
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, June 25, 1995                   TAG: 9506260016
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-3   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY  
SOURCE: KENNETH SINGLETARY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: CHRISTIANSBURG                                 LENGTH: Medium

HOW TO SUCCEED IN BUSINESS - FROM A FEMALE WHO HAS

For some female business owners in the New River Valley, it's still a man's world out there. Things like respect and commercial credit do not come as easy for female entrepreneurs as they do for their male counterparts, they say.

"Still, today, we struggle to be viewed as legitimate business owners," said Donna Thornton, owner of Child Care Consultant Services in Christiansburg. "It seems like we have to work twice as hard to prove what comes easy to men."

Bank loans, the all-important life blood for businesses, old and new alike, can be difficult to get, especially if the female entrepreneurs open a business in a field creditors do not hold in high regard.

Thornton knows this first hand. She says she entered the business playing field with two strikes against her: She was a woman, and her business was in child care, a field that creditors look upon with a suspect eye.

But Thornton has met with success, nurturing her business into one in which she now travels throughout the country, advising entrepreneurs, many of them women, on how to start their own child care businesses.

Tuesday, Thornton will be keynote speaker for the annual meeting of the two-year-old Blue Ridge Chapter of the National Association of Women Business Owners. The meeting will be held from 6 to 8:30 p.m. at the Hotel Roanoke. Thornton will talk about the "Secrets of Success" for entrepreneurs.

Despite the difficulties she has had, Thornton and creditors say women bring unique skills and attitudes to business. The result, they say, is that the climate is warming for female entrepreneurs.

Taylor Cole, senior vice president and area manager for the Blue Ridge Region for Central Fidelity Bank, knows that when he is making lending decisions, he cannot overlook female business owners.

"It's only prudent for a bank that wants to be successful to make its product offering available to segments that are growing right now."

But for Cole, it doesn't stop there. Women, he said, "are good business people, and you have to look at them that way. The other things don't matter.

"This is an exciting time to be a woman in business," he says. "There is a huge, pent-up entrepreneurial spirit out there."

Thornton says women bring special skills to business that make them well-suited for entrepreneurship.

"We are taught from early childhood how to handle lots of tasks," she says, and women can be good communicators and negotiators.

Mary Riley, owner of Main Street Bazaar in Blacksburg, agrees with Thornton, at least in part. Though she says hers "has been a very positive experience" in dealing with creditors and other downtown business owners, she adds, "I think I've got a more personal relationship with my employees," than some male business owners.

Thornton sums up the current state of business for women this way:

"I think women feel a passion inside, but I do think women do have to work harder to earn the respect of their peers."

by CNB