For my semester project I have decided to build a website for a company that I would like to create. The company is a small, private IT consulting firm called Gramercy Digital. It will cater to all tech support and IT needs, but in particular will focus on those of individual women and small female-run businesses.
I would like to help promote the idea of women in tech support roles helping other women.
There are already several companies that promote this concept on a larger scale – Women in TechNYC and NY Tech Women – which is why I plan to concentrate my efforts more on offering IT support to individuals.
I have already begun the preliminary steps of building the website but it is nowhere near finished, I have yet to add most of the content (for now there are only two basic pages): www.gramercydigital.com
Over my past 6.5 years of working in tech support, I’ve met many female customers who have been relieved, and even impressed, when I showed up at their door to fix their computer problems. This is what made me start thinking about why most technicians are male when half of their clients are probably women. The more I began discussing this with friends and customers, the more I began to realize that there were a lot of women who preferred hiring female technicians to come into their homes and businesses. Seeing as how women make up a very small amount of computer technicians and IT support specialists, I believe this could be a promising business opportunity.
In order to share the website with my target audience (of individual women and small female-run businesses) I can advertise my services in Facebook female technology groups such as WomenIn Technology, Girls in Tech, Tech Women, and Lesbians Who Tech. I can also advertise in Facebook female-run business groups such as WISE and WE NYC. However, I believe that most of my advertising/distribution will be done through word of mouth. I need to build a solid core customer base, something I’m already in the process of doing, and my customers will do most of the advertising – to friends, family members, colleagues, etc.
This class has helped me to see how women are severely underrepresented in certain sectors, technology being one of them, and I would like to make an effort to change this.
By the end of this semester I will hopefully have a finished comprehensive and interactive website. From here, I expect to expand my customer base by actively promoting the company and it’s core objective – women helping other women resolve technical problems and implement/improve systems to increase productivity and efficiency in the workplace.
Here are some links that I have found useful in my research:
http://money.cnn.com/2016/03/29/technology/wogrammer-facebook-engineers/
http://www.bustle.com/articles/107654-8-woman-run-tech-companies-you-should-know-because-these-leaders-are-combating-sexism-in-the-tech
http://www.forbes.com/sites/markfidelman/2012/06/05/heres-the-real-reason-there-are-not-more-women-in-technology/#20de78a641e9
http://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-companies-try-to-make-more-room-for-women-1443600701
http://blog.cloudpeeps.com/15-female-founders-building-killer-tech-companies/
How will you promote women through your site? I think its great that you're creating a website with female tech support but its unclear how you're going to get your message across assuming it is something along the lines of "women can do tech too"
ReplyDeleteThis idea's pretty great. Having a website to involve women in tech is a much needed thing. If I could suggest anything, perhaps it would be good to incorporate a page in your website to explain why women aren't in tech jobs. Not like a huge article, but like a summarized page about how the idea of women in tech isn't represented in society. I think it would be good addition if you have the time.
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