May 6, 2010 | Gretchen Seefried

Portions of this article were previously posted on dotcommothers.com and written by Sandy Naidu.

It's funny how the stars have aligned for many of us MidChix over the past year. Fate was firmly in our corner one morning in March when MidChix member Judi Crawford forwarded me the Best Colorado Deals online newsletter with a note about how useful she had found it. I forwarded it to editor, Lise, who, sitting in our local Dazbog coffee shop over her Americano and computer, realized that the photo in the newsletter was of the woman she happened to be sitting next to, at Dazbog.

Janet Simons, author of Colorado Smart Shopper, was meeting with Erin Seabold, marketing strategist and entrepreneur extraordinaire. Erin's bio on Twitter is the perfect introduction: Passionate woman entrepreneur/mother of 3/baseball lover/wine lover/volunteer/out to assist other passionate women entrepreneurs.
Erin has been an entrepreneur for over ten years, with her background prior to that in retail, home sales, lending, marketing, sales, fundraising and strategy execution. It was only three years ago that Erin moved with her family to Castle Rock, CO, from sunny California. It took her less than six months to start her first business here, A Boutique for the Soul. It creatively used the power of co-oping to help female small-business owners jumpstart expansion of their customer bases. A Boutique for the Soul arranged shopping boutiques in homes and women-owned businesses, and found enormous success by combining a girls-only party atmosphere with the natural development of relationships via off-line social networking.

In September of 2009, Erin launched The Seed Connection, which she describes as an off-shoot of Boutique for the Soul. After two years of meeting women entrepreneurs and helping them market their businesses, she saw a need for women to have everything they need to manage their business on one place, virtually. Creating a virtual space where women and women in business can be connected with the resources they need at the time they need them AND the way they need them, via social media, has never been done before. Think Facebook meets Match.com meets Monster.com...then add classified ads, events, nonprofit collaborations and a central place to manage your social accounts.

Just four weeks ago The Seed Connection announced its new partnership with Colorado Small Business Development Centers, Colorado Business Women's Association, American Business Woman's Association, and Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce. These partnerships promise to extend the reach of The Seed's online platform to a huge number of constituents. This is an inspiring model and a lifeline for aspiring entrepreneurs.

Erin firmly believes in teaching business owners that they are responsible for their own success. Her own five keys to success?
1) Love what you do...wake up every morning with a smile.
2) Put others first...good karma does exist for those who give more than they get.
3) Be honest with others and yourself...learn from your experiences even if they are not all positive.
4) Work hard...nothing comes for free.
5) Balance your work and your life so you can reap the rewards of both.

Erin says the best advice she ever received is powerful advice for us all: Find a mentor early in your business. It's both free and experienced advice. Creating in a bubble is dangerous to the success of your business. A mentor or team of advisors will assist you in bouncing ideas and concepts off of those who have the past experience and knowledge to lead you in the right direction.

Despite all of her experience, connections, ambition, vision and pure likability, the most powerful evidence of Erin's pure commitment to our gender is the Madeleine Albright quote that she chose for her personal homepage: There is a special place in hell for women who don't help other women.