May Meeting Reminder

Hello Chicks,

Just a quick reminder that our next meeting is on

Monday, May 30

7:00 – 9:00 pm

Days Inn, Cochrane

With summer and all its busyness ahead of us, sometimes we need to take a bit of time to pamper and be good to ourselves. My mastergroup team suggested that we do a Summer Self Care evening – so that’s what we’re doing. Our evening will feature a number of local business presenters sharing and demonstrating ways to pamper and care for yourself during the coming summer (at least we hope it’s coming, right?!) – some samples included!

We’ll do our usual introductions, but will also make time for networking with each other this evening on a more informal basis.

A couple of reminders:

• Bring your business cards and marketing materials for the Chicks Binder.
• Minutes and Notes from last month’s meeting are on the blog at www.cochranebusinesschicks.com.
• We’ll have a sign-up sheet for what you want to bring to our Potluck evening next month (June 27) at Dianna’s. So think about what you would like to bring and sign up on the list so we can plan accordingly.

See you on Monday,

Evelyn & Vinny

April Meeting Minutes

The April 18 meeting of the Cochrane Business Chicks was held at the Days Inn in Cochrane at 7:00 pm.

The meeting was called to order and we began with a round of introductions.

This was followed by a feature presentation by Dianna Meyer on Finances (see previous post).

The following items were discussed or mentioned in our Discussion session.

• www.cochranebusinesschicks.com is now active and will take you to our blog/website.
• We agreed to have a potluck for our June 27^th meeting. Dianna offered to host it at her house. Thanks Dianna.
• Our CBC year will go from September to September. Those wanting to pay yearly fees may do so. Those joining during the year will have their fees prorated quarterly.
• Mastermind groups have begun. Anyone else who would like to join can contact Vinny or Evelyn.
• A Member Binder will be created – so please bring business cards and brochures for the binder. The binder will be present at each meeting, so that if you are looking for some help in an area for yourself or for a referral, you can get a business card and other information from the binder.
• If you have any suggestions for networking ideas or presentations, please let us know. Or if you would like to volunteer to do the networking session or to present a main feature, or to help out with other things, please let us know.

The discussion session was followed by two member presentations – Evelyn Marinoski with Willowrose Organizing and Amanda Tulk with West Valley Chiropractic Centre.

Instead of a networking session this time, Amanda shared details of a networking event she had recently hosted called “A Ladies Night of Indulgence”. This spa experience evening was a ticketed event and those who came were treated to their choice of a variety of products and services to try out (provided by other complementary businesses), as well as catered food, door prizes, goodie bags and more. About seventy ladies came and from all accounts the evening was thoroughly enjoyed.

The meeting was adjourned shortly after 9:00 pm.

Feature Presentation for April - Finances

Feature Presentation – Finances

By Dianna Meyer   (notes by Evelyn Marinoski)

Money and finances is often more about emotions than anything else – emotions such as fear, doubt, shame, etc. We frequently use money to measure our self-worth, to express love, to show our social conscience through donations, and so on.

All of us have a money style. There is no particular right or wrong answer to this – it just helps to understand what our style is and how to work with it.

Money is a learned behavior with lots of emotions attached to it. The question we need to ask ourselves is whether our past behaviors and emotions mesh with who we are or want to be now.

There are a number of Money Personalities – each with good and bad sides to them.

• Keeping up with the Joneses
• Gambler
• Financial fugitive
• Conservative
• Ostrich
• Miser

Are you conscious or reactive in your relationship with money? How does that affect your personal relationships?

Are we making decisions based on past emotions or present realities?

It’s important to have a personal vision for your life. But it can be a problem if others in your life have a different vision than yours. It’s important to discuss your personal visions with each other, to come to a similar vision that you can work on together, and to get expectations out in the open.

Dianna shared some questions from a financial survey that she works through with her clients.

She noted that while our lifestyle has increased, our disposable income has dwindled. We need to do some serious thinking about our retirements, to think about what that will look like for us, to consider how much we will need to live on, what about illness, what about travel plans, vehicles, dental care and so on.

Consider paying off your house as soon as possible.

Track your spending for awhile to see what you really spend and where. Start paying everything by cash and with only one credit card.

She suggested that we may want to consider a career change, one that would take us into our 70’s. So start now to think about alternate careers that you could enjoy and that could supplement your income now and later on a part-time basis. Choose something that is your passion – it will meet and address our emotional need. Often when we don’t have our emotional needs met, we self-gift ourselves by spending too much.

(Dianna Meyer is a Certified Management Accountant with over thirty years of experience in financial management and consulting.  She currently practices on a part time basis while she pursues her alternate career and passion, opening a Pilates Studio in Cochrane.

You may contact her for a consultation at diannam@shaw.ca or by calling 403-981-3033.)