From: Sylvia Parsons:

In today’s self-starting market of business owners, the self-employed, and entrepreneurs, it is difficult to know where one stands. As a woman, it can be even more difficult to not only find, but prove oneself in the entrepreneurial market.

Research and testimonies from successful woman entrepreneurs show that in addition to being innovative risk-takers who demonstrate rapid growth in wealth, today’s woman entrepreneur possesses the following attributes: 

1. She seeks control over work-family balance: The woman entrepreneur is driven to not only be innovative in business; but to develop creative solutions to balancing family needs. Many women built their enterprises in response to the economic or emotional needs of their families. 
2. She is determined and persistent: Entrepreneurs are able to see potential and opportunity where others see gaps or emptiness. In the face of work and family demands, inequality in the workplace and greater rates of entrepreneurial failure than men; the woman entrepreneur must be relentless and skillful in pursuit of the opportunity; without taking "no" for an answer. 
3. She is diplomatic and inclusive: The woman entrepreneur is an inclusive leader. She maintains power while eliciting opinions and sharing decisions with stakeholders. She must be diplomatic as she faces the unique challenge of including without being a “people-pleaser” or “push-over," or conversely, becoming the character Meryl Streep played in “The Devil Wears Prada."
4. She can ask for help without inhibition: Nobody knows everything. The woman entrepreneur develops a network of competent support and is confident and willing to request help when needed without viewing it as a sign of weakness. 
5. She develops the human aspect of business: The woman entrepreneur recognizes that success is not possible without people. She is empathetic and able to develop relationships and effectively persuade and motivate others. This is a powerful tool in business where “it’s still who you know.” 
6. Finally, and most importantly--She is confident in herself and her ability as an entrepreneur and leader!

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Sylvia Parsons will complete her Master's Degree from Virginia Tech in Human Development in the fall of 2009.  She is an intern with Handshake Media, Inc., and with Better Agreements, Inc. "There's Something About Her," the series by Sylvia Parsons, can be found on Handshake 2.0 under
Women Entrepreneurs.

From Mindy Marcus:

Ah, to wind down - wine down - with friends in the summertime...

Sake House Restaurant offers just that chance with its new "Wine Down Wednesdays," featuring two glasses of wine and a sampling of the Chef's Special sushi.

Located at First and Main in Blacksburg, Virginia, Sake House features 19 special sushi rolls, including a "Hokie Roll" for Virginia Tech fans.  Founded by Jenny Yang in Roanoke, Virginia in 1983, Sake House invites guests to "wine down" on Wednesdays at its new home in Blacksburg.

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Blue Ocean Marketing and Consulting is excited to spread the word about Sake House Restaurant's "Wine Down Wednesdays."  Mindy Marcus is an intern with Blue Ocean and a former intern with Handshake 2.0.  Melinda "Mindy" Marcus won the 2009 Caught in the Act of Leadership Award from The Business Leadership Center, Pamplin College of Business, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia.  Blue Ocean Marketing and Consulting is a client of Handshake 2.0.

From Anne Clelland:

In her post for Handshake 2.0, The Oprah-Scoble-HARO-You-Name-It Effect , Z. Kelly Quiejo described what a spike in traffic can do to a website.  While I used one of the images she created for that post, I couldn't resist sharing this one, too.

From Sylvia Parsons:

Before I can seek out women entrepreneurs for my series, "There's Something About Her," I must know  for whom I am looking.  Is the in-home child care provider as entrepreneurial as the founding CEO of an international corporation?  What is an entrepreneur in the first place? I took to the Internet, and the lonely shelves of Newman Library, in search of insight.

“Entrepreneurship” derives from the French word, entreprendre, which means “to undertake.” The dictionary definition of an entrepreneur is: “a person who organizes and manages any enterprise, esp. a business, usually with considerable initiative and risk.” Many, such as Schwartz, argue that entrepreneurs must “create a business that did not previously exist.” As Paul C. Light outlines in The Search for Social Entrepreneurship, some seek evidence of “basic motivations for achievement, autonomy, and affiliation.”  Others just view this as “entrepreneurial spirit” which must be actualized into entrepreneurship.

Quickmba.com shows entrepreneurship as characterized by rapid growth and significant wealth creation. This excludes many non-profit leaders, small business owners, and self-employed individuals. That conflicts with many popular sites and resources. And what of solopreneurs and creators of new, inventive small businesses?

So, what sets entrepreneurs apart? I offer these three characteristics:

1. Risk: Entrepreneurial risk is high and entrepreneurs knowingly “undertake” the costs in pursuit of their vision and profits.
2. Innovation: Entrepreneurs blaze new paths; invent new markets, create new products and implement new strategies. 
3. Speed of growth (wealth creation): Many agree that entrepreneurial ventures result in great wealth, in excess of millions, often within 5 years. With growing concepts of social entrepreneurship, however, growth in market awareness and systematic change can be considered as well. Whatever the entrepreneur's goal, it is important that he or she make rapid progress toward that end and that others buy into the vision quickly.

Without visibility, expansion and wealth, entrepreneurs remain small-business owners and self-employed individuals. Entrepreneurs set themselves apart.

Whether one is an aspiring or existing entrepreneur, one message is clear:

True success is not only a result of who you know, but who knows you.

***

Sylvia Parsons will complete her Master's Degree from Virginia Tech in Human Development in the fall of 2009.  She is an intern with Handshake Media, Incorporated. "There's Something About Her," the series by Sylvia Parsons can be found on Handshake 2.0 under Women Entrepreneurs.

From Bob Giles:

In Imagining India: The Idea of a Renewed Nation, Nandan Nilekani presented for me a new idea. I have made many speeches about population control and referred multiple times to the plight of thousands in India. According to Nilekani, since the 1970s there has been a shift in labor productivity and the knowledge economy and thus a shift in both political and economic power.

“Today…India’s growth is credited to its strength in human capital, and the rise of IT [information technology] in India, for instance, is seen in terms of ‘Indian talent’ as entrepreneurs and workers overcame the barriers that existed in the 1990s to drive growth...The change in this idea of population as a ‘burden’ to population as an ‘asset’ is central to what is driving India today.”

There is still a problem, however, and I think it is similar to that of Western Virginia as I continue to try to see similarities and find solutions for the US region. In India, the people as “human capital” need roads to get them to work, electric lights for night work, and English skills. Analogously, in Western Virginia, people need roads, health care, diverse jobs, and education for wellness and those ever-changing jobs. In India, the young population “labor pool” is of restless, ambitious, young workers “…not hamstrung by tradition and old habit….a shot in the arm in terms of new ideas and opportunities.” In India, rising democracy is part of what is new.

In Virginia we could have heard the identical speech made by chief minister Nitish Kumar (2007):

"'Our young people leave the state and go for jobs elsewhere…we need to make such opportunities happen here. Only then will the young stay.’ His words were met with roars of approval."

"It was a sound that gives me hope," writes Nilekani.

Me, too.

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Photo credit:  Elephant by Nidhin G Poothully

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Robert H. Giles, Jr. writes High Five for Handshake 2.0.  The opinions Robert Giles expresses are solely his own and are not necessarily shared by Handshake 2.0 or its clients. 

Feel free to follow Robert H. Giles, Jr. on Twitter @Bob_Giles

Robert H. Giles, Jr. is a Virginia Tech Professor Emeritus with a vision for a rural land management system.  He writes two blogs, The Survivalists and Faunal Force. 

From Jessica Forrester:

in a 1997 letter to Ms. Magazine, famous now to her fans, quotes Ani Difranco as writing, “I'm just a folksinger, not an entrepreneur.”

Ani Difranco’s team began the Buffalo, New York-based independent label Righteous Babe Records: “a small business that puts music before rock stardom and ideology before profit.”

Like many recent grads on the job hunt, I’m discovering just how important it is to me that I work for a company I can feel proud of.  The decision of where to apply feels heavier than “Who do I want to work for,” as I also try to answer, “What will I represent?”

I should clarify:  I do not consider “entrepreneur” a dirty word.  In fact, it’s listed as part of the focus of one of my college majors- Business Management with a focus in Entrepreneurship, Innovation, and Technology.  Ani’s impressive financial statistics (see letter),  may not be self-satisfying, but she is satisfied by her ability to pay people to work for her and to “give stimulating business to local printers and manufacturers and to employ the services of independent distributors, promoters, booking agents and publicists.”  And of course, the not so small bonus: “I was able to quit my day job and devote myself to what I love.”

Making a profit doing what a person loves is no crime, and I’m not going to work for a business that can’t afford to pay me.  But marketing aside, what a business does with its profits will still determine what it stands for to the informed public.  I do my best to vote with my dollar, and want to earn my paycheck with the same mindset - and consciousness.

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Jessica Forrester has available two free tickets to see Ani DiFranco at Rams Head Live in Baltimore, MD on July 9.

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Jessica Forrester is a content creator for Handshake 2.0.  Specializing in marketing and advertising, she is a writer, researcher, graphic artist, and graduate of the Virginia Tech Pamplin College of Business.  Jessica Forrester's blog is Mini Fad: Not Trendy Yet, But You Bet It Will Be.

From Jessica Forrester:

Where were you when Michael Jackson died?  I was on Twitter, watching the tweets turn almost completely from Ahmadinejad to the King of Pop faster than I could get up and tell my grandmother to say her prayers for Michael Jackson’s family along with Farrah Fawcett’s and Ed McMahon's. After the May 19 hysteria over Patrick Swayze, I tweeted with some cynicism: “did michael jackson really die, or is twitter the rumor mill from hell?”  Of course, as we now know, this time it was true. 

As Twitter struggled to keep up with the heavy traffic, Wikipedia had users stumbling over one another trying to report or prevent reports of Jackson’s death prematurely. 

CNET reported:

Some Wikipedians repeatedly deleted references to Jackson's alleged demise, saying in separate comments that "This is not yet verified," "He's not dead," "Premature edits," and "ONCE AGAIN, HE IS NOT DEAD, JUST STOP."

How sad news was shared and spread has shown the immense power behind social media.  But this makes me wonder:  Do social media forums give us information freedom by protecting us from giant media conglomerates or do they make us instead more vulnerable to intellectual vandalism?

Maybe we still think Twitter is a gossip mill more than a reference, but do we trust Wikipedia - one of the first sources to come up on any Google Search? 

I performed an act of information vandalism on a Wikipedia article at approximately 10:30 PM EST on 6/25/09. 

I’ve been told numerous times that Wikipedia is extremely trustworthy and that it takes mere seconds for anything incorrect to be fixed.  That may be true for a popular article or one for a brand or politician, but what about the articles for everyday baked goods?  Who’s scrutinizing that text?

 So far?  No one.

***

Jessica Forrester is a content creator for Handshake 2.0.  Specializing in marketing and advertising, she is a writer, researcher, graphic artist, and graduate of the Virginia Tech Pamplin College of Business.  Jessica Forrester's blog is Mini Fad: Not Trendy Yet, But You Bet It Will Be.

From Anne Clelland:

Why did I apply for a six-month position to promote a niche industry in another state via social media? 

To do it there. To come back and do it here.

In a brilliant social media marketing campaign that a) brought such traffic to their site that if they weren't hosted by a cloud computing company, they are now, and b) undoubtedly resulted in national, even international branding of a single, family-owned business, Murphy-Goode Winery offered A Really Goode Job - six months, $10K per month, "...for someone (maybe you) who really knows how to use Web 2.0 and Facebook and blogs and social media and YouTube and all sorts of good stuff like that - to tell the world about our wines and the place where we live: the Sonoma County Wine Country."

I was one of 925 applicants, the top 50 were announced today, and I am not among them.

I'm good, even goode, with it.  I was born in Virginia, spent most of my childhood and young adulthood in Virginia, then lived in Tampa, Florida for over 20 years.  I returned to Virginia in 2006.  I've started a company here to promote niche industries in this state via social media.

You know why else I applied?  To walk the talk.  I believe the use of social media by businesses can result in regional economic development.  By many businesses, social media is considered new, unproven, and risky.  It requires stepping forth as people, not just as a corporate entities, and that can feel uncomfortable.

Okay, fine. I've gone first.  The application required a 60-second video.  Think this was easy?  Nope.  Think I think this is important for my company and for yours?

I was willing to bet six months of my life on it.

***

I showed up at the home of Z. Kelly Queijo, got out of my car, and said, "Will you take a video of me?"

"Sure," she said. 

I treasure ZKQ.

We did 1/2 of one take, then this take.  So the video above is take number two.  Here's the video on the Murphy-Goode site.

Upon viewing the video, I hope you say, "Gee, look at Anne.  She really put it out there.  And she thinks that's a good video?  I thought I could never do anything like that but... Hmm...  I think we can do better...  Hey!  You know what we could do is..."

Please do better!  Then, let's put it on Handshake 2.0!  Let's "tell the world" about you and "the place where we live."

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And when you follow this link to the increase in Murphy-Goode's site traffic as a result of its social media campaign, I hope you start dreaming up a social media campaign of your own.

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For more ideas about the use of social media for economic development, we've offered Regional Economic Development - A Summary and Synthesis.  You're invited to scroll through more posts in our Regional Economic Development category as well.

From Z. Kelly Queijo:

In the world of celebrity endorsement, it's pretty well known that if Oprah likes you or your product, then you've hit the jackpot. On a television special by CNBC, "The Oprah Effect" is defined as when "web sites crash and sales soar."

Celeb mentions were made for cloud computing.

Here in Blacksburg, Virginia, the impact of "The Scoble Effect" was felt on Monday, June 2, 2009 when the number of page views to the post on Handshake 2.0, "Reading Up on Robert Scoble," accordingly to bitly.com, jumped from a dozen, to hundreds, to over 2000 in minutes thanks to a retweet by Scoble himself. A quick tweet from @handshake20 to Typepad included the phrase, "We've been Scobleized."

When riding the crest of the wave that's going to result in exposure for a business that's of tsunami proportions, what's definitely not wanted is a server crash. Peter Shankman, founder of The Geek Factory and HARO (Help a Reporter Out), emphasizes that companies really need to talk with their webmasters before even thinking about advertising on his site. “We crash servers all the time because people aren't ready for all the web traffic we generate.”

Amy Africa, owner of Eight by Eight, who advertised the launch of her new blog (Amy Africa's QLOG) in the morning edition of HARO, reports her ROI resulted in a sale within the first 13 minutes, plus a terrific media lead. That first sale was more than ten times the cost of the ad. 

The value in promotion, whether through paid advertising or mention by a celeb, will be completely lost if a web site can't handle the traffic. In the recent series on Handshake 2.0 about cloud computing, topics ranged from what is a cloud to how cloud computing maximizes server resources.

Managing the “You-Name-It” effect is a perfect example of when web sites must be set up to tap available resources and prevent that wave of traffic from crashing a site. So, before advertising on a site on HARO, going on Oprah, or engaging with Scoble, a to-be-celeb is well-advised to take Peter's advice and talk with the webmaster. The most important question to ask?  "Are we in The Cloud?”

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Feel free to read more about The Cloud in Handshake 2.0's series on cloud computing.

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Z. Kelly Queijo writes about business and technology, people and their passions.  She is a frequent contributor to Handshake 2.0. You're invited to follow her on Twitter at @zkellyq.

Handshake 2.0 brings you edition #31 of Connecting People in the RNR with Stuart Mease.

Stuart Mease interviews reprentatives of Kissito Health Care.  News of the Roanoke Summer Job Fair was covered by WSLS10, ABC13, and Roanoke.com.

"RNR" refers to the Roanoke Valley and the New River Valley of Virginia.

Stuart Mease was a finalist for the NCTC NewVa Leadership Award 2009.

Stuart Mease writes the blog Connecting People.  On Stuart Mease's About page, you can find myriad ways to connect with him online and offline, including on Twitter @stuartmease.  Stuart Mease is an organizer of the Roanoke Creative Communities Leadership Project (CCLP) in Virginia.  You can follow the program on Twitter @roanokecreative.  You're invited to read more about Stuart Mease on Handshake 2.0.