November 30, 2000—Washington, DC.  The residents of Hannah House, a Washington shelter for homeless women, heard yesterday about the joys and challenges of restarting your life through entrepreneurship from attorney, author and entrepreneur Donna Maria Coles Johnson. Johnson shared her first-hand experience and the lessons she learned along the way in an interactive workshop entitled Ready, Aim, Fire!:  A Woman’s Journey to Entrepreneurship. She also presented Hannah House executive director, Lisa Tilney, with a donation totaling for $110, representing funds raised through a subscribership drive for Donna Maria’s online newsletter, the Handmade Beauty Connection.

“The first step is to prepare by starting where you are,” Johnson told the workshop participants. “Look at the lives of some of the world’s best known athletes and you will see that none of them achieved their dreams without a time of preparation. Tiger Woods played golf since he could stand up straight, but only after 20 years was he prepared to become the youngest person ever to win golf’s Grand Slam.  Venus and Serena Williams played tennis in the projects of Compton, California, under the tutelage of their father for years in preparation for their success in the professional tennis world.  Their father refused to allow them to begin competing in professional tournaments until he felt they were adequately prepared.” 

Johnson encouraged participants to get “Ready” for the future by discovering their talents and asking for God’s help. The “Aim” portion of her program described the importance of weeding hindrances from one’s life, replacing them with positive habits, and helping others along the way. Under “Fire,” Donna Maria offered specific entrepreneurial tips, including setting realistic goals, researching the type of business you want to be in, establishing relationships with mentors, networking, and planning.

Johnson is the founder and President of the Handmade Beauty Network (HBN), whose mission is “to secure the future of the handmade toiletries industry and educate the public about the unique benefits of handmade toiletries products.” Most HBN members are entrepreneurs, many of them home-based. Johnson’s legal skills in this arena, as well as her experiences managing her own businesses, have helped her grow HBN to an expected 200 members by the first anniversary in January 2001.

Donna Maria is the author of Making Aromatherapy Creams & Lotions (Storey Books, July 2000) and the developer of hundreds of handmade beauty products. She also conducts product-making workshops and delivers popular lectures on business skills and tips for entrepreneurs, and legal issues affecting the handmade toiletries industry and small office/home offices businesses in general. A survivor of an abusive marriage, Donna Maria is a passionate advocate for women’s entrepreneurship as a way out of poverty, dead-end careers and abusive relationships.

For more information, contact Donna Maria at (301) 464-4515.