In
This Issue:
Greetings
from Count Me In
It’s
hard to believe we’ve already reached the one-year anniversary
of September 11th. Count Me In extends our deepest sympathy to
all who lost family and friends.
 We
are very proud that Count Me In has survived the economic downturn
and that we in turn are able to help others thrive in these challenging
times. We have exciting projects on the agenda for the next year
and we’re looking forward to working with all of you. Best
Wishes (Photos from left, Brenda, Staci, Kathy, Nell)
More
Loans Available for Women Entrepreneurs
Great news!
Count Me In has $1,000,000 available for qualifying women in the
form of small business loans. Loans range from $500 to $10,000
with first time loan recipients being eligible for loans up to
$5,000. Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence is the only
online micro-lender that is national in scope providing access
to capital to women across the United States. All a woman needs
to apply is an already existing business that is ready to expand
or a viable business idea with a concrete plan. Please go to here
to apply for a loan. Please let your friends and other women know
about this great opportunity!
Count Me
In wishes to thank The Listwin Foundation for making the generous
investment of $1,000,000 in the new Invest in Women Notes program.
Lorene Arey Listwin, President of The Listwin Foundation has joined
the Count Me In Board of Directors. We are so happy that Lorene
has joined us.
Expand
Your Portfolio – Invest in Women Entrepreneurs
Introducing
an investment as diverse as womankind. Count Me In is proud to
offer a unique opportunity to individuals and institutions who
want to invest in the economic independence of women. Count Me
In’s new Invest in Women Notes program seeks investments
through the purchase of Invest in Women Notes, a security with
a value of $2,000 or greater, for one, three or five-year terms.
The assets are lent directly to women entrepreneurs—particularly
those who have had difficulty securing that all-important first
loan—who use the capital to start or expand their small
businesses, which include a broad range of activities in the service,
commerce and manufacturing sectors.
For more
information on Invest in Women Notes please click
here.
Credit
Desk – Pay on Time
Count Me
In would like to remind all current and new loan recipients that
we will now be reporting all loan activity to the credit bureau.
This includes both positive and negative payment information.
Reporting will help women establish a credit history for themselves,
as all of the information will be reported in their name. Please
also be aware that if you are late or behind in your payments,
this will be reflected in your credit history. Remember, we’re
counting on you to make your payments on time!
Count
Me In Loan Recipient Success Story
Kathleen
Burke, founder of SunStuff Sun Protective Accessories, used her
first Count Me In loan to launch her web site, www.wearsunstuff.com,
and to print brochures to market her products in the offices of
dermatologists and plastic surgeons. She is using her second Count
Me In loan to expand her quickly growing business.
 Being
a fair skinned woman who learned that 90% of all “aging”
to the skin is attributable to damage from the sun rather than
chronological aging, she felt it was her calling to launch a company
that would change the face of aging. Further research lead her
to publications about Baby Boomers spending astronomical amounts
of money on skincare and discovered that other factors such as
pregnancy and various medications have an extremely damaging effect
on the skin when combined with UVA and UVB rays. She extended
her research to find companies that produced sun protective hats
and clothing. Although she found a couple that produce such products,
she was not able to find anything hip, fun and versatile enough
for a broad range of activities. Because she was unable to find
a hat that was both satisfying both for its protection from the
sun as well as for its aesthetic quality, she set out to design
her own line of products and SunStuff was launched. Business is
booming she’s in the process of designing a new line of
stylish, yet protective, hats.
SunStuff
hats combine sun protection strong enough to pass the rigorous
standards of NASA with hip styles, colors and prints. Sun protection
has never looked so good! To order a hat please visit www.wearsunstuff.com.
Inspiring
Entrepreneurial Woman
Count Me
In’s first Inspiring Entrepreneurial Woman story focuses
on 55-year-old Cathy Hughes, Chairman and Founder of Radio One.
We find her story inspirational and struggles she overcame to
be similar those of some of our loan recipients. We hope you find
her as inspirational as we do.
 Hughes
was turned down by 32 banks before securing a loan to buy her
first radio station in the early 1980s. Struggling at first, the
single mother and her teenage son literally lived at the office,
cooking on a hot plate and bathing in the restroom. But she parlayed
her mix of talk, political commentary and activism into a $287
million company that owns 65 radio stations around the country.
When Radio One went public two years ago, Hughes became the first
black woman to lead a publicly traded company.
(Fortune
magazine, July 22, 2002, pp 72)
Shop
Online at Office Depot and Help Count Me In
| Now shopping
online at Office Depot will benefit Count Me In each time
you make a purchase for your business or home office! Just
visit our web site and click on the Office Depot logo to start
shopping and help Count Me In. |
 |
The
Biz Corner
Are You Ready
for the Trials and Joys of Owning Your Own Business? Six Things
to Consider. These are some of the topics Terre Thomas addresses
in her latest article, Are You Ready for the Trials and Joys of
Owning Your Own Business? Six Things to Consider, the first in
a series of articles on starting your own business.
- Reflecting
on your personal beliefs about owning a business
- Assessing
your learning style and our mistake-making style
- Being
off-balance
- Handling
the many aspects of operating a business
- Doing
the math
- Risk-taking
and fear
To read the
first article in its entirety please click here.
Stay tuned for the remaining articles that will be posted in the
BizEducation Library. Terre Thomas, the author of these as well
as the articles on Finding and Keeping a Good Sales Rep, is a
marketing/planning consultant and writer living in Minneapolis,
MN. She specializes in assisting companies and organizations in
launching new endeavors and the transition from the early stage
of “surviving” into the “thriving” state
of business. For more information about Terre please click here.
Top
Ten Reasons to Certify a Small Business
- Entrepreneurs
are forced to establish firm business objectives.
- It will
limit the competition to only other certified businesses.
- It provides
opportunity to network and cooperate with other certified businesses.
- Certification
provides advantageous networking opportunities with the Small
Business Administration.
- Entrepreneurs
are able to grow their business quickly without extensive capital
investment.
- Entrepreneurs
are introduced to the politics of business.
- Certification
provides an outlet for leadership skills.
- Certification
also provides many educational opportunities.
- Entrepreneurs
will safeguard their business and watch it grow.
- Entrepreneurs
will be prosperous when selling their business.
(Women and
Diversity WOW! Facts 2002 / www.ezcertify.com)
Biz
Education
Fall
2002 Online Classes – Classes Start September
10th! Registration to participate Count Me In’s fall curriculum
of online classes on How to Start a Business is currently underway.
Join Count Me In Business Instructor, Kathy Keeley, in learning
how to start your own business.
Topics
include:
- What You
Need to Know Before You Start
- Writing
a Business Plan
- Obtaining
Financing; and
- A Checklist
for Starting a Business. Join a lively online discussion.
Hear other
women entrepreneurs tell their stories and ask questions and get
your own questions answered. Classes are for one hour in the evening
and they are a great opportunity to share your experiences and
learn from others. Complete an application and sign up now for
this exciting new opportunity made possible by Morgan Stanley.
All classes
are currently conducted using AOL Instant Messaging, which is
free to the public for download. Click here
to get started.
Don’t
Miss the Online Financial Empowerment
Workshop
This online workshop is featured on our web site and provides
women with the knowledge they need to manage their businesses
and personal finances more effectively. The lesson they will learn
is it's not how much money they make but what they do with it
that counts. The workshop is designed with that in mind. The workshop
was created for Count Me In by Moneyworks, Inc. and is supported
by a generous grant from Morgan Stanley. Click
here for more information.
BizLine™
Business
Question Stumping You?
We developed BizLine™
so that we can help you - the small business owner or aspiring
owner - build your business. Email us a business question and
the Count Me In experts will answer it within 48 hours!
Ask us a
question about what is puzzling you - whether you are just starting
a business or growing fast. Email your questions to BizLine@count-me-in.org.
Just remember,
your questions need to be business related and try to keep them
to less than a paragraph with just enough relevant information
to outline your question. We want to help!
BizLine™
Archives
If you have
a question that you are hesitant to ask or are just plain curious,
check out our BizLine™
archives for a peak at some of our most commonly asked questions.
Count
Me In Family New
First
time loan recipient Dawn Viola,
founder of Blue
Moon Invitations, Inc., is an 11-year veteran in the
advertising industry with experience in creative direction,
public relations and copy writing.
She received
classical training in graphic design and typography from Swain
School of Design in New Bedford, MA, graduating in 1991 with
a BFA in Visual Design. In addition, Viola is a certified
Webmaster in HTML and Java. In 1992 she wrote and self-published
a book, How to Find a Creative Job in the Real World, which
provides job hunting resources and information for art graduates
seeking employment in the design industry. Viola opened her
own design studio in 2001, Blue Moon Invitations, Inc., a
couture invitation and design company offering custom wedding,
baby and occasion invitations. |
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| Second
time loan recipient, Chris Ann
Dale, founder of CyberSpace
Baby, was the spotlight interview in the Internet Based
Moms August 30, 2002 Newsletter. Read the complete spotlight
article by clicking on the Intenet Based Moms logo. |
 |
 |
| First
time loan recipient Shauna Zeck’s
business, Bead Spirit is flourishing and her beaded designs
are showing up all over the country. Her work is now being
sold in galleries in Mount Shasta CA, Ashland OR, Fairfax
CA and on the Modern
Cowgirl web site. The necklace she is wearing in the photo
is on display at Water Dragon in Fairfax CA. |
 |
| First
time loan recipient Felicia
D. Stoler, MS, RD used her loan from Count
Me In to become a full time Nutritionist and Exercise Physiologist.
She has a private practice as a dietitian and exercise physiologist.
She does not yet have her own web site but is hoping to have
one soon. Her Count Me In loan helped her pay for the marketing
and small advertising to get her company off the ground. She
just finished her first targeted mailing in her area and has
already received many referrals. |
 |
| After
seeing how many friends and family members were aghast at
how many people failed to respond weddings or other events,
second time loan recipient Angela
Waldon decided to take matters into her own
hands and create an RSVP service for weddings and special
events. She created Formal
Response RSVP Service; a company that calls guests that
have forgotten to send back their RSVPs. The value of the
service is that accurate numbers can be provided to caterers
and vendors saving her clients hundreds of dollars. |
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|
Kim
Calebs is a first time loan recipient with
Count Me In and she loves what she does: I am drawn to functional
art because day-to-day life comprises the largest part of
our time here on Earth—since the majority of our lives
is spent in moments so ordinary that we hardly notice them,
why not infuse the everyday objects we use during those
moments with as much beauty as we can?
Calebs
is a self-taught mosaic artist who produces ceramic tile
mosaic and metal
furniture and home accessories in her studio in Colorado.
Her business is doing so well she will be attending the
Contemporary Crafts
Market in California this November and already has plans
underway for submissions to trade shows and fairs in 2003.
|
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| First
time loan recipient Lori Ann
Budzinski of Lori Ann Photography, www.loriannphotography.bigstep.com,
has a wedding and portrait studio in Indiana. She offers special
services for weddings, families and children’s sessions.
Before venturing out on her own, she was a contract photographer
for five years. Her incentive for going freelance and opening
her own studio was pending divorce and the need to support
her children. After find a space to house her business and
her family the economic down turn created some rough times
for her fledgling business. Her Count Me In loan helped her
get things back up and running and she is looking forward
to business flourishing over the next couple of years. She
hopes her story will help inspire other women like herself
to open their own businesses. |
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Do you have
news you’d like to share with us? Send your news to: info@count-me-in.org.
Remember, keep us informed and we’ll keep you informed.
Interesting
Fact
Home workers
earn an average of $34,500 annually, well above the national average
of $24,908. They spend an average of 33.6 hours per week working.
Fifty-nine percent (59%) work less than 40 hours per week; 41%
work more than the 40-hour standard.
(Women and
Diversity WOW! Facts 2002/The American Association of Home-Based
Businesses’ survey as reported at www.advancingwomen.com)
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