Meetings

How we’re different from other entrepreneurial groups:

The Business+Balance Austin Group is for self-employed mothers who are as passionate about creating profitable, meaningful businesses as they are about making their families a priority.

Why a group like this is important:

Being self-employed can be isolating at times. It's validating to talk to others who face the same challenges you do on a daily basis. The purpose of the group is to:

• facilitate support and community for self-employed moms who face similar challenges;
• share ideas, resources and strategies for balancing work and family; and
• provide networking, business development and entrepreneurial support.

Size: Approximately 150 members

To join: all members must be self-employed parents (women only)

Meetings: Every two months from 7-9:30 p.m. on the third or fourth Tuesday or Thursday of the month. Meetings are held in a private room at wonderful locally-owned Austin restaurants, usually in Central Austin. Registrations are limited to around 40 attendees at each event.

Structure: Hosted by Renee Trudeau, founder of Business + Balance Austin and president of Career Strategists, members share business ideas, referrals, resources and insights into work/life balance and support one another on these topics. With a progressive networking structure, each member has the opportunity to dialogue with at least 12 different members around various entrepreneurial and life balance themes.

Every meeting, we rotate facilitators and focus on a different theme.

Cost: Free, a community service initiative of Career Strategists. Members pay for their own dinner (usually around $20-$25/person) and can RSVP and pay online.

To learn more about upcoming meetings and to contribute to online discussions: Subscribe to the Yahoo! Group. (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/biz_and_balance/)

Additional activities of the group: Beyond the bimonthly meetings and online discussions, members participate in special interest groups (example: for those in their first year of business), breakfast roundtable discussions, community-building outreach programs, host occasional speakers and take advantage of member-only events and activities hosted by Business + Balance Austin members.