History of this Network

Making the decision to stay at home at age 45 when we adopted our daughter in 2005 wasn't a tough decision. After pursuing a 25 year career in the field of Accounting and Software Implementation, I had waited my entire adult life to become a mother and I was determined to experience as much of my daughters childhood as possible. Two years into this new venture I realized that I was missing a golden opportunity to teach my daughter as a role model rather than focusing all my attention on her physical development, social skills, and scholastic needs. Kindergarten was just around the corner, and soon my daughter would be influenced more by her piers and teachers. I didn’t want to give up the opportunity to teach her how to pursue a dream. I’ve never changed my belief about motherhood, but I did change my mind on how to teach life lessons.




The focus of Geneva Girls Designs is four-fold: (1) teaching my daughter how to pursue a dream, (2) showing her the importance of learning new skills (trying something you’ve never done before), (3) paying for her future educational needs, and (4) serving the needs of others.




In 2007 I designed the Style ‘n Wrap™, a heat-resistant hairstyling tool organizer. When designing this product I learned about what was available in the market place, how to researching market demographics, what options were available to me through patents, trademarks and copyrights, how to write a business plan, how to set up my business structure, what to consider when designing a website, how to build a brand, how to set up product pricing (wholesale and retail), how to use social media, how to attract business through search engine optimization, where to sell on the Internet, who could manufacture my products, and so much more.



In 2009 I looked back and realized that I had been doing a fantastic job with the first two focal points of my business. I was pursuing my dream of operating my own business, and I had accumulated a lot of knowledge in the process.  I also realized that there are many obstacles along this path that I had never considered and wished there had been someone to guide me around them.  As a former Accountant, I also realized that I was spending resources that could have been used to fund my daughter’s college education and my return on investment was lower than I had anticipated.  Women own their own businesses for various reasons, but I’m certain none of us want our businesses to be viewed as a hobby. We want to be taken seriously and we want to be profitable.

Most of my acquaintances knew that I had created a product to help women with hot hairstyling tools, many of them had supported my business through purchases, but I was not branching further outside my immediate connections so my business was not growing.  I realized that it is a common problem faced by women who have created home-based businesses. Economic conditions aside, without networking, it is impossible to grow a business.

3 Degrees-Connected™, a networking organization created to bring exposure to women-owned, women-operated businesses, was conceived. The foundation for this network is about serving the needs of others who may be pursuing the same business aspirations, sharing lessons learned and supporting each other through making business connections. Many women have already expressed with relief, that this network was exactly what they were looking for.  This organization is still in its infancy, and we will be learning by listening to the needs expressed by our members.  We do not wish to re-create existing services, but we hope to share our experience.  By guiding other women into services that already exist, talking about potential pitfalls, and offering support and encouragement we hope to help them avoid unnecessary costs and increase their revenue.  We do not care whether you operate a franchised business where the infrastructure has already been laid for you, or whether you are starting from the ground up.

If this story resembles you or your business, we would love to have you join us.  We’ve held two very successful events, and are starting our membership drive which will allow us to expand our services and create greater connections. If you have any questions, please contact me at 3degreesconnected@charter.net, or president@3degreesconnected.org