Karey's Story
Karey Fleming
Health Works Inc.
After owning her business for 10 years, Karey Fleming knew it was time to take it to a new level. Being the owner of a successful and innovative business, she looked to the Centre for Women in Business to help her make that move.
Karey owns an occupational therapy and pedorthic clinic located in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia with a monthly satellite office on Fall River. “My clinic is non-traditional, offering services that are unique in the province,” explains Karey. “Private healthcare is uncommon and often not understood by government funders and business support providers.”
Karey is thankful that the Centre for Women in Business exists to assist women with their business ideas and ventures. “It’s the only centre out there of its kind that focuses specifically on the needs of business women,” affirms Karey.
Karey became excited when the Centre announced its new ADVANCE program last spring. The ADVANCE program focuses on meeting the unique needs of women business owners who have moved beyond the development stage of their businesses and are ready to move to the growth stage. Says Karey, “It is one of the first programs for women with extensive business experience and in the growth stages of their businesses.”
There are many reasons why Karey joined the program, “I’m always looking to improve my business skills and the cost was very reasonable.” The overriding factor for her decision to participate came down to a specific goal she had in mind, “I have a full-day course in pediatric fine motor development and I wanted to develop the course into an e-learning format to offer on-line globally.”
The ADVANCE program gave Karey the knowledge and skills to begin the planning stages of her innovative program. “Through the program, I started to understand some issues I would have to address. I gained more awareness about what was required to meet the goal and I established contact with people in the e-learning field.”
Karey’s goal is to have the e-learning course online within the next 3 months. She has completed the market research and the business plan and is currently working with an IT company implementing the new website and the technology requirements.
The benefits of the ADVANCE program didn’t end when Karey finished the course. “Several of the other women involved in ADVANCE and I developed a Master Mind Group that meets every second month. We rotate being a host to gain better awareness of each other’s businesses and through our meetings have developed valuable relationships both personally and professionally,” explains Karey.
The other women offer continual support to each other which goes beyond their bi-monthly meetings. “Our meetings involve a book review and exchange which is an excellent advantage for women who do not have much extra time to read business books let alone personal books! We also bring to the table issues that we may need input from each other and share our successes. On a day-to-day basis we have the ability to email members for feedback and we can always be sure of a quick and helpful response.”
In a few words, Karey sums up the vital importance of the ADVANCE program for helping her to realize her business goals, “The Advance program jump-started the process for me. They made sure I had the solid start I needed to ensure that my business growth plan would be a success.”
The ADVANCE program exceeded Karey’s expectations and she will experience its benefits for a long time to come. The knowledge and skills Karey learned helped her move her business to the next level of success; yet it is the relationships she developed with the other women in the program that is the most valuable benefit of all.
Article by Daniella Sorenti