Since the Internet era unfolded, you've heard a lot about
19-, 20- or 21-year-old males plunging into the excitement of
piloting start-ups. But did you ever wonder why you weren't
reading about the female equivalents of Marc Andreessen and Jerry
Yang? Aren't young women interested in entrepreneurship?
Absolutely yes, says Joline Godfrey, CEO of Independent Means
Inc., a company that operates summer camps introducing girls ages
13 to 19 to business ownership and investing. "Girls are
flocking to this stuff; once they get access to the information, we
see they're hungry for it," says Godfrey, who started in
1996 with a single location. This year, she expects to run 12 camps
in North America plus several in Australia.
| | Back in the
Day... | |
| Before we give the reins over to the youngsters,
let's celebrate a veteran. Mail order pioneer Lillian Vernon celebrates her
company's 50th anniversary this year. We asked this
trailblazing business owner what she believes was the turning
point. Content Continues Below
"The most significant change began in the early 1970s,
when women entered the work force full time. After gaining valuable
work experience, many decided to start their own businesses in
[later decades]." Vernon says efforts have been aided by banks
and the SBA growing more willing to lend to women, and the advent
of the Internet and e-commerce. "These factors have had an
enormous impact on our society and changed American culture
forever." |
Independent Means isn't the only game in town. You can find
a whole laundry list of organizations offering entrepreneurial
training to girls, including women's colleges like Seton Hill
College and Carlow College in Pennsylvania, Columbia College in
South Carolina and Midway College in Kentucky. There's also
Mother and Daughter Entrepreneurs—In Teams, sponsored by the
Marion Ewing Kauffman Foundation, for 13- and 14-year-old girls and
their moms. The federal government has even gotten into the act:
The Office of Women's Business Ownership has a Web
site—www.discoverbusiness.com—to introduce girls to
entrepreneurship. (For a listing of other entrepreneurship programs
for girls, visit www.entrepreneur.com/education.)
But what's interesting about all these programs is that the
majority target pre-college girls, and while, in general, there
aren't a lot of people under 22 starting companies, those who
do tend to be males.
Amy Liu, a 2001 graduate of the University of Michigan at Ann
Arbor, is one exception. At 20, she and three friends launched a
company called OrangeSorbet.com. "It's a local [online]
marketplace that started as a way to allow students to buy and sell
used textbooks," says Liu, now 21.
Liu credits her studies as a business major with awakening her
zest for entrepreneurship. "During my junior year, some
students from Versity.com, who started their company as Michigan
undergrads, came to my class to discuss their Web site, which
offers free lecture notes online, and how they got $11 million in
venture capital," Liu recalls. "After that, I realized
[entrepreneurship] was something I wanted to do, and I jumped right
in and did it."
But few women follow Liu's path. "You don't see
young women leaving school to start companies as often as men.
Young women often feel they need to master things before they
undertake them, while young men just do it," says Allyn
Morrow, associate professor and director of the MBA program at
Chatham College in Pittsburgh.
That doesn't mean female college students aren't
interested in entrepreneurship. Business program directors at
colleges nationwide show women are actively studying and preparing
for business ownership. And Ken Morse, managing director of the MIT
Entrepreneurship Center, applauds the decision not to rush into
business while still in school.
Morse sees the next generation of women entrepreneurs coming
into their own in the next decade. "We're building a
strong base, and that doesn't happen overnight," he says.
"We're filling the pipeline, and we're doing it the
old-fashioned way—with hard work, patience and a long
attention span."
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