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TIP$ Founder and The Mid-Life Women's Business Community Concept

Rita Strombeck, Ph.D.

I started my own business in California in 1982, HealthCare Education Associates. I had been working for a company that developed management training programs. When the company relocated to Connecticut, I chose not to go with the company. Instead, I was hired as a consultant by a local hospital to develop management training programs for the nursing staff.  To my surprise, no such products were available at the time.  I saw an opportunity, a real niche in the market.  So, I began to develop a wide variety of training programs and sell them to hospitals across the country. This was before computers and before much help was available for women entrepreneurs.  I had to learn the hard way, by trial and error. 

In all, I developed more than 50 curricula that have been used in thousands of hospitals throughout the United States and abroad.  With the help of 10 Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grants from the National Institutes of Health (NIH), I was able to expand my business to develop a wide range of programs, including video-based training programs for drug counselors and online Continuing Education programs for doctors and nurses.

Over the years, I came in contact with a number of women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s who were interested in starting their own business.  They asked me a lot of questions and I shared my entrepreneurial experiences with them.  It had never really occurred to me how much I had learned about running a small business until I started answering other women’s questions.  I became increasingly interested in sharing what I knew and learning about what others wanted to do.

Based on this growing interest in entrepreneurship and mid-life women, I began conducting focus group interviews with women over 50 who had started their own business.  I found their stories both stimulating and disturbing.  Stimulating, because there seems to be no end to creativity exhibited by women when they set their minds to doing something.  Disturbing, because of the financial, social, and even personal obstacles that many women face when starting a business later in life. 

These experiences were the genesis of the TIP$ Community.  I have given workshops to women who want to start a business and wrote the TIP$ Business Start-Up Guide for Mid-Life Women to help women in their 40s, 50s, and 60s who are thinking about starting their own business, regardless of size and TIP$ – The Essentials of Marketing Planning for women who have already started a business and may need a little help developing a marketing plan for their products or services.

Although, today, there are a number of wonderful organizations in existence that provide assistance to women entrepreneurs, I felt something was missing.  I thought there should be something available that addresses the specific concerns and challenges that mid-life women face when starting a business.  One thing I was continually struck by when conducting the focus group interviews was how eager women were to share their experiences and provide mutual support.  My hope is that the TIP$ Mid-Life Women’s Business Community will provide not only a means for learning, but also a place to connect with others, to find support, and to gain visibility.