Women Entrepreneurs Rock Event at the Jersey Shore – Awesome!

November 1, 2016
Posted in Press Center
01 Nov 2016
Press Center
November 1, 2016 Sheila La Magra

 

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There’s no place like home…

Sometimes the assistance a business needs to grow is right in our own backyard. Several years ago I went to a workshop at the Brookdale Community College Small Business Development Center  and wrote my first business plan – and got my first business loan! In launching La Magra Consulting to specifically service the Jersey Shore, I recently had the pleasure of attending an event sponsored by the Brookdale Community College Small Business Development Center called Women Entrepreneurs Rock presentation at The Stone Pony in Asbury Park – and it was awesome!

As a business owner, there are so many fantastic resources at our fingertips – we just have to look right here in Monmouth County to find them.

The event was FREE and the vibe was great. Seeing a host of energetic, intelligent, diverse, approachable and incredibly successful business professionals – who happen to be women – on The Stone Pony stage and in the audience was a wonderful feeling.

While the reality is that as women we still make 70 cents on the dollar compared to what a man with a similar background and experience, this has not stopped any of these women. They took risks, learned to say no, stopped apologizing for their success, and realized that you can’t have it all – so you need to decide what is important to you, and then use your “passion” to get it. “Passion” was a key phrase all night long.

As women business owners, we forget to take a breath. We need to reminder that “if you want to have your cup floweth over, you have to fill your cup up.” This was from Marilyn Schlossbach of local “Langosta Lounge” fame. She was the keynote speaker. Her restaurants and businesses were nearly devastated by Hurricane Sandy (much like my former home in Belmar) but she bounced back and seems stronger than ever. She seems genuinely happy in what she does, and in reviewing her commitment to the community makes you believe that people are in the world who even care about strangers.

This Women Entrepreneurs Rock which used the hashtag #werocksmallbiz is in its 3rd year, sponsored by the Small Business Development Center  NJ at Brookdale Community College. Lead Jackeline Mejias Fuertes, Regional Director, from the SBDC the night was a success! Jackie is such a great presence on stage (even though she was on her tippy toes to reach the microphone) and inspiring to the people that she helps through the SBDC. You could feel how proud she is of what she does, and how proud her mom would be of her!

Just for some stats from the SBDC – according to the 2016 State of Women-Owned Businesses report produced by American Express, “As of 2016, it is estimated that there are now 11.3 million (11,313,900) women-owned businesses in the United States, employing nearly 9 million people (8,976,100) and generating over $1.6 trillion ($1,622,763,800,000) in revenues. Between 2007 and 2016, the number of women-owned firms increased by 45%, compared to just a 9% increase among all businesses. Therefore, over the past nine years, the number of women-owned firms has grown at a rate fully five times faster than the national average.”

I would like to give appropriate credit to each of the panelists. They were each amazing in their own way, and so I will create several blog posts – so your read is not too long.

But here is just a sneak peek at who was there:

Just remember – you never really lose, you either WIN or LEARN! And… there’s no place like home!

(and that’s right here at the Jersey Shore)