Women are getting down to business when it comes to establishing their own companies - but they're still in the minority of entrepreneurs seeking venture capital funding.

"We tend to see only one woman out of 10 pitches," said Caroline Cummings, who jokingly calls herself an "entrepreneur in recovery." But she's serious about lending her expertise to others.

Cummings, president and CEO of CC Consulting Inc., is a regional coordinator at Oregon Entrepreneur Network in Portland and heads several mid-valley entrepreneurial groups to help businesses find investors.

She started a Web 2.0 company (devoted to social shopping and research) and raised close to a half-million dollars in 15 months from friends, family and Oregon-based angel investors. After dissolving the business, Cummings now shares her knowledge of angel investing with others.

Overall, she said, women attempting to start high-tech companies have a hard go of it, but she wants to encourage them.

From her own experience, sexism still exists. In an attempt to raise funds for her business, Cummings faced skepticism which she attributed to the fact that the heads of the company were women. While she and her partner were not taken seriously, she said her tech team, which was all-male, was.

"We would have to bring them with us to (investor) meetings," she said.

There is a misconception that a woman-owned company always will be "touchy-feely," Cummings said. But, women- owned businesses are everywhere and in every industry.

There may not be a lot of women in the tech world, let alone the entrepreneur high-growth world, but Terri Fiez is one of them.

Head of Oregon State's School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Fiez established Azuray Technologies.

Being a female in a male-dominated field meant Fiez got her own bathroom, something that still makes her laugh. But she said if being a woman ever made a difference in anything she did, she "never let it go there."

She doesn't dwell on the past and looks forward to the next opportunity.

"Everybody gets rejection," she said. "That's the way it is. You keep moving forward, take input from people and adapt and adjust."

Of investors, Fiez said if they had sexual bias, "they weren't the right ones to fund me anyway."

Get creative to raise funds

Scottie Jones, instructor for the Linn-Benton MicroBusiness Program in Corvallis, said the way men and women go about business is different.

"The reality right now," Jones said, "is that it's just hard for any business entrepreneurs to get money. It's hard to get that first loan. You usually have to go to family and friends. You're an untested business."

The difference, however, she said, is that women are more creative and dynamic in their endeavors to potentially get money.

For example: one of her students put on her own fundraiser with a five-course dinner highlighting her product in every dish.

Jones said the woman was very upfront about the dinner and let people know she was trying to raise money for kitchen equipment.

Women are more social and ask for help, Jones said. However, women also are content with being sustainable while men tend to draw cash out of their business.

Jones herself says she's guilty of "leaving money on the table." She operates a lamb farm, a livestock gate latch company, and a farm stay for guests in Alsea and tends to undervalue her product. Jones knows she should charge more for her farm stay experience but hasn't done so.

The message from Jones and other women: Women must value themselves and their skills.

"Know your own worth," said Laura Bryngelson, co-owner and president of Calapooia Brewing in Albany and Flat Tail Brewing, which is under construction in downtown Corvallis.

Bryngelson tried a catering business but didn't want to charge a lot of money for things although they required a lot of time and care and preparation.

"I couldn't do it," she said. "I would have ended up making $2 an hour. I didn't value myself and what I was doing highly enough."

Women need to go into business knowing they have something to contribute, Jones and Bryngelson said.

Bryngelson gets frustrated when people look to her male counterpart in the company in business dealings. She is the business operator behind Calapooia while Mark Martin, her husband, is the brewer and salesman.

"People assume when you are the woman part of the business that you're at home with kids cooking and cleaning," Bryngelson said. "That might be part of it but we are also actively running the business, making sure the behind-the-scenes gets done and making sure nothing falls through the cracks."

Bryngelson said the beer business still is male dominated. She sometimes feels like a "squeaky little kid" saying "me too" for the credit but she wants recognition for the work she does to keep Calapooia running.

Not only does Bryngelson keep the books and brewery running and care for the children, she has a another job as a database programmer. It was that income that helped with bank loans.

Although Bryngelson can brew, she and Martin made the decision early that it was necessary for one of them to focus on business.

"He's got the more entrepreneurial mind," Bryngelson said. "I'm more managerial and I like my money. I don't want to part with it unless it's going to be a good thing. That's how we balance each other."

"You have to be fearless," Bryngelson said of starting any business. "You've got to stand your ground."

She speculates her generation of women has a fear of displeasing people.

"If you're going to be in business you can't please everybody all the time." she said. "You can't be everybody's friend and can't make everybody happy."

A growing presence

Women are entering all branches of business. In the forest and wood products industry the female presence is growing.

Catherine Mater, president of Mater Engineering, has been in the field for more than 30 years and remembers when she was the only woman in the room. It could be an advantage when doing business in a foreign country, she said.

"It separated you a little bit," Mater said, "and you had to prove yourself in the first five minutes. But it almost, in some ways, gave you a bit of a competitive edge."

Today there are more women out there and many are working in climate change and energy analysis.

Bottom line, she said, is that you have to know your stuff.

"You're either good at what you do or you're not," Mater said.

In doing consulting, Mater constantly sells her firm. Now that the firm has an established reputation, people don't question as much.

However, she knows breaking ground never is easy. You will wonder if you are on the right track, she said. You have to do your homework and communicate well.

"If I believed in it, I stuck with it and did the research and laid it out and continued to lay it out," she said. "Don't be concerned about failing. Have fun."

Maria Kirkpatrick, a frequent contributor to Mid-Valley InBusiness, is a freelance writer in Corvallis.