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Hello friends, -Julie Castro Abrams |
August 2009In This Issue: |
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| Hot Topics
Women's Initiative launches 2009 Woman-Owned Business Awards. Women's Initiative for Self Employment, and its partners in promoting businesses and women throughout the Bay Area launched the "Woman-Owned Business of the Year Award" in July, Microenterprise Month in California. Through this effort, we invite you to join us in promoting and recognizing women business owners in your neighborhood. Winners will be recognized in the San Francisco Business Times, the San Jose Business Journal and in events throughout the region.Women’s Initiative believes in the power of women-owned businesses to make a difference. The Woman-Owned Business of the Year Award seeks to recognize women-owned businesses in the Bay Area that:
People are nominating women like Isabella Guajardo a graduate of Women's Initiative and owner of Girl with a Truck, a professional home and office organizing business that offers packing, pick up & delivery, furniture assembly, recycling, and organizing services. Girl with a Truck recently won the "Innovator Award" at the Oakland Indies for her contributions to the local community. Isabella brings a new edge to her packing business by recycling her clients’ extra items at various charities, including homeless shelters, Dress for Success, and Urban Ore, and even brings them back donation slips. Please join us to be part of this effort and help us celebrate women who are creating jobs and stimulating the economy. Please join us in this effort and help us celebrate women who are creating jobs and stimulating the economy. Nominate a woman-owned business in your community today. Please note, businesses do not need to be owned by Women’s Initiative graduates.Nominations due by August 28 >>CLICK HERE for more information and to submit your nomination. |
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Women's Initiative graduates 159 in JulyWomen’s Initiative held four graduation celebrations across the Bay Area in July, honoring 159 women who completed our business training course, wrote business plans, and are ready to start or grow their business, create jobs and stimulate the economy. Two of these graduations were in markets new to us. Through the support of community partners, we’re able to offer classes in more and more regions and meet the increasing needs of low-income women throughout the Bay Area.
Women's Initiative celebrated the graduation of its first class in Hayward on July 9. A total of 22 new entrepreneurs graduated during a special bilingual celebration. Julie McKillop, local business owner and President of the Hayward Chamber of Commerce, was the keynote speaker for the event and welcomed these women to the Hayward business community. We track our results over time and as a result, we know that the 159 women who graduated will make $220,000 in increased income in the next 12 months as a result of the training. We know that for every $1 invested, there is a $30 economic return to the local community in just 18 months |
Past Connect Event at GlanceRefresh and Refine Your Marketing Strategy.
Bob Borchers, former senior director of marketing for Apple and current venture capitalist with Opus, was the keynote speaker. Having been at the head of the successful launch of the iPhone, Bob shared insights and tips on marketing strategies with the 49 Marin graduates who attended the event. Forty-five Marin business leaders were on hand as Connectors, ready to give great business advice and create connections with our graduates. It was a night to remember with great music, food by Women's Initiative graduate Veronica Carranza of Vero's Kitchen and lots of powerful women making connections and building a network for success.
Photos courtesy of Women's Initiative graduate Mary Blanco |
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Women's Initiative partners with Kaiser Permanente to offer the Leadership Workshop Series for graduates.
Women's Initiative recognizes that being visible as a community leader is an excellent way for our graduates to promote their businesses, generate new clients and become influential in their communities. To help them become leaders, Women’s Initiative has launched the Leadership Series, sponsored by Kaiser Permanente. The series is designed to improve graduates' communications skills and increase their political clout. Each of the workshops offered help to build their capacity to serve as leaders and advocates in their communities. Topics included: Power of your Voice: Toolkit for Small Business Owners, Building Relationships with Your Elected Officials, Tips for Effectively Speaking in Public and Media Interview Skills for Small Business Advocates. Graduates are encouraged to identify problems in their community and think about how they can address these effectively using various advocacy techniques such as contacting the media, presenting testimony before a legislative committee, or meeting with their elected officials. During the Building Relationships with Your Elected Officials workshop, California Senator Loni Hancock took a break from budget balancing to talk to Women's Initiative clients and graduates about her path to public service and the role women business owners can play in local politics. The workshop was presented by Jessica Edwards, Senior Vice President, Lew Edwards Group, a political consulting firm. |
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Thank you Wells Fargo |
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Contact Congress Today in Support of U.S. Microenterprise Development As a supporter of Women’s Initiative, you’ve heard the stories and seen the statistics: microenterprise training works to lift women out of poverty, create jobs and stimulate local economies. Within 12 months of microenterprise training, the 720 women who graduated from Women Initiative in 2008 will: Recommended funding levels for AEO policy priorities can be found online. Click here for Calling Tips and to read the 10 Reasons to support AEO and its members including Women's Initiative. |
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Graduate Spotlight Betty Laguna, successful entrepreneur and owner of Americava Wines. Raised in Mexico City, Betty Laguna came to Northern California when her husband's work as a winemaker relocated them to Sonoma County. Always interested in food and wine, Betty began to share her interest with others, penning articles about food and wine for local newspapers, but dreamed of having her own food and wine business, not just writing about other people. For Betty, that meant partnering with her husband to make and market their own wine in Alexander Valley. In 2005, they began to bottle the wines that would be ready to sell in September 2008 when they officially opened their business, Americava Wines. Betty was eager to begin selling and distributing her wine, but after meeting with a Women’s Initiative representative during a visit to the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco, she realized she didn't’t have a firm business plan to guide her in her next steps. Encouraged by the people she had met at Women’s Initiative and her enthusiasm for her business, Betty enrolled in the ALAS program and began taking classes in February of 2009. On June 10th, 2009, friends and family looked on, cheering, as Betty and thirty other women crossed the stage at their graduation ceremony. Because Betty was committed to producing high quality wine even if it meant she was producing it in smaller quantities, she endeavored to keep her business small. She found her experience at Women's Initiative to be invaluable because the classes truly taught her what was involved in owning a small business. Through her classes, she developed a business plan, learned new ways to market her product, and became familiar with all aspects of running a small business. “Wine,” Betty says, “is multicultural, is part of good living, and is part of quality.”  Like many winemakers, Betty values quality through the duration of the wine making process, starting from its very beginning stages. What makes her business and her wine extraordinary is her philosophy that the process begins not just with the grapes, but the people working to care for them. When she first set out to start her business, she and her husband visited several different vineyards to determine where they wanted to purchase their grapes. Eventually they came to a vineyard run by a family they loved immediately, and knew they had found the place they wanted to do business with when they saw how well the workers there were being treated. Her business practices clearly demonstrate her desire to share her knowledge and enjoyment of wine with others.Betty is extremely excited for the future of Americava Wines, despite the challenges that may lie  ahead. The struggling economy, for example, “has made people start to think twice before buying wine,” and has caused some distributors to become reluctant to sell wines they aren’t already familiar with. Betty is facing these obstacles head-on, putting in extra effort to find new customers and distributors, and finding new and creative ways to advertise. These extra efforts have paid off: after months of hard work, Betty recently presented her wine at the Costco in Novato, where they went on sale in July! She also presented her wine at the Latino Winemakers’ Festival at the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce in San Francisco in June, and her wines are available for purchase in several stores and at restaurants throughout Napa, Sonoma, Hillsborough, and Solano Counties. Betty loves the passion she feels, the people she meets, and the empowerment she gets from owning her own business, and is excited to continue to sell to new customers throughout the Bay Area!Contact Betty Laguna at americavawines@yahoo.com or by phone at (707) 837-5284. Visit her website at www.americavawines.net. To help Betty grow her business, be sure to request her wines at your local Costco! - Arrin Kaplan, Women's Initiative Microenterprise Fellow |
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Volunteer Spotlight
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Get Involved! Women's Initiative values the contributions of volunteers and is committed to a partnership between staff and volunteers to move our organization forward and support our programs. We match volunteer projects to your skills and interests. |
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Women's Initiative is funded in part through a cooperative agreement with the U.S Small Business Administration
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www.womensinitiative.org
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Sweta Ashwarya has been volunteering at Women's Initiative in San Jose since January. Among many other things, she has been responsible for coordinating some of the entrepreneurial services for our 