A tumultuous job market and challenging sales environment have given the word ‘networking’ a central place in business vernacular.
But Greenville’s Carol Arnott, founder of the Network to Encourage Women’s Support for Women (NEWS4Women), doesn’t think networking needs to be limited to a room full of salespeople and jobseekers simply pressing the flesh.
“Sometimes, you get into a networking environment where people walk around dealing business cards like a deck of cards,” she said. “That doesn’t work for me. I want to build relationships.”
That was the idea she had in mind when she founded NEWS4Women in September 2008, as a way to buoy locally-owned businesses, introduce professional women to entrepreneurs and support local nonprofits.
There was nothing in the community that connected her three target groups when she started the organization, she said, and there was obviously a need in the community. Her distribution list has grown to 1,400 people.
Her organization’s signature event, Wine4Women, is a monthly networking mixer held at a locally-owned business that raises money for a local nonprofit.
“It’s a great opportunity for women to learn from one another, to support one another and to support the community at the same time,” said Arnott, a financial planner by trade.
Arnott typically tries to support lesser-known nonprofits that could use a "friend-raiser," she said, and by hosting each event in a different local business, attendees can meet a different group of people every time.
But her networking events aren’t open only to women. A dedicated group of men attend the mixers and Arnott said Wine4Women gives them the unique opportunity to forge important relationships with professional women and reach out to a group they may not have had the opportunity to network with before.
From a business point of view, there could be advantages, too, she said.
“Women are the chief purchasing officers,” she said. “We will make or influence over 85 percent of the purchasing decisions in the household and most of the purchasing decisions in the workplace.”
Besides her monthly networking events, Arnott offers members listings in an online business directory, the ability to promote events on an online calendar and the opportunity to advertise on her website – all for 44 cents a day, the cost of a first class postage stamp.
Many locally-owned businesses don’t have the marketing budgets that their larger competitors have, she said, so she has designed NEWS4Women as an inexpensive, targeted advertising tool they can use to compete.
