Doing It on Side

In funding terms, this means working another job to support oneself while launching an idea on side. Working freelance or independent consulting jobs offers maximum flexibility to squeeze in start-up ventures.

Business Plan Contests

Such contests are a great way for women to not only get money but also to validate their idea. Usually these contests will kick off major contacts that can help new businesses move forward at a faster pace.

Ladies Who Launch favorites include:

• Springboard (www.springboardenterprises.org) (founders also founded Boldcap Ventures mentioned above).
• National Institute for Entrepreneurship's Venture Bowl - Ladies Who Launch featured executive director, Suzanne Isack.
• NY Small Business Awards

Friends and Family

Women are great at multitasking due to their non-linear thinking instincts, so starting a business while raising a family may not be as far-fetched as it seems, but rather a logical starting point. For examples of women who did this, Ladies Who Launch features include: Molly Snyder and Jane Scott Hodges. These women started businesses that took off while starting families.

Funding through friends and family is a great alternative for women because, unlike traditional venture capital, which requires giving up a huge degree of control while answering to strangers, with this option, they can garner financial support without losing as much control or meeting stringent reporting requirements which may hinder them from focusing on moving their businesses forward. Some examples of Ladies Who Launch features who used this as their primary funding means: Suzy Jurist, Lela Rose and Lizzy Flannagan.

Debt Structure

It is becoming easier for women to find and obtain loans from different sources. Loans are a great way to minimize control issues and also to force women to think long term and develop a revenue plan that works. The Small Business Association is one great way to obtain debt financing.

Starting Small, Growing Slowly This is a funding mechanism because women can manage their growth with money coming in and can grow slowly. Patience is a virtue. Women are often balancing and juggling so much anyway that tempered growth is a natural conduit to their lifestyles.

Women are faced with daunting task of juggling family, house, relationships, and career. Though I feel this was much easier when communities were tight clans of trusted family and friends who helped with childrearing and day-to-day dramas of life. Today, many women are not only alienated from their families because of cross-country moves, but they are also juggling a demanding career that most likely still produces guilt for time stolen from family. I often wonder if men ever struggle with this same guilt while they build their careers. There are also many women who are raising their families alone. The father sometimes abandons her and other times she chooses for her own well being to end a bad relationship. Either way, it is not easy to raise a family alone – yet so many women do it everyday. These women are some of strongest women I’ve ever come across and I applaud their fortitude and sheer will.

Women are beautiful. I’ll give that much to stereotypical chauvinists. We are beautiful on outside AND on inside. We are also so much more. We are meek yet highly intelligent. We are masters of organization and free spirited lovers of nature. We are nurturers of young and hardnosed bitches of boardroom. We are serious about building a financially solid future yet have no problem spending a hefty chunk on a pair of quality shoes. Are we a paradox? No, we’re just a multi-faceted life form capable of a variety of roles at same time.

So here’s to you woman! I lift my cup up in your honor. You can be anything you want to be now. That is an awesome statement that your mother or grandmother could not have said with surety that you can say it. Our future looks just as bright as our past is dark. Ching! (wine glasses clinking together) Have a great Women’s History Month.