looked for love, found direction

Women looking for a new direction, particularly after divorce or losing a job, have started some very successful businesses and Linda, a childless woman of 34, is living proof of that. She’s a professional manhunter!

Linda started a computer dating service after her marriage broke up. She was looking for a new guy as well as a new source of income, and because she was wasting so much time and money on personal ads and attending singles functions she thought that she could kill two birds with one stone - and she did. She started dating the twelfth man who signed up with her computer dating service.

"He’s not the guy I want to marry," explains Linda, "he’s just a guy who’s quite happy to be Mr Wrong until Mr Right walks in the door!"

"A lot of my clients are separated or unemployed women," says Linda, "and I always advise them that as well as looking for a guy they could be looking at starting their own businesses. They have plenty of time on their hands, and it really doesn’t cost as much as they think it does to get a business off the ground."

Linda concedes that some businesses do need a lot of capital, but her business was very simply set up and needed nothing more than an advertisement in the local newspaper to get it running.

"This is a local computing dating service," explains Linda. "I wouldn't want to overextend myself by getting on to the Internet. There are far too many dating services online already."

If her female clients have a brilliant idea and they’re fired with enthusiasm, then Linda advises them to go for it. As Linda tells them: if you never try, you will probably regret it for the rest of your life.

"It doesn’t have to be a completely new idea," says Linda, "a new twist on something old is often the most brilliant idea of all. My new twist on the dating agency idea was to arrange a novel - and very safe - place for the couple to meet for the first time."

The venue for her very first arranged meeting was for the couple to meet outside a police station.

"What could be safer than that!" laughs Linda.

Linda is aware that some women are entitled to get government assistance to start up a business, so if a business needs capital then Linda advises her female clients to try that avenue before expending their life savings. Most businesses take several years to start making a return sufficient to pay wages and expenses, so Linda believes that starting a business with government assistance, if you can, is the best way to go. Her dating agency was a financial success straight away, but Linda was almost guaranteed that success because of her contacts and research.

"Self-employment is a wonderful new direction to take," says Linda, "but I always advise my female clients not to give up their day job - if they have one - until they start to make a profit. I also advise them to do a lot of sniffing around to make sure that what they are selling is what people want to buy. Pouring too much time, energy and money into something that is not going to pay off for years and years - if ever - is not good business sense."

Linda didn’t get a professional opinion on her business idea, but she believes most business ideas do need the investment of a professional opinion. She did, however, read as much as she could about starting a business and made a point to ask questions.

"Many small business operators are happy to answer questions," explains Linda, "and I asked as many questions as I needed to."

Linda also did her research while she was out and about as a newly separated woman looking for a new guy. She heard about all the other dating agencies - their good points and their bad points - and came up with a brilliant idea of her own that really worked.

"You don't want to reinvent the wheel and you don't want to make the same mistakes others have made, do you?" says Linda. "That’s why it’s so important to ask questions and do lots of research."
For women who do not yet have a brilliant idea then a good tip from Linda is to choose a business area that is going to flourish in future years.

"You may not need to look any further than your nose," laughs Linda. "The generation that is about to retire - the Baby Boomers - is one that everyone predicts is going to spearhead a great change in the economy of the future."

Linda believes that a business in the personal and household services area; the entertainment and leisure industries; healthcare; the travel and hospitality industries; real estate and financial planning - anything that the retiring Baby Boomers are going to need in their advancing years - is an excellent bet.

Finding another guy quickly after separation seems to be the main preoccupation of some suddenly-single women, but the separation period itself seems to inspire most women to do new and wonderful things with their lives. And Linda loves to help women find success and happiness in their new lives.

"The more I empower other women," explains Linda, "the more I empower myself."

One area Linda warns women about when they are thinking of starting a business is the Internet. Linda herself has plans for starting a New Age business on the Internet, but she is not going to start it until the recession is well and truly over - and then she is not going to invest much money in it until about 2004. She’s planning on the retiring Baby Boomers being her main customers, but they won’t be a real market force until 2006.

Also, Linda says it is never too late to start your own business. With the job market being particularly difficult for older women right now, it makes good sense to start looking at all your options and start building the foundations of what you would really like to be doing with the rest of your working life.

"If you're having trouble at 40 hanging on to your job, or trying to find a job," says Linda, "then imagine the difficulties you will face at 50. A lot of women in this situation think that having a man will solve their financial problems, but it won’t."

"I had a woman of 60 sign up with me," says Linda, "and I told her quite honestly that finding a man is not a smart thing for her to be doing. She had saved sufficient funds to be able to retire permanently from the workforce, and starting a business at her age would definitely give her a far more brilliant new lease on life than a man would."

"Women really need to take charge of their lives," says Linda. "I’d love to re-marry but thinking that a man will take care of me financially is being naïve. Separated women have a great new direction in life, and while it’s nice to have a boyfriend, having a business of my own is far nicer!"