I believe...

Unlike Willow, I came of age between all the big "movements."   At the tail end of the "beat generation" I did wear black and go to coffee houses to listen to folk singers.  The music of the British Invasion got my attention and then I was too busy working my way through college to become a hippie, though I grew my hair really long.  My father had his own commercial art studio in what was then a small town halfway between downtown Denver and the Coors Brewery.  It was working with him that began nourishing my entrepreneurial spirit.

"I graduated as a French teacher but had discovered during my student teaching that I loved sharing knowledge with those who wanted to learn not those who were forced to take a class".

I married a geological engineer right out of college and spent the next 15 years in the oil and gas business either working for  big companies like Exxon or with my husband starting our own small company.  A divorce ended that life but led me to my first contract consulting job for the US Geological Survey.  If you think getting 6 kids on a bus is tough, try getting 60 geologists and hydrologists organized.  Herding cats is easier.  Shortly after the contract ended, I started my first business while caring for my terminally ill mother and young sister-in-law, my 11 year old son and my two nephews who were 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 years old respectively.  Word Perfect had just come out with the first word processing program that could handle foreign languages and I used that along with my language background to process student and business papers in other languages.  The business was born out of the necessity to earn some money and to keep me from being isolated in my caretaker role.  The business was successful but not fulfilling and certainly not something for which I had a passion although it taught me a lot.

I chose to move to Dallas so my son could visit his father more easily.  There my life fell apart from the stress and loss of the last couple of years.  Finally got a grip on myself and started remaking my life again. After a couple of dead end jobs but where I learned a lot more about businesses and how they were run, I grabbed the opportunity to learn how to write business plans.  I continued to take regular jobs while I improved my writing skills and worked for a major distribution company, an international non-profit arts organization, a prepaid debit card company, and others.  As a consultant my services were utilized by both large companies such as Accor (Motel 6) and small companies such as a real estate and mortgage broker and a health and wellness company.  Each time I learned more about business.  At the same time, I was writing business plans for everything from an airplane washing business to a small retail chain of travel related bookstores.  Word of mouth led me to acquiring clients in NYC; Boston: North Carolina; Reno, NV; Rhode Island; and ultimately a business plan for a movie studio in Romania.  It is just within the last few years that I formally named my company Bellwind Consultants (www.bellwindconsultants.com).  Bellwind is the name my father gave to my childhood home and my logo is one he designed for his own business in the late 1940's.  He created the original copper etching of the logo which is the view toward the Rocky Mountains from our front yard.

Although I have enjoyed sharing my growing knowledge and expertise with clients, I had always wanted a forum where I could share my hard earned expertise with others just starting out to help them avoid many of the pitfalls of business ownership. It was also important to show what can happen to companies who have little if any business ethics  (I personally turned in one company to the FBI for interstate fraud and another to the state Attorney General for fraud and false advertising.)  I have watched other companies fail or nearly fail because they didn't follow local, state, and/or federal laws and regulations.

When I first met Willow to discuss creating a website for my company, it was like talking with an old friend.  Although our backgrounds were very different, we were both survivors.  For me divorce and lack of support were obstacles to be overcome and not defeats.  Willow had the same attitude and had kept her ethics intact.  Although we were kindred spirits I was still suprised when she proposed this partnership so quickly but accepted the idea immediately.  Our talents complement each other - she designs and I write - and we are taking our partnership into creating websites together.  It's funny that I remember this as being her idea and she thinks it was mine.  It just happened and gelled so fast that we just had to make it a reality.

In my spare time (what's that?) I love to read anything (except sci-fi, westerns, and romance books), cook, create my own needlepoint designs, and play word games on the computer.  Although I have spent most of my life in the corporate business world, I am definitely not the button down collar type.  I love the freedom and ultimate responsibility of working for myself plus the opportunity to wear many hats.  I am too much the rebellious teenager and my father's daughter to want to be a number in a big corporation.  Been there, done that, and didn't like any of the T-shirts because they never fit.  2 Women gives me the opportunity to do what I love and to encourage others to follow their dreams.