Back in March, I wrote about Seeds for Success, a Yahoo! grant program for women entrepreneurs. Today, I’ve got three finalists for you.

But first, let me explain why this program is so near and dear to me. One word: Mentoring. My own career, including the opportunity to judge on The Apprentice and the upcoming launch of FindingWhatMatters.com (what should be the single largest network of career/life experts and resources anywhere), was built on the advice of wise mentors. They helped steer and cheer me. And now it’s my turn to pay it forward.

The three winners will have access to a host of business experts, including myself; Bobbi Brown, founder and CEO of Bobbi Brown Cosmetics; Cathie Black, president of Hearst Magazines and author of the bestselling book “Basic Black: The Essential Guide to Getting Ahead at Work (and in Life);” and a dozen others who have walked the entrepreneur’s road. We’ll take them under our wings and show them the proverbial ropes.

Each finalist will also receive a grant package that includes $20,000 in cash, $5,000 in website consulting from three Yahoo! Small Business partners, and website hosting from Yahoo!.

Without further ado, I present the three finalists:

Dana Rubinstein (New York, NY): Dana is co-founder of Dapple, a company which produces baby-safe and earth-friendly detergents, cleaners and sanitizers. She and her business partner created these products based on their own experiences of wanting safer, eco-friendly choices for their children. Dapple is ready to launch its first product in NYC test markets this spring.

Abby Port (Woodstock, GA): Abby is founder and CEO of Red Koala, an online purveyor of customizable canvas-based art for everything from home décor to other canvas products, such as shoes, totes and luggage. A veteran of the corporate world, Abby decided to start her own business after the birth of her third child. Work on Red Koala’s website has already begun and the site should be ready to launch in a couple of months.

Karla Duncan (Birmingham, AL): A pediatric speech pathologist, Karla is founder and president of Head2Toe Publications, a company that designs and develops toys and educational materials specifically for special needs children. Karla founded Head2Toe out of a desire to have the products she truly needs in order to care for the children with whom she works. Head2Toe products currently are in development.

These women, painstakingly (truly the roughest part of this assignment!) selected from among 5,500 entrants with compelling ideas, will spend the next six months using the mentoring, hosting and financial resources they’ve won to grow their businesses. The one who achieves the most growth in that time will win a $10,000 bonus grant.

Want to keep up with their progress? Check in regularly to track the finalists and their businesses, and tap into blog entries from them, as well as from Bobbi, Cathie, and me.

Success. It’s all in knowing where to go with what you’ve got. And finding the right someone to point you there.

Carolyn Kepcher
CEO and Co-Founder
Carolyn & Co. Media
fwm:Finding What Matters

Being a woman in business is never easy. Being a mother is never easy. But trying to juggle both is particularly challenging.

I’ve been fortunate in my career. I was an EVP at the Trump Organization, working for one of the most famously demanding bosses in the world. I was also lucky enough serve as a judge with him on the TV show The Apprentice. But in addition to those roles, I also held a far more important position — mother to two young children. It’s because balancing work and life is so challenging that when I left the Trump Organization I decided to start a new company, Carolyn & Co. Media, which I co-founded with another female professional, Jen Marr. Our company’s first brand “fwm: finding what matters,” will launch later this spring and will help women like myself equip themselves with the tools and resources to find this elusive balance.

One of the best ways for women to find flexibility in their careers is to start a business themselves (which is, of course, one of the reasons I’m doing so myself). That’s why I’m thrilled to have been on The Today Show this morning announcing, in partnership with Yahoo! Small Business, an exciting grant program for women entrepreneurs.

With this program, we’re celebrating women business owners, and highlighting the opportunities available to them when they use the Internet to pursue their goals. Three women will each win more than $25K in cash and services, as well as mentoring from successful business leaders. The three finalists will “compete” to accelerate their businesses. The most savvy among them will receive a “bonus” grant of an additional $10,000, to be awarded in October.

Female entrepreneurs seem to be on the rise. There are more than 10 million women-owned businesses in the US today, growing at twice the rate of small businesses overall.

I hope this program and my personal experience helps inspire women of all ages and backgrounds — professionals, retirees, stay at home moms, recent college grads, you name it. Whoever you are, if you’ve dreamed of starting your own business, I hope this program helps encourage you to embark on that rewarding journey and to use the Internet as your partner. Thanks to Yahoo!, it’s easier and more affordable than ever to bring a business online.

For more details, read more here and check out the website.

Carolyn Kepcher
CEO and Co-Founder
Carolyn & Co Media/fwm:Finding What Matters

From plumbers to accountants, corner markets to day spas, Yahoo! has been proudly helping small businesses succeed online for more than eight years. Today we’re taking our commitment to a new level and doing something we’ve never seen done before.

Beginning today, Yahoo! Web Hosting has gone “unlimited.”

Yahoo! Small Business customers have told us loud and clear that they want getting online to be as easy and painless as possible. Instead of worrying about things like “how many visitors can my site handle?” and “how many pages can I build?,” they’d rather focus on growing and running their business.

Our new Yahoo! Web Hosting plan offers unlimited disk space, unlimited data transfer, unlimited email storage, and 1,000 email accounts — all for $11.95 a month. This is shared hosting, so we won’t become the new home of General Motors any time soon. But for the very large majority of our small business customers who simply want a professional-looking site in hours, the hosting-purchase decision has suddenly become significantly easier.

Now small business owners can focus on growing their businesses and driving traffic to their sites, feeling comfortable that their hosting package will grow with their business.

Don’t know the first thing about web design? No sweat. We’ll continue to include award-winning, easy-to-use web site design tools that help business owners with little or no technical chops quickly build great-looking sites. You’ll also get a free domain name, 24×7 phone support, and a new 30-day satisfaction guarantee. And to help customers find these businesses online, Yahoo! Small Business will automatically optimize your site and submit it to top search engines. (I can think of a pretty good one.)

If you’re an existing customer, you’ve probably already received an email invitation with the option to migrate to this new plan. If you’re not an existing customer and want to get online, visit our site for more information.

Now go spread out. There’s plenty of room.

Guy Yalif
Director of Web Hosting Products, Yahoo! Small Business

Photo from dmax3270