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Coming into their own – NAWBO guides the way for women entrepreneurs

Just follow the buzz, as one of the nation’s fastest-growing chapters of women business owners emphasizes networking and potent public policy

By Nancy Salem
Tribune Reporter

The elevator opens at the top floor of 500 Marquette.

Several business groups are meeting at the Petroleum Club, but don’t check the room directory.

Just listen.

Voices lead you to the right and down a hall. You pass meeting rooms where people mingle quietly. No need to look.

Follow the voices, louder now, to a burst of color and sound.

You’ve arrived – at one of the most happening events on the business calendar, a monthly meeting of the northern New Mexico chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners.

The noise is networking hour, before dinner and a speaker, when dozens of women talk, talk and talk some more. They laugh, work the room, make friends, do business.

When time comes for the meeting to start, it takes a microphone and a not-so-gentle voice to coax the women to their tables.

NAWBO, as it’s known, has come of age in Albuquerque. The chapter celebrates its 10th anniversary in November. Membership grew from a handful in 1993 to 150 or so in 2001 and has doubled in the past two years, making NAWBO one of the city’s biggest business groups. It’s also one of the country’s fastest-growing and largest NAWBO chapters, surpassing Phoenix, Dallas and Sacramento.

So many attend the monthly meetings that the group this month abandoned the Petroleum Club for the larger Marriott hotel at I-40 and Louisiana Boulevard Northeast.

"Somewhere along the line we achieved critical mass – the more force you have the more people you attract," said chapter President Kay Ballinger of Catalyst Financial Management.

"It’s a warm, friendly, enthusiastic group that shares the same issues and supports each other. It’s a group that is interested in making a better climate for business and is truly dedicated to helping women be business owners."

Diane Furie, an event and meeting planner, said NAWBO meetings are a high point of her month – both socially and for business.

"It’s always on my calendar. Sometimes, if I’ve had a busy week or am tired, I’ll think about not going. But I do, and I come away so enthusiastic and renewed," she said.

"It’s always fun, but it’s also given me the confidence to continue growing my business. Every time I go there I have new opportunities. I’ve gotten a lot of business from the group, and my reputation has grown."

NAWBO has enlisted corporate partners – Atkinson & Co., Bank of Albuquerque, Bank of the West, Creative Financial Strategies, New Mexico Woman, Principal Financial Group, Sunrise Bank and Wells Fargo Bank – and formed alliances with the Women’s Economic Self-Sufficiency Team, or Wesst corp, the Small Business Administration and the Small Business Development Centers.

The group recently hired an administrator, Luci Dawson, to set up systems and processes, such as online communications, to help it run smoothly. It has a 17-member board of directors and long-standing committees on public policy, community and economic development, mentor programs, communications, awards and youth.

Years of public policy prepping has enhanced NAWBO’s influence on statewide business issues.

"They’re a force to be reckoned with, right now. They’re pretty potent," said New Mexico Senate President Richard

http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/business03/102103_business_nawbo.shtml

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