Single Working Womens Week – SWWAN

Many single working women dream of one day being their own boss. Part of what we do at SWWAN is donate 1% of all our proceeds to the Grameen Foundation, which helps underprivileged people (surprise, mainly women!) from all over the world by giving them low-cost loans and training on how to start their own successful businesses. It’s truly an organization that empowers people, and we are very proud to be able to support their work.

Meanwhile, check out the Solo Entrepreneur blog over at our fellow women’s site WorldWIT (stands for Women. Insights. Technology.) Mary McDonald operates her own consulting business and writes about day-to-day challenges of being a solo woman business owner–surely the most gratifying–and potentially terrifying–way to earn your living in this world. She talks about the ups and downs, the cash flow fears, the feast-or-famine cycles, the challenges of cloning yourself.

Now add to that your single state, and you’re talking about women who have strength and courage in such abundance that they are an inspiration to all of us. Love to hear your tales of single-woman, solo entrepreneur adventures. Send ’em to us here.

What’s your favorite trick for feeling comfortable when you eat in a nice restaurant by yourself? Reading something–a book, newspaper, etc.–is a popular solution. The only thing wrong with that is, you may inadvertently be depriving yourself of the complete enjoyment of your food. I know I always tend to eat more and enjoy it less when I’m reading–can’t pay attention both to the content and to the food.

One way I’ve done it is to write in my journal. I can really be involved in the present experience when I write down what’s actually happening to me and around me. It seems to me that when you look around at others and the surroundings with a pen in your hand, it doesn’t appear to other people as a) nosy, b) lonely, c) threatening if they can clearly see that you’re thinking about what to write next! And it has the added bonus of giving people an excuse to talk to you if they want to–kind of like having a dog or a baby. Gives you a slight air of mystery and gives others a little icebreaker when they can ask you, oh, are you a writer?

And the answer, of course, is yes! Becaues you are a writer when you keep a journal. Doesn’t matter that you failed grammar and spelling in third grade. Who cares when it’s your personal writing? I highly recommend journal writing. It can be very surprising–never know what you might discover about yourself.

Got a copy of a wonderful magazine in the mail the other day. Have no idea where it came from–I didn’t subscribe as far as I know. It’s called BeE Woman, For the woman who is interested in politics, lifestyle and finance. It’s supposed to appeal to “active, hardworking, educated women between 25 and 54” (who pays attention to age restrictions?).

Listen to this article title: “Are you a little bit married?” Reflections on the fallout for so many couples who live together without formal marriage (surprise! it often turns out to be a bad deal).

This sounds like it was created just for a lot of us SWWANs. …”enlightened, empowered, engaged, inspired, and striving for financial independence.” Interesting, I see they got a lot of press coverage early on in 2005, but don’t see anything for this year.

Well, let us at SWWAN be the first to write about you, BeE, and tell you what a stellar publication you’re putting out. As we build our membership we will certainly be recommending your magazine to everyone! Check out their website here.