Bellingham Herald

Biz Talk: Win helps women business owners

DAVE GALLAGHER    Published: May 25, 2008
Bellingham Herald, The (WA)

Kerrie Paige had her "American Idol" moment in business a couple of years ago, and she's planning to pass on her experience to other women entrepreneurs. Paige, co-owner of NovaSim LLC in Bellingham, was one of the winners of the Make Mine a Million $ Business program in 2006. The program helps women grow and build sustainable businesses by providing access to financing, mentoring, marketing and technology tools. The goal is to inspire one million women entrepreneurs to reach annual revenues of $1 million by the year 2010.

The program, which is part of the Count Me In organization and originally was sponsored by OPEN from American Express, will make its inaugural visit to Seattle on June 11, when 20 women business owners will be selected to help build milliondollar enterprises. Paige will be going to Seattle to be on a panel, answering questions from the participants about running a business. She'll also be able to talk about how the program has helped her company, which develops and implements simulation-based software tools. One example of what the company does is, through the use of a specialized software program, it more efficiently schedules surgeries at a hospital. The Make Mine a Million $ Business program is a contest that has a similar look to what you see on American Idol. After being vetted to ensure they have solid business plans, women entrepreneurs will take the stage in front of a live audience and give a three-minute pitch, trying to convince judges and audience members to vote for their company for further development. Judges will select the top candidates and send them into the program. In Paige's case, she received access to loans and lines of credit, networking equipment to improve her business, a year's worth of executive coaching and unlimited mentoring. "The greatest benefit to me from winning was the coaching and mentoring that I received," Paige said. "When challenges pop up, as a business owner there are very few places to go. When you're in charge of a company, it's hard to admit you don't know the answer. This program has provided a safe place to do that." Paige said the focus of the program is to help women entrepreneurs successfully get past the first few stages of growing a business, something the percentages say doesn't happen often with women.

Currently less than 3 percent of women-owned businesses generate more than $1 million in annual revenue. Paige believes there are a couple of reasons why this happens: In her experience, women tend to be more risk-adverse when it comes to taking on loans to build a compan, and many have a strong preference to try to do as much of the business as possible. "I learned through the coaching program that if an aspect of the business doesn't need to be done by me, I shouldn't be doing it," Paige said. "That was a big lesson for me because now I've been able to spend more time moving the entire business forward, not just going from project to project." For NovaSim, the program has worked out well as the company now tries to move toward the goal of $1 million in annual sales. "It's harder for us to grow than some other companies because we're so specialized, but we're making progress," Paige said. For more on NovaSim, visit www.novasim.com; on the program, www.makemineamillion.org.

Biz Talk runs each Sunday. Reach Dave Gallagher at 715-2269 or dave.gallagher@bellinghamherald.com. Visit his business blog online at TheBellinghamHerald.com/blogs.

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