Wichita may get WISE again.
In the ’80s, Wichita had a community development group by that name.
Now, Muse-E-Yum! owner Jan Green is thinking of forming a group called Women’s Initiative for Successful Enterprise.
Green, whose shop is at 130 N. Rock Road, isn’t content to sit at her store hoping more business comes through the door.
Instead, she’s inviting other female small business owners to meet with her Tuesday at 8 a.m. at Sugar Sisters Bakery & Cafe to discuss ways to promote, strengthen and grow their businesses.
Green has a particular idea that she’d like to share with the group for jointly promoting their businesses, but she says, “I also want it to be a forum to do some brainstorming and some trading of ideas.”
While she’s not exactly trying to exclude men, Green says, “I just think that women have a way of working together.”
If you’re interested in attending, call Green at (316) 269-5600 by noon on Monday.
I was pleased to be invited to speak to the Rotary Club of Derby today. I was less pleased when a banker said something funny and then informed me he’d prefer not to see himself in my column.
The club’s joke of the day (how did that tradition get started with Rotary clubs anyway?) was: “What’s the difference between investment bankers and pigeons? Well, pigeons can still make deposits on new BMWs.”
To which the banker quickly replied, “And that was investment bankers, not bankers. Let’s make that clear.”
Cynthia Zajkowski has sewn since she was a child and most recently has done alterations at someone else’s shop. Now, she’s going to have her own.
“It’s just kind of a passion,” Zajkowski says.
She’s opening Sew Much at 535 W. Douglas in the former Travel Air building in Delano late this summer.
“We’re going to be a unique fabric boutique,” Zajkowski says. “It’s going to be mostly geared toward apparel fabrics.”
She’ll have some quilting-related fabrics and items as well.
Zajkowski will have 2,000 square feet, just over 1,200 of which will be the sales area.
She looked at several strip malls before deciding on Delano instead.
“I wanted to be somewhere that’s more interesting,” Zajkowski says. “I like historical-looking areas anyway more so than the new.”
Brady Miller of Occidental Management handled the lease, and Bree Kelley at Landmark Commercial Real Estate represented Zajkowski in the deal.
Darrin Hackney is accustomed to working behind the camera, but he’s sort of accidentally appeared on the other side lately thanks to some silly antics.
Hackney and his business partner, Brian Robinson, have JDB (Just Darrin & Brian) Photography. Last fall, a client — marketing firm Nye & Associates — requested some random head shots for an idea it had for one of its clients, XLT Ovens.
“We just wanted to show the idea to the client,” says Nye general manager Ruth Johnson. The plan was to later shoot models for real. Johnson had an idea for some animated expressions showing pizza parlor owners looking amazed over XLT’s ovens.
The naturally animated Robinson has a theater background, so the plan was for Hackney to shoot pictures of him.
But while they were at it, Hackney says, “Brian goes, ‘Hey, why don’t we update our head shots for our Web site?’ ”
“I was just dorking around like I usually do and started doing the facial expressions, too,” Hackney says.
The clients saw the proof sheet and loved it.
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