Holiday Greetings from Marcela Mandeville

What a year! 2016 was certainly filled with change, challenge, and opportunity. As winter solstice arrives and we prepare to bring 2016 to a close, it seems like the perfect time to look back on our year and to look forward to the longer days and adventure that awaits in 2017. 

As you will see, we already have great things planned to kick off the new year.

Of course, I could not look back on 2016 without mentioning taking on the CEO role, which has been a great opportunity to lead a dedicated team who model purpose every day in our efforts to help women entrepreneurs build successful businesses. 

Trying to determine highlights for the year has been quite a challenge - there were so many moments, stories and experiences. When I pulled together these pieces, what emerged was a picture of why we proudly saw Alberta lead Canada in exceeding parity in participation rates of women as early stage business owners and why we are so committed to helping women in our province reach their entrepreneurial dreams.

As we move into 2017, we aim to connect more entrepreneurs into our ever-growing, amazing community of women business owners who contribute so much to Alberta by taking risks, building strong local businesses, innovating new products and processes, role modeling business savviness, supporting other entrepreneurs, moving into new markets, and overall making the world a better place.

We are so thankful to our clients, funders, sponsors, partners, families (pets included, of course), and friends for your valuable support. From our AWE family to yours, we wish you a happy and safe holiday season. 

We are excited to continue our journey with you in 2017!

Community Roundup

Many members of the AWE community share useful and interesting things online, and we like to draw your attention to these posts from time to time on the blog. Enjoy!

 

  • Boreal Services Group, founded by Deidra Helmig shares the five products that saved their business. From Quickbooks to Basecamp, we're sure many entrepreneurs can agree that these tools are more than helpful to any small business.
  • Knowing yourself is an important part of being an entrepreneur. In her latest blog post, Ashley Janssen (Principal at Agile Style) shares tips on how to manage your time, your relationship and your work.
  • Michelle Hordal, Founder and Executive Director of Adaptabilities recently hosted their third annual Respite N' Rejuvenate event. This organization is doing amazing things for so many families in our city. 
  • Making Calgary and area homes beautiful is what Shannon Lenstra, President of Kon-strux Developments specializes in. Shannon and her army of interior designers made the 30 Best Interior Designer Companies in Calgary list with Point 2 Homes. 
  • Michelle Cotton, President of Solstice Canada has the perfect place for business owners to rent a small office or desk (and we hear it's close to Duchess Bakery..)

Do you have exciting things happening in your business that you would like us to feature? Be sure to share them with us on social media or send us a note to external.relations@awebusiness.com. 

 

 

 

Michelle Hordal- Support To Step Into Uncomfortable Territory

Michelle Hordal- Support To Step Into Uncomfortable Territory

Michelle is the founder and Executive Director of Alberta AdaptAbilities Association, a registered charity providing special needs children and young adults with a variety of quality programs that target the development of the whole individual, while providing peace of mind to the families in the stress of everyday challenges. Michelle is an alumnus of the PeerSpark™ program.

Meghan Dear – Making the Most of International Expansion Opportunities

Meghan Dear – Making the Most of International Expansion Opportunities

Meghan is the founder and CEO of Localize, an awareness platform to educate shoppers about where their food comes from. She leads the vision to build a service that shares better food information at the shelf’s edge, so consumers can finally shop in peace with the right information at hand. Meghan was the 2016 AWE Emerging Innovator Award recipient.

7 Ways To Build Loyal Customers

7 Ways To Build Loyal Customers

In a world of endless options, it is increasingly tougher to gain the loyalty of a customer. However, the effort invested to build the loyalty and keep them coming back is absolutely worth it. Studies have shown that it costs 6-7 times more to acquire a new customer than to provide service to an existing one (Ciotti, G.). According to a study done by Consumer Insight Group, those existing customers who develop a sense of loyalty to your brand will show their love in different ways: 78% will spread the word, 68% will buy more, and 54% will refuse to buy other products. Does that sound like something you’re interested in?

Entrepreneurs Ready for International Expansion after BWIT Trade Mission

Entrepreneurs Ready for International Expansion after BWIT Trade Mission

Over the past two weeks, AWE had the exciting opportunity to accompany a few of our most driven entrepreneurs on a dual-city trade mission, led by the Business Women in International Trade (BWIT) Program at Global Affairs Canada. The mission included stops to Atlanta, Georgia for the Women in Business: North America Summit, followed by a stop in Orlando, Florida for the Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) National Conference and Business Fair.