Local business owner Melissa Warren, President of @Home Care, recently was tapped to join the Nashville chapter of the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO), a 501(c) (6) founded in 1997 to improve business conditions for women entrepreneurs.

Membership in the WPO is restricted to women who have an ownership interest in a privately held business and an annual revenue from that business of more than $2 million for product-based businesses and more than $1 million for service-based businesses.   

Warren represents the only Rutherford County-based business in the Nashville chapter.  @Home Care provides skilled non-medical caregiving services to older adults throughout Rutherford County and middle Tennessee. 

“I’m very pleased about this affiliation and ready to listen, learn and share with other women business owners in this region,” Warren says. 

“I’ve been very fortunate to grow a successful business in Rutherford County over the past four-and-a-half years.  Now, I look forward to moving to the next level with the input, knowledge and support of these accomplished middle Tennessee women. 

My strategic plans include strengthening and growing my professional staff, expanding and enriching caregiver training, and providing services throughout the middle Tennessee region.  And my key emphasis is not growth for growth’s sake, but in providing a valuable, caring and needed service to the families of Tennessee who are grappling with the challenges of growing older, remaining independent and preserving a strong quality of life.”

In the Nashville chapter, other members include Ramona Fox, CPA, Managing Partner of Fox Kolb & Associates; Rhonda Marko, President/CEO of Destination Nashville; Christie Wilson, Managing Broker/Owner of The Wilson Group Real Estate Services and Patricia Shea, President and CEO, YWCA of Nashville and Middle Tennessee. 

“We are so pleased to welcome Melissa Warren and @Home Care to the Nashville chapter of WPO,” said WPO Nashville Chapter Chair Pat Shea.  “We look forward to a collaborative sharing of knowledge, experience and expertise as we learn from each other and grow our businesses and organizations.”

 Each of the 93 WPO chapters across North America, Peru, the United Kingdom and South Africa has a maximum of 20 members and includes women from every industrial sector.  Each chapter serves as a peer advisory group based on the 4 Cs of WPO: Collaboration, Confidentiality, Commitment and Connections.

In order to allow members to be comfortable sharing organizational, financial and sales details, WPO does not allow competitive businesses within the same chapter. 

At four-hour monthly meetings led by an outside professional facilitator, members learn and share about all aspects of owning and growing a business to the next level, including

• Analysis of the participant's businesses using roundtables and case studies. (e.g. update on status of each participant's business, a sales presentation or problem solving, etc.)
• Expert advisors who participate in discussions of specific pre-selected topics
• Guest Speakers (on business topics selected by the group with time for questions and answers)
• Peer group support and input
• High visibility role models/entrepreneurs
• Interactive exercises
• Long & short term goal setting
• Sharing best practices
• Expert input