OCTOBER 26, 2012
LEESBURG TODAY
37
“What is certain is that women-owned firms are making a critical contribution to the U.S. economic engine.” National Women’s Business Council
Women Who Mean Business
W
hen it comes to women-owned businesses, Loudoun County appears to be faring better than the state and the nation. Women-owned firms accounted for 32 percent of the businesses in the county, compared with 30 percent for the state and 29 percent for the United States, according to data from the 2007 U.S. Census Bureau’s Survey of Business Owners. From a global perspective, almost 1 billion women around the world will enter the international economy in the coming decade, San Francisco-based Booz & Co. estimates. In conducting research to create the “Third Billion Index”—a ranking of 128 countries based on how effectively leaders are empowering women as economic agents—the international management consulting firm concluded that “the economic advancement of women doesn’t just empower women but also leads to greater overall prosperity.” As the international spotlight is turned on women in the workforce and at the helms of corporations and government agencies, Loudoun Business takes this opportunity to feature some of the top women of influence in the business community: • Robyn Bailey, Loudoun County Department of Economic Development • Kristina Bouweiri, Reston Limousine • Michelle Frank, Orbital Sciences Corp. • Heidi Seibentritt, Loudoun County Department of Planning • Colleen Gillis Snow, Cooley, LLP • Mary Ellen Taylor, Endless Summer Harvest • Kate Zurschmeide, Great Country Farms
Kate Zurschmeide, Owner Great Country Farms
Kate and Mark Zurschmeide are coowners of Great Country Farms south of Bluemont, known as much as a tourism destination as a farming operation. The Zurschmeides bought the farm 19 years ago. Since then, the couple has built a thriving rural business, with a deft mix of pick-your-own operations, community supported agriculture and family events, including fishing and pig races. If Mark has the vision and ideas, it is his wife’s business outreach and communications skills that help bring those ideas to fruition and have influenced the company’s growth. A former director of product development for C&P Telephone, Zurschmeide used that background to grow the company as well to play a significant role representing the industry in various Loudoun business organizations. She currently is serving on the board of directors at the Loudoun Chamber of Commerce, and has served on the board for the Loudoun Convention and Visitors Association, as well as on the county’s Rural Economic Development Council. “People make a business. I like interacting with really smart people in Loudoun,”
she said. A recent example of expanded relationships—along with doubled production and expansion of its wholesale business—is the farm’s lease of land from Holy Cross
Monastery. For the monks, the partnership brings in revenue, keeps their land in production and provides them with fresh vegetables. All the excess production goes to Loudoun Interfaith Relief and Zurschmeide’s hope is to “use the farm tours to get to the next level; to hold a food drive at each farm.” Entrepreneurs should stay involved. “If you stop caring, you should do something else,” she says - Margaret Morton
Mary Ellen Taylor, President Endless Summer Harvest
A woman who has introduced Loudoun to the virtues of hydroponic (water) gardening, Mary Ellen Taylor, coowner of Endless Summer Harvest near Purcellville is a bundle of cheerful vigor and enthusiasm. Taylor shortly will double production from 12,000 to 24,000 square feet of pesticide-free, hydroponic lettuce, salad greens and herbs under glass. The virtues of hydroponic production are numerous. One 12,000-square-foot greenhouse equals 12 acres of traditional lettuce production. “There’s no frost, no drought, no deer and no stink bugs to worry about—they don’t like lettuce,” Taylor said. The original partners in the 2002 business included Taylor’s husband, Wally Reed, curator of the U.S. Botanic Garden, who taught the partners “the production side.” She entered the business full-time around 2006, eventually buying her co-owners out. Her business partner is her father, retired Brig. Gen. and Navy JAG lawyer Chet Taylor. It is her marketing and retail experience that was most instrumental in shifting the business from a “hobby to a thriving commercial business,” Taylor said. “Why not put my 30 years’ marketing and retail experience into the business?” Based on her experience at Woody’s department store, “my business philosophy is all about relationships, and letting people know they can trust our products,” she said. “We cycle 4,000 seeds per week; through germination, harvesting, planting out and distribution.” Taylor has always aimed high, selling at major Washington, DC, markets, top restaurants, high-end events and specialty outlets. “I could sell the crop three times over,” she said. - Margaret Morton