Women's Initiative: Where Dreams Become Thriving Businesses

Convening with Ms. Foundation

I recently had the pleasure of representing Women’s Initiative at the Ms. Foundation for Women convening for grantee organizations in New Orleans from June 9-13, 2008. The convening featured representatives from grantee organizations of the Foundation’s Collaborative Fund for Women’s Economic Development and Fairy Godmother Fund, which focus on microenterprise development. Also attending were Ms. Foundation staff; Elaine Edgcomb, Director of research group Aspen Institute/FIELD; and representatives from funders Citi, JP Morgan Chase, and the Mary Reynolds Babcock Foundation. The convening consisted of an opening reception on Tuesday evening, followed by two and a half days of grantee organizations working to develop a plan to continue their good work despite the end of Ms. Foundation funding. There were small and large group and individual brainstorming and exercises, featuring expert facilitation by consultants Jennifer Henderson and Connie Evans. While we all came up with ideas for making our organizations sustainable and/or self-sufficient, we also decided to continue the conversation online, so I created an online Facebook group for us and others who are passionate about women’s economic development here.

Convening attendees were also taught about New Orleans culture during the week. We received samples of products from local women-owned businesses, including a sampling of Loretta’s Authentic Pralines. Attendees at Tuesday’s opening reception enjoyed performances by the local Ashe Cultural Center, which featured song, dance, spoken word, and musical performances from New Orleans’ Second Line culture. On Thursday, we watched a selection from the upcoming film “Trouble the Water,” which followed families affected by Katrina. However, the most unforgettable learnings about local culture came on Wednesday when we went to the Lower Ninth Ward to  visit nonprofit Common Ground to learn of their post-Katrina community cleanup, rebuilding, and advocacy efforts. Other than the good work of this nonprofit, it was really hard to note progress in the area in the 3 years after Katrina. I’ve shared some photos below so you can see what I mean.

         

Left to Right

1.Here’s our group learning about Common Ground and their services.

2. This is the view behind Common Ground, and that’s part of the partially rebuilt flood wall to the left. This view represents much of the view around the district: overgrown grasses in empty lots where houses once existed.

3. Three years after Katrina, it’s hard to believe that sights like this still exist: a totally destroyed house filled with totally destroyed belongings.

4. This doghouse, built by nonprofit Common Ground and residing outside its office, represents how a lot of people feel about FEMA.                                                                                          

Business or Boyfriend?

It’s been a while since I had a serious relationship.  Now I do and it’s  a little tricky to manage both.  Well, for one thing, it’s long-distance, so my morning is his evening and his morning is my way-too-late at night.  For a while we were meeting up around 11p.m. and talking until 2am.  It was super romantic, and, well, at that time of night, kind of hot!  But, after a few months, I found that the cost was pretty high.  Even though I have a work-at-home business and set my own hours, the lack of any kind of “normal” schedule was starting to get to me. 

My schedule became like this, waking up around 10a.m., doing my morning routine, having breakfast, checking email, and getting down to business at around 2p.m.!  By then, I was super-stressed because I only had three hours to contact people on normal office hours, if I had to contact someone on the East Coast, I was rushing to get to them before they left for the day, it just really set me off behind the gun so to speak.

So, eventually, I started shutting down at 1:00a.m., then 12:30a.m., 12:00a.m. and yeah, my boyfriend wasn’t too thrilled.  See, he was at work, and had the kind of gig that allowed him to IM me with impunity.  In other words, it was convenient for him, especially since he didn’t have a computer at home. 

It was really tough to make the call, since not talking with him during his mornings meant maybe days before we’d meet up again.  But, when I heard myself say, “You know if you respected my work, the way I respect yours, you would be more understanding of my need to have real business hours…”  I sounded so whiny!  And it was pretty clear that I needed to respect my business, not my boyfriend.

So, bit by bit, I’ve gotten back to a real schedule.  I’m up at 8:00a.m., I start work at 9:00a.m. and the best part is I don’t feel like I have to make up for the late start by working until 10 at night!  I’ve also started to have real weekends.  One or – gasp! – two whole days off!   I feel more refreshed in the morning and I get way more done; I guess it really does work to get your work done during the day. 

It wasn’t easy making the call, but I believe a happy businesswoman is a better girlfriend!

-- Tracy Watson (WI grad ’06), Our World Books – Books that inspire falling in love with your life.

Monday Linkblogging: Women Entrepreneurs

• The Gulf Daily News has an interview with Huda Janahi, the first Bahraini woman to receive the GCC Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award.

Getting a commercial registration (CR) was the biggest obstacle as I was told at the Labour Ministry that only males were allowed a CR for cargo businesses. However, there was a misunderstanding. When I joined the United Nations Development Organisation (Unido) for its Arab Regional Centre for Entrepreneurship and Investment Training (Arceit), I told them my problem and they said there was no law that stated that women cannot get CRs for cargo businesses. They advised me to go to the ministry after they contacted officials there and soon I was granted a CR.

• An article in the Maryland Gazette.net features Jennifer D. Collins, recently honored by Enterprising Women magazine.

Jennifer D. Collins had been steadily growing the event-planning company she started in 1997 until the hospitality industry was hit hard by the 2001 terror attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. People stopped traveling to hold meetings, so she had to tap into her communications expertise to also provide clients with meeting strategies to keep her business afloat, she said.

• Entrepreneur.com has an article about women getting MBAs not to work at corporations, but to run their own businesses.

To be sure, getting your MBA isn't a prerequisite for becoming a successful entrepreneur. But one thing is for certain, at least according to our sources at some of the nation's top-ranked MBA programs: Whether you're looking for a program with the best professors, the best classroom experience or the greatest opportunity for women, business schools are the place to be--especially if you are interested in innovation, entrepreneurship and real-life case studies.

• Business Opportunist blog posts about niche marketing for home-based businesses:

You don’t have access to viable means and amenities to compete directly with large business houses and serve a broad spectrum of consumers. In such an adverse business scenario, niche marketing emerges as the most feasible and cost effective strategy that can help home business owners to stay ahead of their competitors and maximize their profits.

Women With Mojo

Just for fun, here's a series from Watchmojo.com (a web video magazine) on the top 50 women with mojo, as determined by the show's viewers.

You can see the individual clips for each woman here. The list is pretty celebrity-heavy.

What do you think? Who are your top women with mojo?

New Media Women Entrepreneurs

Wow, what a great project! The New Media Women Entrepreneurs:

will fund three women-led start-ups that will generate new ideas in the world of news and information and model a spirit of journalistic entrepreneurship. Winners will be given $10,000 to launch their ideas and blog about the process over the next year.

NMWE is a unique initiative addressing opportunity and innovation, recruitment and retention for women in journalism by spotlighting their ingenuity and entrepreneurial abilities. Pilot projects will show what can be done. Research will tell us what more to do. And an awards program and summit will showcase women’s creative ideas. NMWE is supported by the McCormick Tribune Foundation.

Application deadline is May 1, 2008! You can get all the info you need here.

First Lady Visits Women's Initiative!

We had an exciting week last week. California's First Lady Maria Shriver visited our Oakland office and three client sites, including Svea Vezzone's Swarm Gallery, where we held a reception in her honor.

The visit was organized to announce Shriver's statewide initiative or invest in women entrepreneurs, called "We Invest." Shriver committed $100,000 to Women's Initiative to support 100 women's training.

The Oakland Tribune had a great article about it:

"When you give a man a loan, you help him. When you give a woman a loan, you help her children, her family and her community," said Shriver, explaining that it was in the women's nature to pass the good along.

... The event was held at SWARM Gallery on Second Street, the business of Svea Lin Vezzone, a graduate of the Women's Initiative. Before she made her appearance at the gallery, Shriver visited the businesses oftwo other graduates, Sheron Campbell, the owner of World of Braids, and Allison Barakat, the proprietor of Bakesale Betty who employs 75 workers.

Shriver, dismissing the many praises being showered upon her when she took the stage, reminded her audience that she had never started a business as they had.

"I'm completely in awe of you," she said.

The Women's Conference is an annual event launched by the governor that unites 60 world leaders with 14,000 women in one arena to share stories of success and life lessons.

... The launch of WE Invest was announced at the Women's Conference in October. Shriver said she picked Oakland for the launch venue "because I've wanted to do something in Oakland. I wanted to start in a place that really needed it."

We're not sure what to be more excited about: the money (which will help us help 100 more women with trainings and loans), the publicity (which will help bring in both support and new clients), or getting to meet the first lady!

How To Avoid Being Blindsided In Business

An interview from First Wives World with Amy Dorn Kopelan, Executive Director of Coach Me, which:

teaches women how to "master the subtle skills and unwritten rules" necessary for career advancement and leadership. The COACH ME Institute specializes in group coaching, business education, and professional development programs that target emerging talent. COACH ME's research-based curriculum gives women the edge to maximize their individual potential and nurture their initiative. The Institute helps companies develop and retain their bench strength inside the corporation.
COACH ME targets:

• Women with talent and promise who cannot afford professional coaching on their own
• Women in middle management or first-line managers who want to take on leadership roles
• Women from underserved multicultural populations who want to leverage their unique talents

She's marketing a book on this topic, but there's some good advice about taking power in this video.

Friday Linkblogging: Women in Business

• Mary Robinson was the keynote speaker at Woibex 2008, the tenth annual Global Businesswomen and Leaders Summit, in Dubai.

“Every development expert knows that, in order to have stable development, you must empower women and girls,” she said. “Businesswomen have an important role to play in development because every successful woman encourages another.”

She added that it was very important that leaders think globally and act locally. “We have to be interconnected internationally but we have to make a difference in our own environment.”

The event also hosted the Seventh Middle East Businesswomen and Leaders Achievement Awards.

• The Fort Worth Business Press has an interview with m strategies inc. founder and CEO Michelle Smith.

I’ve always made a point to continue to promote diversity in my firm, from women, men, black or white – every kind of thinking and disciplines. For me, being a woman has not hindered me at all, in fact it has kind of added to the diversity mix I like to keep at the firm. And I think it is incumbent upon a leader to send in a different kind of person to close a deal. It doesn’t always take a woman’s touch – sometimes it takes a man’s. But to have that depth on your team really helps.

• Via Anne Reeves' blog: Country Living magazine's annual conference Women Entrepreneurs: A Celebration of Creativity, which happens in Chicago this weekend. (Sadly, the conference is already sold out.) But check out the profiles of women entrepreneurs on the site.

• The Minneapolis Star Tribune has an interview with three businesswomen about women's challenges in the workplace.

How far have women come in the workplace?

Carlson: With the Fortune 500, not very far. We've gone from one CEO in the last 20 years to 10 CEOs. But if you're talking about women in small businesses and as major shareholders of companies, it's astonishing. In that perspective, women are finding ways to lead and contribute.

• Emirates Business 24/7 reports that Hydra Properties is developing a new skyscaper in Dubai called "Eve's Tower," which will only allow woman-led businesses to lease space.

The 20-storey project is also offering cheaper rents in order to attract more interest from women-only companies.

... men are not banned entirely. Companies are allowed to have male employees, but women will take priority and have certain privileges, including their own lift and the opportunity to set their own rules.

... "the ultimate goal of Eve’s Tower is to provide women with an environment that tends to their needs, allowing more comfort and freedom,” he says, adding that it will also act as a forum for female executives.

Eve’s Tower is the first project of its kind, not only in the Middle East but anywhere in the world. The developer plans to introduce the concept to other cities in the future.

• An article in the Arizona Republic turned us on to the Make Mine a Million $ Business program:

Make Mine a Million $ Business is a program of Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence — and founding partner, OPEN from American Express®. The program provides a combination of money, mentoring, marketing and technology tools that women entrepreneurs need to help grow their businesses from micro to $millions.

The program's goal is to "inspire one million women entrepreneurs to reach annual revenues of 1 Million $ by the year 2010." Count Me In is a national nonprofit MFI (microfinance institution) offering women loans of up to $45,000. Taking part in the initiative involves signing up for their online community here.

• Russia Today wants us to know that Russia has more female-owned small businesses than any other country in the world.

Elena Safonina ... says the country’s unique geographical location and some quintessentially Russian character traits define the country’s female entrepreneurs.

“Russian women are not quite European and at the same time not exactly Asian. Since our country is somewhere in between these parts of the world, our women manage to combine rationality with being highly expressive and creative,” Safonina says.

Some say female-owned businesses in Russia are less likely to become the leaders in their sectors as women focus on creating a family-like atmosphere rather than stifling their male competitors.

Hmmm ... we'll take the statistics, but we're not so sure about the "analysis."

• The Taipei Times reports, based on an online study they conducted, that sexual harrassment at work remains a top concern for working women in Taiwan.

The results showed that 61.5 percent of the respondents said they were worried about sexual harassment. Responses to further questions revealed that 37.2 percent of them had been victims of sexual harassment.

The survey showed that 37.4 percent of the victims chose not to seek help.

"In Taiwan's work environment, [sexual harassment victims] can't just stand up and report the case," Jennifer Wang, director of the committee, told a news conference at the TBA. "If you do so, you'd likely be forced to leave your work." Survey results support Wang's remark.

• And finally, speaking of sexual harrassment, Japanese Police blog tells the story of a Japanese woman business owner who was hit up by a cop for free massages, and then hit ON. Naturally, the cop was a police inspector in charge of monitoring the sex industry. It seems she might have been vulnerable to this cop because her business was operating illegally but this is unclear.

Monday Linkblogging: Microenterprise

• Bill Clinton addressed a fundraising group in Toronto, speaking about the Clinton Giustra Sustainable Growth Initiative, which includes microenterprise development in Latina America. He said:

"The world is bedeviled by three great crises: persistent and growing inequality in economic opportunity, education and healthcare; the insecurity caused by our interdependence, making us all vulnerable to terrorism and weapons of mass destruction; and, the unsustainability of our current developmental course because of the threat of global warming

... Ironically, addressing the problem of inequality will help us to deal with the other two crises. It will remove the resentments and hatreds and divisions that fuel so much of the violence in the world. And if we have a truly sustainable economic process, it will reduce the threat of climate change."

You can watch the speech here.

• Food for thought: the Christian Children's Fund participated in a panel about youth and economic development in which they addressed the need for specialized microenterprise programs for youth.

Miller emphasized the need for youth specific programs such as early parenthood and HIV/AIDS. “Micro-finance and self-employment in the informal sector offer an opportunity that is appropriate in post-conflict and other challenging environments where formal employment opportunities are limited,” Miller said.

Miller says there is often a mismatch between the skill sets of youth and the skills needed by businesses in the formal sector. As a means to bridge that gap, Miller highlighted the importance of pairing vocational skills training with broader life-skills, such as resource management, communication, confidence building and decision making.

• A  new link for our blogroll: USAID's Microlinks.

microLINKS is a dynamic knowledge-sharing Web site designed to improve the impact of USAID-funded microenterprise programs and activities. Created through USAID’s Accelerated Microenterprise Advancement Project, microLINKS allows the Microenterprise Development office to share cutting-edge research with microenterprise development and financial services practitioners, USAID Mission staff, and other interested individuals and organizations while also serving as a meeting place through which visitors can share their own experiences and knowledge.

• Those of you businesspeople selling online in New York should be aware that the state is planning on taxing online entrepreneurs:

If you offer an affiliate program for websites to sell your products, you might want to become aware of a plan afoot by the State of New York to tax you.

If you sold $10,000 worth of products to those in the state of New York and had one Web affiliate in New York, under the proposed plan you’d be required to collect and remit sales tax to local taxing authorities in the state.

That could add a significant bureaucratic burden.

• Selena Maranjian of Mutual Funds blog has a great post about what form your money should take. She quotes an article on microcredit by in the Wilson Quarterly by Karol Boudreaux and Tyler Cowen, which states:

A cash hoard kept at home can be lost, stolen, taken by the taxman, damaged by floods, or even eaten by rats. ... Under these kinds of conditions, a cow (or a goat or pig) is a much better medium for saving. It is sturdier than paper money. Friends and relatives can't ask for small pieces of it. If you own a cow, it yields milk, it can plow the fields, it produces dung that can be used as fuel or fertilizer, and in a pinch it can be slaughtered and turned into saleable meat or simply eaten.

She goes on to point out that while in the west, people keep their money in more cash forms, they can also lose it by spending. Check out the post for great ideas on ways to turn your money into ... more money, rather than spending it.

• And finally, the Mail & Guardian Online has a terrific article about Muhammad Yunus' turn toward "Social Business"

Grameen is one of the most famous brands in Bangladesh; there are 27 Grameen companies ranging from the country’s biggest phone firm to one supplying affordable healthcare. All aim to alleviate poverty and, in time, the plan is to convert them into social businesses. Among all this innovation, Yunus’s step has faltered only once. A year ago he announced he was going into politics to deal with Bangladeshi corruption, only to withdraw two months later, horrified by what he describes as “dirty, violent and greedy” politics. The bruising experience has reinforced his lack of faith in the state and the political process to meet the needs of the poor; instead he emphasises the entrepreneurial skills of the poor.

This kind of thinking finds an enthusiastic audience, particularly in the US, as it appears to offer a capitalist answer to development without asking for increased aid. Yunus insists there is still a need for aid.

Lynn Jimenez: Se Habla Dinero

The second week of February, Women's Initiative hosted a Latina Leadership Luncheon. Our keynote speaker was Lynn Jimenez of KGO Radio. We thought her speech was so great we wanted to share it with you!

Here's an excerpt:

Respect is something I had to earn when I became KGO radio’s business reporter. KGO 810 am, is a news and talk radio station. It’s been number one for more than 28 years. Every morning I give reports on the market, the cost of money, housing, jobs, local firms, and pocketbook issues.

When I used to listen to business reports, if I wasn’t bored—I was lost. I felt stupid. I didn’t understand the code words or how the reports applied to me. So when I took this job, I vowed I didn’t want anyone to feel bored or stupid when they listened to my reports. Which is why I go beyond the numbers.

So..every morning very early, I skid onto the options floor of the NYSE, go through wires, newspapers, faxes, the internet…touch bases with one or two of my experts, write my reports and then go on the air. You may think that’s a lot of effort for one minute of business news each half hour. But it’s critical to put facts into context and to write clearly. It’s also a tribute to KGO radio that it believes money news and local business news is important enough for that kind of investment.

... At some point, after 17 years as a business reporter I realized it was time to use what I had learned to invest in the future. And the numbers spoke to me. What numbers? Try these. There are 44 million Hispanics in the U.S.—more Hispanics live in the United States than Canadians live in Canada. We are the fastest growing ethnic group in the nation. Right now Latinos make up a third of California’s population, and by 2042 we will be the majority.

... There are more than 2 million Hispanic-owned businesses in the U.S. One third of them are owned by Latinas. The majority are one or two person operations, but the rest provide jobs to the economy. Those firms both buy products and services, and provide them. Corporate America will increasingly depend on Hispanics not only as consumers, but as workers.

The average age in the U.S. is 36.4 years. Among Latinos, it’s 27.4 years. That means as the Boomers leave the workforce, many of their replacements will be Latinos. ... Hispanic Boomers who are U.S.-born and speak primarily English use education to further themselves, while those who use both English and Spanish tend to further themselves by being entrepreneurial.

We are making lots of progress—but we would make more progress if we, as a community, were better educated and better educated financially. Even though we are 14 percent of the popuation, in 2002 the Tomas Rivera Policy Institute found just 7 percent of Hispanic students were enrolled at 4-year colleges. Just 12 percent of us have a bachelor’s degree, compared to 30 1/2 percent of non-Hispanic whites.

This is happening because the cost of an education rises faster than wages rise each year. It’s happening because Latino families may not have experience with applying for college, or with the financial aid process. Sallie Mae reports more than half of Latino high school graduates say they received no financial aid information before graduating.

And the relatively low percentage of us going onto higher education has a huge negative impact on our earning power. People without a college degree earn a million and a half dollars less over their lifetimes than college graduates …on average, the Pew Hispanic Center says Latino incomes are 2/3rds that of non-Hispanic white Americans.

You can download the complete speech by clicking on this link:

Download latina_luncheon_speech_jimenez.doc