About

Work to Own is a publication about women running businesses in Oregon, Washington and Idaho. It covers two things: the rooms where owners meet each other, and the practical decisions that come up in a business small enough that the owner makes all of them.

Rooms means the recurring morning groups, the evening events, the chamber committees and the conferences that make up business networking in the Northwest. How the formats work, who they serve, what they cost, and why some of them last twenty years while others fold in a season.

Notes means the working parts. Pricing, referrals, membership dues, hiring the first employee. Written for a reader who is doing all of this alongside the actual work.

Everything here comes from public sources, published data and ordinary observation of how these groups operate. There is no advertising, no sponsored placement and no paid listing. Posts appear when there is something worth writing down, which makes for an irregular schedule.

Corrections are welcome and get made in place.