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‘Dream Team’ of OWN members working on the “Taste of Oracle” fundraiser coming in September. (John Hernandez photo)
By Sedona Sunrise
Five years ago five women got together at the “Sonoran Bed & Breakfast” in Oracle to celebrate a birthday. These five women were all business owners and friends. They had so much fun during the celebration they decided they would get together once a month and support each other in the growth of their businesses as well as the growth of their community. This was the birth of the Oracle Women’s Network (O.W.N.).
Today O.W.N. has grown into an organization of over 35 women whose mission is “To provide women entrepreneurs in the Tri-Communities of Oracle, San Manuel and Mammoth an opportunity for education, networking, and business services”. Growing and developing the community is their goal.
The group gets together once a month on the first Friday at 8 a.m. They usually meet for a delicious breakfast either at the C.O.D. Ranch out on Mount Lemmon Road or at the Oracle Community Center. Occasionally, they meet at the facilities of their various members.
O.W.N. is open to women business owners in Oracle and the surrounding communities and is currently recruiting new members. In addition to business owners, O.W.N. encourages retired business owners and board members of non-profit organizations such as Friends of Oracle State Park, the Business Success Center and the Oracle Community Center to join. O.W.N. also supports several of these organizations with their financial contributions and encourages their membership to support them as well.
It is important to the group that they support the community in addition to their own individual businesses. Part of their mission is to create a more viable community in Oracle and the surrounding areas. One of O.W.N.’s concerns is that many people from the Tri-Communities go to work in Tucson and/or spend their money there. Tucson is in Pima County and when people spend their money there, the tax revenue leaves Pinal County. One of the goals of the O.W.N. group is to promote services and businesses that will help keep the tax revenue in Pinal County.
At each meeting members and guests have one minute to introduce themselves, tell a little about their business, explain their ideal client and share their “tag” line with the group. Each month two members have five minutes to go into greater depth regarding their businesses. These presentations help each member to focus on how to best present their businesses and it allows the other members to become familiar with the other businesses represented. In this way, the members are able to refer their friends and family to each other. After the introductions, the meeting consists of presentations by outside speakers and/or members.
The presentations are on topics such as marketing techniques, communication skills, using technology to grow their businesses, etc. Periodically, at O.W.N. meetings there is no speaker and the group will have discussions on their goals, tag lines, their 30 second “elevator” speech and other relevant topics. They recently had a couple of meetings to determine “what the community would look like if it were to best serve their businesses”. After brain storming at the first meeting, during the second meeting they voted on the ideas from the previous month. It was determined their top priority was to create an action plan to develop a Tri-Community Visitors Center in the town of Oracle…more on that next week.
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