toolbox

Launching Your Own Company

Thinking of launching your own company? You don’t need to go it alone. Here are some helpful resources you should know about.

The National Association of Women Business Owners (www.nawbo.org), the premier organization for women entrepreneurs, has loads of resources to help you build your business, including discounts on useful products and services for members. Their free newsletter summarizes articles on national business trends, economic issues, networking, effective presentations, and great sales strategies.

The U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Women’s Business Ownership provides management and technical assistance to entrepreneurs—especially women who are economically or socially disadvantaged­—including comprehensive training and counseling on a vast array of topics in many languages to help them start and grow their own businesses.

Ladies Who Launch (www.ladieswholaunch.com) is a media company focused on providing resources and connections for women entrepreneurs. The organization aims to make entrepreneurship accessible to any woman with a dream. The website offers tools, resources, and success stories, as well as support from a community of like-minded women.

eWomenNetwork (www.ewomennetwork.com) provides members with free coaching, helps them connect with other women entrepreneurs, and promotes their products or services to the most visited, membership-based women’s networking organization on the Internet.

Both the Angel Capital Association (www.angelcapitalassociation.org) and the National Venture Capital Association (www.nvca.org) offer handy investor search directories.

The Foundation for the Advancement of Marketing Excellence in Entrepreneurs (www.famee.org) features a wealth of small-business marketing tools and electronic courses.

In Wicked Success Is Inside Every Woman, mentor Vicki Milazzo shows that you don’t have to give up your life, your time, or your relationships to be wildly successful.

Real You Incorporated: 8 Essentials for Women Entrepreneurs, by Kaira Sturdivant Rouda, provides insights on how to discover and love your personal brand, and how to bring it into the market as a real and unique business.

The Boss of You: Everything a Woman Needs to Start, Run and Maintain Her Own Business, by Emira Mears and Lauren Bacon, is geared toward first-time women entrepreneurs who like the idea of starting small and working with people they know.