Seed for Success | Empowering Women Entreprenuers

Why we’re doing this

• There are 10.4 million women-owned businesses in the U.S.*
• Women own 41% of small businesses in the U.S. Those firms grow on average TWICE the rate of firms overall**

Every day women break the mold and form successful businesses. Yahoo! Small Business and fwm want to recognize and applaud these accomplishments. That’s what the “Empowering Women Entrepreneurs” program is all about.

Empowering Women Entrepreneurs

Women with business aspirations or existing small businesses applied for a chance to make their business dreams a reality. Expert judges reviewed each application and picked three finalists. Each finalist received the following grant:

• $20,000 cash grant to be used to accelerate the business
• Up to $5,000 in free technical services from a Yahoo! Small Business partner to build a company web site
• Mentoring from Carolyn Kepcher, founder of fwm (finding what matters)
• Mentoring from other top business leaders and successful women entrepreneurs to help the finalists truly accelerate their business
• Free Yahoo! Web Hosting services for two years
• Promotional support from Yahoo! and fwm to help drive attention to the business

Now Yahoo! Small Business, fwm, and the community can observe how the finalists use their new financial, technical, and mentoring support. The finalist whose business accelerates the most at the end of six months will win the Grand Prize:

• An additional $10,000 cash
• Additional mentoring services from Carolyn Kepcher
• A trip to New York City to meet Carolyn Kepcher and Yahoo! executives
• Media support to drive more attention to the winning business

*According to the National Association of Women Business Owners

**According to the Center for Women’s Business Research

Get Ideas From The Finalists

Check out each finalist’s blog
to see how they grow their businesses
and how you can, too!