June 3, 2008

For today’s Delightful Wonderful Things, I wanted to call your attention to the lovely Divapreneur^TM community, a project of Divapreneur, LLC and founder Elaine Biss. The community is focused on women entrepreneurs and includes articles, postings, and advice. It’s now online at www.Divapreneur.org.

We had the opportunity to chat a little bit with Biss about the launch of Divapreneur. She’s an amazing, inspiring woman who’s building a community dedicated to those of us who are in business for ourselves!

Tell us a little bit about the Divapreneur community. What makes this community unique?

Divapreneur is a free online community dedicated to empowering female entrepreneurs by providing them the support, resources and networking tools they need to succeed in business. While we put no age limit or “type-of-business” restrictions on our invitation-only memberships, our primary demographic is 24 to 55+, and our members businesses range from home-based and small business all the way up to multi-million dollar corporations. From mothers, designers and manufactures to actresses, e-commerce gurus and CEOs, each of these women have the drive and mentality required to achieve their dreams.

What motivated you to start this community?

After seeing the WAHM (Work-at-Home-Moms) boom and subsequent related websites and networks that surfaced thereafter, I felt the need to target women who were not defined by life events or just work-at-home professionals. I also felt that age, ethnicity and education should not play a part in the ability to become a member of Divapreneur, thus creating a very diverse network of female entrepreneurs.

A Successful Woman is devoted to women’s success, especially in the face of obstacles. Tell our readers about one of your biggest challenges, and how you overcame it.

Like so many women who start businesses, in my first few months I became very overwhelmed. Household chores were piling up, the kids were always interrupting with something they needed or wanted, and my husband would come home from work wondering what I was doing all day sitting at the computer.

Having to stop in the middle of my work day to do laundry or dust the coffee table was not what I had envisioned as part of my career. So, after the money started coming in, I hired household help and my husband stopped wondering how I spent my days. I also moved my office away from the main area of the house to ensure I don’t get interrupted during my work day.

Share with us a story of your personal or professional success:

As far back as I can remember, I have always had my own business. After I became a single parent in 1999, I had to rejoin the work force to support my family and chose to go back to college to become a nurse. That decision weighed heavily on me, because I love art and already had a certificate in Commercial Art.

After remarrying, with the support of my husband and family, I changed my mind and decided stay in the art field. Also, as a web-designer and graphic artist, I found that breaking through the barriers were hard, as there are many established female web designers. I also found that very few of them create partnerships or work together. I currently network with about 5 web designers directly, and Divapreneur has over a dozen.

What’s your advice for women in business?
Go out and try several careers and professions on, find your niche. Always do what you love, but above all, do it for yourself.

Learn more about Divapreneur:
Divapreneur^TM
http://www.divapreneur.org
Phone: 888. 441. DIVA (3482)
E-mail: hipelaine-diva (at) y a h o o (dot) c o m

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Thanks to Elaine for letting us know about Divapreneur. I am always interested in the stories of other women in business, especially where people are able to come together, connect, and support one another. I visited the Divapreneur site and really liked the layout and the variety of women who are currently in the community (it’s growing fast!). You may preview existing entries through the community, but you must sign up and be accepted as a member to access all the features of the site.

Learn more about Elaine:
International designer and founder of Divapreneur, the online community that empowers women entrepreneurs, Elaine Biss has built a long-standing creative design career by following her intuition and playing the game her own terms. Known best for her feminine graphic designs, websites and brand identities, Elaine has been using her artistic ability to create vintage and French inspired designs since she graduated from school with a certificate in commercial art. Her capacity to modify artistic perspectives and work in various mediums, as she has also worked in jewelry, fabric prints, stationary and created stylized fonts, has kept her in high demand with an array of clients from varying industries.

Highly influenced by the style and sophistication of her mother’s fashion designs, Elaine was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico, but moved to the states at the age of 12 to further her artistic education. After high school, Elaine was hired by a successful commercial design company, however, along with the recession of the 90’s, Elaine’s career crashed hard when the company went bankrupt. Just 23 years old and the single mother of four young boys, Elaine faced the possibility that her artwork would not financially sustain her family, so she began taking nursing classes through Penn State College Annex.

With the strategic placement of her artwork in various art galleries and markets, by her then agent, that career path was cut short, as Elaine was provided with the much needed visibility to win commercial graphic design contracts in Paris, London and China. Following her passion, and business savvy, Elaine saw the need to create corporate identities that featured a softer, more artistic side, so she worked on creating illustrations, namely fashion, artistic scenes, characters and accessories. As her business grew, clients esteemed her unique designs, as her work as led them to be featured in People Magazine and the StyleBakery.com, as well as garnering them invitations to participate in the Grammy gift baskets.

After experiencing a certain level of success, and becoming happily remarried, Elaine wanted to be a ‘work-at-home’ mom, but she also wanted her work to mean something more. It was then that she began to take note of the phenomena that the female entrepreneur’s success was on the rise. She also became aware that there was no place on the Internet for the less competitive or smaller woman business owner to connect and network in a supportive atmosphere with other women entrepreneurs. From this, the brainchild for the Divapreneur online community was formed.

With a desire to empower other women towards achieving their professional goals, and still pursue her own artistic passions, Elaine founded the Divapreneur online community. Throughout the Divapreneur website, and her design blog, Girly up the Web, you will find her girly illustrations, business advice and informational discussions meant to inspire and engage other women business owners to “go-big”, “reach for the stars” and pursue their passions.

To learn more about Elaine Biss and view her portfolio, please visit her website at www.elainebiss.com.