Wednesday, 3 September 2008
Lorna Seatter
WOMEN will be better connected across Australia and around the world with the launching of the community driven website onlinedivas.com.au. The networking site will provide a forum helping women kick-start online entrepreneurial careers.  | | | Courtesy of Online Divas |
The website is the brainchild of Hollie Turner, also founder and managing director of public relations firm Pearl.
The website is live, but will be officially launched via a public cocktail party in Sydney on Tuesday, October 28.
Sponsoring the launch are NETT Magazine, pureprofile, webmanage and Logo Consulate, which have collaborated to offer a free Online Divas survival kit. The kit contains items essential to business start-up and will be awarded to the person with the best business pitch.
The kit includes:
Free office rent for six months
A laptop
A mobile phone
Free website hosting for one year
Website development
Shoes from peeptoeshoes.com
The website will provide an online forum where women around the world can talk and share business ideas, experiences and information.
“The main function of the site, which is the forum, is going to go live on the October 28,” Turner told OP.
“Women from Australia and around the world can actually get onto the forum and talk with other like-minded women – they can share their experiences about setting up a business.”
Turner’s idea for Online Divas arose from her work with Pearl.
“We work with online entrepreneurs and we specialise in tech start-ups and we work with lots of men,” she said.
“I have worked in technology for 11 years – and the overwhelming majority of online entrepreneurs are men.
“I began to wonder where were all the women and why weren’t women getting involved in starting online businesses.
“For a long time the lack of women has been a result of technology and not knowing how build or set up basic flash or HTML sites.”
Turner also identified the need for an accessible online resource to answer women’s questions regarding online businesses.
And there are many benefits to starting your own online business, she said.
The primary benefit for women in owning an online business is control, according to Turner.
“You are your own boss so you can really control the way you are living – if you are about to have a baby, and if you want to be in control of your finances and the way you are living your life, then that is a huge benefit of owning an online business,” she said.
“The second largest benefit would be realising your dreams. Why work in someone else’s business when you can have your own?”
An online business can be a basic site where you sell goods and services, Turner added.
“Fashion is an overwhelmingly popular online business at the moment. We have 25 online divas that we found in the last couple of weeks and they have been overwhelmingly fashion-based sites,” she said.
“The owner of babysgotstyle.com.au sources overseas products that you can’t get in Australia, beautifully packages the products, and makes them available to an online audience.
“Another woman who owns edibleblooms.com literally started making chocolates out of her kitchen. She made posies and flower arrangements out of the chocolates and launched the business online, and now she has stores in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Adelaide.”
Active on onlinedivas.com.au will be successful businesswomen who can assist with finding a starting point, launching a website, developing an online identity, a business plan, implementing effective search engine marketing [SEM], and search engine optimisation [SEO] strategies.
“You can use the forum to get the information you need, and it will be active 24/7,” Turner said.
“You might have an idea and can’t go back to sleep so you can jump out of bed at 2 o’clock in the morning and share your idea on the forum.”
However, there is a lot of work involved behind getting your online business up and running, Turner cautions.
“A good idea is not just an idea,” she said.
“It includes the work that goes behind launching that idea.”
To get started, Turner advises people to write their business concept down on a piece of paper.
“You need to get your idea out of your head and write down a very basic business plan. That is the first step and a lot of women don’t do that,” she said.
The second step is talking your idea through and getting some feedback from people you trust, such as your partner, family and friends, she said.
“From there, do some market research – look around at competitors to see if anyone is using your idea,” Turner said.
“Look at whether they are doing it well, badly – and ask yourself ‘could I be doing it better?’
“And don’t just stop at Australia when researching the market – the US, the UK and Europe are really great online markets to look at as well. They are very similar to Australia and very similar online as well.”
And the fourth step Turner advises is starting a blog.
“If you want to start an online business, there is no harm in starting a blog about what your business is and what you plan to do, because it is really important to engage your customer and audience base early – it takes time and a blog is free,” she said.
For further information, or to attend the website’s launch, visit http://www.onlinedivas.com.au/Click here to read the rest of today's news stories.
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