Here's How to Bolster Your Business

Pull up a chair, if you haven't already, and get ready to bolster your business with these resources for female entrepreneurs.

Photo courtesy:  Beverley Goodwin

What Can Happen at 50?

You can divorce, marry, have a grandchild, get fired, start a business or all of the above.  In this case, Phyllis Green started a business.  She was laid off from ABC's corporate headquarters in New York in 1985 after Capital Cities bought the television network and began trimming staff to cut costs.  Here's what she did:

Green said she reinvented herself as an entrepreneur using her sales, broadcast production and advertising experience. After her layoff, she came back to South Florida, where she had grown up. Green started her own business — Green Advertising — and later moved it to Boca Raton. In 1999, Green sold the company to WPP Worldwide, a marketing communications conglomerate.

At any age you can start your own business.  It's about doing what you love to ensure you prosper in life.

Read the entire article:  Ad exec starts over at 50

Photo courtesy:  Flickr

Know Your Cause

Screenshot courtesy of:  Rebel Nell

Many entrepreneurs start a business to fulfill a need.  Amy Peterson and Diana Russell took a different course of action. Russell works in fashion and photography and Peterson is an attorney who learned how to make jewelry while in law school. The cool thing about Peterson?

She also happens to be the creative brain behind one of the "must have" items during the 2005 Academy Awards Ceremony: a pin worn by cast and crew in the film Hotel Rwanda. Peterson eventually moved to Detroit in 2007 for her law career.

Peterson and Russell, co-founders of "defiant" jewelry company Rebel Nell, knew their cause — help impoverished women in Detroit — before they knew what their business was going to be.

Morale of story?  Love what you do and try to help others in your journey.

Find out what's going on with Rebel Nell and learn more about their cause:  The Creative Way Two Entrepreneurs Are Using Graffiti to Hep Women in Detroit

Today Only: Celebrate International Women's Day and Receive a Special Savings On My NEW Book

Photo courtesy:  Apress 2013

Celebrate International Women's Day with a special savings on my new book, "Exporting:  The Definitive Guide to Selling Abroad Profitably" and on other books from female authors.  The digital version on "Exporting" is normally $24.99 and you can get it only for today at $14.99!  Better hurry.

Exporting equips you with the knowledge you need to market, sell, and fulfill orders internationally, taking full advantage of the Internet and the opportunities it creates. It also imparts a can-do spirit on exporting, leading to greater revenues, stability, and profitability for your business.

I guarantee the book will help take your business to the next level of growth.

Use promo code 8MAR14 by 03/09/14.

Go here to order:  Apress - "Exporting" book

What's nice about the digital copy is that you can easily conduct a search on whatever your needs are at the time - from how to craft an export business plan - to how to hire the right people or set up an e-commerce site.  Many people buy both the digital and print copy for reference.

Enjoy and if you like it, please post a favorable review.  Thus far, reviews on Amazon have been out of the park as they say!

Thank you!

Looking For Long-Running Business Success?

If you are looking for long-running business success, it's easier than you think.  Guess what it starts with?  Working capital?  No.  Great people?  No.  A terrific website or brick and mortar spot?  No.

It starts with a good idea!

Read the entire article:  Focus 2014:  Business Success No Secret, Experts Say

Photo courtesy: Elliott Burke

Women: The Face of Resilience

Open Your Dream Business

Nora Jackson turned her dream into a reality.  She opened her multipurpose shop, Nora’s and More, late in 2013.

Nora’s and More was created from Jackson’s love of serving those in the community, particularly teens and young adults.

Learn more about her story here.

Photo courtesy:  Dan DeChiaro

How Many Olympic Athletes Run Their Own Business?

U.S. Olympic curler Debbie McCormick (pictured) paid her bills by working part time at a Home Depot in Rio, Wisconsin for nearly ten years.  When she was let go from her job in 2010, she need a job fast.

Big challenge?  She would have to take about two months off, including the entire month of February, in order to compete in her fourth Olympic games in Sochi, Russia.

So rather than get another part-time job, McCormick felt starting her own business made more sense. She now runs Goldline Mobile Pro Shop and travels to curling tournaments selling equipment made by Mississauga, Ontario-based Goldline Curling.

Read the entire article here.

To Debbie, we wish her the best of luck competing and we hope she comes back a winner.  We are so proud she is represents our USA team!

Photo courtesy:  Chase N

Demystifying Work/Life Balance

We all know that being an entrepreneur is not easy.  It's intense, involves long hours and requires nearly total devotion to make the business a success.  However, in this article, and it's a good one, the author says:

... I can tell you that if you don’t make time for the activities and people you love, you will burn out very quickly.

Good advice.  And there's more.  Better get reading.

A Healthy Work/Life Balance Is No Unicorn

Illustration credit:  Anley Piers

Join Sharp Minds in San Francisco February 13th and 14th

Women 2.0’s upcoming San Francisco conference (February 13-14th) is about giving founders, investors and tech company leaders the information and connections they need to thrive in today’s outsized reality.

Featured speakers include:

1. Gwynne Shotwell, President & CEO of Space X
2. Sarah Friar, CFO & Operations Lead of Square
3. Daphne Koller, Co-Founder of Coursera
4. Dana Ringelmann, Co-Founder of Indiegogo
5. Julia Hartz, Co-Founder & President of Eventbrite
6. Charles Hudson, Partner at Softech VC

What will be addressed at the conference?

• In-depth discussions, panels and keynotes
• Practical case studies filled with actionable advice for employees at big tech companies and startups
• Intimate networking with other entrepreneurs, technologists, CxOs, investors and more

What is Women 2.0?

About Women 2.0: Women 2.0 is a media company at the intersection of women, entrepreneurship and technology, offering content, a community and conferences to further its mission of diversity among employees, entrepreneurs and investors in technology. Women 2.0’s platform is open to men and women.

Visit Women 2.0 to learn more about the organization.  To sign up and get your tickets for the conference, visit here.

Illustration courtesy:  Women 2.0

Crush Your Self-Doubt

Melissa Pickering says women experience self-doubt more than men. She confronted it and followed six steps to build a successful company.

When I started iCreate to Educate, I read a lot of books on female entrepreneurs and started to recognize a consistent message—female entrepreneurs tend to have more self-doubt than our male counterparts. How was I, as a female entrepreneur, going to battle this self-doubt in order to be successful?

Read Melissa's good advice here.

Photo courtesy: BK

The Importance of Women Business Owners

Each year the National Women's Business Council (NWBC) delivers its annual report focusing on economic issues of importance to women business owners along with policy recommendations to the President, Congress, and the Small Business Administration. This year's annual report addresses four main areas to advance women entrepreneurs:

1.  Access to Capital
2.  Access to Markets
3.  Job Creation & Growth
4.  Data Collection

The National Women's Business Council's annual report is available at http://nwbc.gov/research/nwbc-2013-annual-report

Illustration courtesy:  NWBC 2013

Lady Tradies In Pursuit of Their Dreams

Carpentry apprentice Juliette Liddle says that building houses suits her much better than fluffing pillows.

She is part of a minority of women who are infiltrating male-dominated trades in pursuit of their dreams. Since 2010, the state government has injected more than $300,000 into programs to overcome some of the biggest stumbling blocks to female participation. And it is working.

Read the entire article:  Female trades follow their dreams in a man's world

For more information, visit:   APlus Apprentice and Trainee Services (its mission is to see 40 female students in years 10 to 12 placed in non-female traditional trades over the next year as part of a Victorian government push for women to take up trade apprenticeships).

Why should the men have all the fun in jobs?

Photo courtesy:  University of Salford Press

Make 2014 Your Best Ever!

©2013 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Wishing you a new year filled with growth, adventure, hope, promise, fun, good health, happiness, love and the launch of a new business.

My best, 

Laurel

Shine Bright This Holiday Season

©2013 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

  Wishing You a Joyful Christmas

and a Star Bright New Year

Note:  These star lights were sold during the Christkindlmarket Chicago 2013.

UpStart Program for Minority and Women Entrepreneurs

A new program designed to help aspiring minority and women entrepreneurs launch successful businesses, is being offered by the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation in collaboration with the UW-Madison Small Business Development Center and area professionals with expertise in fields such as accounting, sales and marketing.

UpStart Program for Minority and Women’s Entrepreneurship will offer two 13-week sessions in 2014 with classes starting in early February and again in mid-September. The free program was piloted during fall 2013 with 15 participants and will accept up to 25 applicants for each session in 2014.

Learn more here.

Women Entrepreneurs See the World Through a Different Lens

Designer Tory Burch wants to see more women entrepreneurs than the current 126 million already running businesses worldwide.  She says:

“Based on our experiences, women entrepreneurs see the world through a different lens and, in turn, do things differently.”

Learn more about what Ms. Burch thinks will drive more women to entrepreneurship here.

Photo courtesy:  Lauren Indvik

Female Entrepreneurs You Should Know About

In Tech Cocktail:

Although there are noteworthy entrepreneurs across all genders, races, ethnicity, geography, etc., this post is dedicated to shining a spotlight on female entrepreneurs, as we at Tech Cocktail are proud proponents of the Change the Ratio movement.  And while it’s easy to applaud the Ariana Huffingtons, Marissa Mayers, Oprah Winfreys, Sara Blakelys, and Sheryl Sandbergs of the world, there are countless female entrepreneurs doing great things that you (likely) haven’t heard of.

Well worth a look.

And don't kid yourself, persistence and determination matters when starting a business.

15 Female Entrepreneurs You Should Know About (But Probably Don't)

Photo courtesy:  Dana Lockadoo

For Women Entrepreneurs, It Can Be a Messy World

We've come a long way.  Or have we?  On Oct. 25, 1988, President Ronald Reagan signed the Women’s Business Ownership Act.  What did it do for women business owners?

The law, designated H.R. 5050 for the equality it set out to establish for female entrepreneurs, banned discrimination against women seeking business loans and improved access to educational and technical assistance. 

Fast forward to here and now:

Sarah Biller, 42, president of financial technology company Capital Market Exchange, cites perfectionism as a major challenge for women, including herself. “I wanted to come to market with a perfect solution,” she says. But “it’s a messy world.” That “tendency to play by the rules and dot every ‘i’ or cross every ‘t’ stands in the way of women all the time,” she says.

Read the entire article:  Is the Playing Field Even for Women Entrepreneurs 25 Years After H.R. 5050?

Photo courtesy:  Paul Downey

Young Female Entrepreneurs (YFE) Interviews Founders of Made Woman Magazine

Young Female Entrepreneurs - worth a look!
Made Woman Magazine - also worth a look!