Happy 2024 From Escape From Corporate America

©2023 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Happy 2024 from Escape From Corporate America!  Discover six reasons why 2024 is the best time to start a business.  Go for it!  

Love, Light and Laughter

©2023 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

"Merry Christmas!  Wishing you love, light, and laughter for good memories this holiday season." – Laurel J. Delaney

How to Succeed as a Woman Founder

How to succeed as a woman founder?  The founders of SoulCycle, Poppi, Halfdays, and more offer their best 5 pieces of advice for female entrepreneurs – from what to read — and what not to read — and how to use social media.

Topics discussed ranged from what to do if a male VC laughs you out of the room (in this case, go your own way and get a loan to start your business) to how to fix your company's Target display.

They've got you covered.

The Woman Who Keeps On Giving

MacKenzie Scott, a woman who keeps on giving, is well known for her philanthropic behaviors and surprise donations to organizations. 

Scott helped build tech giant Amazon with her then-husband Jeff Bezos. The couple divorced in 2019. She currently has a net worth of $33.7 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Scott recently announced $2.15 billion in donations over the past year on her website, Yield Giving. She said in the post that the nonprofit donated to 360 organizations, “every one of whom could use more allies.”

The causes are always wide-ranging.  One organization who is hopeful in receiving a gift from Ms. Scott is Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global®, an under-the-radar nonprofit who has been around since 2015 and educates women on how to grow their business through global expansion.  To date, they have served more than 40,000 women.

Reshaping Early-Stage Venture Capital (VC) to Better Serve Women Entrepreneurs

Melinda Gates is trying to change the face of power in venture capital (VC) to better serve women entrepreneurs.

Given that VCs cater to a select few, fail on about 80%, and need home runs to pay for the failures, the question looms: can Gates make a dent and leave a legacy?

Discover the five challenges and potential solutions.

Make Time For Yourself This Holiday Season

Take (or make) time for yourself.  Planning or relaxing must be part of your daily list of to-dos, and what better time to start than the holidays?

Here are five things every entrepreneur should do this holiday season. Practice these habits, and you'll notice a change in 2024.

5 Secrets to Building a Billion Dollar Brand

Remember Kathy Ireland?  She skyrocketed to fame as a model at the age of 16, is now the CEO of Kathy Ireland Worldwide — a global empire worth over $2 billion.  She is now one of the biggest names in business. 

Here are her top 5 tips for building a billion dollar brand.

AI Is Not a Replacement for Human Labor

After the release of ChatGPT 3.5 last November, we’re still very much in the early stages of people working out what’s possible with the technology. Everyone wants to know how far it can be taken.

Could AI become a new form of entrepreneurship?

Historically, business leaders would leverage a combination of people and capital to push their enterprises forward. In the last twenty years, that’s expanded to “networks” but in the future, it could involve AI, too.

While some engineers believe AI might be conscious, most agree that it can’t and doesn’t view morality through the same lens as people. As such, it is up to humans to make the best choice for the direction in which to send a business.

AI is not a replacement for human labor.  It's an enhancement.

Women's Representation in the Workforce Is Not Keeping Pace

Here's a look at the common myths about women’s workplace experiences and career advancement, the specific biases and barriers faced by Asian, Black, Latina, and LGBTQ+ women and women with disabilities, and clear solutions that organizations can implement to make meaningful progress toward gender equality.  That’s according to the latest Women in the Workplace report from McKinsey, in partnership with LeanIn.Org, it's ninth year.

Upshot:  Women are more ambitious than ever, and workplace flexibility is fueling them. Yet despite some hard-fought gains, women’s representation is not keeping pace.

Hence, why more and more women are starting their own businesses. Controlling your destiny is a good thing.

Education Around Intellectual Property

The USPTO supports women entrepreneurs and promotes education around intellectual property. 

Please visit the Empowering Women's Entrepreneurship webpage for upcoming events, mentorship opportunities, resources, and tools available through the USPTO.  

The last program they offered, "Women Entrepreneurs: Protect and promote your brand," was in collaboration with the Farley Center in Evanston, Illinois.

Be sure to sign up to receive emails about startup resources and FREE events.

Make Some Extra Cash With a Side Gig

Some people have side gigs – ways to make extra cash – that are even more lucrative than their main jobs.  Take Pinky Chong, for example. 

She’s a physical therapist by trade, but she makes $8,000 a month on the side by selling luxury items from brands like Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Christian Louboutin, Gucci and Hermes.  She has made her extra cash by selling these items on sites like eBay, Poshmark, Mercari and Facebook Groups. 

Find out how Chong got started and how you can, too.

Interested In Learning What It Takes to Go Global?

©2023 Global TradeSource, Ltd.  All rights reserved.

Feel free to join us (I, Laurel Delaney, will be attending) for the 8th Annual Global Small Business Forum:  Navigate Turbulence in the Global Marketplace!  You can join virtually or in person in Chicago on Friday, October 20, from 8:00-11:30 AM CT.

Sponsored by Associated Bank.  Hosted by Foley & Lardner.  

Hear from business owners who know what it takes to go global successfully.  As a fellow woman entrepreneur, I know the benefits to expanding a business globally – now you can discover them, too.

To learn more and to register, visit:  https://bit.ly/3PyjTv0.  Specifics can also be found here.  Hope to see you there!

Reviving An Old School Brand

For 15 years María Obregón, who lives in Northern Chile, has been selling Avon beauty products, turning her work into a family business in which she has been joined by her husband and even the youngest of her children.  "Avon for me means freedom," she says with unconcealed delight. "It means independence. It means fulfilling myself as a woman, as a person."

Recent months have been difficult for Avon and its Brazilian owners, Natura & Co. The conglomerate, which sold its luxury brand Aesop to the French firm L'Oréal for over $2.5 billion, may soon take the same route with another brand, The Body Shop. Natura acquired The Body Shop in 2017 to exploit growing demand for ecological beauty products. But today its priority is to return to maximum profits and spending discipline, prompting a consolidation of assets and interests, reports Reuters.

Avon's challenge as a traditional brand is to be relevant to younger women.  Read on to learn more.

Spontaneous Fits of Joy

©2023 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Entrepreneurship: Start With Who You Are and What You Stand For

Founder and Owner Shelley Jack of Sheba Marketing had advised scores of clients on how to market and to strategize for growth but she wasn't prioritizing those lessons to her own business.

She says, "Building that [a] plan and intention into your business is a necessity. You have to start with your identity, who you are and what you stand for, and then make and follow that plan. I [Shelley] enjoy working with businesses and organizations that focus on both business and social impact — those moving and shaping their business to grow and improve the community.”

Learn how Shelley's business has evolved over time.

Challenges Women Entrepreneurs Face and Some of the Most Successful Women to Follow

Business News Daily (BND) asked female CEOs about the key challenges women entrepreneurs face and how to overcome them. Here are seven:

1. Defying social expectations
2. Accessing funding
3. Struggling to be taken seriously 
4. Owning your accomplishments 
5. Building a support network 
6. Balancing business and family life 
7. Coping with fear of failure

Then, in the same article, BND tackles five (5) of the most successful women entrepreneurs based on their accomplishments and net worth. The following ladies made the cut for some of the most successful women entrepreneurs to date. Love them or hate them, they made names for themselves in strong careers.  Oh, and I am adding one more, so make it six (6) – and be sure to Follow the last one, M.H.

1. Oprah
2. Gisele Bundchen
3. Sheryl Sandberg
4. Lady Gaga
5. J.K. Rowling
6. Michelle Hayward   

Read the entire article here.

Successful Black Female Entrepreneurs Are Climbing Even Higher Mountains

Black women leaders in the United States are the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs. 

Historically, Black females have earned less than men and white women with the same education and experience. 

As the country continues to fight for equality in funding, the workplace, and in every aspect of life, many impressive Black women are creating a runway for generations to come and climbing even higher mountains.

Find out who some of these successful black women entrepreneurs are here. 

America's Richest Self-Made Women 2023

Female entrepreneurs.  Women business leaders.  Those who have made it and those who aspire to make it.  These women are driving change, transforming business and making a significant impact on the world. 

Collectively, the 100 women on the list have a record high net worth of $124 billion, up 12% from last year. List members have built careers in a range of industries, including healthcare, entertainment, financial services and technology. 

AI is already having an impact, helping drive up the fortunes of semiconductor firm AMD’s CEO Lisa Su, who is preparing for battle in the coming AI revolution against Nvidia, and Insitro CEO Daphne Koller, a computer scientist whose South San Francisco firm is using machine learning to develop drugs more quickly.

Read on to find out who the top 100 women are.  Full list here.

Women Are Profit Drivers

As we are entering an era where there are as many different faces of entrepreneurship as there are companies, it's important that we recognize that there is not one singular leadership style or manifestation of "strength" that predicts or defines success.

Meghan Gaffney, founder and CEO of Veda, offers lessons and tips that may help non-traditional entrepreneurs.  Her three (3) major points are:

1. Use the data — it's on your side –> "Remind yourself (and anybody else who will listen) that women are proven profit drivers and we have the data to back that up."
2. Flip the script: Reframe your strengths.
3. Seek out diverse viewpoints and invite them to the table.

Read he entire article to learn how you can leverage your value.

Fierce Leadership

©2023 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

"One who is fierce leads….and leads well." – Heather Oden, Fierce