Austin Woman Magazine hosts an annual Woman’s Way Business Awards event here in Austin.  I was honored to be selected as a Finalist for the “Goods & Services” category for this year’s event.

I was not familiar with the awards, but once I looked into the companies that I was a finalist with (Care.com, Women Rising, The Steeping Room), as well as some of the other nominees, I realized this was going to be a fabulous affair.

Here is a photo of the finalists, which also included our clients Jennifer Stevens, founder of the JHL Company and Michelle Zuzek of The Style Beacon.  How nice to be a part of such extraordinary company!

Scott suggested we get a table for the whole team so that our staff of seven young ladies could see the caliber of  exceptional women from Austin creating and running successful businesses.

The event included speakers from Dell, Mondavi Winery, and the owner of Care.com who recently sold her company for $55 million!  It was a wonderful cadre of successful women business leaders.

I made some notes from a couple of the speeches.  You would not be surprised to know that the number of women owned businesses are soaring and that they account for over $1 trillion of sales added to the economy.  I was surprised to learn that less than 11% of woman owned business have employees.  Most women owned business are solopreneurs.  Scott and I have always been proud of our team of employees, but it made us feel even better to know we have managed to create a business that can successfully provide nine salaries for our hard-working team.

It was nice to be able to get out of the office and spend an evening together at such an inspiring event.  You can see many more photos from this fun event on the magazine’s Facebook page.

I encourage you to look into how to get involved and support similar groups dedicated to encourage women owned and women led businesses in your community.  I believe it will produce rewards in more ways than one!