Belinda Furneaux-Harris

Belinda Furneaux-Harris I help small business owners create brilliant brands + elevate their impact, influence + income. Let's talk about YOU. And I want to help YOU do the same.

You're a smart, savvy, success-driven woman who dreams of having a thriving business, a lifestyle you love, and making the world a better place. And you want to set yourself up for success from Day 1. We're talking six figures, a gorgeous brand, jet-set lifestyle ... without sacrificing your self-care and sanity in the process! Yet you've seen other new business owners struggling to break six-figu

res (or even make ends meet), and a little voice inside you is whispering that you may not have what it takes to "make it" as an entrepreneur. Right now you may feel like you're being pulled in a million directions with too many "good ideas" and not enough confidence to follow through. Perhaps you're feeling lost, overwhelmed and terrified to take the next step. Maybe you're suffering from inadequate growth and inconsistent cash flow or experiencing a lack of clarity on your brand message. Oh, and don't get me started on self-doubt! What I know for sure is that EVERYTHING shifts the moment you get expert support. Imagine what it would feel like to be masterfully mentored in creating a mindset for success. To be supported in creating a step-by-step roadmap exclusively designed for you and your business. THE definitive plan to take you from where you are now to six-figure success. After a high-powered corporate career in marketing and more than 20 years working in Top 10 public relations agencies, Fortune 500 + FTSE 100 companies (such as HSBC and Barclays), spearheading multi-million dollar brand campaigns, leading marketing workshops to the world's most successful organizations and running my own consultancy - believe me, I know exactly what it takes to build a successful business. I transformed my life by getting clear about what I wanted, reclaiming my power, and creating an extraordinary career and lifestyle on my own terms. So if you're looking for expert support in finally creating your bliss business, let's talk! www.theblissbiz/com/work-with-me

Last week, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey warned of the “very, very substantial” structural challenges facing Br...
08/09/2026

Last week, Bank of England Governor Andrew Bailey warned of the “very, very substantial” structural challenges facing Britain.

Rising debt. Weak productivity. An ageing population.

By 2034, another 1.8 million will reach pension age. The number aged 85 and over is expected to double by 2049.

And it’s happening worldwide.

The message from governments is clear:

We must work for longer.

Pay tax for longer.

Build bigger pensions.

Remain economically active into our sixties and beyond.

THERE’S JUST ONE ENORMOUS PROBLEM.

Thousands of experienced Gen X women are trying to do that. Yet gendered ageism and AI recruitment are keeping too many of us from getting through the door.

We’ve spent 25 or 30 years building careers, leading teams, growing businesses and steering organisations through restructures, recessions and tech revolutions.

We mastered floppy disks, fax machines, BlackBerrys, Zoom and now AI - without so much as an instruction manual.

And still, employers treat us as the generation that can’t keep up.

Too experienced for junior roles. Too expensive for senior ones. Overqualified. Not the right “cultural fit”.

Considered “past our prime” while still years away from State Pension age.

CAN NOBODY SEE THE STAGGERING CONTRADICTION?

Governments say they desperately need us to remain economically productive while the labour market discards us in our 40s, 50s and 60s.

Every experienced woman forced out of work means lost tax revenue, lost pension contributions, lost productivity and knowledge - and a greater risk of financial insecurity in later life.

This isn’t personal failure. It isn’t a niche women’s issue. It’s a profound failure of economic strategy.

If we’re expected to work until 67 or beyond, who’s making sure employers will employ us?

We can’t build an economy for longer lives while allowing Gen X women to be written off halfway through them and rendered invisible.

In just five weeks, thousands of you worldwide have joined this community.

So please tell me: what are you seeing - and what must change? Share below.

This affects EVERY generation of women and we’ll keep speaking until those making the decisions can no longer look away.

🎁 A LITTLE GIFT FOR THREE WONDERFUL WOMEN 🎁I’ve long loved the work of Donna Ashworth - the wonderful Scottish poet who...
07/09/2026

🎁 A LITTLE GIFT FOR THREE WONDERFUL WOMEN 🎁

I’ve long loved the work of Donna Ashworth - the wonderful Scottish poet whose words have an extraordinary way of finding us just when we need them.

Her beautiful new book, To the Women, is a love letter to women everywhere: to our strength and joy, our capacity to love, rage, fear and reinvent, and the many different roles we play throughout our lives.

More than anything, it reminds us that we’re stronger when we come together and that none of us is walking alone.

So this week, I’d like to gift three women a copy of her beautiful new book.

To enter:

🔥 Follow me
🔥 Like this post
🔥 Tag one woman who brings a little bit
more fire and joy into your life

The giveaway closes at 8pm this Thursday, 10th September. Three winners will be chosen at random and announced on Friday morning. Each winner will receive one copy of To the Women.

Because sometimes the most meaningful gift we can give another woman is the reminder that she is seen, valued and never walking alone. ❤️

—-
Open to United Kingdom residents only aged 18 and over. No purchase is necessary. The three winners will be contacted only by DM from . No cash alternative. This giveaway is funded personally by me and is not sponsored, endorsed or administered by Donna Ashworth, Black & White Publishing or Instagram.

I’m so glad I live in a world where there are September’s. Thank you to everyone who sent lovely Birthday messages, card...
04/09/2026

I’m so glad I live in a world where there are September’s. Thank you to everyone who sent lovely Birthday messages, cards, gifts, flowers and voice notes (many sung!!). I’ve had a lovely day celebrating with family in London 🤍 An extra special thanks to the wonderful team The Kensington, London for making our stay so magical - for the beautiful room, cake, flowers and treats. You are the best and we loved every minute!

FOUNDER FRIDAY 02THE WHITE GALLERYCHIPPING CAMPDENEvery Friday, I shine a light on one brilliant independent business - ...
04/09/2026

FOUNDER FRIDAY 02
THE WHITE GALLERY
CHIPPING CAMPDEN

Every Friday, I shine a light on one brilliant independent business - and the founder story behind it.

This week takes us to Chipping Campden in the North Cotswolds, where behind the doors of a contemporary gallery lies a lovely story about instinct, reinvention and beginning again.

The White Gallery is the vision of Georgina White.

Before this, her working life had already taken several turns - through PR, a digital consultancy, recruitment, art marketing - each chapter adding another layer of experience.

Then life shifted again.

Sometimes the most interesting thing when this happens is not knowing what comes next.

Georgina did know one thing. She loved art.

She also knew acclaimed British artist Jeremy Houghton, and the gallery space he owned in picturesque Chipping Campden.

Somewhere between conversation and possibility, an idea began to form.

What if she represented Jeremy herself? What if she took on the space? What if the next chapter wasn’t another job, but something she created herself?

And so, in 2025, The White Gallery opened its doors.

Today it’s a beautifully curated, welcoming space filled with work from emerging and established artists - including Polly Luce | Contemporary Painter, Amanda Swannick | Landscape artist | Shropshire, Ellie Thomas , Belinda Miller and Jeremy Houghton ~ Artist in Residence - elegant without being intimidating, interesting without feeling inaccessible.

It suits Georgina perfectly.

She has a fantastic eye and an instinct for people - for what draws us in, makes us linger and fall in love with a piece enough to make it ours.

Perhaps that’s why this story stayed with me.

Because when Georgina’s working life changed, she didn’t start again from nothing.

She started with EVERYTHING she’d already learned and turned it into something entirely her own.

If you’re planning a visit to the Cotswolds, or live in the area, please pop in and say “hello”. And of course, give her a follow.

Oh, and don’t be surprised if something on the wall ends up coming home with you!

📍 The White Gallery, 6 High Street, Chipping Campden, GL55 6AT
The White Gallery, Cotswolds

PART TWOYesterday, I shared how a video of former ELLE editor Stacey Duguid outside a London Jobcentre pulled me back in...
03/09/2026

PART TWO

Yesterday, I shared how a video of former ELLE editor Stacey Duguid outside a London Jobcentre pulled me back into a story I’d hidden for years: how I went from FTSE 50 marketing director to claiming benefits at Fulham Jobcentre.

I expected to feel exposed; instead, telling the truth helped loosen the shame I held around it.

This is just one of thousands and thousands of stories of Gen X women restructured out of high-earning positions in midlife, then finding themselves struggling to find work.

When this was ripped open, my first thought was: OK, what now? How do we turn these stories into evidence - and evidence into lasting change?

I signed Stacey’s petition and immersed myself in research across the UK, US, Europe and Australia. A brilliant Canadian academic saw my post and shared highlights from her Master’s research. You honestly couldn’t make it up!

The data mirrored the stories: midlife job loss takes away far more than a salary. It can set off a chain reaction through a woman’s savings, pension, confidence, identity, security and home.

I’m calling it The Domino Effect - and once I’d seen it, I couldn’t unsee it. Much of this data sits in government silos, obscuring the scale and human cost.

That’s why this movement matters: beyond policy and equality, it’s about restoring dignity, status and possibility to women made to feel their most valuable years are behind them. They are not.

The evidence demanded action, so I wrote to the Prime Minister, senior ministers and civil servants, then shared the letter with hundreds of women to send to representatives.

Still, the stories arrived. I was reading, responding, researching and writing, still up at midnight messaging women in Melbourne, Sydney and New York. The movement gathered momentum; my mind raced while my body ran out of road.

Last Thursday, it stopped me.

Exhausted after client work and two VIP days, I ended up in Royal United Hospital in Bath, where a doctor told me unequivocally to rest for a good number of days.

So I have. But the evidence is still being gathered and policy proposals shaped. Next week, I’ll return rested, clear-headed and ready to continue. Onwards!

PART ONEThe past four weeks have lit a fire in me.They have also brought me to a standstill.When former ELLE editor Stac...
02/09/2026

PART ONE

The past four weeks have lit a fire in me.

They have also brought me to a standstill.

When former ELLE editor Stacey Duguid spoke about the brutal reality of trying to find work in her early fifties - 16 months, 150 applications and not a single interview - she ripped the lid off something affecting thousands and thousands of women.

It struck a nerve, because many years ago, it had been my story too.

I was living in Earl’s Court at the time, having been restructured out of a high-paying executive role a year earlier. My redundancy money had run out and, despite everything I did, I was struggling to find another job.

Each week, I’d walk from my flat to the Job Centre in Fulham to sign on.

Sitting opposite a case officer, I’d pull my hair out having to account for how many jobs I’d applied for - while telling no one apart from my mum and best friend.

I couldn’t understand how someone who’d been a FTSE 50 marketing director had ended up there. And I carried an immense sense of shame about the fact that I had.

In fact, I’ve never shared this story publicly before.

So seeing the video of Stacey bravely sharing she’d had to sign on for Universal Credit, brought all those memories and emotions flooding back.

That night, I sat in bed until 2 a.m., pouring everything I felt into a post. I put it out into the world the following day - and the response was overwhelming.

Over the next couple of weeks, as I continued writing, thousands of stories began pouring in from women across the UK, the US, Canada, Australia and Europe.

Accomplished, savvy, experienced women who’d spent decades building incredible careers, only to find themselves restructured out of their jobs in their 40s and 50s - unable to return to comparable roles on comparable salaries.

Each one left me more outraged - and more determined that the conversation Stacey had begun must not disappear.

As a strategist, marketer and writer, my instinct was immediate: what do we do with all of this?

How do we turn thousands of individual stories into evidence - and that evidence into meaningful action?

What happened next took me somewhere I hadn’t expected.

To be continued tomorrow…

FOUNDER FRIDAY 01TŶ FFERM, ABERGAVENNYEvery Friday, I shine a light on one brilliant independent business - and the foun...
28/08/2026

FOUNDER FRIDAY 01

TŶ FFERM, ABERGAVENNY

Every Friday, I shine a light on one brilliant independent business - and the founder story behind it.

Tucked away on Cross Street in the Welsh market town of Abergavenny is Tŷ Fferm - a tiny independent shop created by award-winning chef and cookbook author Gaz Oakley and his partner, TEIGAN MAE.

But Tŷ Fferm isn’t really a shop in the conventional sense.

It’s an extension of their home, their way of living and the world they’ve created together.

Gaz, originally from Cardiff, built his career around plant-based food. His latest cookbook, Plant to Plate, won Book of the Year at the Food and Travel Magazine Awards in 2025.

But Tŷ Fferm feels altogether more personal.

The idea grew from something wonderfully simple: people kept asking where the beautiful things they spotted in the couple’s photographs and films came from.

So they brought them together under one roof.

Ceramics. Willow baskets. Chopping boards. Knives, foraging bags, plates, bowls and teapots. Some are old, well-loved antique finds; others are made by independent craftspeople. Everything has character. Everything has a story.

And that’s really the magic of Tŷ Fferm // Farmhouse.

Step through the sage-green frontage and you’re welcomed with locally grown flowers, homemade bara brith and delicious fresh ground coffee being made while you browse.

There are ceramics, antiques, provisions, apothecary goods and homewares, alongside Gaz and Teigan’s own homegrown teas and homemade cakes.

Nothing feels mass-produced or hurried. It’s thoughtful, tactile and deeply connected to the land and a slower way of living.

Their philosophy is summed up beautifully:

Found. Foraged. Crafted. Curated.

Perhaps that’s why I love Tŷ Fferm so much. It feels like being invited into someone’s home and discovering the things they genuinely use, make, grow and love.

And now they’re sharing that world with everyone else.

If you’re in the area, please go and find them. Step inside, enjoy a coffee and take home something beautiful - and wherever you are, please give them a follow.

📍Tŷ Fferm, 43 Cross Street, Abergavenny, Wales

Tŷ Fferm // Farmhouse

She’s 51.In her professional prime. Earning six figures. Twenty-five or thirty years building a career, expertise and fi...
26/08/2026

She’s 51.

In her professional prime. Earning six figures. Twenty-five or thirty years building a career, expertise and financial security.

Then she’s restructured out of her job.

She assumes she’ll find another.

Three months pass. Then six. Then twelve.

The applications mount up. The interviews don’t.

Perhaps an algorithm filters out her CV before a human sees it. Perhaps she removes fifteen years to appear younger, only to be called “overqualified” for more junior roles.

At first, she cuts back. Then she starts dipping into her savings.

Pension contributions stop. She considers accessing her pension early.

The mortgage or rent still needs paying. So do the bills.

After decades of work and tax, she signs on for Universal Credit.

Meanwhile, life hasn’t stopped.

Children need help. An elderly parent may need care. She may be navigating divorce, menopause, or both. Downsizing enters conversations never meant to happen yet.

And beneath the financial consequences, something else shifts.

Her confidence erodes.
She feels invisible.
Shame creeps in.
Isolation follows.

After enough rejection, an extraordinarily capable woman begins questioning her value.

This is The Domino Effect.

Career interruption becomes prolonged exclusion.

Exclusion becomes financial insecurity.

The consequences impact savings, pensions, families, health, housing and later life.

This isn’t one story. In recent weeks, I’ve heard versions of it from thousands of women.

So what do we do?

01
Gather the data, research and lived experience.

02
Understand the economic, professional and human cost.

03
Write to MPs, Ministers and elected representatives.

04
Take the evidence to government and policymakers and call for ACTION.

Because one thing is clear.

We cannot keep asking women to carry the consequences of a systemic problem they did not create.

If this is your story, tell me below. Tag a friend. Repost. Make a noise.

And if you’d like a copy of my letter to send to your minister or MP, comment LETTER. Onwards!

I’ve been thinking about doing this for well over a year.And I’ve finally decided to start.FRIDAY FOUNDEREvery Friday, I...
21/08/2026

I’ve been thinking about doing this for well over a year.

And I’ve finally decided to start.

FRIDAY FOUNDER

Every Friday, I’m going to use this little corner of the internet to shine a light on one brilliant small business - and the person behind it.

Not necessarily the biggest.
Not necessarily the fastest growing.
And certainly not the one with the largest Instagram following.

Just businesses that make me stop.

Because the idea is clever. The branding is brilliant. The founder’s story is captivating. Or simply because someone, somewhere, is building something really special and I think more people should know about it.

I’ve spent most of my career thinking about brands - what makes us notice them, remember them, talk about them and ultimately fall a little bit in love with them.

And I come across wonderful small businesses all the time.

So I thought: why not use my platform to celebrate them?

Each Friday I’ll choose one founder, share a little of their story and tell you why I think their brand deserves our attention.

My mission for this is simple: to use visibility, community and connection to help incredible independent founders and creators get seen.

Because building something from nothing takes enormous courage. And sometimes the best thing we can do is simply help more people see it.

Friday Founder starts next week.

I already have my first one in mind … ❤️

And this is where I’d love YOU to get involved.

Tell me who I should know about.

I’m looking for brilliant independent and emerging businesses. Artisan brands. Original ideas. Beautifully crafted work. People doing something wonderful. And, above all, founders with a story worth telling - wherever in the world they happen to be.

A beautiful artisan shop in Wales. A tiny pottery studio in Melbourne. An extraordinary little business in rural France. I want to find them.

They don’t have to be female. They don’t need thousands of followers. And they certainly don’t need to be famous.

They just need to be building something genuinely special that deserves to be seen.

Tag your favourite founder or small independent business below.

You might just introduce me to a future Friday Founder. ❤️

To every single woman who’s read, commented, shared, messaged me privately or trusted me with her story over the past fe...
20/08/2026

To every single woman who’s read, commented, shared, messaged me privately or trusted me with her story over the past few weeks - thank you!

And a particular thank you to Stacey Duguid , whose courage in speaking so openly about her own experience helped rip the lid off a conversation that so many women had been having quietly for years.

What began as one post about the career crisis facing Generation X women has opened up a much bigger conversation about what’s happening to experienced working women in their 40s, 50s and beyond when they’re made redundant, retrenched or pushed out of senior roles - and then find the door back in almost impossible to open.

The stories you’ve shared have been extraordinary. Honest. Brave. Sometimes devastating.

So many women have told me some version of the same thing:

“I thought it was just me.”

It isn’t. This issue is systemic, endemic and happening in almost every country.

Hundreds of you have now gone one step further and are taking action - requesting the letter we’ve prepared to MPs, elected representatives, ministers and are sending it out RIGHT NOW across the UK, US, Canada, Australia, South Africa, Italy and beyond.

Thank you! I’m deeply grateful, and, to every woman who is here and adding her voice.

This is no longer simply a conversation. It’s becoming a community and a collective call for real change.

Over the coming weeks, I’ll be sharing more about the research and evidence we’re gathering, and the next steps we’ll be taking together.

And want my letter? Comment LETTER below and I’ll send it to you.

For now though, thank you. Truly. ❤️

Address

Estelle Manor, Eynsham Park
Oxford
OX29 6PN

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