Women In Business: Jo Pateman

Jo Pateman originally set up her pond cleaning and maintenance company to support her struggling garden centre. The centre, which specialised in acquatic plants and equipment, had never done well in the winter.

But things got worse about seven years ago, when customers started switching to the web to buy pond equipment and then the BBC's Groundforce programme - which had done so much to promote water features - came to an end.

For two years Jo tried various things to woo customers back, finally sending her colleague a text to see if she fancied clearing ponds in the winter to make some more money. Her colleague, who was on holiday, texted back 'yes' and after further flurries of texts to decide on the name, 'Women with Waders' was born.

For about three years Jo ran the growing pond business alongside her garden centre, regularly working seven days a week to keep both going. She gradually built up a team of six people and the projects not only included ponds but also lakes and the occasional moat! In 2009 she felt confident enough to close the shop and focus solely on pond work. During that year her husband, who had his own building business, joined forces with her and now specialises in pond construction.

Next year Jo will be recruiting two more members of staff so she can send a third team out on the road. Mindful that many people might be cutting back on their garden spending, Jo hopes to add some large companies to her client list, which offer regular maintenance work all the year round.

Her Mentor: Nikki King

Nikki King says her career started in earnest at the age of forty. She had separated from her husband and she needed a 'serious job'. She was given the post of admin manager at an Iveco Ford dealership, in charge of a staff of one - 'me' - and overseeing the orders and invoices. It was then that she fell in love with trucks, helping out the sales team when they were busy and finally getting a job in sales. Within eight years she had risen to the position of Group Fleet Director, responsible for a national workforce of 200 - 300 people. She was then headhunted by the Lex Group, which at the time was one of the country's largest motor vehicle conglomorates. While she was there, Isuzu, a Japanese truck manufacturer, approached Lex to see if they could form a partnership to bring Japanese trucks to the UK. Lex selected an engineer, accountant and sales expert to fly out to Japan to confirm the deal. Three days before they were due to set off, the sales expert resigned and Nikki went in his place.

Nikki loved Japan from the moment she arrived but it took her hosts some time to accept that she was the boss. Initially the interpreter didn't translate any of her comments at meetings but things changed when the team were taken to a test track to try out 7 tonne trucks. Nikki insisted on getting into the cab and successfully completed a circuit. By this time a large crowd had gathered to watch and a 32 tonne truck was brought out. Slightly flummoxed by the 16 speed gear box, Nikki nevertheless steered it round the track and was duly accepted as part of the team.

On her return, Nikki was given the task of setting up the new venture from scratch. In 2004, eight years after she had started, she led a management buyout to turn 'her baby' into an independent company - Isuzu Truck (UK) Limited. Today the company has a turnover of 36 million, with dealerships all over the country.