Female small business owners have a new networking group in Fredericksburg

Date published: 7/12/2007

By KELLY HANNON

Women who own small businesses in the Fredericksburg area have a new place to network.

The group, Ladies of the Night, has a light-hearted name but a serious mission.

Local businesswomen Maria Gutierrez and Karen Tulloh started the group as a free, monthly venue for women to share management lessons, marketing and leadership ideas, and to forge new relationships.

Meetings are unstructured and social.

"Women are much more conversational than men tend to be, and we don't need to take five minutes and have everyone stand up to promote their business kind-of-thing," Tulloh said, a loan officer at First Horizon Home Loans.

Last month's first meeting was held at First Horizon, where Tulloh works and Gutierrez is branch manager. It drew about 20 women, and Tulloh is hoping to double attendance this month.

The next meeting will be held next Tuesday at 6 p.m. at Art from the Heart in North Stafford, located at 60 Susa Drive, Suite 103.

Membership is limited to women who own small businesses and to independent businesswomen.

Women own 6.5 million small businesses nationally, according to U.S. Small Business Administration data from 2002, the most recent year numbers were available. Women owned slightly more than a quarter of the nation's 23 million small businesses that year. (Small businesses are defined as employing 500 people or fewer.)

Virginia woman owned 29.7 percent of the state's small businesses in 2002. That equals 157,076 businesses that generated $22.1 billion in revenue.

Sharon Breakfield, a unit leader for Creative Memories in Spotsylvania, a photo and keepsake preservation company, said the first meeting of Ladies of the Night was "awesome."

She was searching for a replacement to Women in Business, a former female networking group in Fredericksburg that fizzled out, when she met Tulloh.

"I think it's just a really great venue for us to reach other women and make connections we wouldn't otherwise make," Breakfield said.

After all, "with networking, it's all word of mouth and forming those relationships," she said.

Dolena Sinclair, co-owner of Art from the Heart, a do-it-yourself pottery and jewelry studio, said she enjoyed the "camaraderie and seeing how other people deal with customers and different issues and running a business." Also, she appreciates the group's evening meetings, which allow her to concentrate on Art from the Heart during the day.

At the first meeting, Tulloh said she enjoyed learning how members started their businesses.

"I think it's an encouragement to hear people, looking at where they are in life, say 'I think I want to do this' and try it. It was just great to hear from people who climbed out of what seemed like a box and did something with it," Tulloh said.

Interested in joining? E-mail Tulloh before Tuesday's meeting at
Email: Kltulloh@firsthorizon.com. Members are encouraged to bring an appetizer to share.

Date published: 7/12/2007