When women entrepreneurs capture the attention of the Wall Street Journal, you know it's time to get serious.  And the funding news for women-owned businesses lately is good. Here are some great places for women entrepreneurs to start their funding search:

Make Mine a Million.  This is the organization funded by American Express that aims to make millionaires out of promising emerging business women.  It's a concept absolutely without parallel anywhere else. It will be on-going for several years, so if you don't qualify right now, you may qualify in the future.

Ladies Who Launch.  THE women-owned, women-run angel investment group for women-owned businesses.

Find a local incubator, compliments of Ladies of Launch.

Angel Capital Education Foundation eases the way for women entrepreneurs who are candidates for angel investment.

Golden Seeds is another incredible resource for emerging women-owned businesses.

Center for Women's Business Research .  Not a direct investor, but a great resource.

Wells Fargo Women's Business Center.  Again, great information, great tools.

Whether you are looking for funding or for inspiration, it is there.  It isn't easy to get, but then no entrepreneur finds it easy to get funding. But it is there.

Also check with your local bank and the local office of the Small Business Administration.  Local business women's organizations are a great source of leads.

Remember, too, that every single resource that men can approach is also a possibility for women.  

Let us know how you do.

Good luck on your search.

63-year-old Martha Rollins of Richmond, Virginia, prospered for years as an antique dealer.  But a dream kept popping up.  There was a desperate need to rehabilitate former prison inmates, and she knew she could help do it.

One day a customer of hers offered her $150,000 to help her make her dream come true.

The customer's generosity was like a starter's pistol shot for a sprinter. Within nine months, Ms. Rollins won a matching grant from her church's community fund; opened a used-furniture store in a crime-ridden district of north Richmond; and began a job-training program. Next, she broadened her mission to include raising the downtrodden and bridging the cultural gap between Richmond's white and black communities.

She then added furniture restoration, a cafe, catering, home repair and moving -- ventures that provide training, jobs and revitalization for a blighted black neighborhood, and that produce revenue to keep things growing.

Ms. Rollins named her organization Boaz and Ruth, after a biblical couple who taught that giving and receiving become reciprocal -- a lesson she learned years ago. 

Few people can follow a dream like Martha Rollins did.  Few have the guts to do it.  But she did.  She found the funding, and the grants to make it happen.

If you could do anything in the world, what would it be?  Remember that dream.  Follow it.  It can happen.

At least four venture capital funds in Australia are going after fresh money. Venture Partners is planning to create a $150 million fund to back early-stage companies.  The Brisbane firm CM Capital has raised $120 million and is seeking another $30 million.  Innovation Capital has raised $40 million and wants $100 million more.  Accede is raising $27 million.

A nonprofit organization that helps low-income women in San Luis Obispo County start their own businesses received a $750,000 federal Small Business Administration grant.  Mission Community Services Corp. will use the funds to expand opportunities for economically and socially disadvantaged women in San Luis Obispo, Monterey and Kern counties. The money, which requires matching funds, will be awarded over five years.

The National Angel Organization's (NAO) Annual Investor Summit will take place from October 3rd to October 5th, 2006 in Toronto. The Summit, focused on early stage investing in innovative Canadian enterprises, will attract Angel Investors from across Canada.  Summit participants will focus on (1) developing and expanding Canadian angel investing networks, (2) identifying best practices in angel investing and the commercialization of new discoveries and (3) exploring the current technology and market trends which are driving Canadian business innovation.

Chrysalis Ventures LLC, a Louisville, Ky., venture capital firm, is opening an office in downtown Cleveland.  Investment and technology professional Chris Sklarin left Cleveland entrepreneurial development and funding organization JumpStart Inc. on Friday to open the Chrysalis Ventures office. Chrysalis Ventures is initially looking for companies in northern Ohio that make money the old fashioned way, focusing on health care, media/communications and business service companies.

Are you ready to launch?  Have you launched recently?  Could you still use some funding?  The Silicon Valley Association of Startup Entrepreneurs is hosting "Launch: Silicon Valley" on November 8 at the Microsoft Campus in Mountain View, California.  If you would like to nominate a company for presentation, email your 2-page executive summary to: LaunchSV@svase.org .

The Ohio Capital Fund, a fund of funds targeting investment in Ohio companies, has closed with $150 million, $25 million above its goal, its administrator said Wednesday.  Buckeye Venture Partners LLC administers the fund.  Buckeye itself is a joint venture between Fort Washington Investment Advisors and Peppertree Partners LLC.  The Ohio Capital Fund wil invest in early and seed stage companies.

Also, if you followed many of the links in that ebook, you soon discovered that many of the sites have more than one business plan, so it's really more like hundreds of links!

SiteSell -- the web host that judges its success by your success.   Take a look at some SBI clients that have made it to the top 1% of all sites.  

Get a $100 Statement Credit with Business Gold Rewards from American Express   The best all-around business card on the market.  Many options -- sky miles, cash back, etc.  Choose the one that fits your business best.

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"No one can arrive from being talented alone.
God gives talent; work transforms talent into genius."
Anna Pavlova, legendary Russian ballerina