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Mega-Tasking

I sit down to write this note to you, our Seattle Woman readers, early on a Saturday morning at a desk that is literally buried in files and stacks of paper from the various phases of magazine production. I have 20+ other things at the top of my to-do list, and this isn’t counting all the stuff I need to do in my personal life. With luck and my family’s forbearance, I’ll make a dent in my office list before the work week starts all over again on Monday morning.

I tell you this not in the spirit of an Oprah confession (all right, I’m messy!), but because it reflects who I am: a business owner—like a lot of other women in the Seattle area. That means I’m constantly running to do all the things I need to do to be successful. Since starting Seattle Woman with Karen in 2004, I feel like I’ve gone from multi-tasking to mega-tasking. Sometimes I feel like Super Woman on steroids.

Of course, this sense of having to be a super woman is not limited to those of us who own businesses or are self-employed. If you’re working and you’re female, mega-tasking is probably a part of your life as well. Throw in kids, and you really know what I mean.

Another characteristic I share with a lot of fellow female business owners is a career path that twisted and turned before it led me to start a company. I grew up in a family far removed from entrepreneurship and set out after college to live overseas. Then came graduate school, kids, writing, and eventually a job as community-relations manager at a local parenting magazine. It was there that I got the itch to start a local magazine specifically for women.

The number of women starting businesses continues to outpace men. Women entrepreneurs are everywhere, and one of the joys of being the publisher of this magazine is that I am constantly meeting or hearing about women who have that entrepreneurial spirit.

In fact, the overwhelming majority of businesses advertising in this magazine are owned and operated by women. They know that women are eager for the kind of information and encouragement that we provide each month, and they understand that a local women’s magazine is a powerful way to reach potential customers or clients because women definitely are the ones holding the purse strings. Since this current issue focuses on money and business, it seems an appropriate time to salute them.

In the coming year, it is the support of our advertisers who will make it possible for us to publish this magazine. We look forward in 2006 to continue to partner with them as we serve the amazing women in our community.

Best Wishes for a Happy New Year!
Marianne Scholl

©January 2006 Caliope Publishing Company