We needed the government to make it possible for us to compete for government contracts. We needed to be taken seriously because that was definitely not happening. The lessons we learned from this transformation of our organization were valuable and they are applicable for women business owners everywhere. There is strength in numbers. You can accomplish collectively what you cannot accomplish individually.
Research makes the difference.
We were not taken seriously until we could prove how strong a membership we had, how large our businesses were individually and collectively, and the number of new jobs we were creating. Research was the key to demonstrating all of this. We had to prove we were important to the strength of the US economy. You have to tell your story. We had to get our message out to the media and to public policymakers-and we had to reinforce it over and over again.