A BUSINESSWOMAN who runs six limited companies now wants to help other women be successful through her latest venture.

Mother of two, Michelle Niziol, from Bicester, plans to not only inspire other women with her success but also help them start up their own businesses.

The 38-year-old's main business is IMS Property Group based in Bicester, which offers a complete property service from lettings to estate agency, property refurbishment, development and finance.

She started her career when she was 18 years old, but now wants to move into a more vocational field by starting The Empowering Entrepreneur.

Her aim with this business is to help other women take the leap in setting up their own business, despite other commitments they may have, such as being a mother.

She said: “This business is a small vocational one with me trying to help people. It’s about empowering women. It’s all about positivity and helping people reach their goals, whatever it may be.

“I’ve been successful now I want to help as many women get into business - that’s the focus. There’s a lot of women who struggle with such disbelief that they can be successful, but they don’t think that that can be possible.

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“Those at home can be a mum and work full time – that’s what they want but they never thought it would be possible. Having someone to tell them they can do it, helps.”

Mrs Niziol appeared on the popular BBC business show, The Apprentice in 2016.

Although she got ‘fired’ in the first week, she said she enjoyed the experience.

She said: “I entered because I wanted to challenge myself. I’m a big fan of the show and so I thought, let’s just have a go.

“Going on The Apprentice and not winning it hasn’t stopped me from being successful.

“It taught me patience - which I wasn’t good at before - and Lord Sugar told me to listen more which I've worked on since.”

The Empowering Entrepreneur, which took £10,000 to set up - is the start of Mrs Niziol’s goal to create an online community for entrepreneurs.

It involves her delivering guidance to budding businesswomen through a number of different ways.

She will run online courses on the ten steps to start up your own business; masterminds; speaking events; mentoring; children’s enterprise and workshops and webinars.

She said: “Last year I sat down and thought about what my passion is and I realised I do lots of mentoring with clients.

“I thought that’s the sort of business I want to run now, particularly for women in business - to help someone who has got an idea but who needs a hand bringing it to fruition.”

Mrs Niziol wants her clients to lead and tell her exactly what they need help with as they embark on their entrepreneurial journey.

She said: “I don’t want to be chucking stuff out there that I think they want - I want them to tell me what they want.

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“I want to hear from them. People think it’s scary to set up your own business. You need support, I had none - ever. I’m not a person of regret and like to learn myself but having help from someone along the way does cross my mind.

Mrs Niziol has two children with her husband; Isabella who is one and Zachary who is six.

She has lived in Bicester since she was 11 and went to secondary school in the town too.

Despite not going to university, she says she has always been an entrepreneur with selling items at car boot sales when she was just nine-years-old.

Her parents split up when she was 16 and she was responsible for ensuring her sister had a home to live in.

She said: “I always worked my hardest. I had to provide a roof over my sister’s head and that’s when my drive kicked in.

“I worked three jobs and when I was 18 I bought my first house and started investing in property.

“I became a mortgage broker around the same time in 2005 and I quickly set up my own firm and then built a business around that.

“It’s all about customer service – if you get that right they will keep coming back and refer you. It’s about caring about what you are doing.”

Mrs Niziol is passionate about business and being your own boss. With the launch of The Empowering Entrepreneur, she is on a mission to help women everywhere to ‘define their own version of success’ and ‘achieve whatever that may be’.

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She said: “When you start coming to work and start dreading it, that shouldn’t happen, it’s time to move on and find your passion.

“Knowledge and experience brings confidence and I just want women to embrace who they are.

“A lot of women have this ‘I don’t believe I can do this mentality’ but if they have confidence, their life changes in work and forever.”

Mrs Niziol also believes children should not be restricted in accomplishing their dreams because of finances and so as part of her Empowering Entrepreneur service, has registered her own charity, The Empowering Entrepreneur Children’s Enterprise.

The purpose of the charity is to help young kids from an underprivileged background achieve their dreams by funding a business idea.

She said: “It is for children of any age. I don’t want those children to be held back due to finances and I’m in a fortunate situation where I can give back. It’s for their future business ideas and future educational needs.”

As part of her work, she goes into schools to talk to children of all ages about business and finances, in the hope to educate and inspire them that they can achieve anything.

Mrs Niziol, who started getting into business when she was nine years old, said: “Has anyone told me not to set up a business? Yes. But if that’s your dream, don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t.

“I’m not telling them [children] to not go to university, it's more of a “you can do this, you are young” approach.

“I get so many parents messaging me saying their child feels inspired.”

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The Empowering Entrepreneur will be holding a fun day in Bicester on July 4 to raise funds for the charity.

Mrs Niziol is recognised as a property and finance specialist, providing regular commentary for The Telegraph, Financial Times, Guardian and Daily Mail.

She also has her own columns in industry magazines, such as What Mortgage and appeared as a celebrity panellist on Sky TV’s Property Question Time and Property Elevator.

Speaking on how setting up her latest business has been different to her previous property venture, she said: "IMS Property Group is a well-known, well respected name but this has been totally different as it has involved a lot of online marketing. It’s me pushing myself out of my comfort zone as I've had to learn things like social media from scratch, but its great learning how to help other women be successful."

Mrs Niziol added: "I just want to have a happy, fulfilled life. How great would it be to say that I’ve helped thousands of people. If I want to improve someone, I’m improving myself.

"If you do create wealth, invest it into others."

For more information about The Empowering Entrepreneur and to book services, go to theempoweringentrepreneur.co.uk.