organization. When I speak in front of women’s groups, I tell them that they never want to have to choose between their mothers and their businesses. If mom needs you to care for her for a month, for example, someone else can duplicate what you do in your business if you’ve been documenting what it is that you actually do on a daily basis. Then, someone else can run your business and you can care for your mom. A sustainable business can be created when you document what you do.
Andrea Bloom
ConnectWell
Andrea Bloom is a seasoned executive with over 20 years of business experience including 15 years spent in the health care industry in various product development, marketing, business development and consulting roles. She has worked for leading health care companies, medical device start-ups and health related non-profits (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, American Heart Association, Diabetic Youth Foundation, Playworks and Wellness City Challenge). She continues to be an active research contributor to the Health Horizons practice area at Institute for the Future, a prominent Palo Alto think tank. Andrea’s background includes marketing in both the U.S. and international arenas targeting consumers, physicians, hospitals and retailers. She spent 3 years in product development and 5 years in the international division of a major health care company introducing blood glucose monitoring technology to remote parts of the developing world and enabling self-management of diabetes for the first time in many countries. Andrea worked as a diabetes industry consultant as a Principal at Close Concerns and Cogent Reimbursement Strategies before founding her own consultancy, Diabetes Insights. In additional to diabetes, Andrea has a broad knowledge of the health care landscape having worked in a number of disease states for medical device, drug delivery, pharmaceutical and lab equipment companies and on wellness, prevention and disease management programs. She has a deep understanding of health care reimbursement involving payers, providers and government policies. At the beginning of 2010, Andrea founded ConnectWell to leverage her experience-base in health care and create an educational program that teaches sustainable wellness practices for life-long success in eating, activity and a balanced lifestyle. Andrea’s education includes a Master of Business Administration from Harvard Business School and a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from University of California, Berkeley with departmental honors, high distinction in general scholarship and Phi Beta Kappa.
ConnectWell partners with organizations to select and engage employees who demonstrate “readiness” to embrace wellness practices. Their wellness programs support people across the spectrum of health promotion—eating, activity, life skills and balance. ConnectWell’s offering focuses on addressing preventable illnesses by empowering individuals through wellness education, and engaging them in activities and exercises to promote and reinforce healthy habit formation. ConnectWell’s unique approach enrolls people who are “ready” to embrace wellness practices and engages them in the context of their household values and life goals. The approach is integrative in that the programming threads through all aspects of life to create consistency in behavior patterns that drive positive health outcomes. ConnectWell’s household-centered approach reaches beyond standard worksite wellness programs by extending the program to family members representing up to two- thirds of the employer “covered” population. ConnectWell utilizes proven approaches to wellness practices and reaches a widespread population to achieve sustainable reductions in health care costs while enhancing productivity and overall well-being.
Could you describe your business in one sentence?
ConnectWell is a wellness education and programming company that reaches people through employers to teach and engage the “ready” population in sustainable wellness practices for life-long success in eating, activity and a balanced life-style.
What advantages do you think you have as a divorced/solo business owner that married business owners don’t have?
I think the main advantage is that I am completely independent in my thinking. As a single woman, you don’t have to counterbalance your partner’s view of what YOU should be doing.
What about disadvantages?
There could be financial disadvantages. It depends upon where you are in your career. There could be more financial disadvantages because you’re the only income earner. For me, that’s really not the case. I’m further along in my career and have an experience base that is significant. I already launched a business as an independent consultant and my ex-spouse helps support my family. I am fortunate to have an element of that financial freedom. The time is right for me to launch my new business, ConnectWell. I’m in the startup phase of this business and have exclusively focused on it now in 2010. I hope to start gaining visibility for this business 4Q10 and I intend to generate revenue in 2011.
Why this type of business, and why now?
I was thinking about launching the business for a long time. I have been in the diabetes industry since 1993 and watched this epidemic growing while in the industry and it became troubling. From a personal values standpoint, I decided I’d rather prevent diabetes from happening than focusing on treatment. I had been operating as an independent consultant, which helped me develop confidence to start a bigger business. I broadened my experience beyond diabetes and I’m still part of a think tank. All of these experiences augmented my view of ConnectWell, which in turn helped me create the vision for this company. I also volunteered at a diabetes camp in 2008. The next year I brought my kids so they could see the impact of this disease on others. You have to stay on top of diabetes and teach kids with type 1 diabetes how to manage it. I kept thinking to myself, if I could help kids at diabetes camp figure out how to manage their disease, I could certainly train adults how to prevent type 2 diabetes from happening in the first place. This idea also provided me with the vision to start my business.
Also, I had a career break. I was on a fast track career path in the corporate world after coming out of Harvard Business School, until my second pregnancy. It turned out that I was pregnant with twins. Having twins was truly a gift, because it forced me to focus not only on my family, but it also changed my view of my work in the corporate world. I then worked as a consultant, which in turn gave me an independent viewpoint, working across companies and over the entire spectrum of diabetes.
Do you think business ownership has led you to remain single?
I am in a stable, long-term relationship with another entrepreneur. He’s completely supportive of what I’m doing. I think you have to bring other entrepreneurs into your life. I need to have someone who is supportive and optimistic. I’ve learned so much, and continue to learn from him on how to think like a CEO.
As an entrepreneur, you have to be around nurturing people. All the odds are against you, so you really need fans and supporters and like-minded thinkers that tell you that, “You can do this!” which in turn gives you the energy to keep on plugging away at your idea and vision.
What advice would you give another single woman who is thinking about starting a business?
She has to have a lot of confidence in her capabilities and the concept she’s developing. Most people are going to try and knock you down. You’ve got to be really strong and know your own capabilities in order to move your idea forward. You have to be ready for rejection; you’ll hear “no” over and over again. You’re also not going to have a big company behind you with nearly infinite resources. You have to evolve the business idea and move it forward as you get market information in order
