Devoted to women of color in business

From the Washington Post on October 14, 2008:

"Minority-women-owned businesses have grown at twice the rate of minority-male-owned enterprises and those of nonminority owners of either gender, according to the Minority Business Development Agency. Among minority women, Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders had an 84% rate growth, the highest of any women-owned-businesses group"

Thoughts?

If women in business are growing quicker then any other sub-group, and minority women in business are the fastest-growing niche within that group, who is addressing their needs? You have an opportunity to be a part of this fast-growing community.

Women of color in business, unite!

Now is the best time to be a minority woman in business or a woman of color improving your situation through your own business, the launch of your company,the start of a side project, or your own home-based business. I know a lot of people have been affected by the economy, either through layoffs or through problems with cash flow and credit at their company.

Here are some easy tips to move into the holiday season:

1) Make a list of what you can do, what you can offer, what you can sell.

Everyone has a specific talent or gift. What's yours? Now's the time to use that unique talent and start sharing it with the world as a consultant or salesperson or representative or worker. Whatever it is, only you can do it. Rise to the occassion.

2) Claim a domain name.

Use http://www.10khosting.com  or http://www.godaddy.com

Choose a name that's memorable, short, and easy-to-spell. This will be your website.

3) Buy economy Linux-based hosting.

This is your hosting package, the place where your website will "live." You can use the same place you registered as long as hosting is no more than $50-$100/year. 

4) Sign up for a PayPal account. http://www.paypal.com 

Free. You can then accept credit card payments online.

5) Sign up for an e-junkie account. http://www.e-junkie.com 

A low monthly fee ($5). Use this service to take care of digital downloads, or manage anything that requires special codes to access, like a members-only section, a teleconference, or a password-protected file.

If you were recently laid-off, they will give you a FREE ACCOUNT for a year, just send them proof of termination of your contract. 

6) Claim your ID: perhaps you have a Facebook, a LinkedIn, a Twitter account?

At the very least, you can claim your own account at these places, so either your personal name and/or your business name is now "covered".

7) Get started.

Use any number of free or low-cost tools to set yourself up, like a Blogger account or http://www.wordpress.com

These will help you create an infrastructure for you to start using as a platform to write articles and post products that share your knowledge. As you do this, you can actively start connecting with people, and you can start your networking process.

Networking => connections => sharing => potential customers => sales 

Who will buy your products or services? People who know you or who find you online through a mention will be able to buy from you. So you have to get "out there" first. 

8) Ping me.

Let's connect with each other for more ways to work on the web aspect of your business. Once you have a business plan and a marketing plan, your website plan is not far behind (think of us if you need website development). For the most valuable return on your investment, your web presence will be the place that generates the most connections for you.