Make Mine a $Million Southwest

Make Mine a $Million Southwest

A group of California and Arizona Make Mine a $Million finalists and awardees gathered at my house on February 20, 2007 for some informal networking and a business development workshop led by Natalie Armstrong, President and Founder of Golden Media, http://www.golden-media.com/ .

Together, with Natalie’s help, we tackled topics like outsourcing, independent contractors vs. employees, profitability, business development, blogs, financial advisor teams, motivation, isolation when you’re a solo businessperson, and dealing with difficult people and conversations.

In the crazy excitement of the larger Make Mine a $Million events, sometimes it’s hard to find time to really get to know each other. It was great to take a pause and spend a day together, taking our time a little more than usual, relaxing together, sharing a meal and also talking business. The finalists were a great addition to the group, too, bringing an additional level of enthusiasm and connection to our larger community of women entrepreneurs pledged and destined to break the $1 million barrier. www.makemineamillion.org rules!

We had such a good time, and the event was easy to set up: we used my house since it’s near the airport. Because we didn’t have to rent a room, we could take as long or short a day as we needed, and people coming from a distance didn’t need to micro-manage their arrival or departure times. My sister-in-law (also a budding entrepreneur) helped with the food and airport pickups, and let Patricia and me focus on the people and not the cleanup. At $20 a person, along with Natalie’s donated time, we put together the world’s most cost-effective event. I’d encourage all of the local Make Mine a $Million applicants, finalists, participants---and everyone who’s made the pledge to get past the $1 million mark to set up similar get-togethers in your own community. It’s easy! And so valuable. We are so much stronger together than we are all alone in our entrepreneurial isolation!

Mad props to Natalie Armstrong from Golden Media, our facilitator, and Patricia Kelly from Limerick (,http://www.limerickinc.com/index.htm) our co-host, and her daughter Joan, our Bay Area flyers, Molly Fuller from Hands On Gourmet (San Francisco), (www.handsongourmet.com), and Erica Douglass from Simpli Hosting (San Jose)http://www.simplihosting.com/, our Arizona flyers, Sharla Hartgraves and Lisa Bayne from Here on the Corner (Tempe, http://www.hereonthecorner.com/) and our local LA $Millionaires, Lena Badali from Badali Design, http://www.badalidesign.com/, Garnett Newcombe from Human Potential Consultants, http://www.hpcemployment.org/contact.htm, Vanessa O’Neill from Cedar Spring, http://www.cspring.com/, http://images.businessweek.com/ss/06/06/million_winners/source/16.htm, and Julie Fogg from Active Port. www.activeport.com.

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