Please note: We are not hosting an event regarding the Today's CNY Woman magazine. We have the magazine posted just to:

Thank Today's CNY Woman magazine for featuring Women TIES President Tracy Higginbotham on the cover of the April issue.

We are proud to have 7 of our members featured as well. Take a look at www.todayscnywoman.com
or click on the link that says, "Syracuse, NY" to get to the online version of the magazine.

A special thank you to Cammi Clark, editor of Today's CNY Woman magazine for believing in the power of women!

Women TIES President, Tracy Higginbotham, became an entrepreneur in 1995 when she created Five Star Events, a special event management company with expertise in organization, planning, logistics and public relations. Five Star Events now offers assistance in event management and promotion for women-owned businesses.

For nine years, Higginbotham was president of a Syracuse-based networking and support organization for women business owners where the organization grew substantially under her leadership until she stepped down from the position in 2005. In this role, her dedication to promoting women entrepreneurship grew and sparked an interest in creating Women TIES, where she has successfully created a larger regional buying network for women entrepreneurs.

Her dedication to supporting women entrepreneurship for ten years was recognized by the Small Business Administration in 2005 and in 2012 when she received the Region II "Women Owned Business Champion Award." The Women Business Champion award is given to someone for their significant contributions as an outstanding small business person and for dedicated support of small business.

Higginbotham is a graduate of the State University of New York at Oswego where she earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and post graduate studies in Business Management.

Higginbotham is a columnist for the Syracuse Post Standard; Advisory Board Member of the State University of New York at Oswego School of Business; Board Member of the Upstate Women's Business Center in Utica; Board President of Khoros Performing Arts for Children; Advisory Board Member of Maureen's Hope Foundation; Past Chairwoman of the 40 Below Emerging Entrepreneurs Program; Past Public Relations Co-Chair of the Women's Fund of New York; and Past Emcee for three years at Syracuse University's WISE Conference.

She is a guest speaker at local colleges including Syracuse University, Le Moyne College, Onondaga Community College, and Oswego State University; guest speaker regarding entrepreneurial issues on local television and radio stations; and guest speaker on a wide range of business topics for local chambers of commerce and business organizations. Higginbotham is also a published writer whose inspirational short stories and articles appear in several national publications and books.

Higginbotham has received numerous awards including: SUNY Oswego Alumni Association Community Service Award, 40 Under 40 Award, Women in Business Award, 25 Women in Leadership Award, and the SBA District 2 Women Owned Business Champion Award.

Women TIES is proud to be a media sponsor of Paige's Butterfly Run, a very special annual event to raise funds to fight pediatric cancer.

Paige's Butterfly Run is an annual fundraising event (5K race; individual and our Centipede division! 3K fun run\walk, 40 yard "Caterpillar Crawl" for kids), which funds pediatric oncology research and patient programs at Upstate Golisano Children's Hospital. The organizing body, Paige's Butterfly Run Inc., is a not-for-profit New York corporation that has been granted 501c3 status by the IRS.

The first event was held in 1997 and they have been a Children's Miracle Network (CMN) affiliated event since 2000. In 1997 they raised $2,200 and attracted 250 people. In 2012 they raised $253,000 and over 2600 people participated.

Paige Yeomans Arnold was diagnosed with leukemia as she was nearing the end of her first grade year at Palmer Elementary. During the next year she completed second grade while being treated at Upstate's Center for Children's Cancer and Blood Disorder. By that time the disease had progressed, requiring a bone marrow transplant. Paige underwent the procedure at Boston Children's Hospital in the summer of 1994, but died from resulting complications. In 1997 her parents were approached by a group of teachers at Palmer Elementary that wished to honor Paige in what would have been her last year at the school. In short order it was decided that a walk/run event would be organized.

Women entrepreneurs with a "running spirit" and an interest in fighting pediatric cancer are encouraged to run or become sponsors.

How can you learn more? Contact Chris Arnold at 635-0099 or chris@pbrun.org

Ellen Yeomans and Chris Arnold are parents of Paige Yeomans Arnold, the child whose memory is honored each year with Paige's Butterfly Run. In 2010, they donated $160,000 to the Golisano Children’s Hospital from the proceeds raised at the run.

The proceeds will benefit Upstate's Dr. William J. Waters Center for Children's Cancer and Blood Disorders by funding pediatric cancer research and providing special services for children treated at the center.

Every day women entrepreneurs turn around and hear about new opportunities for marketing a business on the web. The options seem to come at a fast and furious pace overwhelming business owners on which online practices, platforms and tools they should be focused on. If this sounds like you then you are not alone.

During the Women TIES Greater Skaneateles & Auburn Luncheon: Growing Your Business with Great Online Marketing, speaker Janelle Fields of JFields Marketing will share new, and not-so-new but lesser known, ways to get the most out of where you put your online energy. The presentation will include information about LinkedIn's Company pages, Google+, Pinterst and other business building tools. Walk away with ideas to help you leverage current online profiles and introduce new ways to improve your ranking, expand your footprint and increase the number of ways your business can benefit from participating in web based marketing.

Women entrepreneurs can't learn enough information about this vital business topic. Dont miss the opportunity to learn from a local expert in the field so you can grow your company with great online marketing and reach new and vast audiences.

The event is sponsored by Price Miller Associates, Women Wealth & Wisdom offers individualized financial planning in a teaching model striving to simplify the complex world of finance for their clients. "Building lasting relationships while helping our clients reach their financial goals is our main focus, incorporating trust, constant communication and proper planning in everything we do." Learn more about them at www.PriceMillerAssociates.com and www.WomenWealthandWisdom.net.

The event is also media sponsored by the Skaneateles Chamber of Commerce who likes to partner with Women TIES annually to educate their women owned businesses on the many topics Women TIES brings to the table. For more information about the chamber, members or events, visit www.skaneateles.com.

Since it is the start to a busy summer shopping season, there will be extra promotional materials tables for businesses to sell items and market their companies. Come prepared.

Janelle Fields owns JFields Marketing, a company focused on helping businesses tell their story to the right people so they can sell more of what they are in business to sell.

Started in 2008, JFields Marketing offers traditional and internet marketing services to clients, collaborating with technical professionals to create marketing that is practical, relational, and successful. Janelle also offers "The Marketing Coach", a mentoring program designed to help business owners develop confidence, ideas, and direction for marketing their business.

Janelle has been a featured speaker at Women TIES, WNET, and CNY Connects, presenting seminars on The New Rules of Marketing, LinkedIn for Small Business, Personal Branding, and others.