Everyone is winner at women's business contest

For Victoria Andreacchio, defeat came swiftly in a competition Monday designed to help women-owned small businesses reach the hard-to-achieve annual sales mark of $1 million: She wasn't allowed to compete.

Earlier, signs had seemed promising.

Shortly before the Make Mine a Million $ Business event began at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel in Philadelphia, Andreacchio's V's Cupcakery in Norristown had been featured in a pep talk/slide show presented to a ballroom full of nervous contestants. Someone from the event had even called her Sunday night to verify the pronunciation of her last name, she said.

But when it came time for her two-minute pitch to a three-judge panel before noon Monday, Andreacchio learned she was ineligible because her made-to-order bakery has not reached at least $85,000 in annual sales, the minimum required for participation. Her business is only three months old.

"She will be a million-dollar company, but the timing is a little off for today," said event organizer Nell Merlino, adding that Andreacchio showed signs of being "a winner" just by entering a contest so early in her entrepreneurial career.

Andreacchio suggested it was just one of many valuable lessons that small-business owners need to learn:

"Something happens, you just bounce right back."

In all, 43 of Monday's 79 contestants were named "pitch winners," earning them $1,000 gift cards, coaching, and a chance to compete for another round of prizes that will include access to business financing, publicity for their companies, and even more coaching. Those winners will be named later this year, based on telephone interviews and submission of business financials by Oct. 31.

It was the first such competition, also known as M3 1000, to take place in this region, and the 31st since the nationwide contest began in 2006 with the goal of helping 1,000 women reach $1 million in annual revenue within 18 to 36 months of their participation.

Among Monday's winners was Colleen Osborne Mook, whose firstborn 10 years ago inspired the creation of her Horsham-based company, Baby Be Hip, which sells personalized baby gifts via the Internet.

"I am thrilled," Mook said after the winners were announced and the clapping, shouting, and hugging had subsided. "I can't wait to tell my kids."

Dawn Lewis, president of Caffe Craze of Malvern, provider of premium liquid coffee and chai concentrates, entered the event "looking for sisterhood."

She got more than she came for: Lewis was among the winners, fueling her confidence that her $100,000-plus-in-sales company - about to launch a major expansion on the chai side of the business under a new name, Chaikhana - could be making $1 million "any second."

Confidence-building is essentially what M3 1000 is all about, said Merlino, founder of the nonprofit Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence, a lead sponsor of the event along with American Express Open, the credit-card company's small-business division.

In remarks to contestants Monday morning before the judging began, Merlino said the top reason most women-owned businesses have revenues of $50,000 or less is "our vision is too small."

Karen-Michelle Mirko, director of customer-advocacy marketing for American Express Open, said the growth of women-owned businesses "is really the fuel our economy needs."

So during pitches and in-work sessions available to those waiting to make their presentations, the emphasis Monday was on getting the assembled business owners to think big - and act even bigger.

They were urged to hire help, develop business plans, and, most important, believe that they can achieve $1 million in sales.

Though Andreacchio was disappointed with how things went, she left with a smile, thinking that very thing.

"I made contacts," she said.