Last night at Bay 13 Restaurant in Portland's Pearl District, Donna Maria Coles Johnson, Founder, President, and CEO of the Indie Beauty Network and Indie Business Media, hosted "Indie Business Revolution: Portland" event. I joined Donna and Kayla Fioravanti, who with her husband owns and operates Essential Wholesale, the world’s largest supplier of naturally-derived cosmetics bases, right here in the Portland area.
Donna does a great job of summarizing the spirit of the event in her blog post on her site: http://www.indiebusinessblog.com/2009/11/14/my-remarks-at-indie-business-revolution-portland/. I will add that for the 15 of us who attended the event there was a spirit of togetherness and "you're not in this alone" as women entrepreneurs face the challenges of the current economic climate and discover new paths to opportunity and growth for their companies.
My key messages for the evening were:
1. Failure is not a showstopper in your business. I'm proof positive of this having gone through the emotional, financial, and spiritual turmoil of shutting down Dessert Noir Cafe & Bar this past summer. As my mom likes to tell me, "Even if you fall flat on your face, that's about five and a half feet that you moved forward."
2. If you're in business, you need to be participating in the conversation that's happening about you, your company, your industry, and the issues that affect all of them. We had a lengthy discussion about social networking and its pros and cons for micro-enterprises like these ladies are running as creators of beauty and skincare products.
My advice: Don't be intimidated by blogs, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Stumbled Upon, Delicious, and the myriad of other avenues to creating online communities. Experiment and determine what works for you, and if it's not working, drop it and invest your precious time and resources into those avenues that lead to more exposure, more customers, more sales, and higher profits.
In this day and age, it's imperative that you get out and there and demonstrate your expertise and build connections with people in both the real and virtual worlds. If you're the type of person who really just wants to focus on your "craft," then I say you need to hire someone you can trust to help you with getting your online act together. And "hire" doesn't necessarily pay that person. There are plenty of internet and online savvy young people who are looking to build their skills and fill out their resumes as they're looking to land a job right now. Give a young person an opportunity that will also help you get what you need for your business to be successful.
3. Women need to continue to help and look out for each other in business. With so many women choosing entrepreneurship out of a desire for more work/life balance and financial freedom or out of economic necessity because men are taking a beating in this recession, we need to approach our business opportunities from a position of abundance versus scarcity. There's plenty of work to do, plenty of customers to serve, and plenty of ways to differentiate your product or service to be the best in the marketplace. Offer advice and consultation freely and willingly, even to people who are in the same business as you. Expand your network and have an open mind about who can help you and at what point in time.
Give back and be together in sisterhood in this moment, a critical point in history, because when my sisters are doing well, so am I and there's nothing we can't do. Pay it forward.
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