Women TIES brings female entrepreneurs together online

SYRACUSE - A Syracuse-based, public-relations firm focusing on women entrepreneurs just launched a Web site to further its mission of connecting and promoting women entrepreneurs in time for the holiday-shopping season.

Tracy Higginbotham launched an online component of Women Together Inspiring

"If I can, I try to buy 75 percent of my Christmas gifts from women entrepreneurs," Higginbotham explains.

When it first started, Women TIES provided members with public-relations services, educational seminars, growth-discussion luncheons, e-mail promotions, and a quarterly, publication featuring articles about its members. Higginbotham also coordinates additional services such as event planning and advertising, which aren't included in membership fees. Memberships cost $75 per year. Women TIES has 130 members including women entrepreneurs from Syracuse, Sackets Harbor, Ithaca, Rochester, and the Mohawk Valley.

Distance made it difficult for some of the women entrepreneurs to buy from one another, so Higginbotham decided the online regional marketplace would bring them closer together.

"In order to foster women-owned businesses to buy from each other across a larger geographic area, we needed to create an effective way to promote business opportunities online so the physical distance doesn't hamper women buying from one another," Higginbotham explains.

Now Women TIES offers much more with its online regional marketplace. Members can promote their businesses on the firm's Web site, www.womenties.com. Members can also list discounts and new products or services on the site.

Since the service was just launched Nov. 7, many of the firm's members have yet to see an improvement in their business's bottom line. But many of the members already benefit from the connections Women TIES brings. Jennifer Comfort, sole owner of She Takes The Cake located in South Otselic, finds the firm's services useful. She Takes The Cake specializes in high-end, custommade wedding cakes and baked goods.

"It has benefited me a great deal, not so much in terms of sales, but with partnerships, which is what it's all about," Comfort says.

Comfort connected with a Sackets Harbor-based photographer through Women TIES. Emily Caraco, owner of Emily Caraco Photography, took prornotional pictures of Comfort's cakes for She Takes The Cake's Web site.

She Takes The Cake and Emily Caraco Photography are located about two hours away from each other, making it highly unlikely they would have found each other without Women TIES. Comfort is She Takes The Cake's only employee, but she plans to hire another worker soon. She founded the company in 2001 and turned a profit in 2005. She declined to disclose annual revenue.

Caraco's photographs came out so well that Comfort now recommends her to all of her bridal customers.

Donna Curtin, sole owner of Grace Auto Body, also benefits from her membership in Women TIES. Networking with the firm is important because Grace Auto Body is the only woman-owned auto body shop in Onondaga County.

"It's a very difficult job running this business," Curtin explains.

The members of Women TIES stick together, and this will help her in the longrun, she adds.

Higginbotham featured Grace Auto Body in one of the firm's e-mail promotions, and three members contacted Curtin because they were interested in her shop.

Curtin founded Grace Auto Body in 2003 after 17 years at the State University of New York Training Center. The shop has been profitable from the start, Curtin says. She declined to disclose annual revenue.

Grace Auto Body operates in a 7,200-square-foot facility located at 6300 E. Taft Road in the town of Cicero. The shop employs three full-time workers.

Women TIES hopes to make Central New York women entrepreneurs financially successful, Higginbotham says. It will help boost entrepreneurial spirit in the region, she adds. She is unsure what the firm's economic impact on the region is, but she hopes to have those figures next year.

Higginbotham is currently Women TIES only employee. She plans to hire an additional employee to assist with growth in January 2007. Higginbotham plans to concentrate on growth in 2007 by reaching out regionally to other women entrepreneurs. She is targeting Sackets Harbor, Rochester, and the Mohawk Valley with networking events to increase membership.

Higginbotham operates Five Star Promotions and Women TIES in a 1,000-square-foot office located at 109 S. Warren St. in the city of Syracuse. She signed a five-year lease with the State Tower Association. She declined to disclose annual revenue.