Wednesday, July 9, 2008 East Central Illinois

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Women In Business

Restauranteur's deeds bring her customers in
ﾠﾠﾠCHAMPAIGN ﾖ The restaurants may have changed, but the menus and Lynda Worner's personality have remained popular staples of Champaign's entertainment scene.
ﾠﾠﾠA longtime veteran of the local restaurant mix, Worner is entering her fourth year at her latest venture ﾖ Ruby's and 207 On Clark.
'Glass ceiling' has a new definition for some women
ﾠﾠﾠDANVILLE ﾖ Nancy Fahey has a 10-year-old son named Trace. She takes him to soccer practice, attends school meetings and comes home to prepare dinner.
ﾠﾠﾠShe goes through that daily routine in addition to working as a lawyer. It's an illustration of how a busy schedule can create an unintended glass ceiling for women.
Groups offer networking and more
ﾠﾠﾠCasey Rhodes sought out a professional women's group to satisfy a requirement for her office careers program at Parkland College.
ﾠﾠﾠShe soon discovered that the group ﾖ the Champaign-Urbana Chapter of International Association of Administrative Professionals ﾖ was a great place to meet and network with other women in her field.
Area woman shows there aren't just jobs for men
ﾠﾠﾠIt doesn't faze Dawn Nelson to work in the sheet metal trade, a field dominated by men.
ﾠﾠﾠ"See that skinny old man? I have more muscle than he does," the 39-year-old woman says while sending a plate of sheet metal through a roller.
Financial planners advise women to be assertive
ﾠﾠﾠInvestment adviser Dorothy Robinson was amazed ﾖ but not surprised ﾖ by a story she recently heard from a husband and wife.
ﾠﾠﾠThey were planning to buy a new car. A dealership allowed him to test-drive a car alone; a week later, it wouldn't allow her to take the car without a salesman.
Bakery grew from owner's love of bread
ﾠﾠﾠCHAMPAIGN ﾖ When Lisa Morgan first looked into a franchise of Great Harvest Bread Co., the only bread she ever made came from her home bread machine.
ﾠﾠﾠNow, the highlight of her day is offering customers bread as they walk in the door of her store at 2149 S. Neil St., C, and watching them enjoy it.
Gender behaviors in workplace differ
ﾠﾠﾠCHAMPAIGN ﾖ In a popular "Saturday Night Live" skit, a group of office workers devises ways to determine whether their asexual co-worker, "Pat," is a man or a woman.
ﾠﾠﾠIn real-life office settings, appearance may not be the only thing that distinguishes the sexes. Many people would more readily identify a caring co-worker who is a good listener as a woman, while assertiveness and competitiveness are considered masculine traits.
Carle executive enjoys chance to help people
   URBANA ﾖ When Cathy Emanuel looks back at her career with the Carle Foundation, she sees a long list of projects aimed at serving community needs.
   Some of the initiatives she's led or helped develop have been Carle's outpatient surgical centers in Champaign and Danville, the Windsor of Savoy retirement community, the Caring Place child care center, Carle's rural health clinic in Tuscola and the Carle Center for Rural Health and Farm Safety.

Development official does whatever it takes
ﾠﾠﾠDANVILLE ﾖ Vicki Stewart says her greatest obstacle as a woman in business came in the late 1980s and early 1990s when Vermilion County was courting the Asian business market.
ﾠﾠﾠStewart, the president of the Economic Development Corp. in Vermilion County, said she had to take a back seat because of cultural perceptions.
All-female law firm suits attorney fine
ﾠﾠﾠCHAMPAIGN ﾖ When Traci Nally became a lawyer in 1982, there were fewer than 12 female attorneys in Champaign County.
ﾠﾠﾠToday the Champaign-Urbana telephone book lists more than 50.
Balancing business hassle with self-employment perks
ﾠﾠﾠCHAMPAIGN ﾖ Nicole Philyaw could be making more than $100,000 a year designing aircraft cockpit systems, given her educational background in engineering psychology.
ﾠﾠﾠBut the 30-year-old University of Illinois graduate instead works two part-time jobs as a bartender to support the business she really loves ﾖ her own business, Nic's Basket Case.
Business centers, agencies available to help entrepreneurs
ﾠﾠﾠYour first stop should be the Small Business Development Center in your area, for information ranging from "Is this a good idea?" to "Where do I go for a loan?"
ﾠﾠﾠIn East Central Illinois, there's a center in Danville that serves clients in Vermilion and Iroquois counties, and another with offices in Urbana and Decatur that serves Champaign, Macon, Ford, Piatt, McLean, DeWitt, Shelby, Coles and Christian counties.
Trainer strives to create fitness opportunity for all
ﾠﾠﾠCHAMPAIGN ﾖ For Laura Kalman, everybody is an athlete. It's just a matter of determining how to help each person reach the next level.
ﾠﾠﾠKalman is a trainer, instructor and co-owner of LifeLines Health, a Champaign-based company that operates fitness and recreation facilities at Country Fair Shopping Center and 25 E. Springfield Ave., C. They include Ants in Their Pants children's recreation center, LifeLines Fitness Center, LifeLines Gymnastics Center, Vertical Plains climbing wall, LifeLines Performing Arts Academy, LifeLines Tae Kwon Do Academy and LifeLines Boxing Center.
Telecommuting, part-time work have risks, benefits
ﾠﾠﾠCHAMPAIGN ﾖ Dena Bagger loved her demanding job managing Market Place Mall for one of the nation's largest shopping center chains.
ﾠﾠﾠBut the pull of two little darlings at home proved too strong for Bagger, who recently downsized her career so she could spend more time with Joshua, 4, and Joey, 2.
Some advice from the self-employed
ﾠﾠﾠBeing your own boss has an appeal that cuts across gender lines. Few haven't thought, at one time or another, of starting their own business, answering to no one, reaping all the profits of their hard work.
ﾠﾠﾠA number of local women have done that, building successful businesses in Champaign-Urbana. They've learned hard lessons along the way. Here are some of the tips they have for others thinking of starting their own business:
Downtown store finds niche in sweet treats
ﾠﾠﾠCHAMPAIGN ﾖ When Betty Elliott started Walnut Street Tea Co. with two former partners, America's taste for gourmet coffees and teas was just starting to take off.
ﾠﾠﾠTwo decades later, her shop remains on the same downtown Champaign corner where it started, a cozy niche with blue awnings and baskets of flowers on the steps. Inside is a treasure trove of fresh coffees, teas, spices, candies and gourmet foods.