Felicienne Ramey

Women are the fastest growing entrepreneurs in the nation and the Sacramento Black Chamber of Commerce wants to help equip them with the tools necessary for success.

In honor of Women's History Month, the Sacramento Black Chamber of Commerce will host its first Enterprising Women: Women Shaping The Future of Business" Conference on Thursday, March 28 at the Courtyard Marriott.

"We want to assist women in starting their own businesses, staying in business and finding capital for business," said conference coordinator Velma Sykes.

"All business owners are facing the same challenges throughout the small business environment. The challenges being access to capital, marketing strategies and how to stay in business and then for women we wanted to also focus on investing," Ms. Sykes continued.

Marilyn White, a Financial Advisor for Morgan Stanley, Dean Witter will lead a workshop entitled "For Women Only: What Every Woman Should Know About Investing." Other workshops include "Calling Your Own Shots: How To Successfully Start Your Own Business," lead by Deidra Thorpe, founder of Vision Management Consulting; "Marketing Revolution: New Challenges, New Strategies, New Solutions," lead by public relations expert Kristene Smith and "Financing and Strategies for Small Business Success," run by Bank of America's Patricia Cooley and California Capitol FDC's Carol Wright."

Delivering the conference's keynote address will be Dr. Felicienne Ramey, Dean of California State University, Sacramento's College of Business Administration. The speech "Woman Shaping the Future of Business" will come during a luncheon, scheduled to run from 11:30 to 1 p.m. The luncheon will be followed by a panel discussion entitles "Women of Achievement: Shattering the Imaginary Glass Ceiling."

The conference is about empowering women, Ms. Sykes said, adding that her work at the Chamber has empowered her to do so for others.

"I think that in working in business in general, I have seen a lot of the challenges that African American business owners face and by working at the Chamber I have learned different ways to get around some of those challenges and therefore I kind of made it a personal goal of mine to make this information available to business owners," she said.

Ms. Sykes once served as the OBSERVER's Classified Sales Director. Under her "umbrella" of responsibilities was filing fictitious business name statements for new business owners as required by County law.

"We saw all these businesses starting up but not being able to sustain their businesses beyond a year.

"It became a challenge to find out why and to find out how to assist these businesses in going beyond that year. A lot of times is access to capital-not being able to get a loan to sustain their business or even to start up their business. A lot of people don't save up start up money first or don't save up enough..."

The conference, Ms. Sykes says, is about sharing resources with the community in an effort to strengthen that community.

"We want to let people know that we (the Chamber) are out there, who we are and that we're getting stronger," Ms. Sykes continued.

The conference will be held at the Courtyard Marriott, located at 4422 Y Street, from 8:00 a.m. to 3 p.m. Cost is $75 for the entire conference or $35 for the luncheon only. The deadline for advance registration is March 21. Registration will be taken at the door. For more information call (916) 427-4222.