Raising Connections- I Got That Lovin' Feeling

Genny and I have been having some heart to hearts lately. Where are we with Connections for Women, are we on track - essentially evaluating the state of our business union. We've both acknowledged that the doom and gloom economic scene has the effect of casting a dark shadow over all and that if we allow it, the shadow doses out pretty fierce gobbling up of confidence and limiting the spring in anyone's step.

Rather than be dragged down we figured that we should seek out the good news stories, the small steps to success stories that come from our readers. To that end we've been reading e mail, making calls and looking for twitter leads in our demographics and, there is lots of good news out there!

Sylvia Edwards who quit corporate America to re invent herself as an aesthetician, two years into her business reports February her best month ever; another woman in the beauty/self-care field reports a 30 percent increase in her business this year to date. Our contacts at the local Farmer's Market tell us that business is up and very brisk. Friends in the business of web site development are having to hire an additional designer so that they can keep up. We're going to feature these and other good news business stories as we find them and as they come in...e mail me with your story.

Meanwhile raising Connections for Women is going well. We've gone through the terrible twos where everything was "no, can't, won't" and are approaching a more positive stage of growth! And we have done some growing. We've been able to crystallize our business philosophy and recognize the growing pains, as just that, growing pains. We've put together a brief history for the April issue.

I think the most salient points that we have identified as being crucial to success in any business are the three P's. Passion, Patience, Perseverance and, admittedly you can run short on anyone of them during the growing process. Something else has come out of the discussions we've been having and that is the nature of a business partnership.

Genny and I have only known each other since the inception of Connections for Women; we have become friends - not in your house, talk every five minutes, can't make a move without you, dish the gossip friends but mature, respectful of one another friends, something that is so very special between women. Personally I've seen this as one of the positives in building the business. We've been able to weather the ups and downs without the emotionally charged demands of an old friendship getting in the way. We've been able to come into the development of the business leaving our personal history outside the door; in other words, we haven't traded on a past association to excuse poor performance or out right failure to carry our end of a bargain. By starting out as business partners, rather than old friends, we've , somewhat unconsciously, built a working relationship that dos not exploit friendship. Certainly not saying that friends cannot be successful business partners but I think it takes more than bubbling with enthusiasm to really weather the harsh realities of a start-up.

At Connections for Women we're bringing in advertisers and these companies are going to be the mortar that enables us to keep going. Check out our advertisers, click and visit their sites. You don't have to buy anything (although if you are in the market for inexpensively priced window treatments do we have a great 10% discount source for you!) but just visiting their sites encourages advertisers to realize that we do have a viable market and that they will be on your mind next time you are shopping. And if you have a product tailor made for women 40 plus who think, travel, write, start a business, take care of their health, make the buying decisions for the household, read books, think about relationships, create beautiful home spaces, then do we have a deal for you to advertise your product or services.
Gerry