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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Entrepreneurship Across the Generations

Make Mine a Million $ Business (M3) conducted a survey to examine what makes women tick and to explore attitudes on business and personal issues by examining stress factors and motivations, providing breakouts across generations, ethnicity, and revealing data on the changing dynamic of running a successful business during the various stages of motherhood.

The M3 Program is a community of more than 55,000 women entrepreneurs spread across the nation. The program was created by Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence and American Express OPEN® in response to the fact that less than 3% of the 10.4 million women-owned businesses in the U.S. generate $1 million or more in revenues annually.

All entrepreneurs need to juggle both business and family responsibilities. But even with conflicting work and family demands, most M3 members feel they have achieved balance in their lives. One-third says they have a high degree of balance. Most importantly, achieving balance has NOT had a negative impact on level of business accomplishment. Attaining balance and business growth can thus go hand in hand.

What gives women business owner’s balance?

It’s not who she is but what she does that’s the difference. M3 women who have achieved a higher level of work-life balance are more likely to outsource household tasks, proactively book personal and family time into their schedules, and look out for themselves.

A Little Puddle On the Floor

Don't you adore stories like this? It makes you want to go out and start a business, no matter how risky or scary it feels.

"There were a whole bunch of good old boys sitting around the table," she recalled. "And they looked at me and said, 'Honey ...' That was their first mistake. They said 'Honey, this exercise thing for women. We just don't know if that's gonna work.

"I was the little exercise girl," she said. "It wasn't that I was smart or that I had built a business. It was just, 'You're someone who can get up there and dance, and hoop and holler, and you look so cute in your outfit.

"Well, today they are out of business and I did $93 million (in sales) last year."

Read the entire article here.

And her final comment:

So amid a global economic collapse, the little exercise girl dances on: "I'm going to keep doing this until I'm a little puddle on the floor."

Note: Judi Sheppard, pictured in the center, is founder of Jazzercise.

Recession-busting Women Entrepreneurs

Research carried out by Continental on behalf of independent invoice financier Bibby Financial Services, showed that 79% of small business owners are taking positive, practical steps to get through the recession.

And in the process, it's a new breed of entrepreneur who is rising to the top: women aged 45-64 and living in the S.E. (not sure if this is in the U.K. or applies worldwide).

Read more here.

Resources:

Bibby Financial Services
Continental Research

Hat tip to: Twitter.com/TUPPIES. And, by the way, Twitter me at twitter.com/Laurel Delaney.

The Imagination of Entrepreneurs

Obama is right when he says that what our nation needs is the "imagination of our entrepreneurs." He understands that linking bold ideas with timely action is the way to take the country forward.

Read more of "Obama as Entrepreneur-in-chief" by Messrs. Craig Benson and Leonard Schlesinger here.

Note: Pictured above is Marie Curie who discovered the mysterious element radium. It opened the door to deep changes in the way scientists think about matter and energy. She also led the way to a brave new era for medicine and the treatment of diseases.

Opt-in To Entrepreneurship

If you’re thinking about starting a business, don’t give up just because the economy looks bleak. That's what Jacalyn Barnes says over at the Women Entrepreneur | SCORE blog.

She offers six tips on what you should be doing now to ensure your business launch is a success. Plus, she shares a link to famous people who started a business during an economic slump.

More here.

And separately but related, have you seen this? Deadline to apply is approaching.

Manage Your Time and Get Paid For Your Work

One of the first lessons you learn when you become an entrepreneur is that you need customers to get started.

Here are some useful tips and resources to help you better manage your time and ensure -- lesson #2 -- you get paid for your work!

Introducing La-Z-Girl Furniture

Wait until the corporate folks at La-Z-Boy find out about my new idea: To launch a line of furniture for hard working women (like us) called La-Z-Girl! Okay, clarification. I am not going to launch it. Merely, I want La-Z-Boy to run with it but we will help them develop the concept (and take any finder's fee we can get for this brilliant idea). Plus, we will turn to all of you as a focus group on this project -- what fun!

I have been thinking about this for about two years now wondering why La-Z-Boy hasn't done it, especially with the current economic downturn. It's a perfect time to introduce disruptive products that will generate additional revenue streams for a company.

La-Z-Boy furniture folks are missing out on a whole new market for women entrepreneurs! After all, their slogan is: Comfort. It's what we do. How about a new one: Pamper. It's what we also do.

What do you think? Good idea or not? Let's hear from you.

Will Barbie Ever Become An Entrepreneur?

Since 1959, Barbie has held more than 108 jobs over the course of her 50 year career -- from Olympian to astronaut -- but has Barbie ever been an entrepreneur? Don't you think it's time?

She's considered the ultimate career woman but when is Mattel going to wake up and let Barbie create her own destiny?

Read more here.

And you gotta see this!

To Get More Out of Life, Sometimes You Have To Walk Away

For Alison Greenberg who was 12 years into a successful career with a leading New Jersey law firm when starting out on her own, it was a small price to pay.

“I walked away from a lot,” she says. “I was a partner. I had a good salary and opportunities for bonuses, but I wanted to be more of a community-based lawyer and to reinvent the practice of law for myself. I also lived in Manhattan so I wanted to work where I live and get more involved with community issues and politics.”

She started her own business litigation and employment law practice in New York six months ago and hasn’t looked back since.

“I had two clients when I left and there was a lot of initial uncertainty of where the business was going to come from,” she says. “But I was always weighing the pros and cons of being part of a large firm and felt that to be true to myself and be able to represent more individuals and small business owners it would be better to go out on my own. It’s different now, and I’m living on a different budget but it’s very rewarding.”

Read more about Alison's soul-searching journey and others like her -- here.

Women Hold The Purse Strings

We just love this new, powerful site for women called WOMEN-omics -- the first website focused on the theme of promoting women as an economic opportunity. The site is the brainchild of Avivah Wittenberg-Cox, a consultant, executive coach, author, entrepreneur and publisher of WOMEN-omics.

Great quote:

Men like to believe they run the world. They are not ... read the balance of it here.

Take a moment to explore, learn, grow and engage at WOMEN-omics where they claim women worldwide hold the purse strings.

Time To Go Independent

Oppenheimer & Co. banking analyst Meredith Whitney (pictured above) -- known as the woman who moves markets -- is leaving to start her own business.

Now the question I have to ask is this: Did she leave because of a financial meltdown -- in spite of it -- or, neither?

Quote from Meredith:

"I don't want to work for anyone else anymore, and I want to broaden what I do."

Other interesting parts to the article, "Meredith Whitney: A league of her own," published in Fortune's CNN Money.com:

The firm that bears her name will be grounded in her research (her "true passion"). But it won't be just about issuing notes to clients. She eventually intends to advise companies as well. And in March, she will be on a steering committee to advise the G20 on how to respond to the credit crisis.

As head of her new firm, Whitney, who currently hosts gatherings in her home where professional women can swap ideas and hear thought leaders, plans to host a "salon series" in her offices with writers, government officials, regulators, and business luminaries. It could be a big value-add for clients who want access to bold-face names and original ideas.

Based on her good looks and obvious talent, I vote she takes her business immediately to television. Check out her new firm: Meredith Whitney Advisory Group LLC.

And let's applaud Meredith for having the courage get going with her own business!

Shattering Barriers For Women

If you can't beat'em, break'em, that's what I recommend. Let's give a big welcome to Nicki Gilmour, founder, The Glass Hammer, who is helping women break through glass ceilings.

The Glass Hammer is an online community designed for women executives in financial services, law and business. You can discover issues that matter, share experiences, network, get career advice and plan your life. And, as you dig around her new community, grab yourself a new job (that is, if entrepreneurship is not your thing :-).

Visit The Glass Hammer here.

An Educational Program of Our Own

Whether you run a business or head up a multi-million dollar division of a Fortune 500 company, lifelong learning is vital to ensure personal and professional growth. And business schools are here to help by offering programs specifically tailored to women.

The programs deal with everything from attaining leadership positions to entrepreneurship to issues of work-life balance. Here's a sample of programs that came out of the article, "A Female Face on Executive M.B.A.s," published in the WSJ on January 21, 2009:

Executive Program for Women Leaders
Where: Stanford University Graduate School of Business
Cost $9,200

Moving From Managing to Leading: The Women's Program at Babson
Where: Babson Executive Education
Cost: $5,950

Women's Director Development Program
Where: Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management
Cost: $5,500

Strategic Leadership for Women
Where: IMD in Switzerland
Cost: $8,972

Global Leaders Program for Women
Where: Smith College/Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business
Cost: $8,200

A New Path
Where: Harvard Business School
Cost: $5,000

Captains Of The Universe

Captains of the universe, I mean, chief executives at eight banks and securities firms that have received U.S. $165 billion in federal aid have been barraged by U.S. lawmakers. Who's missing in the photo?

O women entrepreneur where art thou?

Pictured left to right and seated in alphabetical order at a long table: Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs, James Dimon of J.P. Morgan Chase, Robert Kelly of Bank of New York Mellon, Kenneth Lewis of Bank of America, Ronald Logue of State Street, John Mack of Morgan Stanley, Vikram Pandit of Citigroup and John Stumpf of Wells Fargo

[Added 2/20/09: ABC News Video: Should Women Rule the World? You gotta watch.]

Best Time To Start a Business? When You Are Good and Ready!

You can analyze things to death but really, the best time to start a business is when you are good and ready.

Read what two women went through before a light bulb glowed: "Do your own thing!"

And we covered a similar piece here on January 16, 2009 under the headline: Frightened About Your Corporate Job? Become An Entrepreneur.