Happy Wednesday!
In our research on women entrepreneurs, one of the challenges we learned was that many women didn’t know how to access resources that are being made available to them by the government or private corporations and non-profit organizations, so we figured we’d do a monthly round-up of resources for women business owners on Wednesdays - starting today!
Women’s Small Business Resources - U.S. Government
Women’s Business Centers
What they do:
The Office of Women’s Business Ownership and the Online Women’s Business Center are integral components of Entrepreneurial Development’s network of training and counseling services. It oversees a network of Women’s Business Centers. The centers are designed to assist women achieve their dreams and improve their communities by helping them start and run successful businesses, regardless of social or financial disadvantage, race, ethnicity or business background.
Find a Women’s Business Center near you, courtesy of the Association of Women’s Business Centers online map: http://www.awbc.biz/locate.asp
Small Business Development Centers
The U.S Small Business Administration (SBA) administers the Small Business Development Center Program to provide 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 are 63 of them, one is bound to be near you!
Locate a Small Business Development Center near you - and be sure to make an appointment with one of their coaches - they are a great FREE resource.
Women and Government Contracting: Selling to the U.S. Government
WomenBiz.gov is sponsored by the National Women’s Business Council, to be a gateway for women who want to do business with (sell) to the government (or learn the process, THEN sell 
We dug through the site to find some of the best links for you and discovered a 5 part tutorial that teach you to what you need to know to learn how to contract with the U.S. government.
5 Steps to Government Contracting for Women Businesses
http://www.womenbiz.gov/fivesteps.html
Contracting Opportunities Tutorials on SBA.gov
http://www.sba.gov/services/contractingopportunities/basics/index.html
Other Women’s Business Resources
Women’s Business Development Center
http://www.wbdc.org
Who They Are:
The Women’s Business Development Center (WBDC) is a nationally and internationally recognized not-for-profit organization established in 1986 to work with women to launch new businesses and strengthen existing businesses in the Chicago area.
Their goals are to:
* accelerate the rate of growth of women’s business and microenterprise ownership;
* increase the economic impact of women owned businesses – on both families and communities;
* increase awareness of business ownership as a viable means of economic self-sufficiency, and
* stimulate public policy and system changes which support and strengthen women’s economic impact.
The WBDC has assisted over 50,000 women in the greater Chicago area, and has helped establish 14 other women’s business assistance centers across the nation.
Training & Tools Section:
http://www.wbdc.org/tools/tools.asp
We hope you enjoyed this first Wednesday Women’s Business Resource Round-up, and look forward to introducing you to some of the women entrepreneurial movers and shakers who lead some of our favorite women’s networks, associations and organizations.
Please let us know if you find these useful - we love hearing your comments!
Michelle P. & Michelle A
This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 3:44 pm and is filed under Starting a Business, Growing a Business, Women in Business. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.2 Responses to “Women’s Business Resources: The Wednesday Round-up”
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October 26th, 2007 at 5:28 am
Social Security Administration would liket to be added as a resource for women small business owners on this resource guide. Below is the information.
Social Security’s employer website is your first stop for information on W-2s, electronic filing, verifying Social Security numbers, free software, technical specifications and much more. Companies can use Business Services Online (BSO) to register for a User ID/Personal Identification Number (PIN) and password to submit wage reports over the Internet. You can register to use BSO at any time at www.socialsecurity.gov/employer.
Through BSO, you can stop doing those paper forms for your wage reports (Forms W-2 and W3) and start doing them online. You also can file the correction forms (W-2c and W-3c) online. All you need is something you probably already have: a computer and an Internet connection. Save yourself time…do your wage reporting online!
November 1st, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Thanks for this information! This is such a great idea! I will definitely be reading in on these weekly articles. I have a small business in the health and wellness industry. I also have some very valuable information for women who are planning on starting their own business. Mirassou is having this great contest called, “Make your Dreams Come True with Mirassou.” One business women will be awarded $50k, plus a team of highly professional consultants to help kick start their business=D You can check out: http://www.mirassou.com/women_in_business/dreams.asp for more details & to enter! The deadline is Dec. 15 2007. Anyone going to give it a shot? I also work with them, so just helping to get the information out! Good luck!