It is not always tough to find men CEOs as it is tough to find women CEOs. In a recent conference staged at Stanford University, just six female CEO attended. That too the moderator could find them with much difficulty. It is a real shame. But in high-tech entrepreneurship, it seems that a new wave of female entrepreneurship is all set to erase the gender imbalance.

One good example of such women CEOs is Carol Realini. She started a company then sold it, started another public company and now currently is working on a third company. For this, she raised $140 million in five years. According to Realini, the scenario has improved in last 10 years for female entrepreneurs. Nowadays, women are taken seriously and it no longer said that women can’t become CEOs or raise money. Realini, CEO of Obopay, says “The challenge of being a woman CEO is, one, you’ve got to get in the game. So, you have to be willing to try.” She says that it is important to navigate into the world of venture capital in order to learn methods of raising money.

Entrepreneurs need to be smart and follow those who have become successful in their entrepreneurship. People need to ask for and be flexible and compromise with their private life for some length of time.

Challenges are for all – male entrepreneur as well as female entrepreneur. Realini says, “It is not about women. A man’s got the same challenges and a male entrepreneur, a black entrepreneur, a gay entrepreneur, they’re all going to have the same challenges.”

A paper by Oakland venture capitalist Cindy Padnos has revealed that women are positioning themselves as good entrepreneurs. More women are starting companies, making them public and bringing bigger returns to small investors.

Microlending is now the buzz word in America when it comes to giving loans to entrepreneurs.  Kiva and Grameen Bank, two microfinance groups are well known for the support that they provide to small businesses operating in America and abroad.  Kiva, an international microlender, has already lent $150 million in 53 countries.  Grameen Bank, that has its foundation in Bangladesh, has lent $9.4 billion through over 2,500 of its branches worldwide.Branding itself as ‘Grameen America’ the bank has opened one branch in Omaha and four new branches in New York.

Microfinancing works with a mission to alleviate poverty and not just to make a profit.  Microlenders see the passion and commitment of applicants toward their businesses.  So, they insist loan recipients to attend workshops on marketing, business plans and money management to ensure their success.  Grameen also makes it mandatory for its borrowers to become a member of an entrepreneur’s group that conduct meetings every week.  It also makes it compulsory for borrowers to save at least $2 from their weekly income.

Kiva has helped 137 American companies receive $900,000 in loans, since its American debut.  Overseas the borrowers can get $3000 and in the US they can receive $ 10,000.  There are many examples of such recipients.  Ms Amanda Keppert, who runs Mandy’s Korner, a hot dog stand in San Jose, California, received a $6,500 loan from Kiva.  Her sales plunged 60 percent and she is convinced that her business would have collapsed if she had not received a micro loan.  Her loan carries a 6 percent interest rate and has three years payback time.  The pilot program, Opportunity Fund, that Ms. Keppert attended is available in California and New York now.  Premal Shah, President of Kiva says, “People talk about buying local — why not lend local?  It’s a personal stimulus package if you’re the working poor.”

Mr. Craig Adams wanted $50,000 loan for opening a restaurant and event space.  His long time bank turned him down on the pretext of his debt and then by a second bank.  He finally received a $15,000 loan with 12 percent interest from ‘Justine Petersen’, a microfinance group having its base in St. Louis. Mr. Adams says “It’s not the greatest way to go, but it’s the only way to go.”

Kiva works like a middleman, and has teamed up with microfinance groups, maintains a website www.kiva.org, where individual entrepreneurs’ profile and loan requests are uploaded. People then can lend money through a microlender to an entrepreneur.

Grameen Bank plans to open offices in Washington, Boston, San Francisco and Charlotte. N.C.   Grameen, helps people below the poverty line with first time loans of $1,500 having an interest rate of about 15 percent.

Biz2Credit has partnered with many microlenders as well, including ACCION and Seedco Financial to provide business owners in our network access to micro loans.

Baby boomer business owners are on the rise. In fact, they’re the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the country. From 2007 to 2008, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation found that businesses launched by 55- to 64-year-olds grew 16 percent, or about 10,000 new businesses a month, said MSNBC.com.

The Kauffman Foundation predicts that trend will continue as the workforce ages and with an employment landscape that may have changed permanently. As traditional full-time employment opportunities shrink and people needing to earn income later in life, more boomers will get pushed in entrepreneurship, say experts.

Older entrepreneurs bring decades worth of career experience, knowledge and industry contracts, and often some savings to fund a startup. But time isn’t necessarily on their side – older entrepreneurs can’t wait years for a business to turn a profit, and if they fail, they don’t have time to earn that money back, says Edward Rogoff, author of “The Second Chance Revolution: Becoming Your Own Boss After 50.”

Some boomer entrepreneurs say they opened a business based on a hobby or passion they always had but didn’t have the time to pursue.

John Olson, 45, carved table-top fountains as a hobby, but after taking an early retirement, he turned his hobby into a $2 million business. He only wished he started sooner. “I thought you had to be some kind of Harvard Business School graduate,” Olson told MSNBC.com. “But I realized you just have to apply basic business principles.”

More small banks, credit unions and nonprofit groups are pushing to become Community Development Financial Institutions and that could be a boon for small business, according to the Wall Street Journal.

To qualify for government designation as a CDFI, a lender must direct at least 60 percent of loans to low-income communities or individuals. In exchange, the lenders gain access to grants, SBA financing and other funding that makes it possible for them to extend business loans to borrowers deemed too risky by many larger banks.

For example, the non-profit Northeast Entrepreneur Fund often provides loans to borrowers with less-than-perfect credit histories.
“We look at character, willingness to do the work of the business and willingness to repay the loan,” Mary Mathews, president and chief executive of the organization, told the WSJ. “We’re able to do that by providing training and technical assistance which helps strengthen their request for financing.”
Entrepreneurs who receive CFDI loans face more oversight than they would with traditional bank loans. In many cases, businesses have to demonstrate how they will benefit the community and go through financial and technical training.
There are currently 859 CDFI lenders and growing. Fifty-five institutions were newly designated as CDFIs in 2009, up from 41 in 2008, said the WSJ. A complete list of CDFIs is available on the Treasury Department’s website.

There are any number of pitfalls entrepreneurs can make when trying to start a business. USA Today columnist Steve Strauss has advice on four start-up mistakes to avoid.

1. Don’t take on too much debt. It’s expected that most entrepreneurs will have to take on some debt, but Strauss says to keep it to a minimum and have a plan to pay it back. It’s easy for a business to go under as debt accrues interest and cash flow shrinks.

2. Not having a marketing plan. The only way to get your name out there is through marketing and advertising. Social networking is a great way to do it on the cheap, says Strauss. On his web site www.MrAllBiz.com , he offers a webinar called Marketing on a Shoestring.

3. Don’t jump into decisions without carefully consideration. Before entering a partnership, for example, work on a project together to find out if your styles and goals are compatible. Strauss also says to beware of bad vendors and lousy locations.

4. Not having a great team. The problem with being too independent is that there is not another person around to give you feedback and share the work, says Strauss. How do you build a great team? The Small Business Administration and its Related Small Business Development Centers offer no-cost and low-cost counseling and training seminars. Find interns at local business schools, or consider hiring part-time employees. Tap business associates and fellow entrepreneurs to serve as informal advisors.

Small businesses are the “places where most new jobs begin,” President Obama said in his weekly radio address Saturday, a day after announcing new measures to create jobs.

Obama has proposed tax incentives and credits, expanded government loan programs and aid to community banks that he said will help small businesses hire new employees, reported Bloomberg News.

The president’s plan would eliminate capital gains taxes on small businesses in 2010 and give small businesses a $5,000 tax credit for every new job created. In addition, $30 billion from repaid bank bailout money would be distributed to community banks to spur small business lending, said the Associated Press.

The plan would also temporarily increase the cap on Small Business Administration loans from $350,000 to $1 million and expand the SBA program to help refinance commercial real-estate loans, said the AP. All of the proposals would need to be approved by Congress.

The unemployment rate has finally dipped just below 10 percent, but with the public deeply frustrated by sluggish job growth, the administration is refocusing its efforts on job creation.
“Government can’t create these businesses, but it can give entrepreneurs the support they need to open their doors, expand, or hire more workers,” Obama said in the radio address.

Austin is the best city in the country to start a small business, according to a Portfolio.com/bizjournals study.

The Portfolio study analyzed the nation’s 100 largest metro areas, looking for the places that are most conducive to the creation and development of small businesses.

The highest scores in the study went to areas that have prosperous economies, are expanding rapidly, and are densely packed with small businesses. A small business is defined in the survey as any private-sector employer with 99 or fewer employees.

Despite the recession, Austin experienced impressive population, job and small business growth. The number of small businesses in the Texas capital increased 5.6 percent between 2006 and 2007, the latest period covered by official statistics. The typical metro area experienced small-business growth of 1.4 percent, said Portfolio.

The most promising region for entrepreneurs is the South, which is home to 12 of the 20 best metros for small businesses, according to Portfolio.

Rounding out the top five cities are Baton Rouge, La.; last year’s top city, Raleigh, N.C., came in third; Charleston, S.C. was fourth; and Portland, Maine was fifth.

Detroit came in last in the small-business rating, along with Youngstown, Dayton, and Toledo, Ohio, and Milwaukee.

With the collapse of secure corporate jobs, more people are pursuing an entrepreneurial path, says Entrepreneur.com.

The Kauffman Index of Entrepreneurial Activity, which measures new startups, shows a slight rise in the creation of small businesses even since the recession began, and that is expected to continue through 2009, according to Entrepreneur.com. About 1 million people a year become self-employed, and enrollment in entrepreneurship programs at universities is up.

But how does this square with the hits small businesses have taken in the past two years?

Many experts say that the recession is actually the perfect time to begin planning a small business startup. Office space and supplies are cheaper; with larger companies closing or downsizing, there are service gaps in many areas; and with the high unemployment rate there are plenty of talented people looking for work and ready to hustle.

While entrepreneurs may not see an immediate payoff, smaller, more flexible and creative companies are the business model of the future. And new technology will be the key to creating this new entrepreneurial society.

“Suddenly, you don’t have to have a large physical plant to start a company,” Michael S. Malone, author of “The Future Arrived Yesterday: The Rise of the Protean Corporation and What It Means for You,” told Entrepreneur.com. “The cost of entry is getting close to zero — now the little guys can build a business without the overhead. The best strategy is to get small and adaptable, strip things to a solid core and hire from the cloud of talent out there — then blow up like a puffer fish when you encounter a potential market.”

If you’re looking to start a small business, you should consider Oklahoma City as a launch pad, according to a report by CNNMoney.com.

Growing economies, affordable workers, stable housing markets and low crime are the factors entrepreneurs should consider when starting a small business, said the CNN report.

CNN used 2007 U.S. Census data to compare a city’s population and the number of small businesses employing up to 50 people. They determined the top 10 small-business-friendly cities are:

1. Oklahoma City
2. Pittsburgh
3. Raleigh
4. Houston
5. Hartford
6. Washington, D.C.
7. Charlotte
8. Austin
9. New York City
10. Baltimore

When it comes to boosting budding entrepreneurs, look no further than the Tar Heel State.
According to a Feb. 13 report by bizjournals, North Carolina is home to two markets with the nation’s top ranking for “small-business vitality.” And by top, they mean the very top — Raleigh is No. 1 in the national rankings and Charlotte is No. 2. Bizjournals said it used a six-part formula to analyze the nation’s 100 largest metropolitan areas, searching for the places that are most conducive to the creation and development of small businesses.

Here’s why North Carolina is a leader even in tough economic times, according to bizjournals:

• Population: Raleigh and Charlotte together gained 427,000 new residents between 2002 and 2007. Raleigh grew by 21.2% in that five-year period, Charlotte by 17.4%. Both dwarfed the national growth rate of 4.8%.
• Employment: The two regions are cushioned from the recession by outstanding job growth during the 2003-08 span
• 23.0% in Raleigh, 15.4% in Charlotte. The U.S. gain was 5.8%.
• Small-business growth: The number of small businesses grew dramatically in both markets from 2005 to 2006, the latest period covered by official statistics. Raleigh posted a 4.6% rise, Charlotte 4.0%. The national increase was 1.3%.
• Small-business concentration: The typical U.S. market has 24.57 small businesses for every 1,000 residents. Raleigh was listed at 27.58 per 1,000, Charlotte at 27.07. Third in the “Top Five” ranking was Seattle, followed by Austin and Boise, Idaho. Detroit was last, battered by the decline of the automotive industry and high unemployment.

To see a slideshow on the Top Ten click here.