 This is Dennis McMahon and welcome to Positively Vermont. And I'm very pleased today that we are going to be exploring an organization called the Women Business Owners Network. And here on behalf of the organization is a member of the board, Marie Eddie, who is also the founder and CEO of Eddie Career Services located in Hinesburg, Vermont. Welcome, Marie. Thank you very much. Thank you for having me on the show. Well, first tell us a little bit about yourself and your background in business and what you do today. Sure. Well, I am a solopreneur. So I am a career consultant. I like to say I'm a career coach because I'm one of those rah rah encouraging types of people. And I started my business in 2018 after having worked in education for 27 years. And mainly I started it to pursue my passion because I love career coaching. And so that's what I do now through my business, Eddie Career Services. That's great. And tell us about the Women Business Owners Network itself, a little bit of the history of some of the people who might have been involved in it at the beginning and maybe some of the people today. Sure, sure. Well, Women Business Owners Network started in 1984. The mission of WBON is to encourage and support women who own and operate businesses to foster economic stability of women-owned businesses and to improve the climate for entrepreneurship in the state of Vermont. And it started in 1984 because one of the obstacles that women were experiencing when they started to, well, when they wanted to start a business was lack of capital. You know, a lot of businesses you need startup monies. And believe it or not, in the 1980s and the early 80s, women could not get loans for their businesses without a husband's signature. So, and that wasn't too long ago. I mean, within our lifetime. So women who were frustrated by that aspect of starting their own business got together and said, well, we need to advocate. And the best way to advocate is to come together as a group because more voices are more powerful. So that was kind of the impetus to start WBON. But really what WBON has become is a support network for women business owners. I would say about two thirds of the women business owners in Vermont are solopreneurs and solopreneurship can be kind of isolating. So to have the resource of an organization like WBON that has monthly chapter meetings where women come together to network and also to learn from each other. There's always a speaker each month at the chapter meetings. And then there are two conferences a year through WBON. There's the full day spring conference which is coming up this June 7th. It's gonna be virtual this year due to the pandemic. But the spring conference is usually focused on professional development with a lot of great speakers and workshops. And then there's a half day fall conference in Vermont which is statewide that is more focused on networking and just getting together. Because again, there's power in numbers but there's also support. So WBON is like a support network for women business owners. Would you tell us about the category of women business owners? Would that also include professionals who operate as single practitioners or maybe in partnerships with other people including men? To give you an idea of some of the women who are members. Okay, so some of the ones who own their own business. So like solepreneurs, some work in body work like reflexologists, massage therapists. There are some photographers and graphic designers, a lot of coaches and consultants like myself. There are female business owners in finance like accountants, CPAs, bookkeepers. There are realtors, artists, virtual assistants and social media consultants. Social media is critical these days to promoting your business. Everyone in business needs to be tech savvy. So we have several women who run businesses helping other people become tech savvy. And but not all of us are solepreneurs. There are several members who employ other people. Some of those companies that they run are like in the food and beverage business, automotive repair, public relations. Women who work for companies where the majority of the leadership are women. So it's a broad range. I mean, we do cover every single, I would say we're a pretty wide ranging organization. That's great. Could you give us an idea of maybe what percentage or what sector of the economy in the state of Vermont is owned by women? Yeah, good question. It's gonna sound small, but it's really big. In Vermont, about seven, a little more than 7% of the businesses are owned by women. That is twice the percentage of nationally women, women-owned businesses, because nationally it's like 3.5%. That's all. So yeah, yeah. Which is again, a reason why you need to come together and support each other, you know? So yeah, about 7% of the businesses in Vermont are owned by women. And in terms of the term ownership, I realize I get a little legal when I hear that word. Does that include people who might not be the entire owners or have some equity in the business or people who are in management and not necessarily the main stockholder or owner? There are some members who co-own a business, usually with their spouse. There are a lot of husband and wife teams that come together to own a business. And whether or not those are, you know, I think they're still called women-owned businesses. If your name is on the title. Interesting. And what about professionals? You know, percentage of maybe doctors, lawyers, countents, other type, unlike yourself. Other types of consultants who operate on their own or maybe with a small amount of parts. What's the demographics of that? You know, I don't have it. I don't have the numbers handy, unlike consultants. Professionals. But I would say, you know, recently I read a report that was produced by Visa. And it just came out in 2019. And I'm trying to remember some of the statistics in that. About, you know what? Numbers. They don't stay in my mind. I just always get, I just get a little sidetracked with equity. And that's why my legal thinking, that's one of the problems. But getting back to this percentage. I mean, why is Vermont, gracefully ahead of the national average with women ownership? Oh, maybe it's because of organizations like WBON, who are here to support and help women business owners. We're invested in the economic viability of women owned businesses. We, we actually, you know, there are a lot of coalitions within Vermont, a lot of organizations to give you a, for instance, during the pandemic, you know, when the PPP loans were distributed, the public policy committee of WBON wanted to ensure that women got an equitable portion of those loans. And they partnered with the Main Street Alliance Vermont and also with Center for Women in Enterprise to not only educate women on the loans and how to get the loans, but actually sat down and helped people fill out the applications and make sure all of the paperwork was in order for them to be able to obtain some of that money. That's great because half the battle with a lot of federal programs is having the right paperwork. Right. There are people who do that and that's all they do to try to help people get that kind of money, grant writers, grant assistants. It's there. The trick is getting it, you know, but that sounds really exciting. And the other thing that I think maybe all business owners have, but the women have any particular issues with support, with not only with business or good with clients, but dealing with environmental matters, regulations, transportation, all of these things that businesses have to deal with in order to be successful. Yeah. How do you help out? Well, like, let me give you a, for instance, historically, women had difficulty finding mentors. You know, people and mentors are critical for professional development. You know, mentors provide the wisdom of their experience, but they also provide access to influencers. You know, so historically women had difficulty finding other women who could mentor them. And that's where WBON comes in because they, they not only provide women with mentors, but they also provide a referral network for women. So part of what we do is support. And speaking of mentorship recently, WBON initiated a new program for members called WBON plus. So WBON plus is an initiative by the organization to provide mentorship in a small group. So a small group of members come together. They meet regularly for a short period of time. They share their challenges. They share their best practices. They provide encouragement to each other. It's kind of like giving each woman an informal board of advisors. So that's one of the support opportunities through membership in women business owners network. What about networking? That seems to be so important for any kind of business, but how do you manage that, particularly your network? Well, we have every chapter has a monthly meeting. And so that's an opportunity to network. Now, the funny thing was during the pandemic, of course everyone went virtual. And the chapters started holding their monthly meetings virtually. And the beauty was that members in the Berlin chapter could access Rutland's, you know, monthly meetings. And same thing with Williston, you know, people were going around and whatever Sunday, good, they could go to because they were a member of WBON. They could go to other monthly meetings. Whereas typically you wouldn't get in your car and drive an hour and a half for an hour and a half meeting. You know, if you didn't have to. So it's really opened up the opportunities, I'd say. And speaking of which, we are kind of collaborating with Main Street Alliance Vermont in our spring conference this year, June 7th, in getting the word out to people, because going virtual means that people can access from even outside of Vermont if they want to come to our conference. And we have seen that. So it's a good thing. Tell us a little more about this idea of, you say you have chapters. Yes. Tell us about the chapter network, how that was set up, or is set up. Yeah, well, they're all set up very similarly because we follow, we, chapter organizers get together monthly and support each other too. You know, they share ideas for speakers. They share ideas for topics. And they share ideas for getting the word out to people, because WBON members can go to chapter meetings for free as part of their membership, but they're also open to guests. And guests can actually come to two meetings for free. After that, there's like a nominal fee to attend a chapter meeting, but essentially it's set up like this. People get women get together. There is an introductory period like the first 15 minutes, everyone introduces themselves and their business. So there's that networking piece. And then there's a speaker question and answer period afterwards. And then usually there's a little more networking at the end. So every chapter meeting is pretty much set up like that. And before the pandemic, you actually physically. Oh yeah, we met in person. Yeah. But I guess as a latent function now this pandemic, the virtual meetings, you can get people from all over the world. Right. And as a matter of fact, about three months ago, I was attending one of the chapter meetings and there was a woman from England. She, she saw it somewhere and thought the topic sounded interesting and she joined us. That's right. Yeah, it is really, that is going to be one of those like benefits from the pandemic where even, we're even talking about keeping a chapter, at least one chapter virtual to provide that opportunity. Because people have seen the benefits. And also the ease of it is just can't be overestimated. And it's amazing how the other funny thing is, when people check into these virtual things, they may run into people they haven't seen for years, but new in the, let's say a past life. Yeah, have you ever done that? You've been in a workshop. I just did it two days ago. And you see someone you know, and you send them a private chat. And they haven't seen me in a while. So, and, and, you know, that's kind of what I miss about in-person meetings, because A, you have an opportunity to hand out your business card. And we do that. We put out our business cards at monthly meetings, but B, you know, after the meeting ends, there's that informal time where you can get together with someone you haven't seen for a while. And that networking is, is crucial to business too. I suppose that's something women business owners lacked up until recent days, you know, the old chamber of commerce or old boys network or whatever male groups they used to hang out in. You know, again, you hit the nail on the head. There were some obstacles for women in the beginning. And let's just take the example of golf. The role of golf courses in business opportunities. A lot of people would play golf because a lot of business happened on the golf course and afterwards in the clubhouse. And a lot of golf courses were not open to women members. You know, it might, it might have been the wives of members could play on Saturday between what, you know, nine and one or something like that. But now, and even brought to country club, they didn't allow women members until the late 1970s. So they had women golfers because my, my mom played there, but my father was the member. See, that's amazing. I don't think a lot of people realize the barriers, but it's the, what are they called the glass healing or something like that? Yeah, because so much. Oh, here's another story. You know, years ago I read this article. It was written by a female engineer. And you know, engineering is very nontraditional for females. It's getting better. But there was a lot of obstacles. In being a female in a male dominated occupation. So anyways, this woman wrote her name was Francis. You know, Francis with an ES at the end. She started working at this engineering firm that had a big, big firm and the it guy set her up with an email address. And as a joke, he wrote Frank at company XYZ.com. Okay. So the two of them had a big laugh over it. And then he created one that was Francis, you know, who was working at the company W XYZ.com. Now she started every once in a while, she'd look at Frank's email because it was live. Yeah. And she noticed something Frank was getting emails that talked about out of work networking opportunities, professional development conferences. And Francis, she was not getting those emails. And that's sad. Wow. That's a major development. Yeah. It's like a study. And a lot of women got discouraged and dropped out of engineering because of that. Now, now I read that article like 20 years ago. I will let you know that I just read in that 2019, 2019 article by visa. They said in the last five years, no, 79% of American female entrepreneurs that were surveyed for that article reported that they felt more empowered. Then they did five years previous. So 79% of women today feel more empowered than they did less than a decade ago. So things they are changing. Yeah, that's amazing. Let me ask you this. A couple of items. One of the things you are involved in is legislation and public policy and our legislature is still in session. Congress is still in session. Tell us about some of the legislative initiatives that you're working on right now. Yeah. Well, of course, the PPP part was very big. Also last year because so many of our membership are solopreneurs and they were being hit hard by the pandemic. They worked with the legislature to clarify them as independent contractors so they could access unemployment. You know, there was, I don't know the particulars about the legislation, but a lot of the public policy committees work centered around ensuring that there was equity and that women had access to funds to keep themselves afloat. So that's the newest stuff. But also, you know, one of the obstacles I think, or even one of the reasons why women become business owners is that work-life balance, you know, what do I do with my children? And childcare, ensuring adequate access to childcare is a biggie. So also the Fair Pay Act, when that passed in early 2000s, I know we were championing that. And also, well, more recently, the, let me see here, paid leave, you know, paid leave is important, that whole childcare piece. And in a matter of fact, I'm going to tell you something. Way back when, when I was a college student, I majored in English because A, I loved reading and B, I loved books. And my, this is what I envisioned doing after I graduated, owning a bookstore so that I could have my baby in a playpen in the store with me. So very naive thinking on my part because we all know that children remain babies for a little, little period of time. But I was imagining combining work and family as the ideal. And for some women, that's why they start their own business. So, we recognize that one of the obstacles for women in business is childcare. So anything we can do to advocate for them is a big piece of the pie. That's great. Well, we're now at the beginning, we're actually getting towards the middle of May. Can you just project for our viewers what the next few months look like in terms of activities and things you want to make people aware of that they can participate? Sure. Well, again, like I mentioned before, we have our annual spring conference. It's a full day series of professional development. That is happening this year. It's happening virtually on June 7th from 830 to 430. And just to give you some of the highlights, the keynote speaker is Precious Williams of Perfect Pitches. And we have the keynote keynote is Cassie Morse of Northfield Farmers Market. And she'll be talking about how farmers were pivoting to online to keep their businesses afloat. So essentially, it's going to be a day long virtual gathering. There's going to be small group breakout and peer to peer networking sessions. And the title, the theme for this year for our spring conference is building back better. What comes next for rural small businesses? That's great. You're talking in with the agriculture, we being an agricultural state. And I know we've had the secretary on discussing that type of information. And so you can get a lot of networking just even being virtual, I suppose. Yeah. So that's coming in. And again, we are partnering with main street lines from to get the word out. We do a lot of coalitions with other organizations, VBSR and CWE. Tell us what they are because a lot of people might not be able to do that. Yeah. Businesses for social responsibility, B Corpse. And also a center for women in enterprise. Two great organizations here. Tell us what you need. One of the things we like to do is give our guests an opportunity to speak to the general public or to legislators or anyone else who is listening as to what we want to do. Whether it be membership or other kinds of support. So why don't you let us know something about that? I guess, you know, being on this program. I'm going to say one of our needs is getting the word out about our organization because we are a support network for women business owners. And we are a resource for women business owners. And, you know, we believe in gender parity and gender equality. We believe in an inclusive Vermont economy. So anything we can do to support women business owners. And there are a lot in agriculture too. I didn't mention that before, but yes. A lot of women business owners in agriculture. But mainly. Join become a member of WBO head. That's my message. That's great. And people who maybe want to become women business owners. And I think that's what I think about. Let's say a woman is in college or maybe. Working at a certain job or an agriculture, whatever. What can she look forward to? And what can she get from your organization? Well, I would say. Seek advice, reach out. We love to help each other. So as a matter of fact, that's what I did in 2018 when I started my business. The very first thing I did was I. Reached out to three women I knew who were consultants. To ask about pricing. How do I set up my pricing? Later on, I had an opportunity to be a keynote speaker. And I reached out to a couple of other women saying, okay, how much should I charge? You know, so. Seeking advice. We are here for people and we're ready willing and able to help others. I mean, our mission is to ensure that women businesses thrive. That's great. And you have a website that tell us what else, how people can get in touch with you. Sure. WBO and.org. And you have the office hours or any other contact information like that. For the organization. Not necessarily office hours, but that's on the website. They can get that, that type of. Yeah. That's great. I'll tell you, this has really been very informative. And I know that our listeners will and viewers will also. But let me give you this opportunity to conclude. Maybe give us a parting thought to everyone who's watching. Well, I just want to say that. WBO and women business owners network. Is a wonderful organization. We do provide support and resources and. Everyone needs. Help. In their professional development. And we are one of those opportunities. Here in Vermont. That's great. Well, thank you very much. My guest today on positively Vermont. Has been Marie Eddie. Who's the founder and CEO of. Any career services in Heinsberg. And also a member of the board of the women. Business owners network. And we're going to provide the information with the website and all of that material. I want to wish you the best of luck and thank you for appearing on positively Vermont. And thank you. Thank you. Thank you all for watching.