Bringing global opportunity to women-owned businesses worldwide.
Take the time to read this wonderful interview Gayle Kesten (Small B
iz Resource: essential IT blog for small businesses) conducted with Connected-Women Founder Runa Magnusdottir.
And going forward, be sure to track Gayle’s blog entries and don’t forget to register at Runa’s site.
Read the interview here.
Photo: Runa Magnusdottir. Country: Iceland (right)
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
Fostering international trade and the advancement of women around the world, the Organization of Women in International Trade (OWIT), has been around for nearly 20 years. If you haven’t heard about them (get out from under that rock!) and wish to learn more, visit here.
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
How do you transform countries’ economic development? Train and support young women.
According to Your Move, a toolkit on the Web site www.girleffect.org (we feature their video on the right sidebar under Take A Look — The Girl Effect), girls in Kenya could, over their lifetime, lift the nation’s economy by $27.4 billion through additional education, $25 billion if they delay childbirth, and $1.6 billion if they stay free of HIV/AIDS. Yet without policy intervention, staying HIV/AIDS-free is extremely difficult, and as a result, in Nairobi’s urban slums a girl is six times as likely to be HIV-positive than a boy.
Read more here.
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
To help women become more self-reliant, the National Youth Commission (NYC — established in 1966) opened a two-day Women Entrepreneurship Expo Saturday that benefits society and the country (Taiwan) as a whole.
“Women entrepreneurship has become a new trend since gender equality has improved greatly in Taiwan. It not only helps women to stand on their own feet, but also benefits society and the country by creating jobs, ” says Vice Premier Chiu Cheng-hsiung.
Read more here about how 98 percent of Taiwan’s companies are SMEs and in particular how women entrepreneurs are establishing their own careers.
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
One of the things we tend to stress about is that we never have enough time to do all the things we want to do in life or with our business. But to stay fresh and relevant, I wholeheartedly recommend a time-out from business (oftimes referred to as a “vacation”) once in while. I haven’t taken one in a long time (other than weekends and even those are limited) so you can imagine how I fantasized about this blog post entitled:
Take a Second Honeymoom in Italy
Dianne Hales does a magnificent job detailing the romance that Italy offers and, as I see it, it doesn’t have to be a second honeymoon to appreciate Italy’s passion. It could be your get-away from business — alone, with a friend, partner or husband — to recharge, reflect and rejuvenate yourself!
Check it out here.
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
Famous civil servant. Acclaimed writer. Media darling. Fashion icon. Bundle them up and you have: Porntip Rojanasunan (yes — that’s her real name, spelled correctly and she is pictured above) who is loved by the Thai public for her fearless exposing of corruption in high places and also for her unconventional dress sense.
To learn more (unfortunately you must subscribe to Monocle in order to read this), read No. 1 Lady Detective — Bangkok.
Find out more about Dr. Rojanasunan:
Porntip Rojanasunan — Wikipedia (they spell her first name Pornthip)
ABC (Australian Broadcasting Company) News
Photo credit: Anne Holmes
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
Start-up cost: U.S. $275.
How was it paid for? Money from a severance package.
Until late December, Pilaporn Jaksurat, 33, was working full-time on a cotton spinning machine in a textile mill in Bangkok. She made about $7 a day and her benefits included bonuses of $30 a month for good attendance and a severance package worth about $800.
Then she was laid off when her factory, which sells fabric to clothing manufacturers in Europe, said it had to cut costs to cope with the global economic crisis. Finding a similar job wasn’t an option, since other local factories were also dumping staff due to a massive decline in orders from buyers across Europe and North America. She decided to start her own business, selling shots of medicinal wine to truck drivers and motorcyclists on the highway by her home — an adult version of the neighborhood lemonade stand. With help from friends, she fashioned a makeshift bamboo stand on vacant grass by the roadside. The start-up cost was about $275, she says, paid for with money from her severance package.
A few weeks later, shouting to be heard over the roar of oncoming trucks, Ms. Pilaporn says she’s making a profit of about $10 a day after expenditures for ingredients, including herbs and wine. That’s better than the $7 or so she made at the garment factory. She likes being her own boss, she says, and the income allows her to keep sending money home every month to help support her parents and 2-year-old child, who live together in a rural area in northern Thailand.
Read more about Pilaporn’s journey and how others have been able to weather the global downturn through underground entrepreneurship here.
Posted by: Laurel Delaney
