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The Business Journey of Jerrilynn B. Thomas
Founder of WomenPartner International
Louisiana native Jerrilynn B. Thomas went to college in Texas to study interior design. Somewhere along the way after graduation, relocation to Georgia, marriage, and motherhood her focus changed from designing interiors to helping women design their publicity strategies.
Mothers INC Started Her Business Odyssey
After she had her twin daughters, Autumn and Samantha, Jerrilynn decided to be a stay at home mother. The birth of her third daughter, Victoria, was the catalyst for her starting a business at home. With her twins starting school that same year, Jerrilynn decided to start a business to fill up her time. A PR business named Mothers, INC fit the bill.
Mothers INC specialized in writing press releases publicizing the businesses of aspiring metro-Atlanta CEO moms who wanted to afford to be a stay at home mom. At the time, a lot of the day care centers were in the news because of child abuse and neglect. Her timely business startup and niche target audience quickly garnered her attention from the local media.
Her First Wave of Publicity
Jerrilynn’s' first wave of PR success came two weeks after she made her decision to start her business. She sent out a PSA announcing that she was available to provide free advice to working moms who wanted to start their own business so they could afford to be a stay at home mom. Atlanta radio station KISS 104.7 made the announcement every morning for two weeks. It resulted in close to 200 phone calls.
Women were calling the radio station to get her' phone number weeks after the PSA ran. A thank you note sent to the person in charge of PSAs resulted in an invitation to do an on air interview about how mothers could start their own home-based business.
Jerrilynn told the story of how she launched her business with only $10. Her advice to the station's audience included:
- Start a business that used their current skills or interests to prevent boredom.
- Search for a niche so their business would stand out from the crowd.
- Don't invest a lot of money to start their business. They should only purchase what they needed to run their business and attract clients. If they didn't have a computer, they could go to a Kinkos or a friend's house to print their own stationery and initial business cards. Instead of getting a second phone line installed, they could get a ring master number from their telephone company to distinguish business calls from regular calls.
- Use PR to publicize their business and invest in advertising once they had paying clients.
PR Seeds Start Sprouting
By the time Jerrilynn returned home, her voice mail box was full of messages from women who wanted to learn more about how she could help them start a business and attract clients. The PSA resulted in close to 600 phone calls within 2 months. Thomas only had to spend money for business stationery and postage to start her business. Clients started pouring in. She used the funds to grow her business.
Jerrilynn’s success with radio led her to try her hand at getting press in the local newspapers. Thomas sent a press release to her local paper, the Clayton News Daily, about her success with the PSA and how she was helping moms start their own home-based business. The paper did a story on her.
Jerrilynn read an article about how the SBA had a women's roundtable program in which experienced businesswomen answered questions on how to run a business. It spawned the idea for her Female Entrepreneur Roundtable & Business Resource Conference.
Jerrilynn jumped in with both feet to find sponsors and sell tickets. She tested a fax service to reach the media and women who worked in offices. She and other businesswomen placed flyers all over metro Atlanta. Since it was a business event, newspapers placed it in their events section at no cost. A local morning television show even placed it on their calendar of events.
Once again the radio stations announced her PSA. A local public television station invited her to do an interview after reading her press release.
Savvy Atlanta Female Entrepreneur
Word of mouth about Jerrilynn’s affordable publicity services and success with getting her own business noticed started to spread. She needed a way to manage all of her clients and still have a life so she decided to package her clients into a newsletter.
Every month she would have them submit news items and articles. Then she would typeset them into an elegant fax publication named Savvy Atlanta Female Entrepreneur. The newsletter was sent to the media and women who requested it. It was a hit.
Faxing a publication became tedious for Jerrilynn after a couple of years. She grew weary of dealing with fax errors; fax machines that were not turned on; and subscribers who were using company fax machines without permission.
Teaching Women How To Become Newsmakers
Jerrilynn legally changed her business name, revamped her business, and jumped onto the information highway. She taught herself how to navigate the Internet so she could learn how to use its broad reach to her advantage. Jerrilynn discovered that women were setting up shop on the Internet in record numbers. With the onslaught of women flocking to the net to set up businesses, editors were assigning reporters to write about this trend.
A lot of the articles and stories on network television and in national publications included Web sites as resources to back up their stories. She found her niche! Jerrilynn launched the Women's News Bureau to show online micro-businesswomen how to become "newsmakers" so they could get their share of the national media spotlight which was being dominated by sites with deep pockets.
Business Diva Network
Jerrilynn missed the social interaction of having a women's group so she started an online network. It was limited to one businesswoman per business category. The Business Diva Network gave women the opportunity to create a channel that promoted their business expertise. Just like with Mothers INC, she created the content for her partners. Partners offered a complimentary consultation to attract prospects.
Even though the network was generating a profit, she decided that the concept needed to be refined to keep up with the continuing changes and growth online. Thomas lucked upon a way to refine her concept one night during a casual conversation with one of the Network partners she'd developed a close relationship with.
President/CEO of the International Virtual Women's Chamber of Commerce Inc.
A conversation in February 2002 between Jackie Jones, director of the Las Vegas NAFE chapter, and Jerrilynn sparked the idea for a virtual women's chamber. They were interested in getting involved with their local chambers, but tight schedules prevented them from attending the meetings. It didn't make sense to join a chamber if they weren't able to network.
Jerrilynn stated that it would be nice if they could attend real chamber events and meetings online. Jackie agreed and then promptly challenged her to start a virtual chamber for businesswomen who were busy just like them. Jerrilynn shared the idea with her close circle of business associates.
With their echoes of support for the idea, she started researching what other women's chambers offered. She interviewed several businesswomen to find out what they wanted from a virtual chamber.
The International Virtual Women's Chamber of Commerce Inc. was brought to life on April 30, 2002 to facilitate ecommerce opportunities between virtual businesswomen around the globe whose companies. A series of Virtual Meet & Greets jump started the chamber's membership drive. Guests had the opportunity to network, ask questions and share their business knowledge.
The highly successful events drew hundreds. The chamber quickly evolved into a profitable venture. It currently serves over 200 women.
Addressing the Recession’s Effects on the Women in Business Market with Aggressive Cross Marketing
Since 9/11 the women in business market has seen a shift in the economy. 2007 made it clear that a recession was looming. 2008 has made it crystal clear that a recession is in effect. Jerrilynn took a step back to assess the situation. When businesses can’t afford to purchase the products and services they need to run their company, other companies are affected. The person who was delivering the product of services loses income which in turn affects their bottom-line so they have to cut back too. It’s a boomerang effect.
Jerrilynn has determined that aggressive in your face cross marketing is the solution for women who want to keep their companies in the black. The International Virtual Women’s Chamber of Commerce is rebranding itself as WomenPartner International to reinforce the concept of partnering to achieve business success.
WomenPartner International will develop niche partnering projects -- consortiums, conferences, e-books, podcasts, videos, blogs, teleseminars, advisory boards, e-magazines, etc. -- that women can plug their companies into while collaborating with complementary companies to gain access to their existing client base.
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| Motivational Quote | | "I'm not following anybody's tracks, I'm making my own baby." -- Picabo Street (1971 - ) Skier, Olympic gold medalist |
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