Women's work with edge: networking and support

A local networking group addresses issues with eggs on the side.

By LISA BUIE, Times Staff Writer
Published November 13, 2007

WESLEY CHAPEL - Not a power suit could be found at the Women of Wesley Chapel weekly meeting.

Just 12 women, most dressed in polo shirts stitched with business logos, talking over plates of eggs, hash browns and sliced fruit at the First Watch restaurant.

A few worked for banks, but most ran small businesses. A print shop. A day spa that comes to your home. A home theater dealer. A family practice doctor.

The speaker, insurance agent Darlene Reed, was pushing involvement at the Wesley Chapel Chamber of Commerce.

"The chamber operates like a co-op," she said. "If you don't put anything into it you won't get anything out of it." Even attending ribbon cuttings of other businesses is good PR, she said. "When you go, you get your little faces in the paper."

Networking is a big concern among women who attend the meetings. That was the case when the group began in 2005.

"I think women too often learned of the concept of networking as adults," said Cathy Gascoigne, who co-founded the group with Elayne Bassinger, then executive director for the chamber of commerce.

Gascoigne and Bassinger started Women of Wesley Chapel because they saw the need for a niche group as more women began starting their own businesses.

"I wanted a group women could be comfortable in, where they could discuss issues that really pertain to them, that are different from those that pertain to men," said Bassinger, who says she was the first woman in Houston to sell air conditioning systems to builders. For example, she said, "we all know there's still a glass ceiling."

She tapped Gascoigne, 63, a 16-year executive with GE Corp., to lead monthly meetings.

The response was so positive, the meetings soon became weekly. Meetings featured guest speakers and round table discussions. Some addressed challenges unique to home-based businesses.

"How do you really treat that as a business? Do you get up and get dressed?" Bassinger said. "How do you keep your children from screaming in the background if you're on the phone?"

An oft-discussed topic was how to spend more time on activities that grow the business.

"Is the thing I'm doing making me any money as opposed to busy work?" Gascoigne told the women to ask themselves. "I can rearrange the shelves and put out the nicest computer reports, but am I making money?"

Gascoigne said she enjoyed the group because she liked to mentor younger colleagues.

"When I started in the corporate world, there were no women mentors," she said. "I decided then that since I can't find one, I'll have to grow up to be one."

Even with more women in the corporate world, she sees one thing that has remained constant.

"Even in this day and age, women are sometimes reluctant to show they don't know something or ask a question if men are around," she said. "They're reluctant to speak up and say they don't agree with something."

The founders have since moved on.

Business at Deer Creek Sporting Clays, which Gascoigne co-owns with her husband, picked up, requiring Gascoigne to devote more time there. Bassinger left the chamber in 2006 and went to work doing public relations for Wesley Chapel Toyota. The cafe the group used to meet in has closed.

But the group lives on.

It still meets weekly and now is at First Watch. Martine Duncan, co-owner of the Theater Doctor and Wesley Chapel's honorary mayor, coordinates the meetings.

"There are things men don't get, like when you're trying to see a client and the baby has poopy pants," Duncan said. "We understand poopy pants.

"We had a man visit us once. He just sat there."

Lisa Buie can be reached at buie@sptimes.com or toll free 1-800-333-7505.

FAST FACTS

Want to go?

Women of Wesley Chapel meets at 7:30 a.m. each Friday at the First Watch restaurant on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard. For information, call 813 994-8534.

[Last modified November 12, 2007, 21:34:23]