Ladies Who Launch Business Incubator Program

[ladieswholaunch]

Hi there,

Just thought I would introduce myself here in this section, as I run the Ladies Who Launch Business Incubator here in Toronto (http://www.ladieswholaunch.com). There is also an incubator in Vancouver. We just launched the Toronto incubator in September to rave reviews, and I thought it might be useful for any women on these boards to look into if they are at the "launching" phase of a new venture.

Essentially, we act as an educational and motivational resource for women who are launching business and creative projects, and approach entrepreneurship as a lifestyle.

Everyone in the Incubator first goes through an Incubator Intensive, a workshop designed to help you expand and clarify your vision, get you moving and initiate you to the concepts of incubating. This program is designed for anyone who wants to expedite their dreams, launch a brand new idea, expand an existing venture or simply explore the possibilities of creativity and entrepreneurship in their lives. Literally any motivated woman at any stage in her life can benefit from this program.

For those who complete the intensive, there is an on-going Incubator where the momentum continues and the magic happens with events, parties, inspiring speakers and connecting with some of the most brilliant women in your area and around the country.

Hope this is helpful to any women who are thinking about starting a new business. The website features many "featured ladies" that have launched successful businesses and tips/resources for entrepreneurial women.

Best Regards,
Cynthia
Ladies Who Launch - Toronto
http://www.ladieswholaunch.com

[BigJim22]

How much does it cost to be a part of your program?

[ladieswholaunch]

Hi there,

The 4 week intensive program is $250.00 (USD).

Hope that helps!

Best,
Cynthia
Ladies Who Launch - Toronto Director
www.ladieswholaunch.com

[OmnivoreInk]

I'm only abouat 6 hours from DC... but I'm not going to be able to make the signing... I wish 'em well, however.

Anyway, I check their website periodically to see what's happening, and here's the press release for it:

We've written about you in our book and now are thrilled to meet you in person! Our book LADIES WHO LAUNCH: Embracing Entrepreneurship & Creativity as a Lifestyle
(St. Martin's Press; May 1, 2007; $24.95) has come out and we are coming to Washington, DC to celebrate you, women who want to say "YES!" to their dreams by launching a business, project or life!

We'll be at Barnes & Noble, 555 12th St. NW, Washington DC, on Wednesday, May 9, 2007 and we would be honored if you would come out and meet us and the extraordinary ladies of the Washington, DC Ladies Who Launch Incubator program.

We have invited several special guests including:
Priscilla Stephan: Founder of Bakana Style
Kalle Diarra: Founder of Arbre De Vie Products

These ladies will talk more about how to launch, and, why launching, whether for entrepreneurial reasons or just for fun, leads to a happier, more fulfilling life.

Being around like-minded, inspiring women is one of the best ways to get you moving toward your goals and dreams.

[OmnivoreInk]

http://www.ladieswholaunch.com/featuredladies.cfm

is a webpage that lists 30 female CEOs and their businesses, from children's care such as SitterCity and the What To Expect Foundation, to other businesses such as fashion, etc.

Some interesting reading.

[OmnivoreInk]

I get the Ladies Who Launch newsletter, and since it's promotional I assume it's okay to share a story here:

What's for Launch? IKEA Design Makeover Contest

What does your work space say about your business? From yoga studios to hair salons, cafes to book stores, a good design makes a powerful statement. It makes the first impression, and has the ability to transform ideas, foster creativity, set the stage for success and make those who work inside it (even if it's just you!) organized enough to execute those great ideas. This is especially true for small businesses owners, who need all the help they can get while keeping budgets in mind. Inspired by the unique way women business owners work together, IKEA BUSINESS, a new on-line network that provides practical workplace design solutions, is kicking-off a national video contest that will award IKEA design makeovers to an entire community of businesses, turning their collective dreams into a reality.

The lowdown: Win design services and products for your entire business community!!!

"Small Businesses, Big Dreams: Furnished by IKEA" is an online video contest that will give a group of neighboring small businesses from one lucky community a dream IKEA design makeover. The contest supports the camaraderie between business owners and the revitalization of small town business districts by asking owners to enter the contest on behalf of their entire business community. Entries will be judged on creativity and the communal vision of the participating businesses. The grand prize includes IKEA design expertise and furnishings to help the winning businesses (up to 10) create spaces that will maximize functionality with stylistic commercial appeal. In addition, the public can go to the site and vote for their favorite video. Log on to www.ikea.com/business for contest details. Then, grab a video camera and up to ten neighbors and get ready to show what your businesses and your community mean to you!

IKEA Business' new website, www.ikea.com/business, gives small business owners the opportunity to network while sharing expertise, resources and ideas. The site also offers design inspiration and equips business owners with affordable, creative solutions for work spaces. It's all about furnishing a "Better Life at Work!"

[OmnivoreInk]

Meet Allison Hooper Interview

(Bottom of this page features the titles of links to articles available to people who are subscribed to Ladies Who Launch. They're not hot-links below, but by looking at the titles you get an idea of what kind of information is available at Ladies Who Launch.)

Gotta love it when a launching story inspires cravings for crusty bread and creamy artisanal cheese.

Launched by Allison Hooper and Bob Reese, the Vermont Butter & Cheese Company (www.vtbutterandcheeseco.com) makes European-style products like chevre, creamy goat cheese, fromage blanc, mascarpone and French-style cultured butter.

Considered to be the creme-de-la-creme, some of Allison's products have won top awards, most recently at the 2007 U.S. Cheese Championships in Wisconsin and the 2007 World Cheese Awards in London. Her products are also served in top restaurants such as Daniel, Jean Georges, Blue Hill and CityZen, and sold by retailers like Whole Foods and iGourmet.com.

Here Allison dishes about how to serve cheese at a soiree and talks about growing the company from scratch to about $7.5 million in annual sales...

Falling in Love in France

Allison: "I was a French major at Connecticut College and lived in Paris for a semester. I found an internship in Brittany on a farm where they had sheep and goats and cows and pigs, and they made several varieties of cheeses, butter, creme fraiche and fromage blanc... many of the products that we make today.

"It was love at first sight. I loved the lifestyle, the making of the cheese and thought 'Americans need this.' It was the early 80's and Americans weren't really eating goat cheese and creme fraiche."

Meeting Her Business Partner by Chance

"Having grown up in New Jersey, I made my way to Vermont. Bob (Reese), my partner, and I were both working at the Vermont Department of Agriculture. He was a marketing director and I was working in the dairy lab. Bob was putting together a dinner for a chef where he was using all Vermont products and the chef was looking for goat cheese. At the time you couldn't really buy goat cheese anywhere in Vermont.

"I made the cheese for the dinner and was invited to the dinner. Bob and I sat at a table together - we didn't know each other very well. Chefs started coming up to me and giving me their cards saying that they wanted to buy the cheese. Bob's wife, Sandy, was sitting at the table with us and said, 'Why don't you and Allison start a cheese business?'"

Little Money, Lots of Naivete

"Bob and I both had $1200 (to invest). Talk about incredible naivete. I was 25 and he was 27. We had no idea what we were getting into. He had an MBA in finance and accounting, but in terms of owning and operating a business, we had no idea what we were doing.

"We took our $2400 and were able to get a loan from a small revolving loan fund (for agricultural activities) from the United Church of Christ. We went to a commercial bank, borrowed $10,000 and were able to retrofit an existing milk house, a little building that's attached to a dairy farm where the milk is stored. We put a cheese vat in and a boiler to pasteurize the milk."

From Not Much in Sales to $7.5 Million

"The first year we were in business, we did $16,000 in sales - now we're at $7.5 million (annually). It was the mid 80's when we launched and being the first to market has its advantages and disadvantages. There wasn't any competition - only a half dozen of us around the country were making goat cheese.The disadvantage was that Americans didn't eat goat cheese."

Targeting Elite Niche Market

"We were trying to launch a product that was virtually unknown to the American market, and we didn't have the finances to do a big marketing campaign to educate consumers. What we ended up doing required us to focus on a very targeted customer - we targeted French chefs in New York.

"We knew that they would know this product. They would understand creme fraiche and chevre and fromage blanc. Selling to these restaurants - that's where we spent most of our activity for the first 10 years of the business."

Tight Budget? Look on the Bright Side

"The fact that we didn't have any money was a good thing because we didn't spend it. It made us really cut to the chase when it came to allocating resources - the real priorities became clear. We weren't deluding ourselves thinking we could be in every retail shop in the Northeast and support those relationships, or buy advertising and build a brand. The early days were selling based on our personal relationships with our customers. We didn't get confused thinking we could be all things to all people."

Becoming Bigger by Finding Distributors

"At the time in the 80's... the American dollar was pretty strong and so there was a lot of import activity of fine European cheeses. And then all of a sudden, the dollar fell and imported cheeses became more expensive and more difficult to import because of regulatory issues, worries about food safety with raw milk cheeses and so forth. The importers and distributors were looking for domestic suppliers. That was a big advantage to us. We went to the New York Fancy Food Show in '88 and we signed up six new distributor customers."

Greatest Challenge - Mastering It All

"Many times in business you're either a manufacturer or a marketer, and we're both, and that's hard. You have your operations, with many, many needs, including financial and human resources. Cheesemaking is hard work, so we try to be good employers and a good place to work. But that's required some vigilance, really making it a priority.

"Then you have your market, which is another master. The market is much more demanding than it was 20 years ago. Consumers have high expectations, especially when they buy something that's expensive."

Coming Soon: New Brand of Cheeses?

"We are looking at possibly developing a brand that doesn't change the character of our company. In the trades, the Vermont Butter & Cheese Company has a positive brand image. We think the potential for the kinds of products that we make is really pretty big. We see Americans eating a lot more cheese and having a huge, growing interest in cheese."

Try This: Fromage Blanc for Breakfast or Lunch

"One of our products, fromage blanc, is made with skim milk - it contains no fat, is low in calories and high in protein. I eat it every day with fruit for my lunch. In France, this is the product that every woman eats every day to stay thin - it's filling and it's good for you. Right now (fromage blanc) is a small business for us, but it's the kind of product that has a lot of potential."

How To Create a Delicious Cheese Board

"If you're going to have a cheese board, do a service of no more than five cheeses - three cheeses is good. It's always nice to have a variety - you might have a sheep's milk, a goat's milk, a hard cheese and semi-soft cheese. A variety of textures and kinds of milk is always good."

Simple Tip for Pairing Wine with Cheese

"In terms of pairing wines with cheeses, there are no hard and fast rules. People must never be intimidated by serving cheese because they don't know what wine to serve with it.

"In general, pairing white wines with cheese is always easier than pairing red wines with cheese. With red wine, if it's complex or has lots of tannins - it can be hard to pair cheese with that, whereas white wines go well with cheese. Very fresh goat cheese goes well with a light crisp wine like Sauvignon Blanc. Your chances of making a good pairing with a white wine is better than with a red wine."

Recommended Resource

"From the financing side, the SBA has been a great thing for us. We wouldn't have qualified for any loans early on had we not had SBA guarantees. We're the poster child for every state-sponsored business financing package available through economic development authorities - we had a (state loan) based on the expansion of our building. It's worth it to take the time to find out what you're eligible for."

Got Kids? Stop Beating Yourself Up about Balance

"I have two 13-year-olds and a 15-year-old. You always feel like you're doing both things (running a business and raising a family) not too well. When you're at the office, you'll feel guilty and say, 'I don't have time to help my kids with their homework.' When you're with the kids, it's 'I'm not spending enough time on my business and should be doing all these things, but I'm not doing them.'

"You can spend more energy beating yourself up than accepting that this is your life and you're going to do the best that you can."

Words of Advice: 'Plan Something, as Audacious as It May Seem'

"The thing that I'm reminded of all the time is the saying 'Failure to plan is planning to fail.' Plan something, as audacious as it may seem, and put one foot in front of the other and don't be distracted by the voice on your shoulder saying, 'What are you thinking? You can't do this.'"

LIFESTYLE LINKS

This week's LAUNCHING SPOTLIGHT: Check out Fresh Scents
To view and purchase Fresh Scents visit Ladies Who Launch SHOP

This week's Attraction Lifestyling from Attraction Boutique Tip #15

Celebrity Sunglasses at www.shefinds.com

A Rose Is A Rose at www.theweeklybeet.com

Organize your life with easy-to-use advice and inspiring solutions from The Spacialist. This week's SPACE TREAT: SPACE TREAT: Never get it all done...

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[OmnivoreInk]

I'm a subscriber to the LAdies Who Launch newsletter, and this thier latest profile:


Meet Kathy Duva Interview

In the macho world of boxing, where blood, sweat and testosterone rule the ring, Kathy Duva, mother of three, is running her own show.

Duva is the CEO of Main Events, one of the three largest and most successful boxing promotional firms in the world. She took over the company after the death of her husband in 1996 and set about the challenging tasks of raising children, resuscitating the business and proving herself to be much more than just the little missus. Main Events, now celebrating its 29th year, not only boasts world champions like Evander Holyfield and Arturo Gatti as loyal clients, but has promoted some of the biggest Pay Per View and closed-circuit broadcasts in cable television history. Male--dominated, aggressive and titanically competitive, the boxing world is keeping Duva on her toes (but still in heels) while she champions a company that was nearly got knocked out.

Pre-CEO days

"I started out as a publicist, but when my husband passed away, he left the company to his brother and I went to law school - I had three children to raise and had to get serious. While I was still in law school the company started going under, so I stepped back in. Luckily my new education came in very handy in the boxing world where we have to deal with things like personal injury, criminal law, property tax, contracts, etc.'

Re-launching in a man's world

"Although I really like most of the people I work with, it was hard to get a few of them see me as the CEO after so many years of being the boss' wife. And to get them to take me seriously because I was a woman. A big part of my job is negotiating with promoters who represent other fighters. Everybody wins some negotiations and everybody loses some, but if the promoter is especially macho, he finds it extra humiliating losing to a woman and he becomes impossible to deal with down the road. Since it's not my job to get people over their issues, if I have to negotiate another deal with him, I'll often send another person from my organization who can handle it better. My job represents the interests of others - I can't let my ego get into it and hurt my fighters' chances just because I don't like the promoter. Working in a macho atmosphere does have its perks, however. One is that I never have to buy lunch. Regardless of who calls the meeting, none of them will ever let me pick up the check."

First rule of success: less is more

"We've really focused on being more hands-on than 'wholesale' promoters. Some companies work with over 50 fighters at a time and only a few of them make it. We only have 10 or 12 fighters and really nurture our relationships with them. We've been around since 1978, most of our staff has worked together a long time and we give our fighters a lot of support."

Do things your own way!

"My husband had a very powerful personality. I'm much more subtle and tend to quietly maneuver things. When dealing with someone who's a screamer, like Don King for example, I wait until they're finished and then say, 'Are you done?' Then I start talking, rather than trying to out-scream them. It's not my style. I try to make it in their best interest to do what I want them to do - that's my best negotiating tactic.

Learn how to sell yourself

"PR is critical, and I've gotten very good at it because in boxing you have to in order to survive. It's not nearly as popular a sport as it used to be so you have to be creative. You have to get out there and hustle, do the reporters' jobs for them and hand them the story. You're competing with everyone for media outlets, so you have to be prepared."

Keep believing

"Everything is either very big or very small in boxing. One Pay Per View fight can carry us the whole year because most of our fights are on cable and there's not much money in that. We need to get sponsors interested which has been tough ever since Mike Tyson got in trouble and scared them all away. We're still feeling the ramifications. But I think boxing is like real estate - when it gets low people start buying. I feel like boxing is reaching that point where people are going to start paying attention and networks are going to start thinking they could get a lot of viewers."

You are who you work with

"Stay away from people who are dishonest. Life is too short to deal with people who are going to drive you nuts."

Fear of going broke?

"About once a month! Success is based on winning fights, so it's very scary. We lost a whole string of fights at one point and just when it was do or die, we started winning again. We just need one or two guys on top who can support us. You just have to hang in there."

Did she ever want to give up?

"Oh sure, all the time. Then I'd think about three college tuitions and keep going."

What's next?

"We're starting a PR company and a real estate empire! We're about to move into a new building in Totowa, New Jersey, that we renovated and the whole thing went really well, so now we're looking for another property to renovate. We're also starting Main Events Proactive Publicity We've all gotten so good at it, and we know that anything that doesn't involve selling boxing is going to be easy!

Words of wisdom

"Keep having fun. It's not worth doing if it's not fun. And don't ever take no for an answer."

This Featured Lady was profiled by Los Angeles based author and columnist Jen Sincero www.jensincero.com.