The Blog

As a woman business owner, entrepreneur and web designer I am often perturbed by the numerous “discussions” about the lack of women in web design & development, and even the lack of women as business owners. I’ve touched on this topic before and I’m not about to get into a debate here about the valid points of why there is this stigma. Instead, I think it’s better to take action to show that women are out there with great design and development skills, excellent business owners and incredible entrepreneurs. Just because they aren’t at the forefront of every convention and event, doesn’t mean they aren’t out there and going strong.

One site I have visited often, and am I great fan of, is Another Girl at Play where Alex Beauchamp profiles successful, creative women. It’s a great source of inspiration and well worth the visit. Seeing examples of other successful business women is always a good thing, but sometimes we also need a little more direction, help and perhaps those kicks in the butt to keep us moving forward. For those times, I have two recommendations.

The first is an excellent book by Michelle Goodman, The Anti 9-to-5 Guide - Practical Career Advice for Women Who Think Outside the Cube. An excellent read full of wit, humour and great advice for taking the steps to be your own boss and escape the cubical. Starting your own business or going freelance is a major challenge for anyone. Having some solid, valid advice is always valuable. Michelle writes from experience - the good and the bad - and no matter what, encourages women to follow what they really want to do. Her blog is filled with additional resources and information, but also regularly profiles successful women business owners.

The second resource is another book, and I am being a little presumptuous here, but I have great faith that those presumptions are well founded. Lauren Bacon and Emira Mears, the two ladies behind their successful Raised Eyebrow Web Studio and Boss Lady, have written a book, The Boss of You: Everything A Woman Needs to Know to Start, Run and Maintain Her Own Business. The book is not yet released, and I have not read it, but I have followed these two fabulous ladies for some time and am a great admirer of their work and business insight. I have no doubt that this book will be a worthwhile read for any woman who wants to venture out on her own in the business world.

Now, although I am speaking rather generally here, a lot of my dealings revolve around the web - web design and application development specifically. A good friend, and fellow web designer, Jen of Pop Stalin Design read my post on women in web design a few weeks back and decided to take action. And so, Women in Webdesign is in the works! If you are a woman web designer or developer keep an eye on the site ( perhaps subscribe to the list to be notified when it’s ready). It’s sure to be a great resource and an excellent way to profile all the women that we know are out there, but just need a little light shone in their direction.

If you are a woman business owner, freelancer or entrepreneur, don’t be shy to toot your own horn! Don’t be shy to say, “Hell yeah, I rock!”. Don’t be shy to let people know what you do. Feel free to leave a comment here with who you are, what you do and a link to your business site. Yes, that’s right - spread the word about your work! Get heard! Get seen!

Posted by Lorissa in Career |

This entry was posted on Sunday, February 17th, 2008 at 12:15 pm and is filed under Career. 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.