Happy Women’s History Month all! I hope you took some time to reflect on the important women in your life on International Women’s Day this past Saturday, March 8. I myself have had the unofficial theme song of the month “I’m Every Woman” by the irreplaceable Whitney Houston playing in my head since March 1 (hence the title). If that ever does come up for a vote, I’m more than ready. 

We have a packed and loaded issue to kick off Women’s History Month this time around! Check out our cover story where I had the privilege of joining the Women’s Business Center of Fayetteville at CEED for their fourth annual HERPitch Competition! I look forward to HERWeek every year and as many of you may have already noticed, I was able to confirm the unfortunate news that HERWeek won’t be taking place in its usual capacity this year. Organizers shared that they wanted to take a step back this year to rest and recharge to bring the event back bigger and better next year! 

I had some fun with the team planning for this issue. I was able to pull from an ever-growing list of contacts that I meet every day in our business community. For example, I was able to meet the new executive director of the Fayetteville Dogwood Festival Kaylynn Suarez (featured on pg. 10) at a quarterly meeting of the Downtown Alliance earlier this year, I had the pleasure of making the acquaintance of Ms. Nancy Blackman, director of the Dunn Area Committee of 100 Inc. (featured on pg. 12) at the first ever Harnett Business Summit held in late February and I am always glad to be able to keep up with our friends at the WBC of Fayetteville by Director Danice Langdon, who invited me to the HERPitch event again this year! 

Last year I was actually a judge in the HERPitch event and I can tell you from personal experience, that is a hard job to have. Each contestant has put in so much time, effort and thought into their business, it’s no easy task picking who to give funds to. This year I’m sure the judges had their work cut out for them, but it was wonderful seeing the level of support from the community, staff at WBC and even their competition. I know the contestants this year are in for a bright and successful future! 

We hope that you’ll keep the Greater Fayetteville Business Journal in mind throughout the month of March. The Journal’s Assistant Editor Stephanie Meador and I will both be on the hunt for more businesses to feature in our special issue coming out on March 28 which will also feature a special focus on women-owned businesses. 

Happy reading!