Women running businesses in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. The rooms they meet in and the work in between.
Oregon
Coffee at seven thirty
The standing morning group runs on a fixed hour, a fixed room and about fourteen people. What the hour is actually for.
in Rooms
Rooms
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Northwest
The ninety-second introduction
Every room runs a round of introductions. Ninety seconds is long enough to be remembered and short enough to be survived.
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Northwest
After hours is a different room
Evening events draw a different set of people than morning ones, for reasons that have little to do with the program.
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Idaho
A room in Boise
The Treasure Valley runs on a smaller and more connected set of rooms than Portland metro, with consequences in both directions.
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Northwest
What happened to the virtual room
Video expanded the reach of these organisations and reduced the depth, and depth was the thing most members were paying for.
Notes
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Northwest
What a membership buys
Annual dues for a regional business network run from about fifty dollars to several hundred. What the money covers, and what it leaves out.
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Northwest
Referrals come from the third conversation
The honest planning horizon for a new room is a year, and the first measurable thing happens around the third real conversation with the same person.
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Northwest
Saying the number out loud
Quoting is a spoken skill and it is learned by rehearsal. Getting a price out of your mouth without discounting it on the way.
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Oregon
The first hire
Going from zero employees to one changes the legal shape of a business more than any later hire does.