Close The Bedroom Door; Get To Entrepreneurship

It doesn't matter where you're based, entrepreneurship can take place anywhere at anytime.

Suzanne Kantra, who was laid off from an editing job in October, is running an online publication called Techlicious.com out of the three-bedroom apartment in Manhattan she shares with her husband and three children ages 1 to 7. When she's working in her bedroom, the door is closed. For her older children, "knowing I'm home but not available has been an adjustment for them," she said.

Sometimes the kids forget what that closed door means, and Kantra is interrupted anyway. One way Kantra tries to help them with the enforced separation is not to do any work around the time they come home from school. That way, she can give them all her attention as they tell her about their day.

Adapting to a home based business is a new way of life. Read how other women manage it and make adjustments along the way here.

Women Entrepreneurs Ignore Recession

Is there an inverse relationship between the state of the economy and the number of folks looking to start their own business? Could be.

Take these Canadian women who are making the dream of owning a business a reality.

Inhee Lee, a 36-year-old recent arrival from South Korea, came looking for advice on how to take her business selling teddy bears online.

Judi Halla, a former personal trainer, decided she'd rather be outside walking other people's pets than inside getting the owners in shape; she's doing all she can to learn what resources are out there to launch her business.

And Merlinda Poon was looking for tips to take her invention to a new level. The 35-year-old computer scientist already has a business plan and a prototype for her device to assist the visually impaired scan and listen to documents. Now she needs to get patent protection, and find some funding.

Got the itch to start a business? You're not alone. Read more here.

It's Not Just About The Money

“Being wealthy isn’t just about money,” says Elizabeth Potts Weinstein (pictured), founder of The Wealth Spa (holistic wealth for women entrepreneurs). She adds, “We hear many stories about wealthy people who are miserable.

What I like to teach people is to learn how to make money in such a way that they maintain balance in their lives. It’s about health; it’s about mindset; it’s about spirituality and fulfillment.”

An attorney and licensed financial planner, Weinstein left a “Big Law” law firm to start her own business in 2003. She began her home-based venture as a personal financial and estate planner but found clients were asking her questions pertaining to their small businesses. “At first I would help them out pro bono but then I realized that this kind of advising and coaching could turn into a business,” she says. Soon she began focusing her work on the micro small business owners (defined as businesses with 1 to 9 employees) and mompreneurs. “I teach people how to turn their fun hobby into a real business that makes money,” she states.

Read more about Weinstein and her company here.

About to Hatch a New Business?

Are you a female entrepreneur about to hatch a new business? Then you pre-qualify for membership into StartupChicks: connecting and inspiring women entrepreneurs.

Learn more here.

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!

All The More Reason To Become An Entrepreneur

When Valerie Frederickson, a Silicon Valley human-resources consultant, heard Hillary Clinton assert that she could "take the heat" after getting pummeled by opponents in a recent debate, she recalled the times in her own career when a roomful of men disrespected her.

Once, at a national sales meeting for a large construction-products company, a male colleague passed around photographs of her in a bikini that he'd secretly taken on a prior business trip. "Instead of quitting, I focused on being better, on outselling the guys three-to-one," says Ms. Frederickson, who later founded her own firm, Valerie Frederickson & Co.

This is why we started this blog. Go Valerie! Stop worrying about gender and move on to doing your own thing.