This past week was an amazing 
experience. A General Contractor in a field of 20 sharp, talented women business owners, all in business more than 2 years, with earnings of over $250k less than $1m, we appeared at the American Express OPEN Women’s Business Summit to demonstrate to the more than 600 attendees exactly how a successful 3-minute “Elevator Pitch” for our business is crafted when you are vying for the attention of an investor, a business partner, store placement, or just quickly letting someone know exactly what it is you do.
The Event objectives were to provide real advice useful content to help women business owners grow in the current economy. Here are a few statistics. Women 
owned businesses constitute approximately 28% of all business in the US. Of those, 70% gross $50K a year annually or less. 2.6% of all women owned businesses ever reach the $1m mark. The goal of CountMeIn.org, headed by philanthropist Nell Merlino, is to create a million women millionaires, a mighty goal, a wonderful way to get the economy moving.
Other groups attending in addition to Count Me In members were The e-Women Network, the National Asssociation for Women Business Owners (NAWBO), the Houston Chambers of Commerce, the Women’s Leadership Exchange. I had an opportunity to be interviewed by MS NBC for the early Sunday AM Show, Your Business, sponsored by AMEX OPEN. It’ll be aired in about 3 weeks.
Oh, I should mention that HB Building + Design made it through to the Winner’s Circle! What an uplifting experience. Look forward to hearing about a few of the other contestants here in this column later on. There were a couple who have great complementary products to what we do best, remodeling your kitchen bath! Others were just great people like Jillian White, from White Picket Fence Appraisals in New Rochelle, NY, Maggie Weldon, Maggie’s Crochet & Lace Pottery from Kernersville, NC. We’ll keep you posted on progress with the program. In the meantime, we’ll be moving forward with our BathPacks on-line product as quick as we can, so we can help more clients get great bath designs installed for a quality price by a quality installer, put people to work!
