You’ve flipped open your planner for the New Year, and you’re ready to move forward in your business, confident with your product or service, empowered by positive thinking. You’ve ordered new business cards, joined the Chamber of Commerce, and are looking for office space. What’s next? It’s the perfect time to join a supportive community of women in businesses of all kinds, many gifted with years of expertise and some just starting out: a network glimmering with hope and opportunity.

SUPPORTIVE ADVICE

Despite a sluggish economy, many women entrepreneurs achieve success when they connect rather than compete. In Hampton Roads, a variety of established and casual networking groups help women in business pull together for the good of every member. One of the most well known is NAWBO, the National Association of Women Business Owners, founded 35 years ago to educate women about how to fully engage in economic, social, and political circles of power. It’s an advantage for females to have access to others who can share solutions and strategies.

“If you have a problem, need a recommendation or advice, there’s a whole roomful of people to help you,” said Jennifer Whitham, current president of NAWBO of Southeastern Virginia. She joined the group in 2006 when she took over majority control of Vanwin Coatings in Chesapeake. Trained as a CPA, Jennifer worked as a manager in a local firm, a position she says was “one step away from being a partner.” After a few years, she stepped in to assist her banker husband, who was the financial adviser for a small industrial coatings company. With careful planning, they bought out the partners of Vanwin, a business which employs more than 45 people.

Jennifer believes her membership in NAWBO is responsible for her growing competency as a business owner and her rewarding relationships with other women.

“One of the rules of NAWBO is that we give no negative feedback to our members, only constructive and supportive advice,” Jennifer said.

NAWBO is a great place to learn how to grow personal skills as well. Jennifer says that when she began attending meetings, she tended to be an observer until she learned how to approach others with confidence and gained skill in public speaking. Eventually she joined the board. Jennifer affirms that her role is to support others, not draw attention to her own business.

“I’m the one who gets up and doesn’t always say my company’s name,” she said. “I’m here to serve the members’ needs.” While many networking organizations require referrals, NAWBO members decide whether they want to open their contacts and to whom.

“You never know who you’re going to meet in NAWBO, and I love to meet women in many different businesses,” Jennifer said.

Former president Sandy Dumont, says the group makes everyone welcome—from the well-heeled corporate CEO of a million-dollar industry to someone with a poodle-cutting business.

“One time there was a woman who came to our group and said, ‘I want to play with the Big Girls, so I can be inspired,’” Sandy said. One of NAWBO’s strengths is its capacity to teach essential business skills. This month, the group hosts a past national president of NAWBO, Beverly Inman-Ebel, CEO of TLC, Talk-Listen-Communicate, who will discuss how speaking—formally and informally—can assure business success.

Membership dues for NAWBO include a portion that goes to the national organization. “Being connected to a well-functioning national organization is an asset for all of us,” Jennifer said.

A SENSE OF FUN

When Sonya Ross Schweitzer moved to Tidewater in May 2009, she wanted to find a way to connect with women, professionally and personally. The Aussie native, married to an American in the military, had lived all over the world from England to New York and Washington, D.C. She’d worked in the high-tech world, including a position at AOL. When she began a local marketing company, she realized the necessity to build a base of contacts. Though there were existing business networks out there, Sonya wanted to introduce a sense of fun.

“I wanted to have a name that was catchy and girly sounding, and my husband suggested Geekettes. I started to talk to my social network, chose a black and hot pink theme, developed a Facebook fan page so people could decide to ‘Like’ it, a Twitter account, and a blog/website so that we have a presence online,” the youthful forty-year-old said.

Sonya says there are more than 200 Geekettes in the virtual world, with an average of 40 to 50 who attend monthly gatherings, often held in the Aloft Hotel in Chesapeake, though the group has also met at Atlanta Bread Company and Gordon Biersch in Virginia Beach. Over drinks and snacks, women connect to a wider circle, share information in a no- pressure flow of conversation. Though a Geekettes club meeting looks like a social gathering, Sonya believes that networking is essential.

“If you don’t network, you are kind of left to your own devices,” Sonya said. “You can be reading every magazine, newsletter, internet website, but finding out from other people what’s working for them and then leveraging relationships is how my business grew,” she adds.

The Geekettes Club has an intentionally local focus, welcoming women who own their own businesses like Mary Kay or Silpada Jewelry, as well as women who work in offices and just want to expand their horizons.

“The core of what we offer is the ability to not just network, but for our members to be able to meet a need, such as switching jobs, hiring someone, or even buying a laptop,” Sonya explained. Annual dues are very reasonable, and the group is in the process of attaining 501 C-3, non-profit status.

SHARING STRENGTHS

Some networks form to bring together like-minded people. Last year 25-year-old Erica Steele, a massage therapist and owner of Essential Wellness in Virginia Beach, accessed the internet to create a new network. Through meetup.com, the world’s largest network of local groups, she formed The Hampton Roads Professional Women’s Network. Her group springs from Erica’s appreciation for professionals sharing their work, their strengths, and their skills, especially those who work in the healing arts.

“I love the energy of a communal environment, like the best of what the 60s offered. I wanted to create that in my business, a place where people who are amazing at what they do can thrive,” Erica said.

Women who have been to some of Erica’s meet-ups are impressed with her goal that the members focus on what they have in common—wellness of mind and body—no matter what enterprise they own or work in.

“I am using the network online as a way to put things out to others,” Erica explained. “Different women will email me and let me know about events they are putting on, and I can help promote them.”

The mother of a six-year-old girl, Erica plans some of her meet-ups for working mothers to discuss the health, well being, and balance needed both at home and in the business world.

Because Erica uses meetup.com, she can access a huge number of potential clients and business associates and create gatherings with the goal of impacting her own community. Using computer resources today makes it easy, reasonable, and fast for new networking groups to form.

She also attends meetings of the Geekettes and is a member of the Chamber of Commerce, which she says is central to being a respected professional business person. As the New Year comes in, Erica is prepared to make an offer on a 4,000-square-foot space to grow her business and offer more clients access to her wellness center.

REFERRALS & CONTACTS

There are many levels of networking open to men and women which aim to capture a secure pool of business people for increased business. One is the high profile group, BNI—Business Networking International—whose members meet weekly and make many referrals and contacts. BNI has a policy of only allowing one representative per profession to join a local chapter. The organization’s website says it provides a “structured and supportive system for giving and receiving business.”

Another group, Virginia Beach Speed Networking, created five years ago by Realtor Chantel Ray and Bank of America mortgage lender Steve Halsted, offers its members a lunchtime networking opportunity at Beach Ford in Virginia Beach. At a recent holiday party/luncheon, more than 25 business owners gave 30-second pitches about their businesses and worked the room, passing out business cards quickly. Chantel Ray announced to the group that VBSN will be meeting less frequently in 2011, creating opportunities for more socializing each season, rather than the rapid format the members have come to know.

“Many of our members have been coming for five years and have developed close relationships in the business community, and we don’t want to lose that,” she said. “We have 30 to 60 people at our larger events. So we’re going to have gatherings once a quarter in 2011.”

Chantel encourages women who want to join VBSN to visit the website before the first quarterly meeting, which will be held at Beach Ford’s classroom meeting room.

While the business world can sometimes seem fraught with challenges, networking can help women in so many ways, solving problems, answering needs, and making new connections. As Sonya Schweitzer of the Geekettes says, “People don’t respond to businesses. They respond to relationships, and that’s what networking is really all about.”

For more information

• BNI: www.bni-seva.com

• The Geekettes: thegeekettesclub.com

• Hampton Roads Professional Women: www.meetup.com/HamptonRoadsProfessionalWomen

• NAWBO of Southeastern Virginia: www.nawboseva.org

• virginiabeachspeednetworking.com

Kathleen Fogarty writes regularly for Tidewater Women. She lives on a farm in Va. Beach with her husband, John Wilson.