Beverly Ryle publishes
her new book on
Finding & Creating Work
Beverly Ryle, Director of the Center for Career and Business Development in Eastham, announces a new book, Ground of Your Own Choosing:
Winning Strategies for Finding & Creating Work.
Ordering information can be found at www.groundofyourownchoosing.com
or through www.Amazon.com
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Cape Cod SCORE
Free Business Advice and
Business Training
(508) 375-4012
www.scorecapecod.com
Experienced Professionals to help you!
____________________________________________
Lower Cape Cod
Community Development Partnership
3 Main Street, Unit 7,
Eastham, MA 02642
(800) 220-6202
www.lowercape.org
email: info@lowercape.org
The Lower Cape Cod CDP exists to promote a vibrant and diverse community on the Lower Cape by addressing housing needs and encouraging small business development and job growth.
Business Clinic
Wednesday, January 21
8:00 AM - 12 Noon (by appointment only)
Harwich Community Center
Five Business Professionals will be available to meet with YOU! A Banker, Lawyer, Insurance Agent, Accountant and Business Consultant are joining us in this clinic style format to answer YOUR questions about your business.
To Register: Call Lisa at (508) 240-7873 x25 or email lisa@capecdp.org
New Markets for Artists
Friday, February 6th — February 8th
Community Development Partnership Conference Room, Main Street Mercantile Plaza in Eastham
The New Markets for Artists Workshop offers Cape artists and artisans the opportunity to develop viable marketing strategies, press packages and action plans. Co-facilitated by prominent artist and RISD professor, Oren Sherman and business consultant, Rick Miller, participants will learn a variety of marketing skills and personal development tools for creating a marketing strategy that increases earning potential and provides greater financial stability. Participants will receive 20 hours of intensive skill building designed to hone and expand their art business.
Friday, February 6th - 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Saturday, February 7th - 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM
Sunday, February 8th - 8:30 AM to 4:00 PM
Once Monthly - March through June (dates TBD)Ssliding scale fee for this course. For complete program details and to register, contact Lisa at 508-240-7873 x25 or lisa@capecdp.org.
SMART START WORKSHOP
The Smart Start Workshop is a three-part interactive program for individuals at the early stages of business development. Participants learn how to apply best practices of successful corporations to their own small business—including identifying and understanding their market, analyzing the competition, and assessing their management strengths and weaknesses. If you are wondering if your business idea is a good one, or if you want to sharpen your basic business skills, this workshop is for you. To learn more about the Smart Start Workshop or to sign up for our next session, please contact Lisa Panaccione, Business Development Specialist, at (508) 240-7873 ext. 25 or via email.
ONE-ON-ONE BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT
A Business Development Specialist is available to meet one-on-one with business owners to discuss a variety of business issues, including business plan creation, marketing, financial management and operational issues. To learn more or to set up an appointment, please contact Lisa Panaccione, Business Development Specialist, at (508) 240-7873 ext. 25 or via email.
TechSMART
The TechSMART program supports business owners on the Lower Cape by helping them to streamline and grow their small businesses with integrated technology solutions.
Micro Lending
Through the Micro Loan Program, the Lower Cape Cod CDP provides loans to qualified businesses of up to $40,000. These loans can be used for working capital, real estate for the use of small business, and for machinery and equipment.
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© Copyright 2008 | All rights reserved
Pondering Retirement
Life Beyond Work
by Jacquie Scarbrough
WHAT'S NEXT? This question rises slowly, like bread dough, in my head. I retired in early June, eight years after I founded the WE CAN center for women, in Harwichport. Looking back, I realize now that I put more thought into how my non-profit organization would carry on successfully without me than what I would do after I left. There is irony here, since one of my many jobs with WE CAN was to counsel women on their career transitions.
For the last eight years, I have worked tirelessly for WE CAN, doing everything from attaining non-profit status to finding an office to rent. I developed career counseling and mentor programs, contacted local lawyers to offer free legal advice clinics, held a financial fair and provided money management workshops for women. The list continues: I started divorce support groups, offered basic computer training so that women could get and keep jobs, I wrote grants, researched scholarships and developed a database of social service resources and networking with other agencies so WE CAN could be an effective information and referral agency. Over my years as the director of WE CAN, I have worked with hundreds of Cape women as a coach, a resource and a counselor, and I have proudly watched most of them blossom and succeed.
Right after I retired I celebrated my freedom. I visited my sister, accompanied my husband to Finland for his work, had a romantic escape with him on the Maine coast, spent lots of quality time with my children and grandchildren at the beach, and sailed in Nova Scotia. I needed time to sever my work connections and my routines. I embraced the time to relax, enjoy myself and cleanse my spirit. Now I that I am home again I am faced with this daunting question: what next?
This is not a simple question to answer. It’s almost like being a teenager (but with much more wisdom) deciding what I want to be when I grow up, or in this case, as I grow old. My options are endless: I could work (either volunteer or paid,) travel, socialize more, exercise, get back to beloved sports like biking, rowing and sailing, pursue neglected pleasures like graphic art and learning, spend time with the kids and grandsons. The permutations and combinations are myriad for each option and for the time allotted to any or many of them.
The question then becomes: do I research and ponder my options, or do I spontaneously jump into one thing or another? In the past, I have done both. Investigation, thought or jumping into what comes along are the contradicting aspects of my method.
I’ve already had four careers. Initially a social policy planner by training, I followed my nose to a job that challenged me, doing research and program design for a medical school. I researched whether a rural community would accept a clinic staffed by nurse practitioners and overseen by a physician. I also interviewed frontline physicians about what should be taught to students studying to become family practitioners and helped design mental health programs for rural areas.
Next, I fell into being an environmental activist. After reading that nuclear power plants have no way to dispose of nuclear waste that remains toxic for hundreds of years, I decided to ask voters as they exited a polling station whether they favored the nuclear power plant that was projected to be built nearby. When the result was a resounding “no,” I brought in experts, like Amory Lovins, to give information sessions on energy efficiency to my county. I also got my local county commissioners to veto the evacuation plan for the plant, which effectively stopped the construction approval.
After I moved to Cape Cod, in1989, and after much investigation and thought, I got a PhD in Developmental Psychology from Boston College. I became a college professor and an expert in women’s adult development.
My fourth career was another spontaneous move after I discovered that the funding was cut for the Women in Transition program at Cape Cod Community College. I called a meeting in my living room and 25 interested women came together to figure out how we could assist Cape women in transition. WE CAN was the result of this meeting and I became a non-profit founder, program director, and career counselor.
How do I now capitalize on all the skills and experience that I have gathered over my four careers? I recently found the notes and journals that I wrote during various phases of my life, like when I changed careers, or went back to fulltime work after mothering, or went to graduate school. These journals speak to who I am, what I love doing, and what I have learned about myself over the years. They document my spiritual journey. As I reread them now, I look for their insight and hope they will help me to discover my next path in life.
Just this morning, I was reading one of my journals and it brought back my previous battles to learn to become “selfish”. As a young teenager, I became a parent to my parents after the mental breakdown of my mother. This pattern continued as I mothered my college roommate, who had lost both her parents. I became a strong nurturing partner to my boyfriends, and then to my husband. In this process, I lost the ability to acknowledge or even notice my own needs. At a number of transitions or junctures in my past, I fought to hear my own voice so that I could direct my life. I had to carefully tune in to what I wanted. And I had to say it aloud.
I see that I’ve come a long way. I have given myself room to develop. I have learned to be in touch with and get my own needs met - I do what I want rather than try to please and take care of everyone else. I’ve also learned balance. I’ve utilized these caring gifts in my work and learned to accept being taken care of. I will continue reading about all those lessons I’ve learned, and dreams and goals that I’ve written, and I will see if I can find the answer to my question, “what will I do next?”
Please join me on this journey as I investigate and rethink my future. I will be sharing my evolution through this transition with my fellow Cape Women online, and I invite your responses, advice and questions.
Jacquie Scarbrough lives in Harwich.
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Annika Iliadis of Centerville Wellness and Yoga continued:
Annika believes that “women are capable of anything they set their mind to. It will be hard work at the beginning, but as long as they plan and work S.M.A.R.T. [ acronym for Specific Measurable Attainable Realistic Timely], it will pay off. I always trust my gut feelings,” she affirms,” and it hasn’t failed me yet. ”
Cape women are fortunate to have such a dynamic role model as Annika Iliadis, as she leads others toward enlightenment and dream fulfillment. Through her own experience, she has demonstrated that a combination of confidence, business savvy and a fierce vision creates the means of attaining one’s dream.
Jane Schaller is a web designer and freelance writer, who wrote for Cape Women magazine.
Featured Woman Entrepreneur
Annika Iliadis of
Centerville Wellness and Yoga
by Jane Schaller
The aspiration to become an entrepreneur is common among women for a variety of reasons, chief among these being the desire to be independent and creative, not to mention a yearning to work for one’s self. Now in her second year as director and owner of Centerville Wellness and Yoga Center, Annika Iliadis talked with CapeWomen about how she has been able to make her dream of owning her own business come to life.
Annika had always wanted to have her own business. Her early years in sales and marketing were preparation for navigating the corporate hallways of Bausch & Lomb, an experience which gave her the business and marketing knowledge for realizing her lifelong desire to become a private business owner. When she became tired of the corporate rat-race, she knew it was time to start to make changes in her life that would lead to the fulfillment of her dream.
“I had been planning on opening my own business for about five years,” she recalls, “but I was unclear exactly what it was going to be. I wanted to do something I’m passionate about that’s good for me and serves the world in some way. I took my business background and combined it with my passion for holistic health.”
Her life had changed when two people in her circle of friends developed cancer, one of whom eventually died. “These were really good acquaintances,” she said. “I thought, ‘How can that be? How can they have cancer and die?’ It hit me like a ton of bricks.”
While obtaining a Master’s Degree in Natural Health from Clayton College, Annika was struck by a chapter in the book, “Stopping Cancer at the Source,” that focused on the healing aspects of certain Yoga poses, particularly in regards to cancer prevention. “Yoga postures massage internal organs, unblocking any energy blocks you’ve got going on, and help detoxify your body,” she explains.
Her decision to open a yoga studio was inspired by a visit to a shop in Marblehead called Body and Soul. “I thought, ‘this is it. This is what I want,’” she said. “It just made me feel good; inspired.” She left the corporate world and began writing a business plan. She also became a certified yoga instructor through the Finding Inner Peace Yoga School. “Training to become a yoga teacher was not only something I was doing to educate myself on how to prevent cancer, but it ended up helping me see more clearly what it was I truly wanted out of life,” she explains.
Annika believes that “everything [women] are currently doing in life is training for their future. Every job they have, whether they like it or not, is experience they can use when they are out on their own.” She also believes that women are feeling more and more empowered these days. “They are taking many things into their own hands, such as their future and their health, including finding a way to be their own boss.”
While the desire to be a business owner can be strong, it is a choice that should not be embarked upon without much thought and a deliberate strategy. Annika makes it clear that the steps from dreaming about owning your own business to business success are challenging but highly rewarding. She suggests these guidelines for those considering this transition:
• Write a business plan. Annika used a software program called Business Plan Pro. There are also courses and books to be found on the subject. A prgram such as the Business Builder’s group at the Lower Cape Cod CPC can help you prepare a business plan. www.lowercape.org
• Cultivate a business sense. There will be times when tough, objective decisions will have to be made and it is vital that a successful business owner be aware of what her company needs in order to evolve. Annika discovered that offering only yoga classes was not going to bring in the kind of revenue that was needed, so she increased not only the physical space of the studio but expanded into a complete wellness center. Now her clientele enjoys a variety of wellness products and services, including acupuncture, reflexology, angel card readings, workshops, and body works.
• No one can do it all. Enlist the help of friends or professionals who have skills you lack. A successful business owner is aware of her weaknesses as much as her strengths, and will grow more confident with the input of others who can balance her own particular skills and talents. Annika is not a numbers person but by securing a friend who possesses such skills, her business has benefitted.
• Research the market carefully. Ask yourself if there is a need for a business like yours in the community. If there is, figure out how your idea would be different from any others. And spend time searching for the perfect location.
• Systems and procedures should be created, regardless of the business size. Organization is a vital key.
• Identify a source of financial backing. Annika received financial backing through a bank loan and she believes that while current economic circumstances could adversely affect the ability to obtain such funding, women should not be hesitant to apply. If the prospective business owner has a strong business plan and a decent credit rating, the odds will be in their favor. The Lower Cape Cod CPC awards micro-loans to start-up businesses. www.lowercape.org
Continued on next column . . .
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