From Sylvia Parsons:

So how does a woman with entrepreneurial spirit and vision become a successful entrepreneur?

The first stop on my quest for answers was non-profit organization, Better Agreements, Inc. (BAI); where I spoke with Founder and Executive Director, T’aiya Shiner. 

Shiner is driven by a passion to make mediation accessible to all communitymembers. Currently, BAI serves primarily court-referred clients who cannot afford legal services, or seek to avoid the stress of trial. In order to support pro bono and low-cost services however, Shiner must “crack the code and make mediation profitable on a community level." She says, "I want to succeed where others have failed.” While she has a knack for the "artistic" aspect of envisioning programs, she has struggled (as do many entrepreneurs) to actualize her ideas and create demand for mediation. Everyone has conflict, but not all are aware of or accessing mediation as a solution.

Despite struggles, Shiner has found success from lessons learned over the past seven years. Reflecting on the process, she offered three insights: 

1. Know where you’re going: Resist the urge to dive in with blind passion without considering the environment. Develop a plan so more time can be spent on proactive rather than reactive activities.  
2. Take someone with you: As a passionate visionary, be sure to leverage talents of “actualizers” and create a diverse network of support. In the nonprofit context, this translates to donors, volunteers, staff and a Board of Directors. 
3. Be sure your destination can be reached: You must be able to translate your vision into reality, and, more importantly, a reality that appeals to others. A performance is lost if no audience attends.

Shiner states, "After three years of primarily court mediations, Better Agreements is prepared for greater expansion into private markets." As she leads BAI through restructuring, she is focused on communicating her passion. As a budding social entrepreneur, she hopes her local success will catalyze structural change across the conflict resolution industry.
 
Mediation and Ms. Shiner’s entrepreneurial spirit can be summed up in a statement printed on an office mug: “What once was a ripple is now the wave of the future.”

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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.  Feel free to follow Sylvia Parsons on Twitter.

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 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.

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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, Incorporated. "There's Something About Her," the series by Sylvia Parsons can be found on Handshake 2.0 under Women Entrepreneurs.

From Sylvia Parsons:

Since childhood, I have been surrounded by the entrepreneurial spirit.

As the eldest of three girls and daughter of an in-home daycare provider, I enjoyed the creative curriculum and activities designed by my mother, or the methods I invented on my own to amuse (or torture) my sisters. As I grew older, I was more and more inspired by my mother’s entrepreneurial spirit as I learned how she paved her own path, graduated college, came to the United States from Puerto Rico, built a family, and developed her own small business to support us as we grew older. While her endeavors did not result in millions of dollars, I admired her determination, and recognize the potential power of that entrepreneurial drive in innovative markets.

Now, with my own entrepreneurial drive and armed with a B.S. in Business and a pending Master’s in Human Development from Virginia Tech, I am preparing to embark on a journey into the “real world.”

As a woman and hopeful entrepreneur I, like others of all ages, question where I am going and how I am going to use these tools to get there. I have found many theories on the "keys to success" and have read about successful woman entrepreneurs who have reached high profitability, while balancing family life and keeping fit.  I can’t help but think, “What if I’m not superwoman?”
 
In entrepreneurship, “failure” is more common than success, especially for women, so how do women, in the face of such risk, get up each morning and pursue their dreams?

For a true image of women entrepreneurs, I will research current literature and media on entrepreneurship and speak with diverse women, across industries, at all stages of organizational development. I want to know:  What is it about her that makes people engage as customers and clients? That mobilizes new markets and consumers? And, what are the secrets of successful woman entrepreneurship? And how do women make entrepreneurial ventures a personal success, regardless of the financial outcomes?

If you’re like I am, when you see entrepreneurial women (like my mother), you think:  “There’s just something about her..."

I’m on a quest to find out what that is.

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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, Incorporated.