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Montana Business Women Share Ideas and Insights
Women are starting their own businesses today at twice the national overall rate of business startups. That means they are demanding more information, assistance and advice at twice the rate of their male counterparts, and perhaps need it more, since they often lack the same networking opportunities.
Posted by: The Big Sky Business Journal
A special three-day seminar was held by the Small Business Administration to help address this growing need of Montana business women.
Women from across Montana met in Chico under autumn skies to get acquainted with one another, to share ideas and strategies, and to gain insight into how to better traverse the challenging world of being business owners. Among the some 100 women in attendance were retired and veteran business owners, those relatively new, as well as those who were just anticipating entering the entrepreneurial world.
The event was co-sponsored by the Business Resource Center at CTI (Career Training Institute). The event is held every one-two years, as part of the mentor-protege assistance program of SBA’s Women’s Network Entrepreneurial Training (WNET).
The SBA noted its 50th Anniversary of assisting small businesses, in a panel discussion with two women representing "Business Women with Moxie." Shirley Beck, co-owner of Sapphire Gallery & Sweet Palace, through little more than sheer determination, started a tourist business that eventually became a destination tourist attraction, which probably saved her community of Phillipsburg from economic oblivion. She said that SBA played a large part in that success.
Ralph Closer with the Butte SBDC (Small Business Development Center) helped her write her first three business plans, she said, and her banker, Jerry Sullivan, helped secure all her SBA loans.
Beck talked about getting her first SBA loan for $50,000. She was terrified about whether she would really be able to pay it back, she said. Six loans later — totaling more than $600,000 — and having just secured her seventh, she said that, while still appropriately sober about the seriousness of the commitment, she is not as terrified.
Her banker later told her, she said, that he figured they had about a one in three million chance of succeeding. "I am an SBA fan to the core," said Beck.
SBA officials are just as much fans of their clients. SBA Director Michelle Johnson glowed with obvious pride about the other panelist as a "business woman with moxie" — Patty Foster of Elliston, owner of Synergy Builders.
Through perseverance and due diligence, Foster is SBA’s first white business woman to become "8A" qualified, a program for disadvantaged businesses. Becoming qualified was no easy process, said Foster, but "it has provided training opportunities we would not have had." Not that Foster was waiting around for such qualification.
Saying she took a leap of faith in starting her own construction business in 1999, Foster cashed out her 401K plan, sought help from SBA, and started Synergy Builders. Even though her past experience gave her the knowledge she needed to run a construction business, the first banker to which Foster applied turned her down. The banker told her that the basis for his rejection was that he had called another contractor who told him there was no room for another company in the market, related Foster.
She was turned down by a second and a third banker, as well. But Foster persevered and eventually acquired a SBA-guaranteed loan. Their first year in business Synergy Builders had $112,000 in contracts, this year they have $4 million.
Another presenter of the workshop, Author Jeanette Reynolds offered an inspirational note about pursuing one’s dreams, even if it means leaving behind a secure perch. Although she had cultivated a successful career in Detroit, Reynolds knew it possessed nothing of her dreams. She wanted to live in a less urban area and to do — believe it or not — radio voice-overs. Not a huge goal, she readily admits, but that’s how her dream for a broadcasting career manifested itself.
She chucked it all and moved with her few belongings to Kalispell, where she landed a job as receptionist for a radio station — well, at least it was a foot-in-the-door. Voice-overs? No way, said the manager. But a short time later, the manager blew her away by offering her an opportunity to do her own radio show, which proved to be a smashing success. There was no way to have predicted what eventually unfolded as opportunities for Reynolds, but none of it would have happened, had she not found the courage to pursue her dreams. Reynolds has since published several books and now owns her own publishing company, Umbrella Publishing.
Making connections and closely targeting one’s market was the message brought by Tom Eglehoff, Author of "How to Market, Advertise and Promote Your Business or Service in a Small Town." When he arrived in Bozeman with the intent to start his own business, Eglehoff said the first place he went was the Chamber of Commerce, where he shook hands and said, "What can I do to help?"
"The most important person in a business is the person who answers the phone," said Eglehoff, "because that is the first person who the public contacts. They should be trained to get that person in the door." How a company answers its phone is most important.
Sandra Hare, Helena, with her own consulting business, S-Hare Solutions, provided insights into recognizing "compassion fatigue" among employees, and oneself, when "Coping with Caring." "There is a cost to caring," said Hare, "and it comes from the residue leftover when we work in a helping capacity with traumatized people and those who may be in a crises or are experiencing acute stress. That residue helps explain high turnover rates . . . and decreased
life satisfaction for caregivers, she explained.
Impaired competence, low energy, increased irritability, depression and decreased work production, are all symptoms of burnout, according to Hare.
If one start’s caring less about the people who’s mission it has been to aid, and begins to rethink previous conclusions about people and life, that too is a symptom of "burnout," said Hare. Hare found one’s "universal vulnerability" and inclination to change their "belief system," an especially troublesome consequence of "compassion fatigue."
Solutions range from the implementing personal strategies, to controlling
one’s work environment.
"Care occupations require a high degree of self awareness to maintain both personal and professional integrity and productivity," she said. "Self-care" must be treated as a job requirement and taken seriously, and it must be supported by management.
Jim Edwards, of Western States Insurance, spoke to the attendees about something which he believes is being given inadequate attention by everyone in the business world, long-term care. A personal family experience revealed the importance of this as a life-issue to Edwards, who even though involved in the insurance business, does not sell this kind of insurance. His motivation, he said, was only to alert people to what he views as an alarming unawareness about the likelihood that they will need this kind of care in their lifetime, and most
are uninsured for it. One in two people will need long term care after
age 65, he said. But, "it’s not just for old people" — 40% of long term care is utilized by people under age 65.
Janet Hedges of Raymond James Financial Services, Inc., reported that nine out of ten women are solely responsible for managing their own finances and that 64% of women are more interested in investing, today. That may be because women have more money today than ever before. They earn over $1 trillion annually and make up 43% of wealthy Americans. She urged women to take advantage of the many free financial seminars that are offered by investment companies.
No matter what else a business does in the way of marketing, said Kitch Walker, Ripple Marketing, the most effective advertising will still be "word of mouth" and referrals. So be sure your business delivers upon what it promises, because that is the public image that will remain foremost in the minds of your customers. Happy customers may become "evangelists" for your business.
A logo is more than a graphic image, said Kitch, it captures the entire experience that a customer has with your business. "Branding" captures the visual, emotional, rational and cultural image associated with a product or service. "A company’s brand is one of it’s primary sources of competitive advantage," — or it may become its greatest disadvantage — think of the "crooked E" for Enron, for example, he said
Bear also in mind, that 70% of purchases are made for emotional reasons, not economic reasons — being a low-cost provider is not a good long-term position. Said Kitch, "If you do market on price alone, you will loose."
Representatives from Integrated Technologies explained how to do e- commerce and informed the group that 50% of the population now have their own website.
Other presenters addressed issues of bookkeeping, management skills,
how to motivate employees.
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