But everyone feels the fear. Some of us do it anyway.

http://www.cityam.com/index.php?news=25039

Julie Meyer

: New websites make it easier for women to do it by themselves

18/11/2008 

WHAT’S with women anyway? It used to be that a good man was all they needed. Now they want to climb their own Mont Blancs and they are getting a wee bit too competitive for most men. A new online community for female entrepreneurs is going to stoke that fire even more.

Julie Hall, the founder of Springmedia, a boutique web and design agency in SouthWest London, set up Women Unlimited – www.women-unlimited.co.uk – earlier this autumn, and has clearly hit a nerve.

She wanted to create a place where women can ask questions, find support and information that can help them succeed in their own businesses and their own lives.

Notonthehighstreet.com and Teamworks Karting are two examples of smaller entrepreneurial firms surviving and even doing well in the credit crunch. Notonthehighstreet.com is the brain child of female entrepreneurs Holly Tucker and Sophie Cornish and was this year included in the “Startups 100” hit list of the best new businesses, and also shortlisted for the Women in Business Startups 2008 award. They have created an online mall of different shops to buy gifts.

Teamworks Karting – www.teamworkskarting. com – are a hospitality firm which survived the dot.com crash, by focusing on the banking industry. But with this downturn stemming from the failure and collapse of the banking system, Teamworks had to refocus on other professional services areas like law firms who always seem to make money.

Jennifer Irvine runs the award winning “Pure Packages” nutritional programme with more than 3,000 clients including RubyWax, Patsy Kensit and handbag designer Anya Hindmarch.

She says: “I strongly believe that fear of failure is a vital attribute for an entrepreneur – it stops you from making mistakes in business.” I never asked for any bank loans or got outside investors involved, mainly because I was too nervous of being rejected or failing them. This has meant that I am in 100 per cent control of my business and am in a really strong position at the moment. Other companies are feeling the squeeze from their banks and investors but I am not.”

Not every female entrepreneur will be named one of the top 10 Women to Watch by the Wall Street Journal and a World Economic Forum Technology Pioneer as Christina Domecq, the founder and chief executive of SpinVox, was this past week.

But everyone feels the fear. Some of us do it anyway.