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It’s hard to believe, but Focus Conference 2022 will be here before you know it. Have you signed up yet?  Essentially Women is well underway in planning Focus Conference 2022. We are incredibly excited for two new features of the conference: Retail Round Tables and a Vendor Connection Event. Moderated by Rob Baumhover, Director of Retail for VGM Retail Services, the Retail Round Table session won’t be your average round table discussion. Prepare

August of Action is officially over, and we are all prepping for the busy season, Breast Cancer Awareness Month. During the month of August, Essentially Women hosted a virtual fly-in to discuss the Breast Cancer Patient Equity Act with EW members, Senators, and Representatives from several different states.  Overall, we had 12 EW members reach out to EW and VGM Government Relations to schedule meetings with their members of Congress. Nine

August is Breastfeeding Awareness Month. We’ve heard you. Many of our members are looking for services and products to better serve women, nursing moms, and their babies. Essentially Women has resources through our vendor partners to help support mom and baby during their breastfeeding journey. Ardo Across the globe, Ardo will be celebrating breastmilk feeding during the month of August! To keep the spirit alive all month, Ardo will have a Q&A and Giveaway on their Facebook wall EVERY

August 1 – 7 is World Breastfeeding Week. This year’s theme is: Protect Breastfeeding: A Shared Responsibility. Breastfeeding has many benefits for infants, mothers, and children.  The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that infants are exclusively breastfed for the first six months while introducing complementary foods for at least one year. Protecting breastfeeding means protecting the time working women need to give birth, recover, and breastfeed their children. Moms

The Power of Plan B: Developing a Good Contingency Plan By Megan Matijevich, Manager Marketing Communications American Board for Certification in Orthotics, Prosthetics & Pedorthics If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the COVID-19 curveball that hit businesses worldwide was that everyone needs a plan B…or even a plan C or D. Fires, floods, and tornados are some of the events that often come to mind when discussing contingency plans, certainly not year-long

June 15, 2021 WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) today re-introduced legislation to ensure breast cancer patients and survivors who have experienced a mastectomy are able to access custom breast prosthetics under Medicare. The Breast Cancer Patient Equity Act of 2021 would provide coverage for custom fabricated breast prostheses—which, unlike other prosthetic devices, are not currently covered by Medicare—to

Originally featured in “VGM Playbook: Growing Your Business in Today's Environment" by VGM & Associates, Lindy Tentinger, President of VGM Forbin, explains the opportunity that asking your customers for feedback can have on business development and growth.  I don’t know about any of you, but I could write a book filled with all the one-liners I’ve heard from my parents over the years. Sometimes it was advice I didn’t want to take

Customers are your livelihood. You know this! And yes, seems like a very basic statement, but often we forget just how important ONE customer can be. Especially in today’s environment where one bad review online can easily impact your business’ reputation in a matter of minutes, much more so than a positive comment, unfortunately. This means that taking care of each and every one of your customers is of utmost importance and much like it is easier to keep an employee versus train one,

Time is a precious commodity that you cannot buy or get back. Sometimes it’s time to act and sometimes it’s time to be patient. Renee Firato’s cancer journey is all about time, taking your time, the timing of surgeries, and the timing of life events. As she was just about to graduate from high school, Renee had her wisdom teeth removed and did not recover well, which ended up leading to the discovery of acute myelogenous leukemia. Within one week of getting her port placed on

Originally featured in “VGM Playbook: Growing Your Business in Today's Environment," Mike Isaacson, Senior VP of Business Development of VGM & Associates, discusses what five questions to ask yourself before you spend your personal, professional, or business capital on pursuing the “next big thing” to ensure you’re on the right path. As business owners and/or leaders, you are pulled in many different directions and wear multiple hats on a daily