Tuesday Linkblogging

• Check out this article in the Chicago Tribune about business training programs at home and abroad. It's a slightly unusual article, in that articles about social entrepreneurship and microfinance tend to focus on earned income strategies for nonprofits, and loan funds, respectively. This one also has quotes from Bill Clinton, who is focusing on such things these days.



• A small item of note for Californians: The California Women Business Owners just elected a new board president.



• grokdotcom.com pointed me to a new study by the SBA contrasting male and female small entrepreneurs. USA Today's blog summarized the findings. While there's no difference in performance between male and female run businesses:
  • Men had more business experience before opening their business, and higher expectations.
  • Women entrepreneurs had a bigger average household size. (This is a point women have mentioned to me often: They're more likely to shoulder extra responsibility for child care and elder care, which takes away from time spent on their business.)
  • Women were more likely to have positive revenues, but men were more likely to own an employer firm. (My take on this: Businesses with employees are more likely to have higher profits because they can take on more customers.)
  • Male owners were more likely to start a business to make money, had higher expectations for their business, and did more research to identify business opportunities.



• An interesting interview with Laura Yamanaka, the new head of the Los Angeles chapter of NAWBO, which is gearing up for a big expansion.



• Interesting article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune about a fingerprinting expert who started her own business with help from the Service Corps of Retired Executives, or SCORE. Looks like a good resource, so check it out!



• Small Business CEO blog is running excerpts from Ron Finkelstein's book 49 Marketing Secrets That Work to Grow Sales.



• The Microenterprise Journal Blog (fantastic! That's going straight onto our blog roll!) has a podcast about the SBA and Congress looking at women's microenterprise. This is a must listen!