Marilyn MessikA regular contributor to national magazines when her children were small, Marilyn Messik set up a children's party business in the early '80s, opening first one shop and then another. At the end of the '80s Marilyn moved into the travel market, focusng on New England in the USA. Her advisory, planning and booking service flourished and she concurrently set up a publishing company to make information more widely available. U.S. Welcome Selected Hotels & Inns, an annual publication was a lush, full colour guide to independent hotels, inns and B&Bs which eventually grew to take in unique accommodation all over America. The success of the book led to invitations to speak at industry conferences and Marilyn served a three year term as a Board Member of the Professional Association of Innkeepers and was made an honorary member of the New England Innkeepers Association for her work in promoting that area. As a niche company, marketing and promotional budgets were tight but strategic alliances with far larger organisations such as North West Airlines, Johansens and the Debenhams Group offered the opportunity to reach optimum numbers of targeted consumers and the Selected Hotels & Inns guide was finally bought out by Thomas Cook Publishing. In 2007, Marilyn set up a copywriting consultancy, Create Communication to work with businesses of all types and sizes, helping them shape their messages to optimum effect. She's become a serial networker on the business women's circuit, holds communication workshops, and has written the series of Little Black Business Books for people who don't believe in miracles! Read More Read Less