Urban Business {and not so urban, sometimes}

As you are aware, I'm quite the fanatic fan of CRAVE Chicago... well, I also wanted to be sure that you are all aware of the many many other CRAVE cities across the nation, in Canada and Amsterdam. See all of the CRAVE guide covers below and click on any cities you find interesting!

By the way, if you know any women business owners in Boston, Hawaii, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Toronto or Washington DC, you can nominate your fave biz to be featured in that city's guide - they are all going to-print in several weeks!

Do you love social media?

Do you need help completing your social media plans for 2010? We at Love, L inc. would love to help you! Introducing Chicago's newest social media solution..

From Twitter to Facebook, and everything inbetween, Love, L inc. can be your source for social media success! The best part? We do it for you! No need to stress about adding social media to your to-do list or staying on-top of the latest social media trend! We connect you to your most treasured clients and introduce your business to new customers via working behind the scenes providing low-cost & fabulous social media interaction and event coordination. Find out more on our website http://Love-L.com

We love social media.

RSVP for the CRAVE Chicago Manifesto book launch party!

CRAVE Chicago Book Launch Party WHAT: Join us for the CRAVE Chicago Guide book launch party! WHEN: Monday, November 16th, 6-8pm (TENTATIVE) WHERE: Arthur Murray Dance Studio - 116 W Illinois, Chicago Meet and greet Chicagoland’s 150 most craved women entrepreneurs while sippin’ on delicious drinks and noshin’ on tasty treats! To make the evening even a bit more special, Arthur Murray Dance Studio will be offering a fantastic dance demonstration with an opportunity for you to learn a few moves and work on your swagger! We are looking forward to seeing you there! Invite your favorite clients, customers, and friends, and let the celebration begin! RSVP HERE
Sponsors:

Get your tickets to Winter Wonderland before they sell-out!

First 300 ladies to purchase their tickets to Winter Wonderland will receive a fabulous goody bag!

Winter Wonderland is coming to Chicago!

No, it's not a weather report... it's a fabulous report! I'd love to introduce you to, and ask you to save the date for, the Winter Wonderland CRAVEparty coming to Chicago's Logan Square Stan Mansion on December 9th!

SAVE-THE-DATE

What: Grab your girlfriends and join us for a captivating evening of opulence and magical events!
Where: The Historic Stan Mansion at 2408 N Kedzie in Chicago
When: December 9th from 7-10PM

Baby, it’s cold outside! Join the Winter Wonderland CRAVEparty on December 9th to find your perfect holiday ensemble from one of Chicago’s most fabulous boutiques, all of which will be under one roof! No need to travel from boutique-to-boutique, we have them all here! A CRAVEparty is an exclusive, festive, glam-gal gathering of fun, entertainment, personal pampering, and sippin’ and noshin’ on great food.

FASHION & SIPS

Take advantage of the exclusive opportunity to pre-order the season’s chicest fashions from Chicagoland’s favorite boutiques, while enjoying gratis treats & cocktails!

SPA & SOOTHE
Indulge in complimentary mini-spa services to soothe your holiday-time stresses!

GIFTS GALORE

Don’t be greedy! Shop for something fabulous that those special people in your life will love!

AND MORE…

We're loved!

It's my pleasure to announce Chocolate Pizza Stiletto Love has been chosen to be featured as one of CRAVE Chicago's favorite local bloggers on their new website! I certainly love CRAVE Chicago - who doesn't!?! - and am excited to be sharing in this amazing group of bloggers!

Featured local bloggers include:

• beauty tipsy
• Chicagonista
• Chocolate Pizza Stiletto Love
• Kelly + Olive
• Making it Lovely
• Pivotal Production
• Second City Soiree
• Susan Fredman Design Group
• The Demoiselles
• Wickedly Chic

• 
  

Obviously, I also highly recommend you keep your eye on CRAVE Chicago's new website to be sure you don't miss out on their fabulous blog, events, guides and more!

When life gives you the ability, make Lemonade!

I'd love to take a moment and introduce you to something that is very important to me... please pause in your daily routine to think about the future of Chicagoans and our business environment. This is not about fashion, or style, or travel, etc. but, about learning how to better our community and that's more important than anything else I could possibly blog about today!

Intro to Lemonade Day:

Lemonade Day is brand new to Chicago and I'm joining them in creating a fun, free, community-wide program that teaches youth how to be successful entrepreneurs through building their very own lemonade stand! Lemonade Day teaches youth skills like developing a business plan, setting a budget, shows them how to seek investors, teaches successful advertising skills and best of all, they get to make and keep their own money!

Watch out Windy City,
[introduction to] Lemonade Day is coming Oct. 6 and 7!

Learn how to be a part of impacting the lives of over 10,000 kids in Chicago with this unique experience.

Please join us to learn more about how to bring this amazing program to the youth of Chicago. We're hosting three events -- we hope you can make it to the one that best fits into your schedule:

• Happy Hour Oct. 6 at 5:30pm -- Goose Island Claybourn 1800 North Clybourn. Chicago, IL 60614
• Breakfast Oct. 7 at 7:30am -- Illinois Institute of Technology. 3300 South Federal Street, Chicago, IL 60616
• Lunch Oct. 7 at 11:30am -- Illinois Institute of Technology. 3300 South Federal Street, Chicago, IL 60616

You can RSVP at the following link!

Celebrating Chicago's most amazing entreprenesses!

The CRAVE Chicago guide has officially gone to-print and I couldn't be more excited about it's arrival date: approximately mid-November. The book features and celebrates 150 women entrepreneurs in Chicagoland within just under 300 pages. The photography is amazing and the book is a joy to flip-thru... here's a little secret for ya: CRAVE Chicago is the first guide to offer a discount card in the back of the book which will get you 10-50% off at many of our favorite stores!

Keep an eye on the CRAVE Chicago Facebook Fan Page and the CRAVE Chicago Twitter account to be sure you're in the 'know' about which entreprenesses are featured, when the book is going to arrive in stores, date of our book launch party or other events...

CRAVE Chats going on everywhere!

Do you crave more opportunities to network with each other as well as spend more time with our entrepreness intelligentsia? After all, we are a community of intuitive, resourceful, passionate, business-savvy, adventuresome mavens! We will be hosting intimate, informal discussions on the third Sunday of every month from 2–4pm. These chats will take place at a different coffee shop or casual venue each month, and will be initially focused on our monthly business topic; however we will boldly go wherever the conversation takes us!

Upcoming CRAVEchat: Back to School: Social Media

About this Chat:

• You already have a Facebook page, Twitter account and a blog… now what?
• Shed away lazy summer days and get back into the business of maintaining your social media efforts
• Shake things up, maximize your tweeting, Facebook and blog outreach, and learn new tricks from the experts
• Learn new ways to create an efficient social media strategy that will help balance your schedule

SEATTLE
Speakers: TBA
Topic: Back to School: Social Media
When: Sunday September 13th, 2pm-4pm
Where: 5focus Studio, 1009 8th Ave N, Seattle
Price: $25 per person
Learn more and register

VANCOUVER BC
Speakers: TBA
Topic: Back to School: Social Media
When: Monday September 14th, 6pm-8pm
Where: Pure Smile Studio, Suite 303-1110 Hamilton St, Vancouver
Price: $25 USD per person
Learn more and register

CHICAGO
Speakers: Amy Ravit Korin, Sydney Owen, Monica O’Brien and MJ Tam
Topic: Back to School: Social Media
When: Wednesday September 16th, 2pm-4pm
Where: Susan Fredman at Home in the City, 350 W Erie, Chicago
Extras: Treats provided by Chocolate Gourmet, a Take the Cake Company!
Price: $25 per person
Learn more and register

Emerald City Sightings

Do you read it? You should!

Andria Lindquist did a phenomenal job summing up the recent CRAVE Seattle Summer Dreams Party at Teatro Zinzanni, which I attended. Here's a sneak peek, though I highly recommend you click through to the full post here.

What's new with CRAVE Chicago?

We're causing a commotion over here at CRAVE Chicago! Read on to learn how we're utilizing all of the great social media outlets to showcase our mission and the greatest women (and their businesses!) of Chicago! Want more of a sneak peek into the 1st edition of our guide? Keep reading......

I'd love to take this opportunity to invite you to take a close look at our CRAVE Chicago Facebook page www.facebook.com/cravechicago as it evolves into something spectacular! We have setup a tab on the page called Who's In where you can check out which of your fellow fabulous chicagoans have joined CRAVE to celebrate women entreprenuers! This tab will always be changing as we receive more of our favorite ladies' business logos and locate the final 25 ladies to be featured! Be sure to become a fan of our CRAVE Chicago Facebook page and invite your friends to do so as well!

We have also been immensely active on Twitter and I personally invite you to follow our every move www.twitter.com/cravechicago

Lastly, we have created a LinkedIn Group for CRAVE Chicago and sub-groups for each business type. By joining the LinkedIn Group, you will receive weekly newsletters with links to helpful articles regarding successful entrepreneur practices from various fabulous publications. You can find us by searching for 'CRAVE Chicago' in the groups category.

You can also learn more about me by checking out the bios on the About Us section of the CRAVEparty website: http://www.craveparty.com/aboutus.html This page will continue to be updated as each city's coordinator submits her bio...

Last, but certainly not least, I am super excited to provide you with a sneak peek into the 1st edition of the CRAVE Chicago guide! All of our hard work and your patience is finally coming to fruition and the results are gorgeous!

If you'd like to be a part of CRAVE Chicago please contact me as soon as possible because we are planning on going to-print on August 31st.

As you can see, we are keeping busy making waves in Chicago and are working hard to maintain a level of marvelousness that each CRAVE Chicago participant can be proud of... we have already started working on planning our first post-book-production event as well! Keep your eyes & ears open, the event will be in September and will be announced in late August!

CRAVE Chicago

As we work to complete the final entries for the first edition of the CRAVE Chicago Guide, I am asking my readers to help make sure I haven't forgotten anyone important. Is there a woman entrepreneur out there that you would recommend?

We are looking for the best of the best & are determined to create a world for them that will not only enhance their business, but coordinate networking connections that enhance their soul. Nominate someone by emailing michele [at] craveparty.com

Feel free to view the Flickr slide-show containing many of the entrepreneurs that are already involved in the 'CRAVE Chicago is proud to feature' section to the right.

The following are examples of other city's book's gorgeous two-page spreads!