Saving grace

“I don’t do vulnerable”  I confessed to my friend.  But years ago when I was going through chemo and my kids were little, I did just that.  I had to.  I needed friends to drive me to and from my treatments, to pick up the girls and help prepare meals. And I will always be grateful to the team of friends who rallied round to support us.

I think of this as I receive help once again.  This time it is business-related.  I am usually the one offering assistance – be it to friends or women starting out in their business.  So it feels strange to be on the receiving end and I am trying to accept the generosity with grace.

Company of Women’s magazine Company, has been my pride and joy for the last four years.  But as anyone in the publishing/printing business will tell you – this industry is hurting, big time.  Up until now, I have been using my own money to bale it out as advertising sales dropped and continued to drop, but a month ago I had to admit to myself that I couldn’t keep doing that.

Enter Michele Bailey of blazing the Agency.  Michele has a successful marketing agency, complete with design studio and over coffee, she generously offered to have her studio design the upcoming issue of Company, which ironically is about partnerships and collaboration.  This is HUGE and enables me to use the advertising dollars I collected to cover the costs of printing. 

I can’t begin to tell you how grateful I am to Michele.  Not just for having the work done, but for her faith that our small, but mighty publication deserved to be saved.  I have always talked about women helping women, but now I have lived it.

So Company is off life support and breathing on its own for now. 

Thanks Michele.

PS Watch for your copy coming out in late January, 2012