NAWCO-CI Blog

Making the Most of Your Memberships

Many association and group memberships come up for renewal this time of year. Which ones are worth renewing or joining? Use these 4 questions to help guide your decision.

Every year around this time, as I'm planning my goals and Success Calendar for the coming year, I take a good look at the associations, groups, and organizations in which I'm involved. (If you don't currently do this, you may wish to start — you'll likely find it easier to review them as a whole rather than individually as each renewal comes due.) As with your goals and calendar, you want to be intentional with the groups to which you dedicate time, money, and energy as well.

With your list of memberships handy, assess each organization by asking yourself the following four questions:

1. What am I gaining from this group? You should experience an identifiable benefit, whether it's new clients, peer support, personal or professional development, or a stellar annual conference that reinvigorates you each year.

2. How am I contributing? You want to be more than simply a name on a roster. Do you attend meetings? Actively participate in events? Hold a leadership position that matches your strengths with the organization's needs? The old adage holds: You'll get out of it what you put into it.

3. Is this membership worth renewing? As one of MAP Professional Development's ASPIRE member recently told me, "I leave each ASPIRE meeting feeling energized and educated — the two things I most need each month!" With your goals for the next year handy, determine how/if each group will support you in reaching those goals. If "yes," then...

4. How can I enhance my membership experience in the next year? In addition to your own brainstorming, look to your responses to #2 above for further ideas.  Keeping those goals handy, also consider what other groups — ones in which you're not currently involved — might help you reach them. While you don't want to spread yourself too thin, growing your business or career really does require involvement with energizing peers, high-quality resources, and continuing growth opportunities. Choose wisely and with intention, and you will reap the benefits for the entire year! 

- Christi Hegstad, Ph.D., MAP Professional Development, who just renewed her NAWBO-CI membership.

Danger Will Robinson, Danger!

I remember when a wise man told me he had learned that he should not make decisions when he was "hungry, angry, lonely or tired." 

It was the first time I had heard the HALT acronym. And it immediately made sense to me. When you are hungry, angry, lonely, or tired, your resilience is low. And that means you don't have as much energy to think things through and make good decisions.

But isn't that the problem in and of itself? We put ourselves in stressful situations without considering that we're headed into the danger zone. Let's use the HALT acronym combined with everyone's favorite excuse: "We're so busy."

We're so busy:

• We skip meals (Hungry)

• We stuff our emotions and just hope they will go away (Angry)

* We aren't truly connected with others (Lonely)

* We don't get 8 hours of sleep a night (Tired)

"Danger Will Robinson, Danger!"

Obviously the best thing to do is not get ourselves in high-risk situations in the first place. If we were wise we'd set time aside every week to take care of ourselves. We'd tell people no. We'd eat right. We'd exercise. And we'd spend time doing activities that provide us with joy and energy.

But let's face it, that's not what most of us are going to do!

So maybe a more realistic course of action is to begin by identifying our danger zones. Participants in Meyvn Group classes often say they are most as risk when they are:

• Overcommitted

• Rushing to meet a deadline

• Taking care of everyone but themselves

• Focused on one thing for too long

• Surrounded by people with no alone time

I think that's the power of HALT. You see, once we know our triggers we can be more alert. And then, when we find ourselves in a danger zone we can stop and take action to mitigate the risk. For example:

1. Asked to volunteer for yet another task? Suggest that (insert another person's name) is really better suited for this opportunity.

2. Find yourself in front of your computer for 3 hours in a row? Go for a 10 minute walk, preferably outside!

3. In a LONG meeting with no end in site? Excuse yourself and take a restroom break.

I can't tell you how many really smart and accomplished people have sabotaged their own careers simply by getting into situations where they didn't have the emotional strength to respond in a way that others found acceptable. Knowing your danger zones and identifying copying mechanisms ahead of time can be a career-saver.

- Tammy Rogers, The Meyvn Group, NAWBO-CI corporate partner; reposted with permission

Become Influential by Serving Now in NAWBO

Boardroom Bound is an organization dedicated to changing the face of boardrooms, and I not only support it's mission, I belong to this group and have taken its boardology® training.

Part of my work at TWW Consulting involves facilitating meetings with board leaders and creating criteria for board nominations. In trainings I've delivered to various chapters of NAWBO, I've stress how service on your local—and national—NAWBO board offers a developmental opportunity to prepare for being on the boards of even larger non-profit organizations and corporations.

Are you a WBO who aspires to learn and hone her skills with Roberts Rules of Order, to lead effective and efficient teams, and to interface with other WBOs around the nation? Then become a member of NAWBO, the premier dues-paying national organization for women in business, and get involved in the Central Iowa Chapter. It's the leaders who have the greatest impact and influence in the strategic advance of an organization! Officer openings include president-elect and treasurer, and board positions available include communications team lead and programs team lead. Contact Pam Schoffner, P.S. Writes, pam@schoffner.com, regarding these opportunities to serve now or in the 2012-2013 chapter year.

- T. Waldmann-Williams, TWW Consulting, tww@twwconsulting.com

Special Event for SBA Region VII Women Entrepreneurs

On August 3 the U.S. Small Business Administration and the National Women's Business Council will host the "Iowa Summit for Women Entrepreneurs," one of only ten gatherings in the country to do the following:

• explore the business challenges facing Iowa women entrepreneurs,

• seek to guide national policy recommendations for Congress and the Executive Branch,

• promote dialogue in the women's business community, and

• provide networking opportunities for women business owners.

Discussion topics include start-ups, access to capital, contracting, and "the missing middle." 

Speakers include Ana Recio Harvey, assistant administrator for the Office of Women's Business Ownership, SBA; Patricia Brown-Dixon, regional administrator, Kansas City Region VII Office, SBA; Debbie Durham, director, Iowa Department of Economic Development; Lu Spane, Zumi's Fashions, and Robyn Sloan, Doherty's Flowers. NAWBO-CI members will be assisting in the event.

The 1 to 5 p.m. gathering is at the FFA Enrichment Center, 1055 SW Prairie Trail Parkway in Ankeny. Attendance is free, but space is limited. SBA is now accepting registrations online. Come make your WBO voice heard!

Be part of NAWBO-CI Table at Women of Influence

Join with other NAWBO-CI members and partners on August 4 in paying tribute to the 2011 recipients of the Business Records' Women of Influence Awards.  Women who have made outstanding contributions to the commity in a vaiety of areas will be recognized, and Ann Selzer, Selzer and Company, will receive the Woman Business Owner of the Year Award.

Also being honored are Kim Butler, The Private Bank; Shannon Cofield, United Way of Central Iowa; Joyce Feddersen, retired/formerly of the Mercy Behavioral Health Clinic; Peggy Fisher, The Stelter Company; Connie Isaacson, Isaacson Consulting; Joanne Mahaffey, community activist/volunteer; Lorraine May, Hopkins and Huebner; Wendy Waugaman, American Equity Investment Life; and Teri Wood TeBrockhorst, Iowa Lottery.

If you would like to be part of a NAWBO-CI table for 10 at the 4:30 to 7 p.m. event that Thursday at the Downtown Des Moines Marriott, please contact Pam Schoffner, P.S. Writes (pam@schoffner.com) by July 22.  Tickets at that table will be $20; they are sold individually for $25. 

 

Tell it to the SBA on June 27

Fifteen to 20 regional WBOs are about to have the opportunity to share their experiences and concerns regarding healthcare, environmental issues, burdensome national regulations or simply what doesn't make sense about doing business in our country. And you don't have to travel to D.C. to express yourself as a WBO! D.C. is coming to us.

The Small Business Administration's Office of Advocacy is conducting a nationwide series of roundtables on issues facing women business owners, and you're invited to the table. Please reserve your spot now for June 27, 3:30 - 5 p.m. at Jasper Winery, 2400 George Flagg Parkway, Des Moines. Please contact Rebecca Greenwald (rebecca.greenwald@sba.gov) by June 21. Becky is the SBA Advocate for Region VII (Iowa, Kansas, Missouri & Nebraska), and WBOs from all four states are invited.

The Office of Advocacy will also release new data on women business owners at the event. NAWBO-CI and its Public Policy Team are delighted to help get the word out to Iowa WBOs.

- Pam Schoffner, P.S. Writes, www.schoffner.com

$1 Million+ WBOs: Accelerate Your Growth

Have big plans for growing your business? Then apply for Ernst & Young's Entrepreneurial Winning Women™ program to help you realize your potential. Get connected with advisors, resources and insights you need to become a market leader. Applications for the prestigious fourth national competition and executive leadership program are due June 30.

Ten Entrepreneurial Winning Women will be named by September 9. Ernst & Young is looking for founding CEOs (at least a 51% owner) of privately held U.S. companies that are less than 10 years old. The company's reported income during each of the past two fiscal years should be between $1 and $20 million. Winners must attend a two-day orientation and coaching session (October 4-5 in New York City) to prepare them to participate in and take full advantage of the November 2011 Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum.

Questions? Contact Melissa Taylor, program manager for Entrepreneurial Winning Women, melissa.taylor@ey.com. 

- Pam Schoffner, P.S. Writes, www.schoffner.com

The NAWBO Difference

Would you believe there was a time when women business owners in central Iowa had few opportunities to connect with each other to share their business problems, celebrate their successes and work together on issues of importance to the bottom line for their companies?

That may be hard for today's WBOs to comprehend. Each week we now must carefully choose the breakfast, luncheon, cocktail or dinner events—from among a plethora of options—that are the most strategic for making connections and feeding our souls. We're overwhelmed every day with opportunities to gather with other women in business. And that brings me to the NAWBO difference.

Like other central Iowa groups, in NAWBO we connect, build friendships, share ideas, make referrals and sometimes do business with each other. But there are reasons why NAWBO is so much more and those reasons reach around the globe.

Being in the middle of the country, we sometimes forget that we're part of the nation's go-to group when our nation's leaders want to know the WBO viewpoint or reaction to proposed rules and regulations. We don't always remember that our organization is working in D.C. every day to impact the country's public policy in order to create a more favorable business climate for WBOs. What other locally based women's group is focused exclusively on the issues impacting women who own businesses?

Yes, we're local friends, but our sisters who will share business ideas, be part of our resource and referral network, and discuss their "been there done that" lessons with us number more than 8,000 women in the U.S. If you've ever needed advice on an industry issue you're facing, simply contact a NAWBO member with a similar company in another state. I can tell you that the open sharing and willingness to problem solve is worth your dues!

Plus, we're connected to even more WBO's worldwide through affiliation with Le Femmes Chefs d'Enterprises Mondiales, which extends to 60 countries on five continents.

NAWBO-CI is the Iowa-based chapter of the nation's only dues-based organization representing the interests of all women entrepreneurs across all industries. When you're a member, you're part of a one-stop resource to propel WBOs into greater economical, social and political spheres of power worldwide.

What's the value for you in being part of a national network dedicated to WBOs?

- Pam Schoffner, P.S. Writes, www.schoffner.com