The Next Question - Why Pay for Membership

The next question you may ask is why pay an annual membership fee to 3 Degrees Connected™ to be included in a members only web-based network when there are so many other social media platforms on which someone may connect such as Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, or Ning? We hope the answer will not surprise you as we’ve really been trying to get the message out.


Building a network of women-owned, women-operated business that is cohesive in nature, based on consistent ideals, and growing in numbers is actually harder than one may think. With applications like MySpace, Twitter, or Facebook, people can build business pages, and gather fans, and increase their readership through offering incentives, which I hope we are all taking advantage of. However, what this doesn’t really do is connect us on a deeper level as “business entrepreneurs”, it is a self-serving mechanism. Each business is operating as an independent entity with hopes to gain a greater audience to support their own business endeavors.


In the organization 3 Degrees-Connected™, the mantra should be “it’s not about me”. We are creating an infrastructure to support and encourage one another so we don’t feel like we are walking the independent business owner path alone. With an appointed Board of Directors we will be creating bylaws which govern the direction of this organization. We hope to be a useful resource for making connections, one business owner to the next, and providing resource information to support and grow individual companies.

Membership fees will help us to file for non-profit organization status which will make fund-raising efforts within our community easier. We hope to provide an online support system through dialogue and pay for web-development and maintaining our domain name and trademarks. We will developing an orientation program to train those not comfortable with “online” activities to gain confidence in building their social media strategy and learn how to operate within this ‘ning’ network. We hope that existing business entrepreneurs pave the way for those following in our footsteps to make the road smoother and help others avoid unnecessary roadblocks that stand in the way of their success.


Philanthropic efforts will include joining together as a group of talented women to assist businesses in our community who have lost hope and are in survival mode. We hope that we as women will be the encouragement to other women to continue to follow their hearts and not give up the fight too soon. It’s not about funding businesses, but about offering our expertise. This effort has already begun. We are encouraged by the offering of services, and effort to invest in the success of businesses around us. If we want places to go, places to shop, and services in our local community, we need to begin to address the needs of those businesses. If we don’t who will?