Despite the fact that the U.S. boasts over 8.6 million women-led businesses with a cumulative $1.3 trillion in revenues (not to mention that the number of women-owned businesses is growing at one and a half times the national average), one of the most oft-repeated challenges of women entrepreneurs is a perceived lack of support for their business ambitions. Whether it’s women’s storied reluctance to look for help or to find the support necessary to make their dreams a reality, the idea is propagated that if you’re a woman starting a business, you’re on your own.
100 Best Websites For Women list, and when pulling together and vetting the nearly 3,000 suggestions from our online community, I was delighted as always at how many of them were geared towards small business owners and women in the high-stakes startup space.
Of course, they can’t all make the cut. 100 is, despite being a big number, surprisingly small when you’re whittling down such awesome destinations. Left off this list then—through no fault by these amazing sites—are resources like Project Eve, In Good Company and offerings from our friends at HuffPost, Mashable, PandoDaily and more, all valuable destinations for women launching, scaling an celebrating the success of their own endeavors. The bottom line: there is no shortage of great online offerings for women in business, whether they’re gender neutral (like WSJ or FastCompany or–oh God–FORBES) or female-facing like the sites you’ll find here.
Here, from the 2013 list of the 100 Best Websites for Women, the top 10 web resources for female founders. If you’re just starting out, raising capital or cutting the ribbon, these sites will be there every step of the way.
The Boss Network: A community of entrepreneurial women who support each other through conversation, online and event-based networking. A recent must-read on the blog: Exit Strategy: How to Pursue Your Passion without Sacrificing Your Paycheck.
Change The Ratio: The tumblr presence of the Change The Ratio campaign, which aims to tip the scales on women on the corporate and entrepreneurial level, features updates from women’s events and inspirational content. Like this recent quote on diversity: “There are many pro-active things you can do, once you are focused on diversity. And the sooner you get going the better off your team will be.”
Chic CEO: A slick site for women with the entrepreneur bug. Advice covers everything from patents and copyrights to the pros and cons of buying a franchise, but a particular emphasis on downloadable tools (think business plan outlines and contracts) makes this a must-visit. Resource? Check.
Daily Muse: An advice hub for the Gen-Y careerist, the content side of The Muse (also worth a visit for those of us on the job hunt) features spot-on advice for entrepreneurs as well. Maybe because the founders, Y Combinator alums, are still in the thick of it.
NEW Dutiee This website dedicated to “all things social good” provides advice for social entrepreneurs, nonprofit success stories and must have ethically-manufactured goods. A recent profile of Katie Meyer, founder of the nonprofit More than Me, has great insights on using a plethora of social tools to promote your mission.
NEW Founding Moms Offline meetups match with online resources to allow mom entrepreneurs to connect, exchange and learn from each other. But the tool of all tools is the Founding Kit, a (not-free) resource for first-time founders and existing business owners that includes everything from logo design to copyright advice to health insurance info.
Ladies Who Launch: An active and engaging site for female entrepreneurs that provides a resources for starting, building and running a business. The strength of the organization is heavily rooted in PR–not so surprising as founder Victoria Colligan, once a corporate attorney, has a background in marketing. High-end wedding gowns, no less! (Yes, Colligan was an original Amsale girl).
NEW Recessionista: They call it “financial news you don’t need a dictionary for,” but we’re not convinced that’s the best description. There’s career-talk, sure, but also entrepreneurial gems in hiding. Check out: Three Secrets of the Self-Employed
Women 2.0: With daily content on women in technology, Women 2.0 has made its mission to increase the number of female founders of tech startups with inspiration, information and education. Content (Seven Secrets of Highly Successful Women in the Future of Work), events (the incredible Founder Friday) and access to a helluva job board make this site invaluable for tech-focused founders.
Women Entrepreneur: The female arm of Entrepreneur.com, this site is a resource for current and aspiring women business owners, featuring in-depth profiles of success stories as well as up-to-date advice on funding. does alack of confidence really hold back female entrepreneurs? Ugh. We hope not.
