Black and Hispanic students can apply for an entrepreneurial scholarship launched this month by Donald A. Coleman, chairman of multicultural marketing communications agency GlobalHue. The Coleman Entrepreneurial Scholarship is designed for students majoring or focusing on entrepreneurship. CES will provide scholarships to college students attending select historically black colleges and universities and institutions serving Hispanics.

Up to 20 scholarships of $5,000 each will be awarded for educational expenses to full-time college juniors or seniors for use in the 2009-10 academic year.

"Private enterprise and entrepreneurship play a critical role in the building of America and our communities," says Kelli Coleman, Coleman's daughter and GlobalHue vice president. "For this reason, my father has established a scholarship to recognize students who have an entrepreneurial spirit and quest for a higher education."

For more information, visit thecolemanscholarship.org or call Scholarship Management Services at 800-537-4180 and ask for The Coleman Entrepreneurial Scholarship. Continue Reading »

 Women-omics.com is a new website that offers global reporting focused on women's growing economic impact worldwide.

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StartupNation has announced the first Leading Moms in Business competition, which will rank the top 200 mom-run businesses across America as determined by popular vote.

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Women entrepreneurs are invited to apply for the third edition of the Cartier Women's Initiative Awards. The international competition is aimed at women entrepreneurs in the early stages of business development. The application deadline is Feb. 13. Winners will be announced Oct. 17.

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You could earn $25,000 in seed capital for your media startup by participating in the We Media Pitch It Challenge at We Media Miami on Feb. 24-26. We Media will award up to $50,000 in seed funding to selected innovators during the three-day conference at the University of Miami.

We Media is looking for innovators who can bring bold commercial or nonprofit media ventures to life. Finalists will present their ideas before conference attendees and a panel of judges at the We Media Miami conference at the University of Miami. Judges will include venture capitalists, serial and social entrepreneurs. Continue Reading »

Want a piece of the federal contracting pie? Get an introduction to government contracting through a series of interactive podcasts and webinars presented by American Express OPEN and Women Impacting Public Policy.

Podcasts include: Continue Reading »

A workshop orchestrated by the U.S. Army's 7th Sustainment Brigade in Iraq drew nearly 40 Iraqi businesswomen to Camp Mittica last month to learn more about business development.

"We've been having these workshops with men, so we knew it was important to get women involved," said Maj. Shawn D. Sanborn, finance operations, 7th Sustainment Brigade. He added that the workshop was orchestrated with assistance from Muthanna and Dhi Qar provincial reconstruction teams. Continue Reading »

Women business owners refuse to give in to pessimism in the face of today's economic woes, according to a survey by the Chubb Group of Insurance Companies and the Women Presidents' Organization.

Fifty-eight percent of women business owners anticipate revenue growth in 2009, and 44 percent expect no difficulty obtaining access to credit, the 2008 Business Risk Survey reveals. The survey polled 160 women chief executive officers and presidents who are members of WPO. Continue Reading »

Startups make more use of social media tools than established businesses, according to a survey conducted by VerticalResponse Inc.,  which provides e-mail marketing and direct mail.

The survey, which queried several hundred California businesses, categorized startups as businesses operating from one to three years, and established businesses as businesses with more than 10 years of operation. Continue Reading »

Three companies founded by women were among the six winners of the 2008 Legatum Pioneers of Prosperity Africa Awards, presented Wednesday in Kigali, Rwanda.

The awards program recognizes and rewards business leaders in Africa who serve as role models to the continent's aspiring entrepreneurs. Continue Reading »

You can learn from successful female business leaders and entrepreneurs from around the world Nov. 19, when IBM presents the WomenSpeak webcast as part of Global Entrepreneurship Week.

Topics include: how to create a small business, how to expand globally, how to drive innovation in uncertain times and how to climb the corporate ladder in male-dominated industries. Continue Reading »

Sip a cup of tea, learn how to get free publicity that creates buzz for your business, and make a donation to breast cancer relief--all at the same time, in the comfort of your home or office.

It's all possible through Publici-Tea-to-Go, a do-it-yourself publicity information kit devised by Nancy S. Juetten, founder of Main Street Media Savvy. Continue Reading »

The SBA's proposed new rule governing set-aside contracts for women-owned businesses could apply to as many as 31 industries, the agency has announced.

That's an expansion from the initial rule, which limited the set-asides to four industries and raised a storm of protest from groups representing women business owners as well as members of Congress. Click here to view the final rule. Continue Reading »

Julie Catalano has won the title "Official Small Business of NASCAR courtesy of Office Depot."

Catalano, who is the first female business owner to win the promotion--now in its fourth year --owns Mystique Salon & Spa in Boise, Idaho. Continue Reading »

Going green is not yet a mainstream consumer concern--but it can still be a profitable niche market for entrepreneurs, according to GOING Green, a recent Yankelovich survey.

Only 34 percent of consumers feel much more concerned about environmental issues today than they did a year ago, the survey reveals. And less than one-quarter of consumers believe they can make a difference when it comes to the environment. The survey, which queried 2,763 consumers over age 16, is the first to examine how much consumers care about green issues. Continue Reading »

The federal government spends more than $400 billion each year on everything from paper clips to human resources consulting. That amount of money results in a huge number of federal contracts being awarded, but only 3.4 percent of those federal contracts are going to women-owned businesses, according to the SBA. This, despite the fact that legislation passed in 2000 stipulates they should receive 5 percent of those contracts.

In response, Women Impacting Public Policy and American Express OPEN have developed a program designed to help women navigate the complex federal contracting system and secure the 5 percent of contracts mandated in the Equity in Contracting for Women Act. The program derives its name from the act. It's called Give Me Five: Education and Access for Women in Federal Contracts. Continue Reading »

OK, so the nearly $1 trillion Wall Street rescue is all but assured, but the benefits to small business remain to be seen. In the long run, more credit should become available for entrepreneurs who need funding to start a business or expand an existing one, but for now it's the big players who will lap up the taxpayer-sponsored river of capital.

Even if the plan works perfectly and the federal coffers become flush with cash over the next several years--decades?--how can this be seen as anything other than a catastrophic failure of a system that is supposed to self-regulate as a way to avoid such collapses? Continue Reading »

Estelle Keeter's MEDPACK, an insulated case for medications, earned her the $20,000 grand prize in Whirlpool's 2008 Mother of Invention Grant Program. Now in its fourth year, the contest provides seed money and expert guidance to mom inventors.

Keeter is a diabetic who got tired of using bulky lunch packs to keep her insulin cold. As an elementary school teacher, she also watched her students struggle to find space for their medication in the school cafeteria's refrigerator. MEDPACK keeps medication cold in a briefcase, a purse or a backpack. Continue Reading »

Imagine having a mentor for every day of the year.

Mary Cantando not only imagined it, she created it. Continue Reading »

Bring peanuts and your business plan.

The National Organization of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) is collaborating with the nation's zoos on a novel series of events for women business owners and their kids. Continue Reading »