"The most beautiful words in the English language are, check enclosed," Dorothy Parker

"A woman must have money and a room of her own," Virginia Woolf

"I think it is essential for women to have their own money, their own financial resources and financial security. It is one of the most important and critical ways for women to eliminate or remove themselves from abusive situations," Marcia Rosen

A FEW IDEAS WHERE TO SEARCH FOR MONEY FOR A WOMAN OWNED BUSINESS:

• Small Business Development Center in your city/state
• SBA
• www.advancingwomen.com
• www.bizresources.com
• www.fwi.org
• www.wbox.org
• www.women.com
• www.count-me-in.org
• CHECK OUT INC. MAGAZINE RECENT ISSUE

"One thing business owners always tell me is that they never thought about this when they started their own business," says Michelle Dunn, who owned her own collections agency, M.A.D. Collections, for years, and has written several books on the topic.

ESTABLISH A POLICY
The time for an entrepreneur to think about collecting from customers is when he or she is writing the business plan, says Ms. Dunn, of Plymouth NH. She advises businesses to establish a "credit policy" mandating that before they hand over a product to a customer who says "bill me" they will run a credit check on the buyer. She also advises small businesses to join Equifax or some other credit bureau to be able to pull credit reports for anyone applying for credit, and also to report late payers.