Tuesday, April 28, 2009

News on Women Rocks!

We've reported before about News on Women but wish to feature them again (in case you missed our first post) because founder Alice Krause just keeps on rock'n with her updates on women in business, jobs, women entrepreneurs and women in the news. Her blog is the best in its category.

Check it out here.

Thanks Alice for all you do to highlight so many up and coming women. This one's for you! Keep up the excellent work.

Sunday, April 26, 2009

Women No Longer Stay Home and Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies



By 2010, women
will control 60% of wealth
in the United States.

According to Martha Keates, Senior Consultant, Marts & Lundy, by 2010, women will control 60 percent of wealth in the United States. She goes on to say:
That American women are gaining economic power is a well documented trend: in 2005, women constituted more than 46% of the nation's top wealth-holders, with their share of assets growing by 50% over the last decade to more than $6.3 trillion. By 2010, women will control 60% of wealth in the United States. Women start more than 400 new businesses each day, twice the rate as men. Add to this the tide of wealth being conferred through the intergenerational wealth transfer (and the undisputed fact that women live longer than men) and, to paraphrase Senator Dirksen, pretty soon you're talking about real money.
Read more at "It's Not Your Mother's Bake Sale."

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Women Living Well

The Partnership for Women's Mental Health presents "Women Living Well," a quarterly series dedicated to women's mental wellness.

Inaugural Session: "Financial Wellness"

Description: Handling the financial and emotional aspects of life in a down economy.

When: Saturday, April 25, 2009 from 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon

Where: Schaumburg Public Library
130 S. Roselle Road, Schaumburg, Illinois, 60193

Presenters: Nancy McDonald, Harper College Women's Program, Information Specialist and Lori Aitken, Therapist, Alexian Brothers Center for Mental Health

Free admission! Join the group for information, coffee and treats!

Call 847-385-7309 for more information or email marovichr(at)alexian.net

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Create Your Own Job; Start a Business

Can't find a job? Do what teens are doing: Create your own job; start a business!

As published (an excerpt from the article "Cupcakes and Cattle Breeding: Teens Turn to Summer Start-Ups") in The Wall Street Journal April 15, 2009:
And Marlo Adelle Greta, 17, will be running GirlyWhirls.com, a barrette-making business, from her Austin, Texas, home. She regards starting a business as "a lot easier than having to go find a job," she says. "I make my own decisions, and the harder I work, the more money I can make. That's a cool thought -- it's all up to me."
And here's what some of the parents are saying in reaction to their kids starting businesses:
"'I'm not sure I want my child to walk that path (Laurel here .. the path of working for a big company). I want my child to be in charge of his or her own destiny.' "
Don't you just love it?

Thursday, April 16, 2009

Playboy CEO Escapes Corporate America

In case you have been living in a cave, Christie Hefner (pictured) is ending her 20-year tenure as chief executive of Chicago’s (my home town) Playboy Enterprises to pursue work in public-service and non-profit ventures.

I waited this long to announce because I wanted to see if Christie will start her own business. It sure looks like she is finally pursuing her dream; I found out by email last week:
Greetings! As of today (4/8/09), my new contact information is as follows:

Christie Hefner
C.A.H., LLC (Laurel here ... no web site as yet)
628 N. State Street
2nd floor
Chicago, IL 60610
Phone: 312 624 9645
Fax: 312 624 9654
Assistant: Deb Parry
Phone: 312 624 9646

Sincerely,
Christie
Read more about her departure from Playboy at:

Christie Hefner talks to the Tribune about leaving Playboy


Christie Hefner to Depart Playboy

Edgar Online: Playboy Enterprises Inc (PLA) - 10-K - 3/13/2009

I checked Network Solutions and noticed that she has not reserved the domain names CAH.com or CAHllc.com.

Monday, April 13, 2009

Could You Be The Next Chic Entrepreneur?

Chic of the Week is founded by Elizabeth Gordon author of, "The Chic Entrepreneur: Put Your Business in Higher Heels" as a way to get more women in business to highlight and share their success. Winners are selected on the basis of strategy, savvy, style and success.
Gordon says the current business landscape is ripe for female entrepreneurs. Historically women have been underrepresented in the ranks of entrepreneurs - but that is rapidly changing as recent years have seen women starting new businesses at twice the rate of men. Even the most male dominated industries are slowly wising up to the fact that they need women in business for that all important female perspective.

"Women make great business owners- they are highly creative, terrific problem solvers and amazing at juggling multiple priorities, making them ideal in a startup situation. The skills required to run a household are remarkably transferable to the role of small business owner," Gordon says. She adds that female intuition, women's relationship building skills and their creativity and nurturing nature give them a distinct style and an added advantage in many business arenas.
Could the next Chic Entrepreneur be you?

Find out more here.

Friday, April 10, 2009

Not a Feminist But Most Certainly An Entrepreneur

She doesn't call herself a feminist but the former Supreme Court justice Sandra Day O'Connor (pictured above) is now, at the young age of 78, most certainly an entrepreneur (see new Web site Ourcourts.org).

Read Questions for Sandra Day O'Connor Case Closed -- Interview NYTimes.com where she talks about the need for an independent judiciary, why she doesn't call herself a feminist and why she wanted a woman to replace her on the bench.

Good stuff. Exceptionally smart woman.

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Glass Ceiling Sends More Women Into Business Ownership

Small business is in for a big change and it involves women who are saying "yes" to entrepreneurship. As a group, the people who go into entrepreneurship are different from those who did so a generation ago.
A new breed of entrepreneurs will emerge. Entrepreneurs will no longer come predominantly from the middle of the age spectrum, but instead from the edges. People nearing retirement and their children just entering the job market will become the most entrepreneurial generation ever.

Entrepreneurship will reflect an upswing in the number of women. The glass ceiling that still limits the career paths of women in larger companies will send more women to the small business sector. Locally, some of our most dynamic and noteworthy businesses are run by women, founded by women, owned or co-owned by women, or some mix of the above.
The Intuit Corporation and the Institute for the Future recently released a very interesting study (which includes above findings) on small business designed to identify, analyze, and forecast the significant trends and forces impacting small business over the next decade. Read more about it here.

And if you are a female entrepreneur, check out the Women's Entrepreneurship Institute conference at the Wharfinger on April 24.

Saturday, April 04, 2009

How To Start a Business in the Year of the Ox

Just like there is never the perfect time to have a child, there's never an ideal moment to start a business either. You can spend your whole life thinking about it or you can try and see what happens. Sound familiar?

Starting a business during a tough economic environment as we have right now in the Chinese year of the Ox (2009) is no walk in the zoo -- that's for sure -- but it can be done provided you prepare accordingly.

Read more here.

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Women Entrepreneurs Never Become Sadder and Sicker At Midlife

Do women entrepreneurs ever become sadder and sicker at midlife? Let me speak from experience: No. Because our choice is to create our own destiny. Why would we choose to do something that makes us sad and sick?

According to Michelle Conlin at BusinessWeek, for career women who work in corporate America, it's another story. Read what she has to say on the subject here:

Career Women at Midlife: Sadder and Sicker

"Over the last 50 years, women have secured greater opportunity, greater achievement, greater influence, and more money. But over the same time period, they have become less happy, more anxious, more stressed, and, in ever-increasing numbers, they are medicating themselves for it," says management thinker and author Marcus Buckingham, who tackles the subject in his upcoming book, due out in September (Laurel here ... this is quoted directly from source but the title of book is actually different; refer below): Find Your Strongest Life: What the Most Successful and Resilient Women Do Differently. "Better education and job opportunities and freedoms have decreased life happiness for women."
Okay, tell me how male author Buckingham is going to do a good job on a book about what the happiest and most successful women do differently (to not make themselves sad or sick)? Don't get me wrong, up until now, I've always liked Buckingham's work but why do we need a man to shed light on why career women are becoming sadder and sicker?

What struck me in the article is the part about Kathy Caprino. It wasn't until she was canned when she got her life together:

Needing a Road Map

For Caprino, the answer was in a fearless and searching reevaluation of her life. She watched. She listened. She slowed down. Eventually, she went back to school to score a therapist's degree while her musician husband expanded his job portfolio. Today, Caprino runs an executive coaching consultancy. Her recent book, Breakdown, Breakthrough, is a road map for women who crash into middle-age, dizzy with confusion.

What are your thoughts on this? I'd love to hear from you!