The Virtual Woman: A Woman's
Weekly Guide To Cyberspace
We've all heard the hype about how the Internet can change your life. But
finding good information online is a lot like rummaging through that messy
closet into which you toss everything; you have just about zero time to sift
through either. Enter the Virtual Woman: Nope, she cannot exactly help you
clean out your closet but she can point you to best links the Web has to
offer. So if search engines leave you cold, warm up cyberspace with today's
Virtual Woman. She's online and ready to serve up a more personal approach
to the World Wide Web. Each week the Virtual Woman answers all kinds of
questions from readers. This week, the Virtual Woman tackles some questions
from women interested in starting their own businesses.
Dear Virtual Woman:
As I sit here
in my little cubicle writing to you I am realizing that there's got to be
more to life than working in a Dilbert-like corporation. I've got some ideas
for a starting my own business but I'd like some more information on it
before I march into my boss's office and tell him "Adios." Where can I go
online to find out more, and talk to other women working for themselves?
- Cube-Be-Gone , San Jose, California
Dear Cube:
You can most assuredly find some great sites that can help you in your quest to be your own boss. But the first thing you have to do is get your own home computer with Internet access. Because if you do too much Web surfing from work, your boss just might say "Adios" to you first!
Once you have your own computer, I would suggest clicking on the Online Women's Business Center. Developed by the Small Business Administration's Office of Women's Business Ownership, their mission is to assist potential women business owners or women already in business with information, training, loans and advice.
The first step at the Center is taking the entrepreneurial test. Asking yourself crucial questions like, "Do I view problems as challenges, or things to overcome?" can only help determine whether you have the personality type to be in business for yourself.
Once that issue is resolved, it's on to the Starting Course Directory, a guide through the essential steps that turn your business dream into reality. The SBA offers a network of over 60 women's business centers in 36 states, listed alphabetically on the website, furnishing services to women entrepreneurs at all levels of business development.
If you're a mom wanting to high-tail it from a cubicle to work at home, another excellent stop off point to explore for inspiring ideas is Work at Home Moms, a weekly online magazine devoted to work at home mothers. WAHM presents online testimonials from various work at home souls and has message boards offering informal advice and answers to whatever questions come to mind.
Dear Virtual Woman:
I've taken a few baby steps towards starting my own business, but would really appreciate some hand holding and one on one encouragement. Can the internet help me find a "been there, done that" type person willing to help an aspiring entrepreneur woman to woman?
- One-On-One , Upstate New York
Dear One-On-One:
Check out Advancing Women for
information on mentoring, the unique and nurturing relationship between a
more experienced business person and a less experienced person. Being women,
we often miss out on the Old Boys Network, so it is important that you have
someone help you navigate the rough waters of making it through the start-up,
growth and maturation stages of your business. The Avon Mentoring Matters
Survey, conducted by Avon Products reveals that among women owning small
businesses, 94% say that the mentoring experience was crucial to very helpful
in their success; and women who have had mentors are almost twice as likely
to mentor someone else. So once you make it big, (as I'm sure you will) it's
important that you give back and help some other novice.
Dear Virtual Woman:
I think developing a business is intertwined with growth on a personal level. So far, I've found either business sites or personal growth websites. Do you have any recommendations for a site that combines the two?
- Samantha C. , Los Angeles, CA
Dear Samantha:
A voice of experience and wisdom echoes in Rhonda Abrams and lives at Rhonda Online. Abrams is the writer of the most widely distributed small business column in the United States. Forbes Magazine named her book,"The Successful Business Plan: Secrets and Strategies," as one of the top ten best-selling small business books. Rhonda offers realistic, down home advice about making choices, and the way setting priorities effects our ability to achieve realistic goals. Rhonda's personal view involves seeing set backs not as "failures" but as road blocks that may cause us merely to change focus and direction. Her entrepreneurial message is "You have a determining force in what happens to you."
Happy Surfing!
Find these links and more at WWWomen.Com (http://www.wwwomen.com) the web's largest search directory of topics for women online. Email the Virtual Woman with your Internet questions or send snailmail to: WWWomen.Com, Attn: Virtual Woman, 3701 Geary Blvd., #325, S.F., CA 94118. Copyright, 1998. WWWomen, Inc. All rights reserved.
Contributing Editor: Rita Kennen
This column can only be re-distributed with written
permission by
Knight Ridder/Tribune News Service or WWWomen, Inc.
© Copyright 1996-98. WWWomen, Inc.®. All Rights Reserved.
WWWomen is a registered trademark of the WWWomen company.