Credit and debt management are among courses offered at the conference.

Credit and debt management are among courses offered at the conference.
By MARALINE KUBIK
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Relationships. Realistic goals. Research.
Much like reading, writing and arithmetic provide the foundation of a solid education, the three R's a local businesswoman cites provide the foundation for a successful business. Or, in her case, businesses.
Mary Beth Sammartino owns The Austin Agency Inc., an Austintown-based insurance agency she bought from her father, and The Wrist Connection, a Boardman jewelry store she started in 2002.
Sammartino will deliver the keynote address during the Women & amp; Money conference, sponsored by Ohio Treasurer of State Joseph T. Deters, at Youngstown State University later this week.
"Women shouldn't use the word can't when they are building or buying a business. Success should be the word they are thinking," Sammartino said, describing the message she hopes to impart to the women who attend.
To be successful, she said, business owners must build relationships with their employees, customers and suppliers; must stand behind their products and must be able to multitask, handle stress and do it all calmly.
"Any woman who runs a home can multitask," she said, "and any woman who's paid the bills has accounting skills."
Women may also have a slight edge over men when it comes to building business relationships because women are natural nurturers and relationships need to be nurtured, Sammartino added.
An early start
She got started in the insurance business at 17, right after graduating from high school. Although she'd planned to go to college, Sammartino said her dad, a regional sales manager for an insurance company, had an opportunity to buy his own agency and asked her if she would delay her college plans for a year to help him get it up and running.
"That turned into many, many years," she said. Then, Sammartino left the insurance business -- although she maintained her license -- to take care of the books for her husband's printing company.
"But I'd never satisfied the itch to go to college," she said. So, when her youngest child started kindergarten, Sammartino started back to school. After receiving an A in her first chemistry class, Sammartino said she knew she had to earn the degree she'd always dreamed of.
A nontraditional student, Sammartino completed her degree in medical laboratory technology with a 4.0 grade-point average. "I could have gotten a job immediately after graduation, but I wasn't willing to leave my children all day," she said.
Her sons were 5 and 9 years old at the time, and employers wanted only full-time workers, she explained.
Three years later, when her father went on an extended vacation and asked her to oversee his business, Sammartino went back to the insurance agency, opting to buy the business when her dad retired.
Second business
She opened The Wrist Connection four years later. Although she thought about selling jewelry out of her home, Sammartino said she decided to rent a storefront so that she could leave her work at the workplace.
When you are a business owner, it doesn't work that way, she's learned. Dedication is mandatory, Sammartino said, and paperwork that must be completed comes home.
Today, The Wrist Connection sells a variety of jewelry and gift items and boasts a mailing list of 4,000 customers, Sammartino said.
The benefit of owning two distinct businesses, Sammartino added, is that the basic principles of good business translate: treating others as you'd like to be treated, and standing behind your word and your products. So do skills developed out of necessity, such as marketing.
"Every business experience I've had has enabled me to go forward with another endeavor," she said. "I'm 44 years old, and all I think about is what I want to be when I grow up."
The free, day-long Women & amp; Money conference, slated for Friday, will feature courses on budgeting, credit and debt management, estate planning, home ownership, identity theft, insurance and risk management, investing, kids and money, and retirement planning.
To register, log onto www.ohiowomenandmoney.org.
kubik@vindy.com