Tonight at the North Central Jersey Chapter of NAWBO I will be sharing my experience of being a runner-up in the Make My a Million Business Award. Founded by Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence with OPEN from American ExpressSM, the award program provides a combination of money, mentoring (one year) and marketing tools that woman entrepreneurs need to help grow their businesses to a million dollars and beyond. In May I made the decision to go for it and apply for the award. The application process was quite rigorous and initially very intimidating. I did a little bit each day to make it more manageable. When I finished it, I felt fantastic. Not only for completing it, but for putting on paper our accomplishments, skills, talents, and dreams. I kept thinking "damn are we're (BZA) good!".

It was a Saturday morning when I got the email from Count Me In that I had been selected as a finalist. I was thrilled. There were over five hundred applicants from around the country and I was one of forty to be selected. What an accomplishment!
For days it was all I could think about. Quickly I made my plans to fly to San Francisco to make my "elevator pitch" in front of a few hundred people at the Saint Francis Hotel.

The event was held at the annual NAWBO (National Association of Woman Business Owners) and the audience was filled with NAWBO members. One by one each finalist went to the podium and gave their pitch. I was about the third from the last. Even though I do a lot of public speaking and never really get nervous, this situation was like no other. It was as close to American Idol and the Apprentice as you can get, and there I was on the stage. I made it through my four minute time period and my NAWBO New Jersey friends were kind to say afterwards that I did a great job. This meant more to me than they'll ever know. Each attendee had a ballot with the list of finalists. They were instructed to vote for one person per row. We sat in rows of four. They also had one wildcard vote. By the way, there were two concurrent sessions, one for service businesses and one for those with products.

The two groups then convened in the grand ballroom, where all the finalists sat at several front tables. There were a few speeches and a marketing panel which gave the organization time to tally the votes. This seemed to take for ever. When the time came to announce the winners, one by one the winners'names were called. Sadly my name was not called. It was not easy to be amidst the joy of the winners. I had done by best and it was time to move on. It is times like these that build character. I was grateful that I had my daughter Heather with me, a 21 year old college student studying business at Quinnipiac University. She helped me practice my pitch, she sat in the audience and even campaigned a bit by saying "that's my Mom", "vote for my Mom". I have to say having her there was the most memorable part of the whole experience.

Now what does one do in a situation like this? I said to Heather get out that Frommers guide and pick the number one place in San Francisco to have a drink with a view. Within a short time we were off to the Top of the Mark. With a Cosmo in hand and my daughter at my side I was on top of the world.

For more information about the Make Mine a Million Business Award visit:

www.countmein.org
www.makemineamillion.org
www.sbtv.com Select the link off the home page for the Make Mine a Million Award Ceremony. Suzi Orman made a surprise appearance. You can see the video of her speech in its entirety.