KC Council of Women Business Owners
The Kansas City Council of Women Business Owners (KC-CWBO) was founded in 2001 to meet the unique needs of women who own and run larger businesses. Nancy Zurbuchen, President of Motional Multimedia, was one of the co-founders along with Becky Wilson, President of WDS Marketing and Public Relations.
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Note from the co-founders:
We chose to close the KC Council of Women Business Owners. It was a good run of 13 years, and we made differences locally in the three primary focus areas:
1) raise public policy awareness among women business owners in Kansas City, which included more awareness of WBE certification;
2) start a more formal, focused effort to get women appointed to paid boards and influential appointments, and
3) to have an organization in which women who own larger businesses can meet, interact, and do business.
All three goals were accomplished and continue today in other forms. We always said that to have other organizations pick up and become leaders in those areas IS accomplishing our goals, it never had to be us personally. The business environment changes, and the KC-CWBO was pivotal in these important areas at the time.
The KC-CWBO founded the local Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP), and Nancy Zurbuchen was a founding national member of WIPP. WIPP continues today, www.wipp.org
Promoting women business owners for appointments on influential boards and to paid corporate boards began as a panel discussion at an event planned by KC-CWBO in 2002. The event was held at the Central Exchange, and cooperatively this helped to launch their ongoing mission for corporate board appointments locally. In addition, Nancy Zurbuchen is a Lifetime Sustainer and KC-CWBO was an early adopter and supporter of Boardroom Bound, a national non-profit that is “reinventing corporate America one board at a time.” www.boardroom-bound.com
For interaction between more seasoned women business owners, now the Influential Women and the Women Who Mean Business help to fill that need; neither existed when KC-CWBO was founded. While we did not create either group, we certainly supported them for all the years, and nearly every member of KC-CWBO was a recipient of one or both of those awards.
Reference: The best resource for women business owners seeking information in the Kansas City area is KC SourceLink. It is a clearinghouse of all free, low cost, and otherwise useful services available to entrepreneurs, small business, and also specifically for women and minority business owners. They even have staff trained to help you sort through it or you can use the "Resource Navigator" on their website. The KC-CWBO was an active network resource member since its inception.
Below is a sampling of KC-CWBO's materials and activities.
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KC-CWBO: National Finalist for Women's Business Association of the Year
The Kansas City Council of Women Business Owners was named a national Finalist today in the Women's Business Association of the Year category in The 2004 Stevie Awards for Women Entrepreneurs. |
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Goals and Activities of KC-CWBO
KC-CWBO was founded specifically targeting seasoned women business owners who own larger companies because they have different business needs, desires, resources, and interests compared to what other organizations provide for start-ups and micro businesses. We created a forum to capitalize on members' collective expertise, contacts, and influence. The results of such efforts are bettering the business climate for all women business owners.
Organizational goals include:
1) Promoting women-owned businesses as vendors to corporate purchasing agents as well as government procurement officers;
2) Working to change the status quo of government and corporate purchasing practices to be more favorable to women-owned vendors;
3) Facilitating women doing business with women;
4) Influencing better representation of women on corporate boards and influential appointments;
5) Providing public policy awareness, training, and advocacy at federal, state and local levels, on issues that impact women-owned businesses;
6) Being the collective voice for women-owned businesses to city government, KS and MO, in the local business arena, and in the media.
A Sampling of KC-CWBO's Materials and Activities
Announcing Formation of New Kansas City Council of Women Business Owners, 2001 press release
Understanding How to Leverage Public Policy to Positively Impact Your Bottom Line, 2002 invitation
WBE Certification, Procurement Best Practices, 2002 invitation
Protege for a Day mentoring and fundraising event, 2004 invitation
KC-CWBO Public Relations Activities, 2001-2007 report
Stimulate and Capitalize on New Trends for Women in the Corporate Boardroom, 2002 invitation
KC-CWBO Helps to Forge Ground Breaking Agreement for MO to Begin Accepting 3rd Party Certification for Women Business Owners, 2003
Finalist in the Stevie Awards for Women Entrepreneurs, 2004 press release
Fairness in City Contracts Board for Kansas City, MO: women and minority inclusion, 2004 report
If You Don't “Drive” Public Policy, Public Policy will “Drive” Your Business!, 2005 invitation
SBA Deputy Director Sablehaus to Speak at “Power + Policy = Profit”, 2006 press release
Power and Policy Drives Profit!, 2006 invitation
Public Policy Days Seminar Discussion Forum, 2007 invitation
Outlook for Accessing Capital: A look at business strategies that work in the current economy, 2009 invitation
Peace Through Business: International Women's Empowerment. Training women business owners from Rwanda and Afghanistan. 2009 invitation, workshop, and press release
Spiral of Influence 10th Anniversary, 2010 invitation
Spiral of Influence event program, 2010
Understanding the Affordable Care Act for Business Owners and Entrepreneurs, 2013 invitation