Six years later, she helped to start the area's first business newspaper, the Business Review of Washington. In 1982, Smith became the founding editor and general manager of the Washington Business Journal, the most successful start-up business publication in the country.

Not bad for a woman with a bachelor's degree from a small women's college, a short stint as an intern at the Atlanta Journal Constitution, and a brief career as a tax preparer for H&R Block.

How did she do it? Smith answered an ad from a publisher of local newspapers who was looking for a part-timer to help start a weekly business paper.

Smith didn't wait for a reply. She went to see the man. He had a big stack of resumes on his desk, but Smith convinced him to ignore all the others and hire her. The salary was embarrassingly low, and few people expected the Business Review of Washington to survive.

The paper flourished. Smith saw something that other Washington journalists missed - business was the great untold story in what others saw as a government town. She succeeded because the Washington Post and Washington Star did such a bad job covering business, Smith says.

The headline of WBJ's first issue in 1982 showed Smith's prescience - growth of high-tech companies alters area landscape.

Smith left the Journal that same year when her husband, an Army general, was assigned to Fort Bragg. Three years later she was back with an idea for a new publication.

By spring 1986, she was presiding over Tech News Inc., which produced Washington Technology and created the Greater Washington High Tech Awards. By the time the Washington Post Company purchased Tech News in 1996, Smith had become head cheerleader for the area's high-tech community.

Active in the Women's Forum and Womenangels.net, Smith has nurtured women as journalists and entrepreneurs.

Now a partner in McLean-based Qorvis, Smith advises companies on corporate governance and investor relations.

Smith imbues everyone she meets with her entrepreneurial spirit. "I like new stuff," she says. "I'm a good starter; I'm not interested in finishing." Not when there are so many new ideas.