For Women with ADHD ADD Who Want to Connect

Are you looking for a Business Buddy?

Hi everyone,

I was on a chat a few weeks ago, and mentioned that I would like to find another ADHD woman to be my Business Buddy. Many of the ladies on the chat thought it was a good idea, so I
want to use this forum discussion as a way to match women up to be
Business Buddies. I have also posted this information in my group Career
Women With ADHD. Here is how a Business Buddy partnership would work:

Ideally, it would be someone who has her own business, even if it is just in the planning stages like mine.
We would both be passionate about moving forward with our businesses.
We would both be willing to take action each week toward moving forward with our businesses.
We would arrange to chat once a week for about an hour (it could be more or less, but an hour works the best), with each of us using 30 minutes to talk about our goals for our businesses. AOL has a chat
function that could be utilized, which I can explain more about later.
Although we both have ADHD, the focus will be on moving forward with our businesses.
We will make commitments to ourselves regarding our businesses and then talk to each other the next week about whether or not we met the commitments.
We will support each other in a positive way and hopefully bounce ideas off of each other.

I am in Grad school for Photography, so if my potential Business Buddy has an
interest in a career in the arts (graphic design, film, animation,
painting/drawing, photography), that would be great.

If you are interested in being my Business Buddy, or would like to potentially
be matched up with a Business Buddy, please respond to this discussion with the
following information:

What amount of time would you be willing to commit to on a weekly basis?
Are you in the planning, beginning, or already established phase of your
business?
What is your business?

I am looking forward to hearing from other women who feel this would be valuable.

Darlene

Tags: ADHD, Women, art, artist, buddy, business, career, chat, mentoring, support

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jo Ellen on September 25, 2010 at 6:29pm

I would be game, except I just got blind-sided with a divorce. I have had a couple of home-based businesses and a retail quilt shop, long before quilting re-gained it's popularity. I have learned many lessons, both good & bad when running a business.

The biggest one is the myth that you can set your own hours. It is too idealist. The reason I say that is because, depending the type of business you have, all kinds of variables can affect how much time you can spend strictly on business. Some of the variables are whether or not you have a supportive spouse, if your are married, children and their ages and their schedules, and your health. Businesses in the area of creative endeavors, you need to keep in mind that part of being a professional business person, you will wear many hats, such as bookkeeper & record keeping, i.e. paying taxes, when to pay them, to whom to pay them & on-time. You'll also be an advertising manager, public relations manager, inventory controller, etc. Creative people have a hard time doing some of these things because they see them as a chore and we'd rather be doing the fun creative stuff. It is a hard balance to keep. Starting out, you can't always afford to pay someone to do these things for you. For those of you who can afford to hire someone, it doesn't hurt to know the basics because if you don't hire the right person or they don't understand the type of business you are setting up, you could find yourself with a bigger headache than if you start out doing it yourself. I am not saying not to talk to professionals in these areas, but you don't always need to hire them until you are making enough money to be able to afford hiring them.

I'd like to audit for a while until I know how my life is going to end up. Finances, moving, etc. I may add a thing or two that I've learned over the years as I have a chance to visit the board.

This is a great idea. I hope it becomes very successful.

Jo Ellen

Permalink Reply by Eileen on September 27, 2010 at 11:25pm

I'm really interested, will post details tomorrow re what I'm doing (just getting started on a new business project).

Eileen

Permalink Reply by SarahBeth on January 9, 2011 at 3:34pm

Good afternoon. My name is Sarah. I have made the decision that this year is the year to make my dream of working for myself and creating and selling my art come true. My husband is on board with me, and is willing to let me be a starving artist for a while until I can create the proper techniques. I concentrate on using recycled materials. In the past, I have made jewelry out of paper (newspaper, and scrap christmas wrapping paper), but that market is full from what I have found. I am starting to create mirrors and frames and other artwork using soda cans. Then using the pop tabs for jewelry. When I'm not cutting and designing, I have started working on a business plan. I have found several online eco-friendly communities that I am joining, I am researching different ideas to start my own blog, and other ways of advertising and branding myself. Some people in my family are a little concerned that I am trying to create this into a brand, and would be more comfortable with me having a conventional job. I just think its time for me to fully embrace what I truly love to do. Any advise is warmly welcomed. I do have my degree in business, and am trying to transition what I learned to apply to this.

Permalink Reply by Jo Ellen on January 9, 2011 at 5:04pm

Honey, if your husband is onboard with what you are doing -- don't listen to anyone else!!! Live your dream! You won't know if it will work out unless you take a leap of faith and try.

I was never as fortunate as you. My soon-to-be ex never backed me in anything I tried to do with my art and trying to develop it into a viable business. I say go with your gut. Give your husband a lot of hugs and kisses to let him know you appreciate him backing you in this.

Jo Ellen

Sarah Beth said:

Good afternoon. My name is Sarah. I have made the decision that this year is the year to make my dream of working for myself and creating and selling my art come true. My husband is on board with me,

Permalink Reply by Aimee on May 18, 2011 at 12:59pm

Darlene, if you are still interested in having a business buddy I could really use one. I'm in the planning stage of my business although I did post an ad on craigslist and received one response.

My business is coaching and organizing services for people with ADD. I've attended some free small business courses and am currently working on my business plan. My time commitment is flexible. I like the format you suggested of an hour per week chat. I could also do email in between.

Although my business is not photography I do have a minor fine arts from my undergrad (many photography classes, painting, drawing) and I worked for a photographer for a while whose business was quite successful. I did lots of multimedia stuff when I later studied and worked in the area of information science.

It's great that you are starting your own business! Taking photos for a living has always been one of my dream jobs. But helping people with ADHD/ADD is another job I've wanted to do even more. So I'm going with it. Please respond back if you are still interested in a business buddy! :-D -Aimee

Permalink Reply by Liz Field on May 20, 2011 at 3:07pm

I would be interested in helping out - I have had two successful businesses, one of which is going stronger than ever after 25 year - and to top it off I only found out about my ADHD about 5 years ago - let me know . ..

Permalink Reply by SarahBeth on June 29, 2011 at 10:55am

It looks like it has been awhile since this has been brought up. I am now going forward with having my own home made recycled jewelry business. I've been looking up things online and am feeling so overwhelmed with all the possiblities of marketing/ promoting I'm trying to figure out when I'm supposed to be able to do jewelry. I have trouble staying on my schedule, and my husband is still supportive, he just doesn't understand why its so hard for me to stick to schedule and stay organized. Friday some of my pieces will be displayed for first time in a store, the owner offered to display some items before I get facebook, website, business cards anything. So I'm taking that as a good sign, I just want to do this right and do it in a way that I will be able to maintain. So I'd love to talk to anybody who is working on a creative business and can help with the some of the unique aspects of creative side and business side.

Permalink Reply by SarahBeth on June 29, 2011 at 11:01am

Aimee I'd love to talk to you. Coaching and organizing is my weak point. Actually I love to organize everything to a point of CDO - im sure youve heard the thing with OCD being in alphabetical order. I made my own organizers out of recycled materials to go with my theme. I just have the hardest time staying organized. I think its more time management and planning and executing the packing up part of hte day and putting everything back before I bring out other things. Eventually when I have more time I want to get into home decor with recycled items, and maybe because of the add I've been drawn to doing organizational items. For example, cuz I know it sounds wierd, I took a the cardboard soda case box and cut it at an angle and created like the box magazine holder thingy. Then paper mached the outside for extra strength and so it was not so obvious a soda box. Now I'm working on slowly collecting LP vinyl recor covers to use as my filing folders- I like color.
Aimee said:

Darlene, if you are still interested in having a business buddy I could really use one. I'm in the planning stage of my business although I did post an ad on craigslist and received one response.

My business is coaching and organizing services for people with ADD. I've attended some free small business courses and am currently working on my business plan. My time commitment is flexible. I like the format you suggested of an hour per week chat. I could also do email in between.

Although my business is not photography I do have a minor fine arts from my undergrad (many photography classes, painting, drawing) and I worked for a photographer for a while whose business was quite successful. I did lots of multimedia stuff when I later studied and worked in the area of information science.

It's great that you are starting your own business! Taking photos for a living has always been one of my dream jobs. But helping people with ADHD/ADD is another job I've wanted to do even more. So I'm going with it. Please respond back if you are still interested in a business buddy! :-D -Aimee

Permalink Reply by FocusReallyHard on October 24, 2011 at 1:38pm

I'm looking for a business buddy. I'm a copywriter and I'm also learning internet marketing. And work from home, which is a minefield of bright shiny objects. I'd love to trade experiences, encouragement, suggestions, rants!

Mary

Permalink Reply by Rosemary on January 17, 2012 at 4:11pm

I have my own Pure Romance business with some 31 thrown in on the side (basically to organize ME) - and am in the middle of a federal EEOC lawsuit (ADD - ADA violations) - but yes I am interested!

Permalink Reply by FocusReallyHard on March 1, 2012 at 12:31pm

Hi all,

I'm looking for a business buddy, someone to check in with five days a week, or whatever works. I'm really committed to this. I'm a copywriter and learning internet marketing.

I'd like to share goals for the day, cheerlead, encourage, share strategy and how to get around bumps, just listen. I know my ADD ways, and as committed as I am, I'll be more consistent and more clear when I have someone to check in with.

Anyone deep in their business stuff and want a check-in buddy? I'm here!

Mary

Permalink Reply by artsyphartsie on April 13, 2012 at 9:10pm

Hi,

I'm brand new here. I've been pouring over the internet thinking surely there is a group of ADD'ers out there who want to check in/support/coach each other. This is the first real possibility I've come across.

I'm a freelance illustrator. I've been working for years just to get to the point that I'm at. The truth is, I'm not really happy with the kind of work I have now and I need to "step it up" so to speak. The trouble is, because I don't like my current work much (and HELLO--because I have ADD) I have a lot of trouble getting myself to actually DO my work. Sometimes, I have trouble even getting myself to START my work. Because I'm freelance, I have no one to look over my shoulder which is a blessing and curse.

My career is really important to me. This line of work is not easy to get into or maintain for anyone let alone an ADD'er, so just getting this far proves to me that I must be really dedicated to it.

I think daily chats (if not even more often) would probably be best for me. Sometimes I'm good on my own, sometimes, not so much, but I do best when I know I'm being held accountable. Maybe an online chat in the morning to talk about what we need to do and get ourselves motivated? Then maybe a couple of quick check-ins at certain times of the day to make sure we're really doing what we're supposed to be doing?

My husband is very supportive, but the last thing I need is to turn him into my nanny. It would be so nice to have someone to talk to who really gets the whole ADD thing without having to feel embarrassed.

Mary, if you (or anyone else) is interested in starting something, let me know!

FocusReallyHard said:

Hi all,

I'm looking for a business buddy, someone to check in with five days a week, or whatever works. I'm really committed to this. I'm a copywriter and learning internet marketing.

I'd like to share goals for the day, cheerlead, encourage, share strategy and how to get around bumps, just listen. I know my ADD ways, and as committed as I am, I'll be more consistent and more clear when I have someone to check in with.

Anyone deep in their business stuff and want a check-in buddy? I'm here!

Mary