Author: Kirsten Barker

Supporting Women-Owned Businesses

This article in Entrepreneur offers five practical ways to support women-owned businesses. These include shopping at women-owned businesses to support owners, employees, and the local economy; spreading the word about these businesses through social media and personal networks; attending events organized by women-owned businesses to show support and foster community; writing positive reviews to boost visibility and influence potential customers; and partnering with women-owned businesses to collaborate and mutually benefit. These actions can bring about significant changes in behavior and contribute to empowering women entrepreneurs while promoting economic growth and diversity in the marketplace.

Suggestions for How To Run A Crowdfunding Campaign When A Founder Is From A Marginalized Community

This article from Forbes discusses the increasing popularity of crowdfunding as a funding option for early-stage startups, especially for female founders from marginalized communities. In general, crowdfunding provides an innovative solution for raising funds to launch or grow a businesses.

The article highlights specific difficulties faced by these marginalized founders in obtaining traditional funding and provides tips for running successful crowdfunding campaigns, including setting realistic goals, explaining the product or service clearly, promoting the campaign through multiple channels, building social proof, and offering attractive rewards to participants.

“Your Financial Maven” Podcast Episode

Samantha M. Besnoff is a CPA, podcast host AND early graduate of our very own Women’s Entrepreneurship certificate program. Samantha reached out to our Program Director, Kirsten Barker, to have a conversation about financial considerations that go into launching a business.

We are so pleased that Samantha has stayed in touch with the Institute long after completing the program and is dedicated to improving financial literacy with her Your Financial Maven podcast. If you are interested in listening to her chat with Kirsten, you can tune in on @iheartpodcast, @applepodcasts, or wherever you listen: https://apple.co/3BAVTms

Tips for Women Entrepreneurs

This article from AllBusiness provides advice for women entrepreneurs from successful female business owners. The piece includes 21 tips that cover a range of topics such as cultivating storytelling skills, bringing a fresh perspective, finding purpose, taking control, avoiding self-discrimination, hiring passionate staff, charging appropriately for services, and surrounding oneself with supportive people. Many of the tips emphasize the importance of amplifying women’s unique strengths, including communication, empathy, and problem-solving abilities, in building successful businesses.

Black Female Founder Shares Experience in Raising Venture Funding For Her Health-Related Startup

Vanessa Rissetto (left) and Tamar Samuels (right) cofounded Culina Health. 
Lauren Anzevino

In this article from Business Insider, Vanessa Rissetto, co-founder of Culina Health, a digital platform connecting clients with nutritionists for virtual sessions, has raised $9.75 million in venture-capital investments. Rissetto discusses the importance of investing in women of color and leveraging investor relationships, while acknowledging the difficulty of fundraising for Black women founders in healthcare.

Six Reasons Why Small Businesses Fail

The article from Business News Daily discusses six common reasons why small businesses fail and provides advice on how to minimize or avoid their negative impact. These reasons include poor cash flow, inadequate leadership, disengaged employees, lack of business planning, strong competition, and failure to adapt to changes in the market.

The article suggests that to address these challenges, small business owners should prioritize financial planning, establish clear organizational structures, foster employee engagement, create comprehensive business plans, conduct competitive analyses, and be adaptable to industry trends. Additionally, the article highlights the importance of cultivating a supportive and collaborative work environment and investing in leadership development programs to ensure that businesses are well-positioned for success.

Tips For Building A Network Of Like-Minded Businesswomen

In this recent article in Forbes, members of the Young Entrepreneur Council shared advice on how to build a network of women for support. Some suggestions included seeking opportunities to collaborate and finding mentors and colleagues who you can be yourself around.

Whether or not their suggestions are ones that work for you, remember that while women are still an underrepresented group in the business world, leaning on other women for advice and support can be critical for our success and sanity. Check out the link to the article above to see all tips that were mentioned.

Less Is More – Building a Convincing Argument

A recent podcast from Hidden Brain entitled “Less Is More” discussed some important realities on how to make a make a convincing argument. Specifically, it is often a better choice to limit yourself to presenting only a few strong points rather than going for quantity and adding in more points that carry less weight than your original few.

While this discussion does not specifically target entrepreneurs, small business owners are constantly faced with the challenge of pitching themselves – either for funding or to make a sale or to hire a team. Understanding how to make the most convincing argument is bound to help in all those arenas. Hope you have time to give the free podcast a listen!

White House Announces New Resources to Support Women Small Businesses Owners

According to this press release from the White House, the Biden Administration is working through the Small Business Administration (SBA) to expand the Women Business Centers (WBC) network. The goal is to bring the total number of WBCs to 160 centers across the country. WBCs assist women entrepreneurs through training, mentoring, business development, and financing opportunities. Read more about the White House plans here.