SmallBizResource Blog -- Women in Business

Wednesday's Woman: Angela Jia Kim Savors Her Success

Posted by Gayle Kesten Wednesday, Jan 14, 2009, 12:16 PM ET

Think you had a busy 2008? Try spending 200-plus days on tour as a concert pianist while running your own company and launching a social network for female entrepreneurs that took off from the get-go. Welcome to the year of the multitalented Angela Jia Kim.

"If you would have told me five years ago that I would be doing all of this, I would have just laughed and said you were crazy," Kim told me during our post-New Year's conversation. "My mom plopped me in front of the piano at the age of 3 and that's what I did, practicing for hours a day. That was my life's path."

But what's a path without a few unexpected twists and turns? For Kim, the first twist came in the form of an allergic reaction to a body lotion -- a rash -- that appeared just as she was about to perform on stage. Long story short, Kim developed her own line of skin care products that became the basis for her company, Om Aroma, which officially launched in August 2007 and whose clients include resorts and luxury spas.

Next came the questions, tons of questions, from women asking Kim how she went about launching her own business. "I started to answer questions and realized I also had a lot of [business-related] questions for other people as well," she says.

Twist No. 2: Kim decided to create an online community, called Savor the Success, for fellow female entrepreneurs. "The idea came out of a need, and whenever there's a need, you're probably not the only one who needs it," Kim explains. "I started Savor the Success out of the desire for women to get together to help one another out of the whole premise that if we band together, we can build abundance and visibility instead of compete."

Savor the Success, developed by Kim's husband, a software and Web architect who specializes in social media sites, took off from the moment it launched this past summer; to date it has in excess of 4,000 members. "The plan was to be in beta for five months and see how it goes. But the moment we launched it was just big," Kim says. "That's the beauty of viral marketing. If people love what you have to offer, it will spread like wildfire.

Kim describes Savor the Success as a boutique social network -- a fusion between Facebook and LinkedIn that's all about providing soulful connections. "The thing we hear all the time from our members is that there's a lot of meaningful conversation that goes on, rather than spam," Kim says. To that end, every person who applies to be on the site has to be approved. "We visit your Web site and make sure you're the owner and that you have something of value to offer to other members," she adds.

Once a member, you're able to set up a profile page, blog, and participate in café-style discussion groups. "As a new user, the best thing to do is to start making yourself visible," Kim says. "One thing you always want to do is update your status work report. What are you doing? That can be automatically link to Facebook and Twitter, so you can do it in one clean shot."

Savor the Success is free to join, though a $500 Premium Membership gives you access to all of the company's in-person networking events and workshops for free or at a discount. You also receive exclusive PR opportunities and higher search visibility on the site. Increased visibility can also be achieved by earning points for referring members who can potentially help other members, and for posting comments on the site.

One way to get to know other members is by playing Savor Roulette, which appears on the home page below the most recent blog posts. When you fill out your profile, you include what you need to reach your goals, such as, for example, a Web site designer, Kim says. "You have to be very specific about your needs," she adds. That information cycles through the roulette game, which other members view and can then reach out. And you do the same.

"Once you send a referral, now that person is aware of you and you're creating connections," Kim says. "Our philosophy is give, give, get. The women who are the most successful and have gotten the most business out of this site are always giving."

The next Big Thing on Kim's list: a VIP event on May 13 for which Savor the Success will select 35 members to display their products and services for 50 select members of the press. "It's going to be a whole-day, invitation-only event, with a celebrity guest speaker," Kim says. "It's a day designed to connect the press to these entrepreneurs."

Kim runs her businesses much like she learns how to play complicated piano pieces: "To memorize hundreds of millions of notes, and then to have to perform them in front of thousands of people, is a daunting task," she says. "There's a process. It's about chopping things down into tiny steps and checking it off. "

Still, with three separate ventures, that's a whole lot of chopped up pieces. Which would Kim choose if she could do just one? "I'd rather choose none than have to choose one. Probably a mother would feel the same way," she says. "With the piano, it's very artistic. With Om Aroma, I'm a learner and student at heart, so learning the process just keeps me on my toes all day. With Savor the Success, the connections I've made, the quality of women, the friendships have all been very fulfilling."

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The Wednesday's Woman series is written for today's community of hard-working, small-business women, featuring profiles, industry trends, research, work/life balance issues and other topics of interest.

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