Women's Technology Battlecry - Part 2
July 23, 2007
by Guest Blogger, Lena West
As I promised last week, I do have updates (and a recording for those who missed it) about the Women & Technology Battlecry (a.k.a. The Quiet Revolution) tele-meeting. 
The call was very casual with no agenda other than to find out what women were thinking about using technology in their businesses.
About a dozen people indicated that they would attend (from this blog and from my own network) and three people were on the call - myself included.
I'm grateful for the people who took the time to be on the call: Nina Burokas from Digerati Branding and Cheryl Miller from CherylMillerVille.com . Thanks Cheryl & Nina! :-)
Although this was a preliminary discussion, collectively we came to some conclusions as to why the technology adoption rates for women-owned businesses aren't higher than they are - remember 75+% of the research respondents said their technology adoption rates were average, lagged somewhat behind or were well behind the curve.
Conclusions:
- Women entrepreneurs don't fully understand the opportunity that technology can offer their business. They don't see the link between business success and using technology.
- Women business owners think technology is "too big of a deal" and is "another to-do" that they don't have time to do. It's just too much to process and there aren't enough hours in the day. One person said, "Technology is a big knarly rat's nest."
- They don't *fully* understand technology and rather than slog through it, they just leave it alone altogether.
- Women business owners don't mind setting up the technology (i.e. a blog) but, they don't like the additional work that's required to make that piece of technology a success (i.e. driving traffic to the blog).
Solutions:
- Women business owners need to make sure they have their priorities in order. In other words, you can't really say you don't have time to use technology in your business if you're playing solitaire all day. :)
- Make technology more plug 'n play.
- Reach out to the "mommy bloggers" and the influencers to enlist their support in 'getting the word out' about the importance - and sometimes ease - of technology.
So, what's the answer to these conclusions? Are there any answers? I'm not really sure. What I do know is that my primal response is to address the opportunity to help business women. I believe in my gut that social media should be an all-inclusive party and I've been cogitating on how my company can provide some sort of answer. In the mean time...
I'd like to hear from all of you about what feelings you have about the use of technology (or lack thereof) in your business. Do you like it? Hate it? Wish it could change in some way? Do you wish someone could just do it for you? Do you think we should burn all computers and internet access and go back to business cards and postal mail? Sound off with a comment about your feelings. I really am interested to hear what you have to say.
Bottomline: Let's keep the dialogue going, huh?
Yvonne:
I can't say much about Your Tech Online. It's been years since I was at the support level in my career and since I've moved to helping growing businesses think about technology from a strategic level, I've let some of that knowledge go.
I also usually reserve comments about services unless I've experienced the service first-hand.
If you find them good to work with they might be a great resource. Let me know!
And, there may be another call...still not sure which direction I want to take my involvement on this issue.
Posted by: Lena L. West | July 26, 2007 at 08:44 PM
Lena, could you address the pros and cons of Your Tech Online, a site I posted on today? I think your input would be very valuable. Looks good to me, but I'm a novice. I use technology and I get frustrated with others who don't... but... then, I realize I'm not nearly as smart about it as I should be.
I wish I could have been on the call... hope to be next time. I mean, if there is a next time.
Posted by: Yvonne DiVita | July 24, 2007 at 01:37 PM
Lea:
Thanks for adding your perspective!
I'm starting to see a trend...women business owners are less likely to realize how profoundly technology adoption and its use can directly benefit their businesses. Hmmmm....and then there's the 'build up' that needs to be soothed as well.
Many times when I say technology is not that big of a deal to manage, women business owners look at me like I have six heads - and these are women who run businesses and in addition do some or all of the following: manage their children's sports schedules, take care of elderly parents, 'deal' with their spouses, speand time with friends and family, etc.
Maybe THAT'S some of the reason..."too much to do" but, I can't, in good conscience say that's the entire reason....much of it (that we see, anyway) is 'build up'.
To be continued....
Posted by: Lena L. West | July 23, 2007 at 10:02 PM
Hi Lena,
I LOVE technology!!!...but then I am known as a bit of a techy geek amongst my family & friends. Running my business from overseas means that I basically do all my marketing using online technology and rely on lots of marvels of technology to run the business.
From working with my own clients however, I agree with many of the observations on your call. Many of my female clients build 'technology' up to be a big, complicated topic. Something that they know they should be using but don't realise they often already are (albeit not as effectively as they could be).
They don't always 'see' conceptually how technology can help their business - but many, when shown a simple sketch of how it all fits together and can help them in all aspects of their business, 'get' it much faster than my male clients!!!!
Many of them view technology as something you 'do' to your business - not as an integrated part of it around which you can/should build your processes/people.
I work with clients in an industry where very few people really leverage technology as much as they could be doing - and whilst it's exciting to be at the forefront it can be very frustrating!
A very interesting discussion...thanks!
Posted by: Lea | July 23, 2007 at 07:49 PM