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St. Louis Post-Dispatch

St. Louis Post-Dispatch (MO)

October 1, 2004

Women's entrepreneur group helps transform passions into businesses

"They have supported me and educated me. I'm in a shop because of this organization." Sandy Schulz of Wildwood

Author: KATHIE SUTIN
Special to the Post-Dispatch
Edition: Five Star Late Lift
Section: Business
Page: C10

*Association of Home-Based Women Entrepreneurs lends support and education for entering a new world. When Sandy Schulz of Wildwood decided to transform her passion for pottery into a business, she admits she was clueless about how to make that happen.

After several classes at a local college, she knew plenty about pottery. But Schulz, a former teacher, had never taken a business course. Still, she booked a space at her first art fair. "I put a table up and set some pottery on it and was scared to death to talk to anybody," she said. Lucky for her Marie Cuccia-Brand happened by. She invited Schulz to the next meeting of the Association of Home-Based Women Entrepreneurs.

Schulz also looked at other women's organizations -- "there's a raft of them in St. Louis " -- then decided HBWE was just what she needed. "They have supported me and educated me," she said. "I'm in a shop because of this organization. They're just so wonderful." 

Schulz, now the group's president, said HBWE addresses the unique issues faced by people working at home in isolation. It also offers networking and camaraderie, she said. "These people have become some of my best friends, and I didn't know any of them before I got in this group," she said. 

The group, which has about 45 members, meets at Spazio's, 12031 Lackland Road , on the second Tuesday of each month for dinner and speakers. At each meeting, two members can tout their businesses and introduce new services and products.

Besides the monthly meetings, the group offers optional "mastermind groups," where four or five people discuss issues in-depth and offer each other support. "You can mention a problem, and the group gives you feedback," Schulz said. "Sometimes you just need to verbalize the problem, and you don't need the feedback. Other times a member might say, 'That's the same kind of problem I had, and here's what I've done."

Longtime member Sue Lunnemann of Kirkwood said the organization was started in 1998 by former St. Louisan Evy Coppola, who saw the need for a group to support women who worked from home. The original name was Professional Women's Home Offices Inc., but last year members changed it to Home-Based Women Entrepreneurs. "We thought that explained more what we are," Lunnemann said. "It was hard for people to understand what we did from the (old) name." She said the group has expanded to include people who are sole proprietors with "very small businesses. They're pretty much as isolated as the home-based person is." Lunnemann, whose business is Solutions Payroll & Accounting Services, said many people come to the group with one big question: How do you price your services? Other top questions: How do you market yourself and how do you determine what your services are worth? "By coming to an organization like ours, they get a lot of information," Lunnemann said.

However, there are no easy answers, she noted. "We can't tell the person, 'You've got to charge $100 an hour,' but we can give them suggestions on how they can value their services and find out what their competitors charge . . . and if you want to charge a bit more, you have to offer something more than your competitors offer."

Members also offer tips to each other on managing problems that are unique to people working at home, Lunnemann said. "The first year I decided to work from home, I'd take breaks to do laundry and other stuff, like run to the grocery store."

But she soon found those breaks were costing her money. "I really needed to be spending that time on client work," she said.

JoEllen Reinwart of Creve Coeur discovered HBWE about 18 months ago. "Basically HBWE keeps me focused on the goals I have set and the things I am trying to accomplish," she said. "They deal with computer issues and things that maybe I don't have an outlet to or maybe I don't know anything about yet." When Reinwart decided in 1993 to start JEM Personalized Interiors, a custom window-treatment business, she took a women's entrepreneur course at Florissant Valley Community College , which gave her basic information. Now, Reinwart said, HBWE has taken up where the course left off, providing an ongoing education about running a small business. 

The group is looking for new members," said Reinwart, the organization's executive director. "We'd like to have more members and grow so that we can network more with other professionals. "For more information Call 314-995-1455 to reach the Association of Home-Based Women Entrepreneurs, or check out the group's Web site (hbwe.org).

Caption:
Color Photo by LAVONDIA MAJORS / POST-DISPATCH - JoEllen Reinwart is executive director of Home-Based Women Entrepreneurs. She found help from the organization with her custom window-treatment business, JEM Personalized Interiors.
photo

Copyright (c) 2004 St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Record Number: 1000104578 

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