Women?s alliance takes holistic view to guide, tune up small businesses

Business Report Correspondent

DENVER ? Supporting women who have taken the plunge to start their own business, a group brainstorms, teaches workshops and classes to keep them going.

“I have yet to meet an entrepreneur who is good at 100 percent of what it takes to run a business,´ said Jennifer Croft, founder of the Women’s Small Business Alliance in Denver. Since the Alliance was formed in September of this year, Croft and her assistant, Lisa Stormes Hawker, have taught one-night workshops and six-week sessions and have led brainstorming sessions tailored for female entrepreneurs.

Called “Business Tune-ups,” the classes focus not only on keeping a small business or start-up in the black, but also on maintaining a healthy business. Croft believes that a holistic approach to business is important because the business must make its owners happy to be successful.

Men, Croft said, focus more on the bottom line. They grow a business in the traditional sense of borrow, grow, borrow, grow. Croft’s approach to business emphasizes “the softer stuff, like taking care of yourself or “Gut Check Time,” making sure the business is right for you.

Some of Croft’s students attend a class or workshop not knowing if they should start or continue a business. Others simply want to brush up on skills they lack. Still others crave camaraderie with small businesswomen.

“The good news about self-employment is that you don’t have a boss,” Croft said. “You can work any 12 hours a day you want. The bad news about self-employment is that you don’t have a boss. We want women to overcome the isolation and loneliness.”

For many women interested in starting a business, Croft’s classes are a reality check. “We wean them away from corporate life and tell them what they can expect to get out of it.” The Alliance has produced a 70- to 90-page workbook that also helps the students. “Making the Transition,” a form from the book, helps ease the way by showing what resources they will need to get started.

By working at a small or start-up business, many women need teaching and structure. To fill in the gaps of no training and accountability, Croft’s courses offer what one student calls “Nuts-and bolts.” Alice Monroney, founder of Alice’s Tapestries in Denver, took Croft’s Business Tune-up course to brush up on her money handling skills.

Monroney said that while more hands-on application would have been helpful, Croft personalizes the class fairly well. “She takes something that would be scary to (learn) at a regular school, like taxes, and makes it fun. She has a great sense of humor,” Monroney said.

Student Carol Stark of Loveland also was pleased with her experience at the Alliance. “I was reassured by the class, learned a lot of new things, and gained confidence. I willingly got up early to drive in from Loveland. That shows how much I appreciate it.” Stark recently inherited a company that makes fire hose nozzles.

Each six-week course costs $300 and each two-hour workshop is $45. After students complete a class, Croft sits with them to assesses their skills, see what their strengths and weaknesses are and gives them a recommendation on what to develop next. Another six-week course begins the end of January.

Beyond the workshops and classes, the Alliance also offers brainstorming sessions. A week before the meeting, each person signed up for the session receives a phone call and tells the topics she would like to discuss. At the meeting, each topic is allotted a time period, and the women contribute what they know to help each other.

Croft’s biggest difficulty is that some women already running a business may be miserable but stuck in their ways. “They are afraid to make changes,” Croft said. “I do thirty-minute meetings with them, and there’s tremendous resistance, like they’ve failed.”

Another challenge is convincing women to pay themselves enough. It’s as though the “glass ceiling” was brought home from the corporate world. “Women will continue to not pay themselves for years; men will go get support and investors. Women have a hard time valuing themselves,” Croft said. After committing to attend Alliance workshops or classes, many women breathe a sigh of relief. “There’s hope.”

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