Technology Makes Women a Viable Business Force

I love technology! I’m one of those individuals who couldn’t live without my computer. I check email constantly (not such a good thing) and I embrace all arenas of new and exciting business technologies. It’s hard for me to conceptualize the time before we had computers, email, the Internet. What on earth were we doing?

Every day I’m fascinated by the revolutionary ideas and concepts that have bridged the gap between small business and big business, the opportunities for making money and the lessening of the gender divide.

A few months back, Fast Company profiled a teen of just 17 that built a million dollar company out of her home. Not even out of high school and with her closet friends as employees, her technological savvy allowed her to purchase a $250,000 new home for her family and now pride fully acknowledge her high school “geek ness”. Her company, at the time of the article was bringing in as much as $70,000 a month.

This morning I received an enthusiastic video message from the RijksMuseum Amsterdam Schiphol from a colleague who had just landed and was already energetic about the ideas that were flowing. Funny, we didn’t have time to connect as she rushed to prepare for her extended trip, yet here we were catching up through technology while thousands of miles apart.

Another colleague (a technology expert) and I were talking about some of the new ideas she wanted to implement and her procrastination on the project. Just two days later she sent me an email sharing her newly developed onscreen recordings of technology tips.

Technology has strengthened the access, the voice and the reach of today’s business woman. Instead of waiting to find my voice as a radio host, I’ve delved into the new world of Internet radio. And the news gets even better.

According to Wow! Facts (an annual diversity demographics publication encompassing more than 18,000 demographic facts on women, minorities, the aging, the disabled and GLBT) 2006 (http://www.wowfacts.diversitybestpractices.com/wow/excerpts06.pdf):

Women now own some 10.6 million firms—nearly half of the privately held businesses in the country, according to the Center for Business Women’s Research (CWBR), up from 44% in 1997.

■ 6.6% of the U.S. businesses with more than $1 million in annual sales are owned by women.

■ The CWBR’s research shows that, among owners of firms with annual sales of $1 million or more, 58% of women say the Internet plays a "moderately or extremely important" role in their growth strategies, while only 35% of male business owners say the same. Likewise, 56% of the $1 million-plus businesses owned by women have Websites that can fulfill transactions online, vs. 38% of such enterprises owned by men.

And . . .

■ : Women account for 66% of all home-computer purchases.

Wow! Indeed. Well, off I go to see what other opportunities technology has in store as I embrace this force and look for more interesting and exciting new ways to do business and make money.

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