Yahoo! Small Business and Carolyn Kepcher Launch "Seeds for Success: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs" Grant Program

Former star of NBC-TV's 'The Apprentice' to help Yahoo! select, mentor women entrepreneurs using the Internet to achieve business success.

Women and men have similar entrepreneurial aspirations, but the motivation for women often is different. As an entrepreneur, I am personally familiar with why today, many women launch businesses as a way of maneuvering around challenges found in a traditional work environment

Sunnyvale, CA (PRWEB) March 18, 2008 -- Yahoo! Small Business and entrepreneur/television personality Carolyn Kepcher today announced a new grant program to promote women's entrepreneurship enabled by the Internet. The new program, called "Seeds for Success: Empowering Women Entrepreneurs," will award three women entrepreneurs with business grants including cash, mentorship, and technical services valued at more than $25,000 each. Kepcher, best known for her appearances as an advisor to Donald Trump on the NBC television show "The Apprentice" in her capacity as executive vice president of Trump Co., will help select grant winners and connect them with mentors from a team of business leaders. In addition to the grant award, Yahoo! and its partners will provide recipients an array of web design and marketing services.

Women entrepreneurs may apply for the grant program by submitting applications online at http://seedsforsuccess.smallbusiness.yahoo.com or by going to Yahoo.com and searching for "Seeds for Success." The program is open to women who plan to launch new businesses, or who wish to grow existing businesses, and who intend to use the Internet to help them achieve their goals. The deadline for entry is April 6, with the three grant winners to be named in late April. The new grant program follows the recent launch of Yahoo!'s new web hosting service. Yahoo! Web Hosting, the industry's first unlimited hosting service, eliminates worries about bandwidth and storage limits, freeing customers to focus on driving real value to their businesses.

The three grant recipients also will be eligible to win an additional bonus grant of $10,000, to be awarded in October to the one business that achieves the most growth resulting from the use of the initial grant and mentorship package.

"Yahoo! is committed to helping remove obstacles to small business success. As with our new unlimited Web hosting service, we believe there should be no limit to women's opportunities to create business success online," said Susan Vobejda, vice president, marketing, Yahoo! Small Business. "The 'Seeds for Success' grant program will help shine a spotlight on the powerful combination of inspiring women, breakthrough business ideas, and the unlimited reach of the Internet, provided by Yahoo! Small Business."

Women and Entrepreneurial Aspirations
In a new poll conducted by Harris Interactive on behalf of Yahoo!, a solid majority (57 percent) of women said they had thought about starting or had started their own business. Entrepreneurial interest is highest for women aged 45-54, with nearly three out of four (72%) saying they had thought about starting/started their own business.

According to the survey, women and men who thought about starting/started their own business agree that passion about their work was the top reason for launching a business, but flexibility and work/life balance were more important to women (28 percent) than men (23 percent). Among survey respondents who have already launched a business, 25 percent of women chose flexibility as a main reason compared to 14 percent of men. In addition, among Internet users, more than two thirds of women (68 percent) said they had confidence in their ability to start or maintain a business using the Internet, compared to 78 percent of men.

"Women and men have similar entrepreneurial aspirations, but the motivation for women often is different. As an entrepreneur, I am personally familiar with why today, many women launch businesses as a way of maneuvering around challenges found in a traditional work environment," said Kepcher. "Women want success and financial security, but also balance. We don't mind juggling priorities, especially family, but we'd like to do that more on our own terms. So, our team at Carolyn & Co Media is thrilled to join with Yahoo! in highlighting these important drivers of women's entrepreneurship, while helping women become more aware of just how easy and affordable it is to start or expand a business online."

Kepcher, who co-founded Carolyn and Co media LCC after leaving The Apprentice, will launch the company's own Web-based business, Finding What Matters, later this spring which will provide women advice, networking, and relevant information and resources about achieving that elusive work/life balance. In conjunction with the new Finding What Matters venture, Kepcher will bring together a team of leading business experts and entrepreneurs to provide mentoring and consulting to the "Seeds for Success" grant program recipients.

With more than 1.5 million customers, Yahoo! Small Business is a recognized leader in award-winning web hosting and e-commerce solutions that allow business owners with little or no technical knowledge to quickly create professional-looking web sites and online stores. In addition to the new unlimited service offering, Yahoo! Web Hosting also includes a free domain name (e.g., www.yourbusiness.com), up to 1,000 personalized email accounts (e.g., yourname @ yourbusiness.com) , live 24-7 toll-free customer support, and a satisfaction guarantee.

Yahoo!'s e-commerce platform, Merchant Solutions, currently is used by more than 45,000 online merchants, selling billions of dollars in merchandise, and includes a simple, guided process for launching an online store in as little as a few hours, with automated payment processing and shipping tools, free local listings, and credits for launching online marketing campaigns.

More information is available at http://smallbusiness.yahoo.com.

About Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is a leading global Internet brand and one of the most trafficked Internet destinations worldwide. Yahoo! is focused on powering its communities of users, advertisers, publishers, and developers by creating indispensable experiences built on trust. Yahoo! is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. For more information, visit http://pressroom.yahoo.com or the company's blog, Yodel Anecdotal.

About Carolyn & Co Media, LLC
Carolyn and Co Media LLC is a multi-media company based in New York focused on building an international community helping working women find both success in their careers and balance in their lives. The company is co-founded by Carolyn Kepcher one of the country's most high-profile businesswomen, often recognized for her work as an Executive Vice President with the Trump Organization and her role on NBC's hit series, The Apprentice. For more information visit www.carolynandco.com.

Methodology
Harris Interactive® fielded the study on behalf of Yahoo! from March 10-12, 2008 via its QuickQuerySM online omnibus service, interviewing a nationwide sample of 3,426 U.S. adults aged 18 years and older. Data were weighted using propensity score weighting to be representative of the total U.S. adult population on the basis of region, age within gender, education, household income, race/ethnicity, and propensity to be online. Data were also weighted using online weighting to be representative of the total U.S. adult population on the basis of region, age within gender, education, household income, race/ethnicity, and Internet usage. No estimates of theoretical sampling error can be calculated; a full methodology is available.

About Harris Interactive
Harris Interactive is a global leader in custom market research. With a long and rich history in multimodal research, powered by our science and technology, we assist clients in achieving business results. Harris Interactive serves clients globally through our North American, European and Asian offices and a network of independent market research firms. For more information, please visit www.harrisinteractive.com.

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