Starting Small… Thinking Big. A Women’s Initiative Blog

"Miss Karen's Krew"

Recent Women's Initiative graduate Oriana Bolden created this heartwarming video about her Simple Steps class at Women's Initiative, led by trainer Karen Auguste.  These 3 short minutes really capture the warmth, support and community that happens in our classes.

Thank you Oriana!

Women's Initiative in San Francisco Magazine

Beautiful article in this month's San Francisco Magazine on 'Reinvention'.  Women's Initiative CEO Julie Castro Abrams is quoted and graduates Isabella Guajardo and Emily Dods are featured. 

Women's Initiative CEO featured on FastCompany.com

Women's Initiative CEO Julie Castro Abrams is featured on Fast Company's website in their 30-Second MBA segment. Julie's topic is "How do you prepare for a board meeting."

Microfinance – A Successful Strategy to Help Small Entrepreneurs in the USA

Microloans are still too often associated with small community loans for extremely poor women in Asia, Africa and South America. However, Muhammad Yunus, the founder of the concept of “microcredit” and the Grameen Bank, was driven by the belief that access to credit should be recognized as a universal human right. Therefore, in 2006 the Nobel Committee awarded Yunus and the Grameen Bank the Nobel Peace Prize “for their effort to create economic and social development from below” not only in his native Bangladesh but “across cultures and civilizations”.

Today, many small business owners here in the United States face similar difficulties as their Bangladeshi colleagues in receiving access to fair loans from traditional banks. “Coming To America: Third World Microlending,” a story featured on NPR in March 2010, documents that microfinance is no longer only a strategy of poverty-alleviation in developing countries. It has also become a successful tool to help small entrepreneurs in the USA. The story captures beautifully the struggles of small business owners to find the necessary capital that allows them to launch their own business, the role of microlenders, such as Women’s Initiative for Self-Employment which has been an active microlender for lower-income women in the Bay Area for more than two decades, and the growing demand on Washington to realize and support the significant work of microlenders across the country.

Women's Initiative graduate businesses featured in San Francisco magazine

Two Women's Initiative graduate businesses are featured in this month's San Francisco magazine article on the best sandwiches in the Bay Area.  Not surprising to see Bakesale Betty's fried chicken sandwich on the list, and great to see the torta la tesorito from La Casita Chilanga featured as well.

 

Dead In The Water? or Down, But Not Out!

So, for the past three months I’ve been saying “OMG, I’ve got to sell more stuff!  I’m on the brink of bankruptcy!  I’m almost out of money! HELP!” I got my first shipment of hardcover books back in January and since then I’ve been working to get them into stores around town. I figured let me do as much of my own distribution as possible and then look for a national distributor to go after retailers out-of-state. 

I’ve been slowly making contact with different companies I’ve targeted as potential good fits, while doing my version of an Avon Lady.  The first store I walked into was Spectator Books on Piedmont Avenue.  I walked up to the counter and asked if I could speak with someone about carrying one of my books.  A salesperson, let’s call him “Bill” to be nice, told me to come back on a Tuesday when the manager would be there. I penciled that in and went to the next store, a little more self-assured. I’d approached Walden Pond Books back in September when I thought my books would be ready and the staff there – sooo friendly! – had very warmly encouraged me to come back and talk to the manager, told me what day he’d be in, the best time to stop by, and even added that he was especially receptive to local authors. Yeah!   

When the books had finally gone to print and were due to arrive shortly, I tried back, but it was December and the reception I got (from staff, not the manager) went something like, “Are you completely daft?  It’s Christmas! We can’t look at anything new! Call back later, you nit-wit!” So, even though I knew when to go and the manager’s name, I was a little nervous of hitting some other inappropriate retailer’s nightmare. But, I sucked in my breath and went in anyway.

Not knowing the protocol, I stood in line with those buying copies of this or that and at last stood in front of the manager with a bag of books and a hint of hope that he’d take all of them. I had over 1,600 copies to unload and I was – just in case you forgot - running out of money. The manager looked over my book, complimented me on the design and professionalism of the printing and asked how many I wanted to sell to him. I was thinking 50!  25! And then 5?!?  But I asked if he’d take 25 and he agreed to take 10. Okay, it’s a start, I thought. 

Since then I’ve gotten into Pendragn and Sweet Dreams on College, Spectator Books on Piedmont Avenue, and sent out proposals to a handful of national book distributors. I’ve got a lot more to do to reach my goal of 20 local and 100 national bookstores and/or retailers by the end of 2008. But just when I feel the most urgency to keep the promotion train rolling, I’ve come face to face with my rapidly evaporating finances. 

It’s no longer, “I’m on the brink of bankruptcy! I’m running out of money…” I’m out of money and scared to death. 

After months of trying to make my business profitable enough to carry itself, I started looking for work. At first, I had no intention of doing anything full-time. My party line went like this, “I need to make enough money to cover my expenses, but I’m not going to work more than full-time for anyone else! I have a business to run.” Three months later I still had nothing in the works. I thought, “I can handle being on a budget, but how much can my business or I grow if I have no budget!”

Desperately, at the 10th ½ hour, I placed an ad to contract myself out on Craigslist. I applied and applied to jobs – full-time, part-time, permanent, temporary, contractor, whatever!  And I waited, but nothing was happening!  By the beginning of March, I had one month of expenses left and nowhere to go. I’d tapped my IRA and my savings as much as I could; I was DIW – Dead In the Water!  And then…

I had a talk. You know, The Talk. The talk that goes, with or without tears in your eyes, “Listen Universe, I am doing everything I can. I am Out There. I am looking and applying. I am being proactive. I am doing everything I can think of and it isn’t working. If there’s something I should be doing, tell me. I cannot do this alone. You have to help me! Are you listening to me?” I had The Talk in my crowed bedroom-office, one sunny afternoon, and I searched myself for anything that could be blocking me. At that point, there was nothing left. The fear of losing my hold on my entrepreneurial dreams, of being sucked into a “real job” with all the “security” that seems to provide, was past me. I couldn’t afford a box of paper clips and that was the reality I was facing. I would take the best job offered to me and somehow I had to believe that I would keep my business alive.

The next day I got a response to my ad on Craigslist. The following day a friend sent me a link – not uncommon for her – to an interim position at a local gallery. I sent the most earnest and well-crafted cover letter I’ve sent in eons with my application. I’d posted and reposted my CL ad several times and on the first run I got response from a woman looking for help in setting up her self-publishing house and I’d dismissed it because I thought it wasn’t enough hours. I’d sent her an email to see if she was still interested and the second day after my Talk, she replied that she was. In the week following my talk I had three interviews and got hired by all three individuals! So instead of one all-consuming job, I have three (sometimes four) very manageable projects that use a lot of what I know as a writer and publisher. 

So, the title of this chapter of my life is definitely Down But Not Out. In my next installment, I’ll probably talk about learning to manage multiple contracts and keep your business thriving. That’s a work-in-progress.

Much success to you!

Tracy Watson, Publisher Our World Books – books that inspire falling in love with your life.
(WI grad ’06)

Business or Boyfriend?

It’s been a while since I had a serious relationship.  Now I do and it’s  a little tricky to manage both.  Well, for one thing, it’s long-distance, so my morning is his evening and his morning is my way-too-late at night.  For a while we were meeting up around 11p.m. and talking until 2am.  It was super romantic, and, well, at that time of night, kind of hot!  But, after a few months, I found that the cost was pretty high.  Even though I have a work-at-home business and set my own hours, the lack of any kind of “normal” schedule was starting to get to me. 

My schedule became like this, waking up around 10a.m., doing my morning routine, having breakfast, checking email, and getting down to business at around 2p.m.!  By then, I was super-stressed because I only had three hours to contact people on normal office hours, if I had to contact someone on the East Coast, I was rushing to get to them before they left for the day, it just really set me off behind the gun so to speak.

So, eventually, I started shutting down at 1:00a.m., then 12:30a.m., 12:00a.m. and yeah, my boyfriend wasn’t too thrilled.  See, he was at work, and had the kind of gig that allowed him to IM me with impunity.  In other words, it was convenient for him, especially since he didn’t have a computer at home. 

It was really tough to make the call, since not talking with him during his mornings meant maybe days before we’d meet up again.  But, when I heard myself say, “You know if you respected my work, the way I respect yours, you would be more understanding of my need to have real business hours…”  I sounded so whiny!  And it was pretty clear that I needed to respect my business, not my boyfriend.

So, bit by bit, I’ve gotten back to a real schedule.  I’m up at 8:00a.m., I start work at 9:00a.m. and the best part is I don’t feel like I have to make up for the late start by working until 10 at night!  I’ve also started to have real weekends.  One or – gasp! – two whole days off!   I feel more refreshed in the morning and I get way more done; I guess it really does work to get your work done during the day. 

It wasn’t easy making the call, but I believe a happy businesswoman is a better girlfriend!

-- Tracy Watson (WI grad ’06), Our World Books – Books that inspire falling in love with your life.

Holiday? Get Marketing!

Now that crazy Valentine's F – e – b – r – u – a – r – y is over, I'm taking stock:

lots of pink and red candy boxes, hearts, funny to raunchy gag gifts (see edible panties), sappy movies (some classics, some duds), high hopes or no hope at all for some corny-cheesy-but-oh-so-wonderful expression of love. 

But I have the feeling that you are like me and that you want something a little more substantial than this – something that will last. 

Diamonds? 

Better! 

I’m going to give you the best post-Valentine’s Day gift a small business owner can get: down-and-dirty marketing tips – that work!  I had a lot of fun taking the strategies so pervasive in V-Day campaigns of big companies and putting my little, indie, DIY*, spin on them.  I hope you enjoy them, too!

Tracy’s Guerrilla Marketing List for the DIY business woman:

Materials:

• Postcards and or flyers that promote your company
• Printable labels that fit nicely on one side of the postcard
• Attitude

1. Design your campaign content, (for Valentine’s Day, I came up with a “’buy one, get one free’ throughout February” pitch that I printed on lables and and stuck on the back of about 500 postcards
2. Identify key locations to distribute your cards

Suggested locations:

• Local Weeklies (newspapers) – they come out every Wednesday or Thursday
• Cafes
• Bookstores
• Giftshops
• Community Centers
• Colleges
• Anywhere where people post postcards or flyers

Strategic tips:

• If you get up and get to the newsstands early, you can get your materials in them before readers pick them up.  Target neighborhoods with shops you want to sell in and/or people you want to sell to (for example, I’m promoting my book “be seduced! (the cheeky guide to being happily single)” – so I put flyers in cafes and weeklies in neighborhoods that seemed to have a significant number of singles).


• Most cafes rotate flyers out on a regular schedule.  Find out when they rotate them out, so that you get the most out of your time/effort – and – so you know when to re-post them


• Many bookstores have bulletin boards that are pretty open to any content – look for those that seem to serve your target audience and post regularly


• See the angles – populate a calendar with holidays and other significant dates and then plan your GM (guerilla marketing) strategy to capitalize on them (i.e., next month has International Women’s Day – how about offering a special in honor of it or something for the ladies?)

And did you know?...

If you have a Washington Mutual Small Business account, you can put up an advertisement on a 6” tall easel spotlighting your business for one whole month at select locations?  (For Free!) (I have one up now at the Lakeshore branch.) The easel has a shelf where you can put postcards, business cards, or whatever you like, which is a great way to get people to look at your site, visit your shop and/or get in touch with you about your services.

Got GM tips and successes? Post a reply, share them with us and let’s keep the momentum going!

Best and best!

--- Tracy Watson, Publisher – Our World Books – books that inspire falling in love with your life!
(WI grad ’06)

* Do it yourself

Women's Initiative in the SF Chronicle

If it looks like Julie (to the right) is throwing up her hands in delight, well, that's how we all feel at Women's Initiative this week!

The San Francisco Chronicle dedicated a wonderful, front-page, Sunday edition article to Women's Initiative last Sunday.

Sometimes it takes someone from the outside to make you see yourself anew:

Julie Castro Abrams, the organization's chief executive officer, said 68 percent of graduates are in business within 12 months of completing the 10-week program, which costs $100, although a sliding scale means the applicants most in need pay less.

"A couple years later, they're too busy to return our phone calls," Abrams joked. "But they send checks and volunteer, or they come to be guest speakers and tell other women how to do it."

The agency has served more than 16,000 women in two decades. The average client is 41 years old, and 78 percent are women of color. Twenty-nine percent are single mothers, 15 percent have a disability, and 46 percent speak Spanish as their first or only language - which is why Women's Initiative offers programs in Spanish. All of the women are struggling, with an average household income of only $13,000 a year, and some are illiterate.

"Low-income women in particular have a whole set of issues about their self-perception and some of those demons that have become roadblocks for them in the past," Abrams said. "We help them visualize and get rid of them - like not pricing themselves appropriately because they don't think they're worth it, or giving themselves all the million reasons in the world not to go out and shake a hand or make sales because they're terrified."

The organization, which has a $4.9 million budget this year, relies on donations from foundations, corporations, government and individuals. In 2007, Women's Initiative made 160 loans to clients to help with their businesses, totaling $311,363 and ranging from $1,000 to $25,000.

In San Francisco last year, eight graduates received first-time leaseholder grants of $9,000 apiece, with the assistance of the Mayor's Office of Community Development, to help overcome a frequent problem: prohibitively high commercial rents.

The article also contained some praise from a peer:

Bob Graham, founder of NamasteDirect, a microcredit organization in San Francisco, said people often ask him if microcredit is being done anywhere in the United States as successfully as it is in much of the developing world.

"I always reply that it is, in a few cases," he said. "And the best example is Women's Initiative. It has a track record second to none."

Can you see us blushing?

You can read the whole thing for yourself here. And please talk back to us in the comments below! What did you think of the article? What would you add if you were writing it?

A Retailer Decommercializes Christmas

I remember smiling wryly when I became old enough to understand Charlie Brown's dismay over the selling of Christmas.  Old enough to resent the predatory-lending tactics of credit card companies and the profane abuse of all things St. Nicolas by department stores.   I remember when I began to bristle at the way Christmas was foisted onto the haunches of Thanksgiving . and then, when that failed to sate the titan appetites of the mighty retailer, onto Halloween.   Did they pay their employees overtime, I wondered, to strip all the Halloween decorations and replace them with Christmas ones in one unhallowed night?  Grrr!

But, many years later, I have come to accept that Christmas and commercialism are inextricably bound.  Anyone who listens to the radio, watches TV, or dares to leave their house during the month-and-a half leading up to The Day knows this well.  And what of we small business owners?  How do we respond to the onslaught that is the Holiday Season?   We get in there and fight like the rest of them!  Sale, Sale, Sale!

Yes, I confess to tacking on a "Holiday Special" to my shopping cart and hoping to get in on the biggest online shopping day in years, but it seemed almost like sleeping with the enemy to do so. 

And so to cure my commercialism-malaise, I gave myself a dose of the classics, "It's a Wonderful Life", "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", and of course, "Merry Christmas, Charlie Brown".  If you've seen these, you know that they are strong medicine against getting-for-the-sake-of-getting, dog-eat-dogitis, and other varieties of capitalist disease.  Or to put it simply, they are just plain old good medicine for what ails you, be that bills that need to be paid, the threat of having to return to a 9-5 job to pay them, or what have you.

Do you remember the line in "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", where the narrator says [to paraphrase], "It came without presents.  It came without bows..Maybe Christmas means just a little bit more."? Darn that Dr. Seuss!  That one really got to me.  Now that I am in the world of business, of customers and clients, now that I am a purveyor of goods, what does Christmas mean to me? 

The chicken in me wants to focus on the way I celebrate Christmas in my personal life and to exempt Our World Books from the question.  Chicken Me says, Why should I have to hold myself to some noble standard in all things when there's shoppers to be caught and money to be had?!? 

I acknowledge that being a business owner is not easy and a principled one even less so.  But I can't shake those immortal words of Dr. Seuss and Linus' speech of the true meaning of Christmas - something about peace on earth and goodwill toward men, I think - and I can't separate who I am in business from who I strive to be in everyday life.  A person of decency and honor.  And although I allow that I will not always meet all of my expectations, on this year, the first full year of my life as a business owner, I've decided to make the foundation of my company about contributing value to society. 

So, I sat back and thought about what I could contribute this holiday season through my business.  What can I give?  Last year I was able to make a significant donation to two charities I strongly believe in www.WorldofGood.com and www.ProliteracyWorldwide.com , but as of now my money's way too funny to do that.  So what then? 

Like many of you, I came to owning a business after a bit of life experience, and sometimes being financially limited is the best way to remember that we have much more to offer than just money.   Time, experience, wisdom, compassion, advice, these are free to give and priceless to receive. 

After some reflection, I remembered an article on pursuing dreams that I'd wanted to post on my site for some months.  It was one of the many offerings I saw myself providing to any and all who visited my website www.ourworldbooks.net.  And in thinking on it, I recalled that in my business plan I'd mentioned making life-affirming, uplifting, educational and entertaining content a regular feature on my site.  I'd forgotten.   That's what I'd contribute, I decided.  And if you go to the lounge tab on my site you'll see my gift to all of you in the form of 15 Action Steps to jump-start your dreams (of course owning a business is only one of a zillion!) and a questionnaire you can use to help clarify your dream(s) and focus your actions towards realizing them. 

I am delighted that I started this new tradition for Christmas this year, one I will cherish and renew in the years to come.

Much continued success to you!

---Tracy Watson, WI grad '06 and Publisher, Our World Books - Books That Inspire Falling In Love With Your Life!