Networking to foster women's business
By Mark Fenton-Jones
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
The Australian Financial Review
Tuesday, 4 November 2008
The Australian Financial Review
Enterprising small businesswomen are exploiting gaps in the market with technology0based networks, not only to support each other’s endeavours but also to differentiate themselves in the crowded markets.
Pam Frazer, Narelle Redman and Lyn Lucas launched their website National Womens Journal last Wednesday, to provide information, advice and networking opportunities for women.
The three founding women, who have businesses in Newcastle, NSW, hope their site will encourage other women to promote their businesses and learn from each other.
Ms Frazer, who owns a private real estate website, About Oz Homes 4 You, said sites aimed at women tended to focus on specific groups or on particular topics such as networking or education.
“We are not just about networking. We are about networking, inspiration, education and motivation,” Ms Frazer said.
Businesswomen in remote and rural areas, in particular, were accessing the site.
“[They are] unable to get to city areas to go to these networking meetings or functions so we are going to bring everything to them in the form of the website,” she said.
The National Womens Journal, which has 120 members, will depend initially on subscriptions, although the founders have received advertising interests in the website. Membership costs $275.
“We are looking at those figures at the moment to see what [advertising] packages we can offer.” Ms Frazer said.
Also promoting women’s interests is the second IT’s Million $ Babes Award, announced last Wednesday.
This year’s winners are IT recruiter Jenny Barbour and Associates, Desma Spyridopoulos of application developer GLiNTECH, Rosy Jansen of Computer Training Options, Caroline Patton of Accuteque, a company that provides business analysis and testing services, and Jenny Legge, the chief executive of JobFit Systems.
Between them they represent turnover of $20 million, 120 staff, 250 contractors and 20,000 clients.
Awards organise Sonja Bernhardt said that although “there are too many awards and I’m a bit bored with them … there’s a gap in this area that specifically recognises women who are productive and contributing to an economic future”. She said the award differed from others in that it was “very much focused on the commercial business”.
“People still feel even today, that women just run $20,000 or 30,000 businesses and it is very important to raise their visibility, [to show] that there is financial success”.
The award has four categories according to business turnover: up to $1 million, $1 million - $3 million, $3 million - $8 million, and greater than $8 million. Despite the almost 50 nominations sourced from members and associates of the national Australian Women in IT and Science Entity, there were no entries in the $3 million - $8 million category.
“The industry’s pretty much made up of small companies and large companies, but not many medium-sized ones,” said Ms Bernhardt, the founder of ThoughtWare.
Ms Bernhardt sat on the three-person panel along with Genesearch director Robin Craig and a board member of Women in Technology, Barbara Tobin. The awards were sponsored by Roarz Computing, which provided server hosting, and i.on my business, a concept developed by ThoughtWare.
KEY POINTS- The National Womens Journal enables businesswomen to network and support each other.
- Likewise, the IT’s Million $ Babes Award raises women’s profiles.
