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Independent Businesswomen in the Northwest
If you’re an independent business owner in the
Pacific NW, you know how hard it is to get everything done. As I
heard some smart woman once say (forget who), “There’s the
business...and then there’s the business of the business.”
Acknowledging
you can’t do everything is the first step in getting everything
done. “Huh?”, you’re thinking? The trick is to find a
specialist in the Pacific NW to do the stuff you’re either not so good
at or don’t have time for. Then you perform services for one
another.
For example, say you’re a
CPA starting up your own Pacific NW based accounting business.
You know numbers inside and out, but marketing? You’d rather walk
on hot coals. So you find an independent practitioner who
specializes in marketing for small businesses. You do her taxes,
she plans your marketing strategy. Voila!
How
to figure comparable worth depends on the products/services
involved. If you both provide services, you can trade based on an
hourly or project basis. If either/both have a product, determine
the product value and trade accordingly.
So,
where do you find such people? Chambers of commerce meetings and
leads groups are options. In the Pacific NW, BNI and LeTip are
probably the most well-established leads groups and have lots of women
business owners as members. Professional associations are another
resource. But, attending these kinds of functions takes time and
money, plus it can take several meetings to bump into the right
person. Which is exactly why I created Diva Directories: so
that women can network without effort. So...right now...think
about that task you’ve been putting off forever, and go find someone
who can help you check it off your to-do list. | 
Monique Danielle