By Rieva Lesonsky
Last month I indulged in one of my passions: helping women entrepreneurs. I spoke to the Malvern, Pennsylvania, Chamber of Commerce’s female membership at their Female Business Leader of the Year Award dinner and, as always, I was energized and inspired by the audience of women business owners. There’s just something special that happens when a group of women entrepreneurs get together – we motivate and learn so much from each other.
In that spirit, here are my picks for the 17 best business Web sites for women entrepreneurs.
A subsidiary of D&B, AllBusiness.com is an online media and e-commerce company that operates one of the premier business sites on the Web. AllBusiness.com helps business professionals save time and money by addressing real-world business questions and presenting practical solutions. The site offers resources including how-to articles, business forms, contracts and agreements, expert advice, blogs, business news, business directory listings, product comparisons, business guides, a business association and more. www.allbusiness.com
Business.gov has a special section devoted to women entrepreneurs, with links to resources. You’ll find information on grants and loans, business training for women, government programs to assist women business owners and more.
Center for Women’s Business Research
The Center for Women’s Business Research provides data-driven knowledge that advances the economic, social and political impact of women business owners and their enterprises. This data driven knowledge provides the business imperative for embracing women business owners as customers, suppliers, community leaders, public policy influencers and role models for business leadership.
The Committee of 200 (C200) is an international nonprofit organization of more than 400 of the most powerful women who own and run companies. The primary mission of C200 and its Foundation is to foster, celebrate and advance women’s leadership in business. Through targeted outreach and support to future leaders, the C200 Foundation also helps to ensure that women will continue to take ever more significant and visible leadership roles.
Tools to succeed for professional and executive women.
The Hot Mommas® Project Mission
The Hot Mommas Project mission is to increase self-efficacy in women and girls by providing scalable, global, free access to role models online. The long-term vision is to create the world’s largest free and online case study library combining the worlds of social media, curriculum and role models in a real-time, interactive learning community.
The National Association for Female Executives (NAFE) was has a rich history of providing education, networking and public advocacy to empower its members to achieve career success and financial security. Members are women executives, business owners, entrepreneurs and others who are committed to NAFE’s mission: the advancement of women in the workplace.
National Women’s Business Council
The National Women’s Business Council is a bipartisan federal advisory council created to serve as an independent source of advice and policy recommendations to the President, Congress and the U.S. Small Business Administration on economic issues of importance to women business owners. The Council’s mission is to promote bold initiatives, policies and programs designed to support women’s business enterprises at all stages of development in the public and private sector marketplaces—from start-up to success to significance.
The National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) propels women entrepreneurs into economic, social and political spheres of power worldwide. NAWBO values and seeks a diverse and inclusive membership.
The SBA’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership (OWBO) oversees a network of Women’s Business Centers (WBCs) throughout the United States and its territories. Through the management and technical assistance provided by the WBCs, entrepreneurs, especially women who are economically or socially disadvantaged, are offered comprehensive training and counseling on a vast array of topics in many languages to help them start and grow their own businesses.
The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) was created in 1953 as an independent agency of the federal government to aid, counsel, assist and protect the interests of small-business concerns, to preserve free competitive enterprise, and to maintain and strengthen the overall economy of our nation. The SBA helps Americans start, build and grow businesses. Through an extensive network of field offices and partnerships with public and private organizations, SBA delivers its services to people throughout the United States, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Guam.
The Office of Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) provides management assistance to current and prospective small-business owners. SBDCs offer one-stop assistance to individuals and small businesses by providing a wide variety of information and guidance in central and easily accessible branch locations. There is at least one SBDC office in every state.
SCORE, “Counselors to America’s Small Business,” is a nonprofit association dedicated to educating entrepreneurs and helping small businesses start, grow and succeed nationwide. SCORE is a resource partner with the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) and has 364 chapters throughout the U.S.
The first blog from SCORE at the national level, The SCORE Women’s Success Blog covers insights and advice on small-business topics, including marketing, management, Web and leadership issues.
Part of the LinkedIn community, this new group is a valuable resource for small businesses looking to maximize their success. Here, the vast and growing LinkedIn community of small-business leaders can collaborate and share ideas, while gaining valuable insight from a variety of industry experts, as well as technology leaders HP and Intel. With special emphasis on mission-critical issues, this unique forum provides an excellent opportunity to learn helpful tips, tricks and best practices—all to keep your small business moving forward.
The Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC), founded in 1997, is the largest third-party certifier of businesses owned controlled, and operated by women in the United States. WBENC, a national 501(c)(3) nonprofit, partners with 14 Regional Partner Organizations to provide its national standard of certification to women-owned businesses throughout the country. WBENC is also the nation’s leading advocate of women-owned businesses as suppliers to America’s corporations.
The Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO) is a nonprofit membership organization for women presidents of multimillion-dollar companies. Members of the WPO meet monthly to take part in advisory groups and grow their businesses to the next level. There are 82 active chapters across the U.S. and in Canada; women can also join as at-large members.
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