Chester businesswoman encourages companies to join in the Friday 'feel-good' factor

Jan 20 2011 by Gil Lightfoot, Chester Chronicle

CHESTER businesswoman Olivia Stefanino is inviting companies and self-employed people across the country to join the Feel Great Friday! campaign – which she has launched in a bid to raise money for charity and improve the nation’s self-esteem.

Olivia says the campaign is all about encouraging people to nominate a Friday on which they’ll waive their usual fees and charges – and instead ask clients and customers to donate to the participating organisation’s nominated charity.

“Feel Great Friday is an idea I had to raise money for charity and help us all feel better about ourselves at the same time,” she said. “I’m dreaming big – but ultimately, I want to get professionals and organisations all around the world to take part. And encouragingly, even before the official launch, we’ve already been receiving messages of support, offers of help and people wanting to sign up to the idea.

“Of course, it’s up to participants to decide how many Feel Great Fridays! they want to organise – whether it’s one a year or more often than that. Personally, I've decided to make the final Friday of each month into a Feel Great Friday! Every client who books a session with me at Olivia Confidential on the last Friday of each month will not be charged my usual fee – but instead I’ll be asking them to make a donation to my chosen charity, The Moebius Research Trust, which is a little known charity that’s working hard to find the cause of Moebius Syndrome, a condition that causes facial paralysis from birth – which means that those with the syndrome will never be able to smile.”

While ‘dress down Friday’ has been popular for years, Olivia – author of self-help book Be Your Own Guru – personal and business enlightenment in just three days! – believes that Feel Great Friday! will have a really positive impact on staff morale as they’ll know that on a specific Friday – whether it’s once a month or just once a year – they can really make a difference to people and organisations that really need their help.

“I’m really hoping that Feel Great Friday! will catch on – and that professionals and businesses will consider joining in on the idea. Imagine the impact we can make around the world, if we all decided to share a tiny proportion of our income in this way.

“Of course, charities and other organisations doing great work will benefit – but actually, as someone who provides motivational training to companies, I really believe that the individuals who take part in Feel Great Friday! will benefit as they’ll be involved in something bigger than themselves. Just as importantly, the consequent feel-good factor will have a significant impact on staff morale too – and when staff morale is high, productivity generally goes up while absenteeism drops – so, companies joining up with the Feel Great Friday! campaign will benefit on the bottom line too.”