Number of Women Setting Up Businesses In the U.K. Surges 28 Percent!

In the Times (U.K.)

I am posting this because I love the lead and it reminds me of women in America:

• NOT content with smashing the boardroom glass ceiling, women are now seeking to outstrip men in the entrepreneurial stakes, too, according to a new study.

Here's another interesting fact:

• Rebecca Harding, a director of the London Business School’s Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, an annual study of entrepreneurship, said that demand for a better balance between work and life had also increased the number of women entrepreneurs.

To read the entire article, visit:
Number of Women Setting Up Businesses In the U.K. Surges 28 Percent!

Flexibility in the Workplace: The Benefits Are in the Numbers

In HR.BLR.com

According to the recent report, "When Work Works: A Project on Workplace Effectiveness and Workplace Flexibility," employees who have access to flexibility use it.

But do they pay a price? You bet. Take a look:

* When asked how hard it is to take time off during the workday to address personal or family issues, 37% of wage and salaried employees say "somewhat hard" or "very hard."

* Overall, 39% of respondents report that employees who use flexible work options are less likely to get ahead in their jobs or careers.

* Sixty-one percent of employees working in organizations that have part-time employees say that part-timers receive less compensation on a pro rata basis than full-timers doing the same jobs just because they work part time.

* Only 28% of low-wage employees are allowed to take a few days off to care for a sick child without losing pay, without using vacation days, and without having to make up some other reason for one's absence, compared with 58% of high-wage employees.

* Nineteen percent of part-time employees versus only 9% of full-time employees do not have health insurance coverage from any source.

And we wonder why more and more women are choosing entrepreneurship over corporate work!

To read the entire article, visit:
Flexibility In The Workplace

Got Fired! Start a Small Business

In Magic City Morning Star (Maine)

There are so many wonderful points made in this article, that you must read it in its entirety to fully appreciate but here's the climatic ending:

"Take your entrepreneurial skills and join the growing number of men and women who are starting their own small businesses. Americans will applaud you for it."

That dear friends, says it all. So if you got fired, consider it a lucky break. Anyone have a story you'd like to share where getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to you because it propelled you on to starting your own business? Go ahead ... make our happy day!

To read the article, visit: Got Fired! Start a Small Business

Stay-at-Home Moms Get Entrepreneurial!

In The Wall Street Journal (10/21/04) -- subscription only

WOW -- am I excited. Our GlobeTrade.com (yes -- I founded that company too) board of advisor Tamara Monosoff, and former business consultant and Clinton White House staffer, is featured today on the front page of The Wall Street Journal. Go out and grab a copy!

The article, "The Carriage Trade: Stay-at-Home Moms Get Entrepreneurial," talks about how many women who leave the work force to care for children, that motherhood is making invention a necessity. Tamara's claim to fame is the invention of a special latch to prevent the problem of toddlers (including her own) unraveling toilet paper all over the floor. Her business is projected to hit more than $1 million next year from the 'TP Saver' and her other products. She also just signed on for a book deal to write a guide for aspiring inventor moms while she runs her company and Web site to promote other mothers' products.

For more information on Tamara Monosoff and her company, visit:

• Board of Advisor Tamara Monosoff's bio on GlobeTrade.com

• Tamara's company: Mom Inventors

To read the entire article, visit Startup Journal by The WSJ:
• Stay-at-Home Moms Get Entrepreneurial!

Congratulations Tamara! On behalf of all women, we are so proud of you!

More and more sisters doing it for themselves

In The Journal-Pioneer (Canada)

One highlight but there are many more ...

"I think that the public are certainly becoming much more aware of the contribution that women entrepreneurs make to the economy," Callbeck says, noting in Canada it totals over $18 billion a year. "You have to build awareness, really, before you get a lot of action."

To read the entire article, visit: More and More Sisters Doing It For Themselves

85 Broads and Tom Peters Say: Mark Your Calendar (10/19/04)!

In Posts

85 Broads is a women's networking group started in 1999, with HQ at 85 Broad St./Wall Street. They are sponsoring a Boycott, urging their members (and friends thereof, via word-of-mouth) to Not Shop on October 19. The idea is to demo Women's AWESOME Purchasing Power and PATHETIC Under-representation in Boardrooms & Exec Suites! So sad that one needs to do this sort of thing in 2004 ... to call attention to the Obvious! But need it we do, and One Old Guy (me -- that's Tom Peters speaking) urges one and all (M & F) to zip the checkbook, stow the credit cards ... on 10.19 ... and support 85 Broads & All Women!

Laurel here ... that won't be hard for me to do. I'm not a big shopper to begin with! What about the rest of you?

Posting coordinates:

85 Broads

Tom Peters!

Study Says Women Blocked from Top Positions in Leading Global Firms

In News VOA (Voice of America)

According to a new study, businesswomen continue to face obstacles at the highest levels of the world's top companies, even though women make up close to half of the global workforce.

To read the entire article, visit: Women Block From Top Positions in Leading Global Firms

Women at Risk

In Pause blog

A BIG thank you to Jory Des Jardins at Pause who wrote a complimentary blog entry about "Escape:" Women at Risk

Women Execs Lag Behind ... apparently, all over the world

In Herald Sun (Australia)

Here's your good hearty belly-laugh for the day. This article talks about how women are lagging behind men in the executive suites. I know, I know ... you expected me to provide some great insights but what I discovered is so hysterically weird that I just had to share with you:

• "Fly business class on any given day across Australia (substitute USA?) and you can see that women are just not up there in equal numbers to men," EOWA director Anna McPhee said.

• Isn't this a weird analogy? ... "The pointy end of the plane is telling it how it really is in boardrooms and at senior management levels around the country."

• Sound all too familiar? ... "As corporate leaders face issues surrounding access to a skilled workforce, retention and sustainability, they need to look closely at culture, job design and workplace flexibility if they are going to win the global [women] talent war," she said.

• And just look at what a BIG bank chief executive has to say: 'ANZ Bank chief executive John McFarlane believed women taking time off to raise families and their preference for small business (or did he mean to say "their preference for owning a business!") over large corporations had affected the number of top female executives.'

I was going to stop here but you have to read these additional snippets:

McFarlane goes on to say, "I don't think we should torture ourselves if we don't have 50 per cent of our boards and management as women," Mr McFarlane told AAP. "That's not to say it shouldn't be a third."

"I asked the women if they were happy to go along with this, and of course they weren't," Mr McFarlane said. "They wanted to go along by their own merits. But it's not enough. It needs a push. If you want more women at the top, you have to put them there in the first place."

"Woman are far more creative than men. Less creativity means the business will create less ideas, therefore there's less opportunities," he said.

Well who has something to say to Mr. McFarlane? Gentlemen? Ladies?

To read the entire article, visit:

Women Execs Lag Behind (Australia)

Pause: Jory's thoughts while sitting still ...

In Cyberspace

Happened upon Jory Des Jardins blog today. We were both striking our keyboards hard on Tom Peter's blog involving a thread about Idiots! and unfortunately, it was not about animals.

Despite the craziness, Jory found me and I am thrilled. She is currently working in the corporate world yet aspires to become a full-time writer soon. I visited her blog and was impressed with its creativity, thoughtfulness and wonderful insights. Some day, Jory is going to make the leap over to entrepreneurship but before she does (and becomes wildly famous), I suggest you stop in and pay her visit. She welcomes you at any time:

• Pause blog

• Pause website

The Naked Truth: A Working Woman's Manifesto on Business and What Really Matters

In Jack Covert Selects

From the CEO of one of my favorite companies, 800-CEO-READ, Jack Covert reviews The Naked Truth: A Working Woman's Manifesto on Business and What Really Matters by Margaret Heffernan, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 288 Pages, $24.95 Hardcover, September 2004, ISBN 078797143X. His comments, on Heffernan's book, reinforce the mission of this blog:

Margaret Heffernan wrote an article in 2002 for Fast Company, because she sensed that something was amiss in woman's careers. So she launched an experiment and asked for women to share their experiences. Turns out the response was overwhelming. She was inundated with emails from women all over America; some were offering solutions to common problems and others were in dire need of advice. In her own words:

"My fast company experiment confirmed -- beyond my wildest imaginings -- what I had seen in my own career and the careers of many women I'd worked with and for: that women are still abused, undervalued, and alienated in a business world that still can't recognize and respect them; that the pressure to align personal and work values is urgent and unrelenting; and that many women are inventing solutions that, if they were shared, could make us a lot less lonely."

The book is filled with vignettes as told by real women in the business world today, discussing many different issues. Looking at the chapter names alone will give you a good idea of what is covered: Start Smart; Geishas, Bitches, Guys -- and the Invisible Women; Balls to the Wall: Toxic Bosses and Hostile Environments; The Emperor's New Clothes; Power and Where It Comes From; Sex, Love and a Vision for Life; The Whole Life; How High Can You Go?; Breaking Up Is Hard to Do; The Entrepreneuse; The Parallel Universe.

Women in the workplace, according to Heffernan, are certainly allowed to grow, and make a contribution in the early stages of their careers. But somewhere along the way, they are left to feel like trespassers when they want to get into top management. They are made to feel like gatecrashers. And she suggests that instead of crashing the party, women leave, and start their own party. And this book invites you to join this party, by learning from the participants' experiences. This book is not about complaining, but about the fact that women are problem solvers, and there are many solutions offered in this book which I truly believe you will find useful because it tells it like it is.

Millionaire Women Next Door by Thomas J. Stanley, Ph.D.

In Thomas J. Stanley's new book, "Millionaire Women Next Door"

Over the weekend I celebrated my birthday and was given Stanley's latest book as a gift. I have not had a chance to read it yet, only scan the front/back covers and table of contents. It looks very interesting and I want to share the back cover's most poignant statement:

"Most Americans are not free. They are chained to their paychecks ... The women profiled herein will not tolerate such an existence. They are a different breed. They are free. They are cultivators of wealth and satisfied with life. They are in control of their own destiny."

Ring true with many of you?

Women-Owned Firms Find Triad To Their Liking

In MSNBC (The Business Journal of the Greater Triad Area)

I like the ending best on this feature:

"It is getting so much easier for women -- there's so many more resources for us to start and grow our own business. It's just going to be phenomenal."

But if you wish to read the entire article, visit: Women-Owned Firms Find Triad To Their Liking

"Translating Ideas Into Success" ... this one's for all of you!

In Mackinac Center for Public Policy

Before I move on to a speech that Joseph Lehman delivered to open the inaugural Asian Resource Bank, I want to first thank all of you who emailed me personally on the "Glass Ceiling" article. As it did for me, the essay resonated with many of you. And always feel free to post your feelings, beliefs or opinions whenever you like on this blog. That's what it is here for. But if you feel more comfortable contacting me on a personal basis (ldelaney@laureldelaney.com), that's fine too. Just glad you all liked the piece.

Now, on to the speech. I am posting this because Lehman talks about many of the characteristics (optimism, perseverance and so forth) necessary to become a good entrepreneur or business owner. The speech is entitled, "Translating Ideas Into Success," and many of you might be thinking along these lines -- whether it be by leaving your corporate job to start a new business or to "focus" on an idea that is brewing in your head -- this talk is for you.

In particular, I am highlighting the section on entrepreneurship for I find it liberating to read such a thoughtful piece:

~~~~~~~~~~

Entrepreneurship

The next ingredient for translating ideas into success is entrepreneurship. I don’t mean just talking and writing about it. I mean being an entrepreneur.

To really shift the window of political possibility, we have to get out of the purely academic mindset, where the goal is writing reports and studies. Our success is not measured by how much paper we push out the door. We succeed only if we actually shift policy in the right direction, and to do so requires an entrepreneurial approach.

Successful entrepreneurs are focused. They have lots of ideas, but they figure out their comparative advantage and spend their energy there. They don’t run in all directions trying anything that seems interesting.

This means that entrepreneurs are planners, but not in the sense of stifling creativity and flexibility. A good entrepreneur makes plans that avoid both rigid bureaucracy and unfocused, free-wheeling frenzies of activity.

Entrepreneurs are problem-solvers. They don’t just try to copy what works in other countries — they become the experts at applying freedom ideas and overcoming obstacles in their own countries.

~~~~~~~~~~

To read the entire speech, visit: Translating Ideas Into Success

Women and The Glass Ceiling

In LeaderValues

I was contacted today by LeaderValues for permission to publish a couple of my articles. In reviewing their web site, I stumbled upon this provocative article written in 1998 by Helen Peters of Hagberg Consulting Group, who specialize in the assessment and development of executive leadership and organizational effectiveness. The article starts out like this:

• Recent research indicates women's management style, which is centered on communication and building positive relationships, is well suited to the leadership paradigm of the 90's. However, the strategies used by women to reach mid-management levels are preventing them from breaking through the glass ceiling. There are specific things women must start doing and stop doing if they want to move into the executive suite. The research is of obvious importance to women managers, but has implications for men as well. To be successful, both men and women must be able to get bottom-line results through people-oriented leadership practices.

In 1971 I got my first real job. I quickly learned many of the realities of life, among them that women could not be managers. We were not worth investing in because we would just get married, get pregnant, and quit. We were too emotional. In fact, once a month we would do something that remained undefined, but was assumed to be totally unacceptable. Most importantly, we would be taking a good job from a man who really needed it, and by implication, deserved it. 

Times changed ...

It goes on further to report that progress up the corporate ladder will require women to do five things:

1. Start focusing energy.

2. Start taking risks.

3. Stop getting mired in the details.

4. Stop rescuing and mothering.

5. Stop making things right or wrong.

I couldn't help think that the five steps apply to both making progress up the corporate ladder and owning a business. Interesting.

For women who are still trying to make it in the corporate world instead of charging out on their own, this is a worthwhile read. The full article, regardless that it is six years old, can be found here: Women and The Glass Ceiling (1998)

Hey, hey ... women's businesses exceed overall growth rate!

In Business Journal Phoenix

• A study of the top 50 metropolitan areas by Wells Fargo and the Center for Women's Business Research found that women-owned small businesses grew by 30 percent from 1997 to 2004, compared to 10 percent growth for all firms over the same time period.

And here is the best point made in the article:

"Even during uncertain times, innovative and determined women business owners are doing their part to ensure this economy continues moving in the right direction," says Sharon Hadary, Executive Director of the Center For Women's Business Research.

To read the entire article, visit:
Women's Businesses Exceed Overall Growth Rate

Here's another good feature about it by Matt Quinn at Inc.:
Women-owned Firms Growing Quickly in Big Cities

Women Execs Tell of Climb -> but no word of jumping into entrepreneurship

In Enquirer

This article is all about climbing the corporate ladder and when you read it, you might ask yourself: Is it worth it?

To read the entire article, visit:
Women Execs Tell of Climb

The New Mothers of Invention! Phenomenal article!

In Businessweek

What a spectacular article! I am so excited that I'll just mention a couple of highlights quickly:

• J.E. Bedi researched female innovators for the Lemelson Center at The Smithsonian Institution, and what she found is summarized in her eye-opening paper, Exploring the History of Women Inventors. According to Bedi, during the 20th century, women patented an ice-cream freezer, a transmitter for torpedoes, a feeding device for amputees, and Kevlar, which is used in bullet proof vests. Can our children name any of these women? Are their contributions taught in schools?

• Today, women have their names on approximately 10% of all patents -- a tenfold increase over 1910 (when less than 1% of all patents were by women). Despite this increase, the gender gap in entrepreneurship continues to widen. In 2003, two men were involved in entrepreneurial activities for every woman, according to the research by Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM).

• Despite this gender gap, entrepreneurial activity among women continues to grow. The number of women-owned businesses in the U.S. has increased by 14% in the last five years, according to the Center for Women's Business Research (CWBR). Today, nearly half of all privately held businesses in the U.S. are women-owned.

• Clearly, today's female business owners are a positive influence on future women entrepreneurs.

To read the entire article, visit: The New Mothers of Invention

"Yes, Ambition Is Good, But How You Display It Can Get You in Trouble" -> But not if you are an entrepreneur!

In The Wall Street Journal, 9/14/04 (subscription)

One of my favorite WSJ columnists, Carol Hymowitz, wrote a really terrific piece, "Yes, Ambition Is Good, But How You Display It Can Get You in Trouble," and the reason I am bringing it up is because the ending is right in line with this blogger:

• "Sharon Mosse, who heds Strategic Marketing Group, a New York marketing consultant, feels freer to assert herself and gain recognition as an entrepreneur than when she worked in corporate settings. She used to be chief marketing officer at Barnes & Noble and before that a marketing executive at Verizon and Brooks Brothers. "Ambition to me means trying to do the job right, to solve problems and come up with ideas -- but sometimes that was interpreted as coming on too strong," she says. "Now I'm being hired to provide a senior point of view, and I'm expected to talk freely and broadly about my opinions."

"Entrepreneurship allows you to be who you are, have a voice and be as ambitious as ever!" -- Laurel

eBay chief says women have opportunities on auction site

In Detroit Free Press

Meg Whitman, president and CEO of eBay Inc., will be giving a talk in Detroit tomorrow (9/15), returning to where she used to work -- FTD. com in Southfield. She was interviewed for this article and here are a couple of snippets she talked about relating to women and women-owned businesses:

• "And we know that 48 percent of those users are women," said Whitman, a 1979 Princeton University graduate and Harvard MBA who worked at Procter & Gamble, Bain & Co. and Walt Disney Co., in addition to FTD.

• Her message to Wednesday's audience will, not surprisingly, focus on the heavy use of the eBay auction site by women and women-owned businesses.

• "What eBay offers women," Whitman said, "is the opportunity to decide what kind of time they want to put in, what kind of products they want to sell, and it allows them to customize their work around whatever else they have going on in their lives.

• "Another thing that's interesting about eBay is that it's a completely level playing field because you are totally measured by the quality of your product and the feedback other people leave for you."

• "People were florists because they loved flowers, because they loved the product, and they didn't want to work at IBM. They wanted to be their own boss. That's a lot of what I see at eBay as well," Whitman said.

So Whitman totally supports women breaking free and doing their own thing!

To read the entire article, visit: eBay Chief Says Women Have Opportunities ...