I was watching the Today Show this morning (a lingering habit as a result of my days in PR) and they did a story called Moms Turn Dreams Into Dough. It was a reasonably good piece about moms who have started businesses and are successfully growing and running them such that they "got to" quit their "day jobs" and pursue their "dreams" full time. (Had to put that in quotes, just because I don't ever hear people talking about male entrepreneurs in such warm and fuzzy ways. Guys have ideas that they turn into businesses.

Women, apparently, have dreams and it's not business at all!)

That said, the statistics about women in business are pretty incredible. According to the Center for Women's Business Research, there are 10.4 million running successful businesses in the US. Of those 10.4 million, 85% of them are run out of the home.

Although the Today Show piece was really aimed at helping women turn hobbies into careers - things like crafting and cooking - the advice given to would-be momrepeneurs is really solid advice to ANYONE - male or female, hobbyist or researcher - thinking about starting a business.

Once you know what your idea is, whether it is a product or a service, ask yourself some very basic questions, as they will serve as the basis of your business plan:

1. Is it a product that YOU need, want and would use. If so, that serves as the starting point for defining your market.

2. Who else is doing it? While it's possible that nobody is doing it, do a thorough search to make sure. And even if this product doesn't currently exist, identify the manufacturers who make products of similar style and that serve a similar market. Those manufacturers may be your exit strategy, know who they are.

3. What goes in to actually MAKING this thing? Is this something you can make yourself, train a handful of others to make. OR, do you need to find someone who can design and produce a prototype and later find a factory that can make it? It's fine either way, but you have to know, as this will influence your startup costs.

4. Create a timeline and budget to make sure things keep moving forward.

Now, with timeline and budget in hand, it's time to figure out how you're going to pay for it. If you have a simple product that you can develop and take to market on your own, this may be less of an issue. But, in many cases, you will need more money than you have in order to really launch.

The biggest bunch of collective wisdom here is that you need to know the difference between and investor and a lender.

1. An investor (whether it's friend, family or institutional) puts money into the company in exchange for ownership. Pick them carefully, have lawyers draw up REAL terms so that you don't find yourself in the wishy-washy-he-said-she-said-hell that is money passed between friends and family. You will need to do some basic financial projections in order to know the value of the idea and product and everything you have done and weigh it against the value of the cash dollars being invested in. There are lawyers who specialize in this, find one, use them! You do not pay back an investor, but they do own part of your company.

2. A lender - whether it's a bank, friend, family - is someone who is LOANING you money and you will pay them back every penny, plus interest, that they loan to you. There is no harm whatsoever in doing this, but you need to be aware of the terms. If you are using your credit card as a lender, for instance, you'll start paying that back every month starting immediately. Friends and family may have different terms and you can start paying them back when you have X revenue. Make sure that you can afford both the terms and the timeline of any loan!

Now, the heart and soul of starting any business is that you have to LOVE it. Really, it's hard, that love and passion will keep you going when reality is beating you down.

Beyond personal passion, however, there is far more to the story of women in business. I'll tell you more about Count Me In in future posts, but Count Me In is an organization working to fund and support women owned businesses in the US. Although there is no shortage of "women power" in the ethos of this organization that was founded by Nell Merlino (who created Take Your Daughter To Work Day,) the real umph of this organization is in understanding the vital economic impact of women owned businesses.

Back to that 10.4 million number for a second. While more than 70% of those women-owned businesses have revenues in excess of $50,000, only 3% have revenue in excess of $1M. If you're curious, men's companies double that. (Which brings up 2 points that very important. 1-men are still outperforming there and 2-MOST business in the US is small business!)

What if there were 1 Million women owned business in the US that reached $1 Million in revenue? Well, in the US, that would mean revenues of about $757,718,000,000. Hmmm, that is the whirring of an economic engine, is it not? Further, guess what's driving that economic engine - 5,167,637 jobs. In Washington State (where I live,) our "humble" share of that would mean $23,164,503,423 in revenue and 157,982 jobs.

Count Me In hosts a series of national events aimed at bringing women together to discuss how and why to grow your business. But more than that, they coach, guide, inspire and support women's business with the singular goal of getting to the point where we have 1MILLION WOMEN OWNED COMPANIES GENERATING REVENUE IN EXCESS OF $1 MILLION.

Stay tuned for more info about their Seattle event, which takes place on June 11. You can expect interesting panels and discussions. AND, if you think you have a million dollar business, you can enter the contest and earn the right to pitch your business for prizes that include funding, hardware, deals, counseling and other support to get you there. Check them out at www.MakeMineAMillion.org

In the meantime, here are some fun numbers for you from the women at Make Mine A Million:

- Women own 48% of all businesses in the US, that's 9.1 million businesses.
- Women owned businesses contribute more than $3.6 trillion to the US marketplace
- Women account for more than 70% of consumer spending (which is a good reminder of Guy Kawasaki's advice to always run your idea past a woman to see what she thinks.)
- 55% of women provide half - or more - of their household income, yet 80% of all women in the workforce earn less than $25,000 a year.

Wow, that's a lot of opportunity for women, and for the country. Yes, it would be great to see a million women owned companies playing in the big leagues, but it would be even better to see the country as a whole achieve that kind of economic vitality by nourishing the creative energy of all of our citizens.

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Cross posted from Start Her Up