Moving Forward

On September 18th I attended the one year anniversary of Girl Power Hour at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Seattle. Here in the picture are my two friends Shelly in black and Katy in the Pink. Both women are amazing and are well on their way to being strong business women. The night was quite the night full of glitter, pink bedazzled cupcakes and party dresses. Usually Girl Power Hours are networking meetings exclusively made of women however for the anniversary party men were partying right along with the gals. I love going to women events but now I think I'll attend more with diverse company.

In other news, tomorrow I mail in the paperwork and a hefty check to become official. Lookwhatididtoday.com will become Look what I did today LLC. I am extremely excited about this since now I can open a business account and start depositing money toward developing my site. I met with Donna, my accountant awhile ago and she walked me through the process and then with the help of my boyfriend's mom, Marly she guided me through the final details. Thanks to both!

I'll keep you updated as the site progresses :)

Go get that connection

Over the last couple months I've come to realize that starting a business is more than just hard work, it also has to do with the people you socialize and network with. Two weeks ago I attended an event for women through Webgrrls. Here I made a few contacts and listened to some amazing stories people went through to launch their own business. I had plenty of business cards in hand and made a point to talk to as many women as I could (one time I actually ran out of business cards-how embarrassing). Here met a woman who is interested in meeting with me to go over the marketing plan for www.lookwhatididtoday.com and through a connection I made I have a second web developer who I'm interested in contacting.

The other day I received an e-mail from the leader of the Seattle chapter who linked an article about the event and photos. As I was scrolling down, I spotted myself laughing in background in one of the pictures. I was also quoted "This meeting gave me a chance to connect with many fabulous women who are all eager to help and lend their knowledge". - Celia A. Moody Dental Assistant and Entrepreneur

Very cool!

Am I becoming a business woman...

One day I'm going to open my closet and there staring back at me is going to be a blue business suit and a meticulously matching pair of pumps. Is there still the pantyhose club?

Over the past month I've been immersing myself in networking events and meetings. It all started out with just one meet up a month and now I have two scheduled for this week alone. I have one scheduled on Wednesday where I meet with other women to discuss techie stuff and the other on Thursday appropriately titled Seattle Geek Dinner. I am fully enjoying myself and I love listening to all the other stories of what women are facing in starting their own business. I find that women are so eager to help each other seem to really care.

Last Thursday I joined an event hosted by WebGrrls www.webgrrls.com, a network of women around the country who just branched out to a Seattle chapter. Incredible women and amazing connections. Seeing that I want to launch an Internet site, I can't think of a better group to join. I now have two very capable marketing firms that I'm interested in collaborating with. A meeting with one is tentatively scheduled for next Friday.

The following day I had a meeting with a highly recommended website developer, Vida Clement, with Vida Productions. We had a wonderful lunch at the Nordstrom Grill and discussed realistically what it will take to get this off the ground. I'm finding out very quickly that I can't just jump into a site with all the bells and whistles I want, it's going to be a process. So as the site grows with traffic so with the graphics and capabilities. However, she did promise me that right before I make my debut on Oprah I will have the fully loaded site :)

Later that day I met with an accountant to go over business licensing and other very fascinating pieces of paper that I need. This is why I'm definitely going to hire an accountant, I get lost in all that talk.

Next week on Thursday I have my favorite networking meeting that I'm going to and men can come too. Girl Power Hour www.girlpowerhour.com it's the new latest rage complete with swag bags, fufu drinks and I think there might be glitter. This is the perfect place to be your own biggest fan and talk up yourself to everyone. I always leave fully energized and have made some really good friends here. Darren, get ready to have some fun with the ladies!!!

Well, so there ya go. Soon this site will be up and then I can go to even more of these events and seek out not future users but real users.