Fernie is home to many successful women in business, including artist Angela Morgan, and this small community caters to women exploring and growing their businesses.
Last week Infinitea T-Bar & Boutique was filled with career driven women, and a few men, as the Fernie Chamber of Commerce hosted their first Women in Business event.
“One thing I find just totally inspiring are the number of women owning businesses in town,” Rhea Wilson with the Fernie Chamber of Commerce said. “I was just awestruck by it.”
As a way of commending their achievements, the chamber brought a room full of women together in order to discuss how their businesses became successful. Through social interactions like last week’s, the chamber hopes to develop a support network for businesswomen in the Elk Valley.
“Sometimes it’s nice to just have that support,” Wilson noted, adding that Fernie’s support network is something that initially drew her to move here in September. “There was something about this town, I was just compelled to come here.”
After socializing among themselves, the ladies sat down to listen to guest speaker Angela Morgan, who spoke about her early success and how she developed her business into what it is now.
With 12 galleries across Canada, a gallery in Switzerland and a recently opened gallery in Southern Ireland, Morgan has been able to re-define success.
Comparing her business to trying to catch a runaway train, Morgan noted that her fine arts career has been both exciting and rewarding.
“That seems to be what’s happened to my business in the last couple of years,” said Morgan. “It has really taken off.”
By following a few words of advice, Morgan has been able to focus her time and energy into the creative aspects of her work, while finding like-minded employees to sell her work and assist her in creating her final products.
“Paint what you know. Do what you know,” she said. “You follow that and everything else will follow along.”
For Morgan, that entails painting light-hearted, happy images of children and families, images that she described as colourful and full of life.
“I just stuck with what I knew,” added Morgan. Morgan opened up the floor to questions during her presentation and invited Women in Business event attendees to view some of her work, including an array of bright pillowcases, clothing and blankets.