Workshop points way to self-sufficiency

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Where do women go when they want information on how to start a business, but they don't even know where to begin?

Where do they go, when they've only got $197?

For some women, the road to self-sufficiency began at the recent Metis Nation of Alberta Economic Development Conference.

The conference provided the opportunity for women to get together in workshops and share what they knew, or find out where to find it out.

They found out $197 isn't too little capital to start up a business when they heard modelling agency owner Theresa Ducharme-Hein relate her business story.

Ducharme-Hein used the money in 1989 to buy business cards. The rest she did with foot-work and much door-pounding, until today she owns Mystique Models, a Native modelling agency.

Ducharme-Hein was a panel member of the Opportunities for Women workshop attended by 21 women and five men.

After listening politely to comments from a learned panel, the women present began tentatively to share their experiences and ask advice.

One woman had earned a PhD in the school of hard knocks, single-handedly raising a family with a multi-handicapped son. What she knew about behavior modification would fill a book.

Did the people in the room think she could sell that skill?

Another woman wanted to know what she could do about the razzing and crude remarks she suffered from her 1,500 male co-workers. She had been injured on the job, and the distasteful work situation had her thinking about starting up a business. But until then, she had to work with boors. How should she handle them?

Give it back to them in spades, said a male voice from the back of the room.

No, intoned the woman with the behavior modification skills.

"Anything you do to recognize the behaviour will just reinforce it. Find ways to show them you appreciate positive comments. Make allies out of the men who treat you fairly," she said.

Although organizers billed the conference as having a focus on women in business, some women said they had trouble finding it.

One woman resented being assigned to workshops. She knew there was one other with a focus on women, but she couldn't attend.

Conference organizers felt they had to do it that way, said Larry Donald. "Otherwise some workshops would have been packed and others empty."