Kick It Up a Notch: Open a Retail Store

Janice Winterboer, owner of Twigs, kicks it up a notch.  She got out of the retail sector for awhile, but continued to operate her interior design business out of her home.

“I decided to bring it up a notch and opened the store at 6 E. Third Ave. Then we outgrew that space and moved to Broad Street, the former Roman Rose Antique store,” Winterboer said. “We do floral design as well.”

Read the entire article here.

The Young and the Restless Female Entrepreneurs

YoungEntrepreneur.com brings you stories about innovative startups and their enthusiastic founders.

For example, instead of featuring an article here, we'll provide you with a forum thread:

What does it take to be a truly successful female entrepreneur?

These passionate young female entrepreneurs are bypassing Corporate America altogether!  See what others have to say here.

Here's one comment:

I think it takes hard work and determination, and a little help from veterans in the business field along the way.

Illustration credit here.

Finding a Balance Between Work and Home: Start an Online Business

Everyone who has kids and worked up until that point has these thoughts: how to have a career but at the same time, be available for your kids.

Keri Zingle worked as an engineer for high-tech firms in Ottawa and Vancouver.  Here's her quick backstory:

After having two children, she struggled to find a balance between work and home. She decided to become a stay-at-home mom and began her own online business, Craft Caravan. The subscription service is $10 each month for a new craft project shipped to your home. Suitable for children aged two to eight, Zingle tests the crafts on her brood before approving them for retail sales.

She offers advice for other stay-at-home moms thinking about starting their own business and explains why engineering and crafting share a lot of similarities.

Read the entire article here.

Illustration credit:  Craft Caravan

Working For Yourself

Frustrated with the lack of play areas where she could take her three children, Shyanne Lamb started Kenosha-based Playnasium.  Playnasium is ...

An indoor play area, the space offers everything from playground equipment, to bounce houses, to playhouses, to Lego blocks, to puzzles and coloring for kids from 0 to 5.

Fast-forward four months. In addition to the kids playing, Ms. Lamb has hosted events including a vendor fair, birthday parties, a magician and an Easter egg hunt.

Learn more about Lamb's initiative and what else is going on in Wisconsin when it comes to women business ownership - read:

Women-owned firms growing in Wisconsin

Business Ownership Requires: Guts, Backbone and a Can-Do Spirit

That's what Marci Marceau practices -- guts, backbone and a can-do spirit -- to achieve success with her business, Luz's Mexican Food.

According to a recent report by American Express OPEN:

The number of women-owned businesses across the United States increased 54 percent over the past 15 years. That was a rate one a half times the average for all other businesses.

Marceau also attributes her Mom as a role model for encouraging her to go into business for herself.

Read her story here.

Photo credit:  DaMory Diapers -- also featured in the article.

Latinas Leaving Corporate America?

According to Dr. Placida Gallegos:

788,000 Latinas now run their own businesses, according to the most recent Survey of Business Owners (last conducted in 2007). This represents a 46% increase against a 20% found across all female business owners over a five-year period.

Find out three (3) reasons why Latinas are leaving corporate America and becoming entrepreneurs here.

Hint:  Meaningful work plays into it. Doesn't it for all of us?

Illustration credit:  The Magazine | Latina

Good Karma Over At Contact Karma

My friend and colleague, Genevieve Thiers, founder of Chicago-based SitterCity and OperaModa has started her third company Contact Karma with Maureen Wozniak which helps you connect your business to deals and vendors you can trust.

Contact Karma is a social recommendation engine that stocks B-B deals for local Chicago business owners and execs to take advantage of. Contact Karma is simple to use … business owners and execs in Chicago seeking a deal on a corporate product or service can head to our site and enter the vendor type (PR firm, bookkeeper, lawyer, web design firm) that they are looking for into our home page. We then give them a series of vendor suggestions and deals, ordered by who in their local business community and network likes and uses the vendor. 

View a quick video tour here.

From Corporate Life to Sweet New Business

According to Oprah Magazine (February 2012):

... eleven years ago, Casey Hickey's work wasn't so delicious.  As director of development for a San Francisco-based medical society, she spent her days in a windowless office.  "I was proud of what I did," she says, "but my self-expression was limited to fund-raising propsoals and spreadsheets."  Hickey spent her free time reading cookbooks; when she baked a wedding cake for a friend, a chef attending the reception was so wowed that she suggested Hickey rethink her career.

The rest is sweet history.

Learn more about Casey Hickey, Chocolatier, Owner of Twenty Degrees Chocolates (pictured).

Please Join Me: How To Grow Your Business In Today's Market

Dear Colleague and fellow Women in Business,

I’d like to invite you to attend the upcoming “21st Century Marketing:  How to Grow Your Business in Today’s Market” Conference, targeting Women in Business, to be held at the Anaheim Marriott March 23, 2012.

You can access the Conference agenda (and registration) via the website link below.  I look forward to speaking at the Conference and hope to see you there!

My best,
Laurel

Go here to get more information and to register:
http://www.wboconference.com/

How to Spare Yourself Sleepless NIghts As a New Business Owner

To spare yourself sleepless nights as a new business owner, get some training first via Corporate America to work out the kinks.  That what Pam Wallace did.

Read her story here.

Being a Female Entrepreneur Has Its Merits

Five tips from female entrepreneurs worldwide:

1. Understand why you are doing this.

2. Don’t be afraid to get out of the building and validate your business idea.

3. When being called stubborn, take it as a compliment.

4. Learn to hold contradictory values together.

5. Don’t quit when things are just getting started.

Read the full story on where these great ideas came from here.

Photo: Sheryl Tay, founder of The Baby Specialist; photo courtesy of Dr. Louis-Sebastian Sonntag

Alba Adds Entrepreneur to Her List of Talents

Actress Jessica Alba (pictured) adds "entrepreneur" to her list of talents.  She launches The Honest Company (http://www.honest.com), an e-commerce business which sells eco-friendly products.  How she reserved that domain name I'll never know.

Alba, 30, who is best known for her television role "Dark Angel" and roles in The Fantastic Four movies, came up with the idea after discovering how difficult it was to find affordable, non-toxic, and attractive baby products for her own kids. 

Learn more here.

Illustration credit:  The Honest Company homepage

Posted by:  the official Escape From Corporate America blog

Feed Kids, Pay Rent and Be An Entrepreneur

Be Your Own Boss and Have Flexibility Too

Laura Atkinson and Cathy Lopienski co-own one of only five Columbus pharmacies owned by women. In partnership with the National Community Pharmacist Association, Cardinal Health wants to try and interest more woman pharmacists like Atkinson and Lopienski into becoming owners, not just employees.

Lopienski said that owning her own pharmacy (Total Wellness Concepts) has other perks, too.

“I can be my own boss and have lots of flexibility now, too,” Lopienski said.

Read the entire article here.

The Skinny On Popcorn: Introducing Skinny Pop

Are you looking for a popcorn that’s low in calories, all natural, very tasty and all you have to do is enjoy every kernel?  Look no further.  President and CEO Pamela Netzky has created Skinny Pop Popcorn and she just happens to be located in my hometown:  Chicago!

What else am I missing about this product?  Try this:

Read all about it here.

Illustration credit:  Skinny Pop Popcorn website

Women On the Frontlines of An Entrepreneurial Surge

Listen up entrepreneurial Oregonian women!

Oregon has a long history of women starting small businesses. But those enterprises have typically stayed small and revolved around retail—aka the “pink ghetto.” What’s new is women are forming “highly scalable businesses” and that a growing number are in the tech sectors, Linda Weston (executive director of the Oregon Entrepreneurs Network) says. “It’s a dramatic change."

What the author Linda Baker of the article noted below claims is there seems to be a significant number of women serving on the frontlines of the city and state's entrepreneurial surge.

Read the entire article here:

Women Help Power Startup Scene

Logo credit here.

Do You Have to Limit Your Entrepreneurial Ambitions to Be a Good Mom?

Wow, that's a bold, gutsy question. What do you think? According to Geri Stengel's, "Want to Grow the Economy? Change Four Attitudes About Women Entrepreneurs," (Forbes) she challenges us by posing that question and more. But the short answer:

The first order of cultural change, is to debunk the idea that to be a good mom, you have to limit your ambition. “If you want to have a family and run a business, you can — and a growing number of us do,” says Liz Etling, CEO and co-founder of Transperfect, the largest privately owned language services provider, with offices in 75 cities worldwide, and a good example of eluding the barriers to success. She started her business with a fellow student in a dorm room 19 years ago.

Key factors holding women back?

1. Women self-limit their ambitions.
2. Their assertiveness is perceived as ”bitchiness.”
3. Men need to change.
4. Women need to network.

Agree? Disagree? I welcome hearing from you and so would other readers of this blog. So please comment based on your opinion and/or first-hand experience.

Read the entire fabulous article here.

Posted by:  the official Escape From Corporate America blog
 

Women Are Changing Our World As Entrepreneurs

Stand Out In 2012

©Laurel Delaney 2012, "The Lone Tree, 31st Street, Chicago Lakefront," 1.1.12

Wishing you a new year

filled with desirable outcomes. 

Holiday Romance at Jane's in Chicago

Known as a vanguard in the revitalization of Chicago's Bucktown neighborhood, Jane's restaurant (now owned by Julie Greenwalt) has been serving contemporary comfort foods in a unique and romantic (considered one of the most romantic restaurants in Chicago!) setting since 1994. I recently had the pleasure of dining there for a holiday affair and it was wonderful.

Situated near the city of Chicago’s original northern-most boundary, the Bucktown block which Jane’s calls home maintains the quaint, “main street” appeal that was reintroduced in 1891, as the area was revitalized, following the Great Chicago Fire.

Find out more here.  Sign up for newsletter here to be kept up to date and learn about special events.