple Shoots were the charity who helped me in my hour(s) of need, and I committed to repaying them ten-fold.
Please see the ‘Project 100 Angels’ site here.