Meet K.C. Padget, the new president and a 10-year member of Women Business Owners of North Florida. Padget is a financial representative and won the group’s service award in 2015. The 105-member group was created 36 years ago to support women entrepreneurs. (This writer is an honorary member.) Men are welcome and some previously joined. Times have changed, but the mission remains the same.
The mission really is about inspiring women through networking and education. It’s always been about that. I think we are more proactive in our businesses now. We as women business owners are mentoring each other more and helping each other grow. It’s not about getting business from each other. It’s really about inspiring each other to do better in our business.
We have active business owners, future business owners, corporate members and nonprofit members. We have a wide variety of women business owners. If you’re new in business, we have resources like strategic partnerships with the Jacksonville Women’s Business Center and the Small Business Development Center.
We haven’t seen as many young women coming into our organization, and that’s one of our goals, to get more of the millennials that are doing their startups to understand that we’re here, getting the word out that WBO is a great place for them to get mentors and guidance.
One of our newest future business owners is aspiring to be a business owner because her mother has a number of businesses. We welcome those that are considering what their business may be and they don’t have that plan in place yet.
The most effective way to network is to define your market. Don’t waste your time on things that make no sense for you. Find your market. Don’t go out trying to sell something, but build relationships so that they’ll think of you as the resource when they need a product or service.
The best advice to someone who wants to own a business, or that does, is join an organization that can help them and that can inspire them. Make sure they have a business plan in place and that they know who they are working with.
My message is GRIT — growth, resilience, integrity and tenacity. It’s all about growth for our organization, how we can do that through our roundtables, our dinner meetings, our speakers and those that come to the meetings. We want to add value and want to make it a beautiful experience when they come to WBO.