Last year Meredith Dennes found herself juggling a demanding career in banking and caring for her two children. At the same time, her best friend Kim Oksenberg was a stay-at-home-mom to her son. Oksenberg dreamed of starting her own business, but wasn’t exactly sure where to start or how to find the time. During many cross-country phone calls, the two women shared their daily struggles trying to balance work and both tried to figure out the best solution for their own families.
“We both knew that neither of our situations was sustainable. Working 60 to 80 hours a week with two toddlers is not ideal. And neither is being a bored mom,” says Dennes, who lives in New York City.
As they searched for answers, they realized that the traditional work model wasn’t going to work for either of them. Instead, they found that there were not many resources and online support networks geared towards women starting their own businesses or freelance careers.
“We really started to think all of these women that we knew struggling with the same issues and realized that maybe there are more people out there in the same situation,” said Dennes.
At the end of March, Dennes and Oksenberg launched Project Eve, a free online social networking community and resource center for women entrepreneurs and those considering heading out on their own. Within 24 hours of the launch, more than 250 women had already registered for the site.
The goal of the site is to meet the needs of women business owners and women trying decided if they should take the plunge—from providing information about the best business tools to use to offering a place for women to brainstorm different marketing ideas. Members can also write guest blog posts to share their personal career journey, as well as coordinate with members nearby for in-person meetups.
“With Project Eve, we hope to connect women. A lot of the struggles that women face with starting their own business is that they feel very isolated,” says Dennes. “We want to create a trusted community of like minded women who want to see each other succeed.”
Dennes and Oksenberg envision Project Eve as a place where a woman working in an office cube who dreams about starting a bakery can get advice on how much she could charge per cupcake and how to write a business plan.
But along with being a place where women get advice and support, they want to help women employ each other. “With Project Eve we are saying I think it’s really time for us to redefine the traditional model by becoming our own bosses and then hiring women who understand it is important to go to poetry reading your child’s school,” says Dennes. "A women opening a clothing boutique in St. Louis who is struggling with marketing her business can connect with and hire a former advertising executive in Los Angeles who is freelancing."
Feeling Connected
While the common advice to new business owners is to get out and meet as many people in their community, traditional networking often isn’t practical for women juggling a business venture and a family.
“Going to a networking event in person is going to tack on a considerable amount of money for babysitting when all I really want to do is work in my yoga pants while my kids are asleep without ever having to put on a suit or apply lip gloss,” says Oksenberg, co-founder and COO, of San Francisco. By Project Eve being a social media site, women can connect at whatever hour or location that they working.
Since women often have a need to bounce ideas off other women and share, the site helps fill a need for collaborative and companionship that women often miss from working in an office setting. Dennes and Oksenberg also hope that the site will help break down the myth that other female entrepreneurs have it all together and have had a smooth ride with launching their business by encouraging members to share their successes and roadblocks.
“There are slightly different priorities in priority with women than men. With women it’s not so much about competing but collaborating. And feeling that you get better by helping someone by sharing your knowledge and experience,” says Oksenberg.
Jennifer Gregory is a journalist with over 17 years professional writing experience. Jennifer blogs via Contently.com.
Image via Project Eve
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In May, a small plumbing company in Monroe, La., found itself narrowly escaping a widespread phishing scam when they received an e-mail from the Better Business Bureau claiming that a customer complaint had been filed against them. Believing the e-mail to be legitimate, they clicked on the accompanying link, which downloaded viruses on two of the business' computers. Luckily, they had the malware infections removed before any important information was leaked.
Unfortunately, not everyone is as lucky. Just this month, a Seattle restaurant owner became victim to an identity theft heist when two men put spying malware in his sales systems. They did the same to several businesses and sold at least 44,000 credit card numbers to an unidentified website.
Small businesses, especially newer ones, are easy targets for scammers. The best way for companies to protect themselves is to be aware of them. These six scams have been known to prey on small businesses.
The overpayment scam. In overpayment scams, the scammer expresses interests in expensive goods that a business is selling. The scammer then proceeds to send over a check that exceeds the cost of the item and requests that the victim wire the difference after the check has been deposited into an account. Eventually, the realistic-appearing check will bounce, leaving the victim to pay the entire amount.
How to avoid it: Always make sure to get all information from your customer, including full name, address and telephone number. Avoid wiring funds for any reason—this request should automatically raise red flags.
The vanity scam. A vanity scam preys on one very gullible aspect of humans—their pride. This scam is listed as one of the top con jobs targeting small businesses. In a vanity scam, a business is contacted about winning an award and asked to pay the partial or full amount of the cost of receiving the award. However, these are bogus organizations that often continue to charge the cardholder yearly "membership fees."
How to avoid it: Always research the organization calling to offer the award. A simple online search will yield several complaints and warnings.
Phishing scams. Phishing scams appear to be legitimate e-mails to the viewer, but are fraudulent messages that usually download viruses into the victim's computer when the e-mail is opened or links within the e-mail are clicked. These viruses capture personal information, such as bank details, Social Security numbers and credit card accounts. Phishing is a huge threat to businesses because of the vast amount of important information stored on computers.
How to avoid it: Scan the e-mail carefully and look out for grammar mistakes and other inconsistencies. Hover your cursor over the links without clicking and you will be able to see the address. Most new Internet browsers are equipped with anti-fishing software, so be sure that your system is up-to-date and protected.
The TTY scam. During a TTY scam, callers can remain anonymous and type messages to an operator, who relays the message to the caller's recipient. This is perfect for scammers, because operators cannot disclose where the call is coming from. The scammer proceeds to request an expensive and large item from the business, pays with a stolen credit card and requests a check for the large shipping fees that the scammer agrees to pay for in advance.
How to avoid it: Ask the person to verify the card verification code and provide the customer service number that is printed on the back of all credit cards. Inform the caller that you will verify the information with the bank.
The "who's who" scam. Also known as "false billing," these scammers contact businesses requesting to update the company's information in a directory. Usually, they claim they are from the Yellow Pages. During the conversation, the scammer records the phone call and later bills the company for being listed in the directory or for placing ads never purchased, providing doctored recordings as evidence. When the company refuses to pay, the scammer threatens legal action, usually resulting in the company cutting a check to stop the hounding.
How to avoid it: Make sure your employees are aware about this type of scam and only allow a limited number of employees to deal with business transactions. Most important, don't let hounding lead to your forfeit if you aren't completely sure you are being charged fairly. Report sketchy companies to the Better Business Bureau.
The fax-back scam. This scam can be easy to fall for because all you have to do is fax a paper back. In fax-back scams, an unsolicited fax comes in offering amazing deals and discounts on office supplies, landscaping, directories—just about anything. All the business owner has to do is fax back his or her request to a premium number, which charges the company a few dollars per minute for a fax that will take a while to go through.
How to avoid it: If you're interested in the offer listed in an unsolicited fax, research the details. The fax-back premium rate service number is 190. Keep in mind the age-old adage, if it's too good to be true, it usually is.
Have you fallen victim to a small-business con job?
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