Count Me In (full name: Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence) is a

charitable organization A charitable organization or charity is an organization whose primary objectives are philanthropy and social well-being (e.g. educational, Religion, religious or other activities serving the public interest or common good). The legal definitio ...

that provides financial assistance, business coaching and

consulting A consultant (from la, consultare "to deliberate") is a professional (also known as ''expert'', ''specialist'', see variations of meaning below) who provides advice and other purposeful activities in an area of specialization. Consulting servic ...

services to

woman A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

- owned

business Business is the practice of making one's living or making money by producing or Trade, buying and selling Product (business), products (such as goods and Service (economics), services). It is also "any activity or enterprise entered into for pr ...

es. The assistance is provided through three basic programs: an

online community An online community, also called an internet community or web community, is a community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet. Members of the community usually share common interests. For many, online communities may fe ...

for women business owners supplemented by live events; the "Make Mine a Million $ Business" award, providing up to

US$ The United States dollar (symbol: $; code: USD; also abbreviated US$ or U.S. Dollar, to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies; referred to as the dollar, U.S. dollar, American dollar, or colloquially buck) is the official ...

50,000 to businesses with a minimum of two years in business and $250,000 in annual

revenue In accounting, revenue is the total amount of income generated by the sale of goods and services related to the primary operations of the business. Commercial revenue may also be referred to as sales or as turnover. Some companies receive reven ...

; and the "Micro to Millions" award, offering up to $10,000 for businesses not meeting the time or revenue requirements for the larger award.

History

Count Me In is a leading national not-for-profit provider of resources, business education and community support for women entrepreneurs seeking to grow micro businesses to million dollar enterprises. Founded in 1999 by Iris Burnett and Nell Merlino, Count Me In began as the first online microlender, and in the following years discontinued the microlending program in order to focus on providing the education and resources women need to grow their businesses and find funding from other sources. The estimated economic impact of accelerating women's business success will generate at least four million new jobs and $700 billion in economic activity. Leading the charge and making their organizational vision a reality is co-founder with Iris Burnett, and CEO, Nell Merlino, the creative force behind Take Our Daughters to Work Day. Merlino was an entrepreneur who founded the organization based upon her personal experiences in growing her own small business. Facing questions regarding sources of capital, hiring quality talent and financial planning, she was unsure where to find answers. Recognizing that other women were likely facing similar circumstances and questions, she founded Count Me In for Women's Economic Independence to act as that informational resource. In 2005 the "Make Mine a Million $ Business Competition" — known informally as "M3" — was launched in the cities of

Dallas, Texas Dallas () is the third largest city in Texas and the largest city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States at 7.5 million people. It is the largest city in and seat of Dallas County w ...

;

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

;

Long Beach, California Long Beach is a city in Los Angeles County, California. It is the 42nd-most populous city in the United States, with a population of 466,742 as of 2020. A charter city, Long Beach is the seventh-most populous city in California. Incorporate ...

;

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

; and

New York, New York New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Uni ...

. Awardees were chosen by panels of local business owners. Following the initial launch, the M3 Competition spread across the country to include women entrepreneurs from every city and in every service or industry. “ Beatriz Helena Ramos, founder and president of Dancing Diablo, a creative advertising company located in Brooklyn and Caracas, went from seeing herself as an artist/animator making $200K in annual business revenue to being the CEO of a million-dollar plus company creating jobs. She was the inspiration for our Make Mine a Million $ Business program.” ~Nell Marino. Today, the organization boasts a growing community of tens-of-thousands of women entrepreneurs utilizing an array of resources and tools to develop and grow their businesses. The organization announced a goal of helping one million woman-owned companies achieve $1,000,000 in revenues by 2010. In support of this goal, Count Me In established partnerships with

American Express American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...

' OPEN

credit card A credit card is a payment card issued to users (cardholders) to enable the cardholder to pay a merchant for goods and services based on the cardholder's accrued debt (i.e., promise to the card issuer to pay them for the amounts plus the o ...

as well as the

QVC QVC (short for "Quality Value Convenience") is an American free-to-air television network, and flagship shopping channel specializing in televised home shopping, owned by Qurate Retail Group. Founded in 1986 by Joseph Segel in West Chester, Pen ...

network and

Cisco Systems Cisco Systems, Inc., commonly known as Cisco, is an American-based multinational corporation, multinational digital communications technology conglomerate (company), conglomerate corporation headquartered in San Jose, California. Cisco develo ...

to provide marketing and technological support."Make Mine a $Million,"
''Enterprising Women'', 7(4).

In media and popular culture

* Count Me In was

Nely Galán Nely Galán (born 1963 in Santa Clara, Cuba) is an independent producer and a former President of Entertainment for Telemundo. She created and executively produced the FOX reality series ''The Swan''. Nely Galán was born Arnely Alvarez in Santa ...

's charity in ''The Apprentice'' (U.S. Season 7) (''Celebrity Apprentice'').

References

{{reflist

External links

Official websiteAbout Count Me In
Charities based in New York (state) Organizations established in 1999 Women's organizations based in the United States Microfinance in North America 1999 establishments in New York (state)

History

In media and popular culture

See also

References

External links