Meet the Founder

Long before Ventura County Business Women became Tawney Noriega's primary work, she was building businesses, studying how people make decisions, and developing a practical understanding of what allows an idea to gain traction.

Her early work centered on marketing and business development. After studying marketing and social media, Tawney built a company around a question she saw small businesses confronting repeatedly: how do you create meaningful growth when large advertising budgets are not realistic? Her work focused on organic visibility, messaging, storytelling, audience development, and creating systems that allowed smaller businesses to compete through clarity and connection rather than spending power.

That work eventually led to the creation of the Facebook group that would become Ventura County Business Women. Initially, the community served a practical purpose within Tawney's own business. What happened next changed the trajectory of her career. Women joined, participated, built relationships, asked for resources, and demonstrated a need that was significantly larger than the original idea. Tawney followed the demand. By 2022, VCBW had become her full-time focus.

The years since have expanded both the organization and Tawney's expertise. Her work has crossed business strategy, operations, brand positioning, marketing, membership development, events, partnerships, community engagement, digital communication, and the creation of systems designed to move people from passive audience members into active participants.

Underlying those disciplines is a way of thinking that has become central to her work. Tawney tends to look beyond the immediate problem and examine the structure around it: how an idea is positioned, where communication is breaking down, what the business owner is actually trying to create, which resources already exist, and which people or opportunities have not yet been connected.

It is one reason VCBW has continued to change rather than remain the networking group it could easily have become. Tawney has approached the organization as a living business, continually studying what women are asking for, where the model is creating value, where it is falling short, and what needs to evolve next.

The work Tawney is leading today is substantially larger than the original idea behind Ventura County Business Women.

VCBW now sits at the intersection of women in business, local expertise, professional relationships, education, visibility, and community resources. Tawney's next focus is strengthening the infrastructure that connects those pieces.

Ventura County already has experienced professionals, business organizations, educators, service providers, community programs, established companies, emerging entrepreneurs, and institutions with resources designed to support local economic growth. At the same time, thousands of women are trying to determine what they need, who they can trust, where to find support, and how to move their businesses forward. The opportunity Tawney sees is not to recreate everything that already exists. It is to make the ecosystem easier to navigate and considerably more connected.

That requires VCBW to mature alongside the community it serves. The organization is developing clearer pathways for women at different stages of business, deeper strategic partnerships, stronger access to local resources, greater opportunities for visibility and collaboration, and a leadership structure capable of creating value beyond Tawney's individual presence.

It also reflects an evolution in Tawney's own role. The founder who once needed to personally show up at the center of nearly everything is increasingly focused on direction, relationships, strategy, community impact, and identifying what VCBW is uniquely positioned to connect or create.

The ambition is not simply to make VCBW bigger. It is to make it increasingly useful.

For the woman launching her first business, that may mean access to people and information she did not previously know existed. For an established owner, it may mean stronger relationships, visibility, collaboration, or strategic opportunity. For an experienced professional, it may mean a meaningful way to contribute expertise. For a community organization or business partner, it may mean direct connection to the women its resources were created to serve.

Tawney's long-term work is to strengthen those pathways until Ventura County Business Women functions not simply as a community women join, but as part of the local infrastructure that helps women build here.