Joining groups critical to female entrepreneurs’ success
March 2013
Forging relationships that offer support, mentoring and networking are crucial for women starting their own businesses….Barbara Mowat, president of Impact Communications, founded GroYourBiz.com, a peer-to-peer group of women who want to grow their businesses, three years ago. Today, there are nine chapters of GroYourBiz.com; Mowat says her goal is 100 chapters in another three years. Click to read more
Successful Women Business Owners Agree: Mindset Not Bank Finance is Key for Growth-oriented Entrepreneurs
March 2013
According to research by Oxford-based leadership specialist, Sue Stockdale, one of the major factors that is critical for business owners to consider when growing their businesses is their mindset. In her new book, ‘The Growth Story’, Sue interviewed nine successful women entrepreneurs from UK and North America. Click to read more
Women Entrepreneurs Get Ready to GroYourBiz in White Rock
March 2013
Sponsored by BMO Bank of Montreal, the new GroYourBiz chapter opened in White Rock, BC on the 4th of March 2013. The organization now has chapters in six cities in B.C. and three chapters in Toronto, providing members with monthly peer-to-peer advisory group meetings; access to top experts and business analysts from an alliance of top private sector organizations. Click here to read the media release.
Dr. Elizabeth Bryce Awarded Champion For Change Award For Integrating MRSAid into VancouverGeneral Hospital
December 2012
The award, proffered by the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO) and GroYourBiz, recognizes global leaders who envision innovative ways of benefiting their community. Dr. Bryce was the championing force in getting MRSAid, a surgical infection control platform created by Vancouver-based Ondine Biomedical Inc., into the stringent testing grounds of Vancouver General Hospital. Click to read more
Hanne Madsen – “I am very excited to share with you that I have been selected as one of the first members of Diversity 50 (D50) by the Canadian Board Diversity Council (CBDC). Diversity 50 is a new resource for directors and search firms to access when seeking board candidates beyond their own networks. It is a list of 50 men and women from across Canada with strong competencies that align with the requirements of many Canadian boards. I was selected from applicants across Canada by nine prominent Canadian CEOs and CBDC. Candidates were selected based on their knowledge, skills and behaviours with the intent that the qualified list of Diversity 50 candidates would form a database that could provide and encourage diversity on boards.”
GroYourBiz announces the opening of a new chapter for women entrepreneurs and business owners in Kamloops at an event on Tuesday, October 30, 2012. Current chapters exist in Vancouver, Victoria, Burnaby, Surrey and Abbotsford, B.C.
Hanne Madsen with Guests for GYB Kamloops Reception
GroYourBiz is a program for women entrepreneurs in British Columbia who want to take their business to the next level. Each chapter consists of a peer to peer advisory group of 15 to 20 women who meet monthly to draw upon the skills, expertise, inspiration and energy of like-minded entrepreneurs; offering practical solutions to attract customers and address expansion needs.
Kamlooops Reception for GYB
Sessions also include advice from top business experts and analysts from an alliance of leading businesses such as BMO Bank of Montreal, Fasken Martineau DuMoulin, TELUS and MNP LLP – all working together to foster and support these small-medium enterprises (SMEs).
“As the founding and leading “Partner in Development” for GroYourBiz, BMO Bank of Montreal has witnessed the positive impact on women business owners in these chapters who meet regularly in small groups sharing and receiving highly beneficial legal, accounting, financial and marketing advice,“ said Joanne Gassman, BMO’s senior vice president, BC and Yukon Division.
Ruth Williams and daughter Esther
Joining the GroYourBiz roster of chapter facilitators is Hanne Madsen.
I was honoured to be asked by Vital Voices to facilitate a workshop in Port Vila, Vanuatu from December 7-9th to initiate The Emerging Pacific Women’s Leadership Program. For this program, Vital Voices selected 48 women leaders in civil society, government agencies, and the private sector to form 12 country delegations that represented Papua New Guinea, Kiribati, Tuvalu, Tonga, Vanuatu, the Solomon Islands, Nauru, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Samoa, the Cook Islands, and Niue. Each country delegation took on one of three issue-area projects aimed at increasing women’s economic opportunities and leadership in public life. The overall goal of the program was to enhance the knowledge, skills, and abilities of women leaders in the Pacific Island region to advocate for women’s economic opportunities and greater leadership in civil society.
As well, I also did a specific session on “Assisting Women Entrepreneurs Access Global Markets”.
My take away: It doesn’t matter what region in the world I work in, the problems women face are universal. I go back to the APEC conference’s “Declaration”, and have to ask why does change take so long?
