Tuesday, April 17, 2007
(By Chris Reidy, Globe staff)
Two Mass. women win business competition
Two Massachusetts entrepreneurs were among eight women who won an
elevator-pitch competition for small women-led businesses.
In an elevator pitch, a business owner attempts to make a
persuasive case for an investment in his or her company in the time
it takes for a brief elevator ride; the elevator-pitch was part of a
Make Mine a $Million
Business event held in Boston.
The event is designed to give a boost to small women-led
businesses eager to make it to the proverbial next level.
One local winner was Lori Laviolette of Bradford, the president
of North Shore Athletic
Club, which features "ageless exercise."
The other Massachusetts woman to win mentoring, money, marketing,
and technology assistance was Wendy Pease of Sudbury, owner of
Rapport International LLC, which specializes in professional
translation and interpretation services.
The "Make Mine a $Million Business" competition is sponsored by
Count Me In for Women's Economic
Independence, a not-for-profit provider of online business loans,
and
Open, a unit of American Express focused on small businesses.
According to the event's organizers, there are more than 200,000
women-owned firms in Massachusetts, but only 5,400 of those
companies have annual revenues that exceed $1 million.
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