Center focuses on women - National Education Center for Women in Business; includes related articles

Nation's Business, August, 1993 by Sharon Nelton

An ambitious program to stimulate research on women's entrepreneurship and create innovative ways of teaching girls and women about business ownership has been launched at Seton Hill College, a small, Catholic, women's school in Greensburg, Pa.

Called the National Education Center for Women in Business (NECWB), it was officially kicked off in May with two daylong conferences that attracted about 40 entrepreneurs, educators, and researchers from around the country.

To be supported with $5 million in federal funds over a five-year period, NECWB was conceived by Pittsburgh business owner Linda Dickerson and Seton Hill's president, JoAnne Boyle, along with other members of the college faculty.

But the engine of the new center is its director, Cynthia Iannarelli, who has a Ph.D. in business and is still involved in her family's dry-cleaning chain in Pittsburgh.

"This center is mostly about educating men," she says, in an apparent contradiction. She means men who run banks that resist lending money to women business owners; male accountants, insurance agents, attorneys, and other professionals who do not yet take women business owners seriously; and men in the male-dominated business schools of the country where a male model of entrepreneurship is taught. "Women don't gravitate to it," she says. "They say, 'That's not us.'" She hopes that a "female model" of women's business ownership can be developed at the center.

NECWB expects to fund $200,000 worth of research annually.

During its first year, the center plans to focus on research on women expanding their businesses. Research funded by the center, Iannarelli said, must be of practical use to women business owners and be readily convertible to such tools as videos, audio tapes, workbooks, and seminars.

The center offers a number of education programs for adults, including seminars on taking a business international and entrepreneurship for disabled women. A seminar on marketing to women business owners is designed for bankers, insurance agents, financial consultants, and other professionals who serve entrepreneurs.

However, much of NECWB's thrust is directed at the younger generation. It expects to help Seton Hill integrate business education into all of the disciplines taught at the college. It recently sponsored a business-plan competition for teenage girls in Pennsylvania and hopes to take the program national. In June, it sponsored its first "Camp Entrepreneur," a program for girls ages 13 to 17.

Says Iannarelli: "We want to get to the point where young women in high school think manufacturing is fun."

For More Information

The National Education Center for Women in Business (NECWB) publishes a bimonthly newsletter that provides information helpful to women entrepreneurs. In addition, NECWB offers a 30-minute videotape, "The Power of Family Business," which emphasizes women in family-owned companies and engenders lively discussion in a group setting. The tape is $129.

For further information, contact NECWB at Seton Hill College, Seton Hill Drive, Greensburg, Pa. 15601-1599; (412) 830-4625.

Additional Help For Teenagers

Joline Godfrey wrote Our Wildest Dreams, a book about women entrepreneurs published last year Now she's turning her attention to teenage girls as co-founder of a nonprofit organization, An Income of Her Own. AIOHO's purpose, she says, is to introduce girls to the idea that "business ownership is another option."

AIOHO offers "awareness-building" conferences that bring girls together with women business owners, plus a national business competition and a membership program that includes a bimonthly newsletter. Next June, AIOHO will hold a summer entrepreneurship camp.

If they wish, girls who attend a conference may follow it up with a two-week "observing internship" at a woman-owned business.

For dates and locations of future conferences and other information, contact AIOHO at P.O. Box 8452, San Jose, Calif. 95155; 1-800-350-2978.

Some Mistakes To Avoid

What are some of the biggest problems lenders find in the documents they receive from women who are applying for business loans?

That question was asked at a recent seminar on sources of capital. The event was sponsored by the Washington, D.C., office of the American Woman's Economic Development Corporation, a not-for-profit training and counseling organization.

The seminar panelists cited these difficulties:

Being too optimistic. "Bankers tend to be skeptical," said Marilyn Ayres of Capital Bank, in Washington. "When you're looking at a business plan and someone projects astronomical growth over five years, you tend to think they're not someone that you really want to put a lot of faith in." Be realistic, she advised.

Failure to toot your own horn. Women are especially reluctant to do this, said Constance Proctor, a Reston, Va., management consultant. But she pointed out that investors and lenders want to know that you have a management team that can carry out your business idea.