Women entrepreneurs collaborate, network to help each other

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Chris Stewart/Staff Photographer

Eight Dayton-area women entrepreneurs have banded together to form WE (Women Entrepreneurs) Mean Business. Seven of the eight women are: (front row, from left) Karen Rubenstein, Lori Firsdon, Jacquelynn Buck; (back row, from left) Carm Crawford, Barb Warner, Laurie Montano and Nicole Amsler.

By Thomas Gnau, Staff Writer
Updated 12:19 AM Saturday, September 26, 2009

There’s strength in numbers and shared experiences.

If WE Mean Business means anything, it means that.

The “WE” stands for women entrepreneurs, a group of professional women who have formed a collaboration to help grow their individual businesses.

Lori Firsdon, of Washington Twp.’s Encore Professional Organizers, recalled attending too many “networking” sessions where the format was too crowded and too rushed to actually allow any networking. She wanted to try something different.

“I’m under the philosophy that if you’re always networking, you’re not really selling,” Firsdon said.

Looking for something a bit more genuine, she started calling like-minded friends and colleagues. Reaching out to them, the idea was not only to generate client leads, but also to share hard-earned wisdom.

The WE Mean Business group has marketers, event organizers, writers and a photographer. All eight women brought their services together recently for Centerville’s Club K-9 Doggy Daycare, which won the group’s first contest. Club K-9 will receive more than $5,000 of the group’s services in a business “facelift.”

At least two common denominators, obviously, are at work.

“We’re all in the same boat,” said Nicole Amsler, of marketing and copy firm Keylocke Services. “We all own our own business.”

They all struggle to find and keep clients and grow their businesses — as women.

“I think that’s where women are a little more outspoken sometimes than men might be in a networking group,” said Karen Rubenstein, of Centerville’s Jog Marketing. “If somebody has to leave to pick up a child or something, we all get that.”

“It’s also support for one another in other ways,” said Jacquelynn Buck, a Kettering photographer. When meeting, the members will talk over how to deal with clients, how to weather the recession, how to find their place in the community.

The group is not a limited liability company, but neither is it purely a networking club. Members hope simply by banding together, their businesses can strengthen each other.

The contest Club K-9 won is an example of that. The business will get a restaging of its office entry, a marketing assessment, training on productivity, a photography session and a community open house.

“There’s so much talent here, we could really help a company overall,” Firsdon said. “We just presented it (the contest idea) to the group.”

Next year’s “facelift” project may be aimed at a nonprofit organization, she said.

WE Mean Business members

A group of women entrepreneurs who of have formed a collaboration to help grow their businesses. The group is made up of:

Barb Warner and Lori Firsdon, Encore Professional Organizers

Carm Crawford and Linda Favor, Global Sales and Event Management

Karen Rubenstein, Jog Marketing Promotional Products

Nicole Amsler, Keylocke Services

Laurie Montano, Regeneration Living by Design

Jacquelynn Buck, Photography by Jacquelynn Buck