Last night I was in the midst of approximately 20 women business owners from The PowerMOB.  We met in the work/living space of Kim Campbell of Campbell Salgado photography studio.  The evening was over too fast as we spent two hours discussing ways to improve our service businesses.

Panelists were:

Kim Campbell
Owner, Campbell Salgado

Robyn Taylor Barbon
Owner, Folklore Media
Robyn Barbon is co-founder of the creative services company Folklore Media and serves as Executive Producer for the company'’s video projects and Creative Director for its graphic design division. Her clients range from non-profits and cultural organizations to start-ups and large corporations. She has more than twenty years experience in the creative industry, from stage managing a Tony-award winning production on Broadway to a successful run in the corporate creative world at Turner Broadcasting in Atlanta. Now as a business owner herself, Robyn is passionate about working with new and small businesses, helping them connect with their audiences in an honest and compelling way.

Kimberly Bepler
Owner, ABC Doula Service
Kimberly is a Postpartum Doula and Doula Trainer, a Postnatal Educator and Lactation Specialist. She has been working with postpartum families for 10 years, and has a passion for newborns and their families. Kimberly founded ABC Doula Service in 2001, and has seen the company grow to serve over 550 families, with currently 11 doulas and one assistant. In addition to her postpartum work, Kimberly also teaches breastfeeding, newborn care, new mom support groups and twin/triplet classes with the Providence and Legacy Health Systems and at Zenana Spa.

PowerMOB President and Urban Bliss owner, Marlynn Schotland moderated and tossed the group questions about billing practices, adjusting to this current economy, knowing when to hire someone to do the parts of the business we don't enjoy and more.  We all walked away with some new ideas to implement including performance contracts, sevices agreements and more ways to protect the business owner and the clients we serve.

The underlying joy comes from loving what we all do for our livings.  We do this by choice instead of working for someone else.  We all agreed, it is worth the extra hours to be able to look forward to going to work each day and helping our clients either be more successful, look better or serve more people.