With the 2024-25 season of the Women’s Business Network of Peterborough (WBN) kicking off on Wednesday, September 4th at the Holiday Inn Peterborough, the organization’s incoming president wants you to know that she can’t wait for what’s to come.
“The board has been working so hard on so many different things and amazing programs,” says Adeilah Dahlke. “We have some really great ideas that I’m really excited about and I can’t wait to welcome people.”
Born and raised in Haliburton, Dahlke is currently based in Peterborough where she runs Jigsaw Organizing Solutions. Founded in 2015 while Dahlke lived in Waterloo, Jigsaw offers services including decluttering, organizing, virtual organizing, and photo and document digitizing.
But, contrasting the perfectly coloured plastic bins and containers you might imagine when thinking about organizing, Dahlke decided to make a shift early on in her business to focus on sustainable solutions that use what a client already has in their home.
“I realized every time I leave a client’s house, I’m taking away so many things they want to get rid of but I’m also bringing more plastic into their home,” she says. “They’re not actually consciously thinking about changing their habits, because if they just keep buying more and more stuff, it’s going to continue the cycle.”
Rather than bringing loads of waste to the dump, Jigsaw — which won a 2023 Leadership in Sustainability Award from GreenUp’s Green Economy Peterborough — is focused on upcycling and recycling discarded items by making donations to “non-traditional” thrift stores and giving away items for free. Believing it should be accessible, she has free resources on her website with tips on where and how to upcycle and recycle common household items.
“I try to find alternate avenues that I can bring things to that are going to directly benefit someone, and just have a better impact,” says Dahlke. “I think people just need different perspectives rather than the status quo of what we’ve always done, so I try to give people more creative ideas.”
Wondering how she would transition her business to Peterborough and find new clients when she moved to the city at the end of 2021, Dahlke immediately looked for networking opportunities and became a member of the WBN in 2022.
“When I moved here, it was like I had to restart my business and find all new clients and referrals,” she says, noting how instrumental the WBN was for that. “I just really loved the group of women I interacted with, and I see them all over town and we just forged these really strong connections.”
After serving as secretary on the board for her second season with the WBN, Dahlke will be taking over from past-president Katelyn Kemp for the 2024-25 season, which has the theme “collaboration over competition.”
“When it’s local, people feel like there’s more competition if there’s a business in the same industry,” Dahlke explains. “I think people need to realize that, even if we’re offering the same services, we all are different in some way — either the services are a little different, our personalities are a little bit different, or our target market is different. So we need to embrace that we are all different and work together to build each other up — especially for women.”
Having launched her business right out of school at just 23 years old, Dahlke learned the importance of collaboration and learning from others in the industry.
When she joined the Professional Organizers in Canada as a young entrepreneur, she relied on learning about the industry from experienced professionals who were often more than twice her age. She was even given the nickname “The Little One” and had her own mentor.
“We just completely hit it off and then I felt so comfortable approaching her to ask those dumb questions that you have when you’re first starting a business and you have no idea what you’re doing,” Dahlke recalls.
Dahlke notes that it was a “mutually beneficial” relationship where she did a lot of subcontracting for her mentor before she moved away, and they both continue to show up to support and encourage one another. She notes that if she didn’t have that support, she doesn’t know where her business would have gone.
“It might have shifted my entire view if I just jumped into the industry and felt it was competitive,” she says. “I might have been really intimidated and just stopped, but I think her support really kept me going because she was such a valuable resource and such a supportive friend.”
Dahlke wants to remember how she felt when she was “that young, terrified 23 year old” to support the younger women who have joined WBN.
“We do have some younger members joining the WBN and it’s amazing, so we need to be supporting them,” she says.
To help forge relationships and collaborations between those who may have difficulty beginning conversations and networking on their own, WBN will be introducing facilitated networking — by pairing more seasoned members with those who are newer — in a more intentional and deliberate way.
“At the WBN you’re having a sit-down dinner and you’re chit chatting, mingling with other members, and they become really good friends,” Dahlke says. “Through that you get clients, because either they will hire you or they know someone who needs your services. The WBN is so special in that way because we have those strong connections with each other but we’re also trying to support everyone in their business.”
Dahlke notes that this type of one-on-one networking, which is more than just handing someone a business card, is how relationships are made across businesses — something she knows from her own business.
“My business and the work I do with my clients is so intimate because I see what they don’t let others see,” she says. “I go into their basement that’s chalk full of stuff, or in their underwear drawer, or financial papers, and it’s such an intimate process. They really have to trust me, so to be able to make strong connections with people at a networking group is so valuable to me.”
“You don’t want to hire someone that you don’t trust, and you don’t want to purchase a product from someone you don’t like. It’s not just about having a Google ad, because making those personal, intimate connections is so valuable.”
Alongside Dahlke, the lineup of women rounding out WBN’s 2024-25 board of directors includes past president Katelyn Kemp, secretary Akshana Katoch, treasurer Cindy Koshowski, membership director Nancy Wiskel, program directors Deanna Hunt and Ashley Bonner, director at large Victoria Shaoling Wang, social director Rebecca O’Rourke, and publicity director Tiffany Daskewich.
“The women on the board with me are really, really incredible, and they have such great ideas that make it inspiring to be on the board,” says Dahlke. “We work well together to come up with solutions to best meet the member’s needs.”
With this season’s theme of collaboration over competition, Dahlke hopes to see more members teaming up with each other for the spotlight offsite events where entrepreneurs can welcome members into their business to learn about their products and service. She is also hopeful more women will use the “toonie talk” portion of the regular meetings to highlight the work of other businesses, as was done at meetings last season.
Most of all, Dahlke is excited to see what will happen when strong and passionate women come together in collaboration.
“Women are amazing and I feel like whenever I go to a networking event that’s just women, I make strong connections,” she says. “I feel like women have this capacity in a really strong way to connect with each other and lift each other up.”
For more information on WBN and the upcoming season and to become a member, visit wbnptbo.ca. For more information on Jigsaw Organizing Solutions, visit www.jigsaworgsolutions.com.
