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Mahjong Creates Business and Networking Opportunities for Women Entrepreneurs

By one estimate, mahjong is a $2.57 billion global industry and is expected to increase to $4.08 billion by 2032.  It's also becoming a major business and networking opportunity for women entrepreneurs.

From 2024 to 2025, mahjong events on digital event platform Evite spiked 46 percent year-over-year. “What started as a niche hobby has really become a full-on trend,” says Olivia Pollock, senior director of brand marketing and party data analyst at Evite. “It’s really started to pick up steam in a networking setting.”

Find out why here.

Women Are Turning Visions Into Ventures

The Center for Women Entrepreneurs at Texas Woman’s University, which provides a variety of financial programs, training and advising services for women-owned businesses, offered both virtually and in person – celebrated its 10-year anniversary with a Visions into Ventures milestone event, highlighting the successes of women business owners who have utilized its resources.  

Since 2018, the CWE has awarded over $2.3 million in grants to women entrepreneurs, Irby said. Grant-funded opportunities include the Veteran Woman Entrepreneur grant, the StartHER and Texas Rural Woman Entrepreneur grants, which are available to women-owned startups or small businesses. 

As one woman business owner says, "In the world in which we live right now, being a woman can be hard and finding community with women makes it worth it."

Enough said.

The Foundation of the Future: Artificial Intelligence

In a resurfaced video from his talk at SXSW, Mark Cuban made it clear that for Gen Z and aspiring entrepreneurs, AI is not just the future – it is the foundation. “If I were 16, 18, 20, or 21 starting today, I would spend every waking minute learning about AI,” he told the crowd. “Even while I’m sleeping, I would have podcasts playing about AI.”

Cuban sees AI as the most powerful opportunity to reshape business, creativity, and innovation. Simply understanding how to use AI, he said, can open the door to countless ventures from launching your own startup to consulting for others. 

Happy 21st Birthday Escape From Corporate America Blog!

Thank you for your readership all these years.  Here's one of the first posts I [Laurel Delaney] I did. We now have between 20,000-75,000 readers a month.  When I first started, I was lucky to have one.

Keep reading and keep engaging!  

Young, Gifted and Black

©2025 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Found this wonderful book, Young, Gifted and Black, in the Free Library Box and read through every page.  The graphics and the inspiring stories are irresistible.  It's a launching post for more discoveries featuring 52 black heroes from past and present.

These extraordinary men and women's achievements will inspire a new generation to chase their dream ... whatever it may be.  

Founder and Celebrity Hair Stylist Jen Atkin’s Brand Eyes Expansion

Founder and celebrity hair stylist Jen Atkin’s brand eyes expansion beyond store shelves into non-retail spaces.

The Los Angeles-based company Ouai didn’t become a household name in its own right until around 2019 when the team made a gamble on a novel means of distribution. Ouai sampled one million units of its leave-in conditioner in FabFitFun subscription boxes. It was the company’s biggest sampling program ever.

Find out what happened.  It's better than you think.  

Women Entrepreneurs Are Incredibly Resilient

According to Audrey McLoghlin, founder of the clothing brand Frank & Eileen, female entrepreneurs are uniquely suited to handle these kinds [fighting for success] of crises. “Women are incredibly resilient and built to be able to handle chaos,” she says. “It’s how we’re created for motherhood—that’s constant chaos. We’re built that way.”

McLoghlin knows just how hard entrepreneurship can be. She launched her Los Angeles-based company in 2009 after declaring personal bankruptcy during the Great Recession and spent the next decade fighting to turn it into a success, which she did.

Now her goal is to make more successful women entrepreneurs.  Read about her story, Tory Burch's, Tiffany Dufu's, and Nancy Twine's here. 

Grants, Loans, and Programs to Benefit Your Small Business

Whether you're starting a new small business or looking to grow the one you already own, finding funding can be a challenge for businesses of all sizes. 

Here are more than 100 grants, loans, and programs to benefit your small business.  

Teens Are Open to Pursuing Entrepreneurship

Research from Junior Achievement and Ernst & Young LLP (EY) found that 41% of teens are open to pursuing entrepreneurship over a traditional job, and among current business owners, 13% got their start at age 18 or younger.

Many of the young entrepreneurs below fall into that camp and have continued on their path of success in the years that followed, thanks to great ideas, unwavering determination, and support and guidance from the right mentors.

Archika Dogra, Grace Leger and Caitie Sfingi are among them.

The stories of these young business owners are a reminder that entrepreneurship isn’t about waiting for the perfect moment. It’s about starting where you are, learning as you go, and staying open to feedback, mentors, and change. 

Fasting Growing Group of Entrepreneurs: Black Woman-Owned Businesses

Although Black women make up less than 10% of the U.S. population, they’ve emerged as the fastest-growing group of entrepreneurs in the country. 

According to the Brookings Institution, between 2017 and 2020, the number of Black women-owned small businesses increased by nearly 20%, far exceeding the growth of women-owned businesses and Black-owned businesses overall. 

In this interview, Jean Chatzky is joined by Tiffany Dufu, President of the Tory Burch Foundation and author of Drop the Ball: Achieving More By Doing Less. Tiffany shares the best ways to support Black women-owned businesses right now.

This Female Entrepreneur's Got It: From a Background in Engineering to a Multi-Million Dollar Apparel Business

Learn how Audrey McLoghlin, founder and CEO of Frank & Eileen revamped a men's product for women. The bootstrapped business was a hit — and pledged $20 Million to support women entrepreneurs.

Audrey wanted to reinvent the button-up shirt for women using unbelievable menswear fabrics. 

Visit Frank & Eileen.  The name?  Audrey's grandparents, Frank and Eileen. "They were married in Ireland in 1947, and they lived a beautiful, romantic, old-fashioned life — I don't know if they would describe it that way, but they lived in a little stone cottage, never owned a car, just had a really charming life," says Audrey.

Audrey goes on to say, "The world would be a completely different place if at least 50% of the entrepreneurs and business owners out there were women. We'd live in a very different place."

The Presence of Women in Business Is Growing

Women today are continuously breaking barriers in the workplace, rising to positions of power, and running their own businesses.

Women in leadership, and ownership roles have revolutionized certain aspects of business. According to a report from Women’s Entrepreneurship Knowledge Hub (Canada), the majority of women-run businesses were more proactive in addressing employees’ skills gaps, as 15.6 per cent of all businesses had no plans to do so compared to only 11.7 per cent of majority women-owned businesses. 

For a look at the state of women in business (2024) in USA, visit here and their impact (2025), visit here.

It is important to lean on the other women in business, such as the members of the Women Presidents Organization or Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global®.

Stay true to your values and keep growing.

Two Illinois-Based Women Business Owners Are Rocking It for Mother's Day

Thanks to the Illinois Made Program, these two women entrepreneurs are expanding their unique businesses.  The Illinois Made Program exposes them to a broader, more diverse customer base, boosting sales and introducing their mouth-watering products to thousands of the state’s visitors.

Who are the lucky business owners?  Jana Farmer, owner of Ms. Jana’s Candy located at 1649 Montgomery Road, Unit #10, in Aurora, Illinois, and Dominique Leach, owner of Lexington Betty Smokehouse restaurant, located at 756 E. 111th St., in the historic Pullman community.

The Illinois Made Program celebrates small businesses and includes them in the state’s Traveler’s Guide and other tourism information. The program helps drive more customers to the highlighted businesses.

Learn more about Jana's and Dominique's businesses here.

Who Are the Most Courageous People and Leaders on the Planet?

©2025 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Ryan Berman spent three years shadowing the most courageous people and leaders on the planet to find out what they have done to accomplish astounding personal or business feats.

I look forward to reading his book, "Return on Courage – A Playbook for Courageous Change."

A New Playbook is Helping Women Entrepreneurs Navigate the Economic Storm

Sinking brand valuations, a shaky economy and the rollback of DEI initiatives are pressuring women founders in fashion and beauty (and other industries) — but a new playbook is helping them navigate the storm.

It’s a tough time to be a founder no matter what your background. High interest rates, the post-pandemic crash in consumer brand valuations and a gloomy economic outlook have made fundraising difficult.

Women and minority entrepreneurs have an extra layer of challenge, as they’re already underrepresented — female-led start-ups received just shy of 20 percent of overall investment in 2024, according to Pitchbook. They’re now seeing many of the initiatives designed to give them a seat at the table rolled back amid legal threats by the Trump administration and conservative activists. 

The picture isn’t entirely bleak.  Here's why.

It’s true that diligence is key for any founder, but women and those from underrepresented groups have to push even harder on all fronts with the playing field stacked against them, experts say.  To come out a winner, you have to be unstoppable with your efforts.

Inspiring People Who Overcame Adversity

©2025 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Picked up an inspiring little book in a Little Free Library today, "Real Lives:  Incredible Successes," by Lyn Coutts.  It's just what I needed to remember what it takes to change the world for the better.  From Oprah Winfrey to Steve Jobs to J.K. Rowling – each individual came from a rocky start in life yet managed to find their own way and achieve success.

Be inspired.  As Walt Disney said, "If you can dream, you can do it." 

Women Are Creating Their Own Destiny

Countless women are creating their own businesses after corporate glass ceilings pushed them to do so. But through the process, they found ways to build wealth while prioritizing work-life balance and redefining success on their own terms.  They want to design their own lives, create their own destinies.  Much like what we report here at Escape From Corporate America.

This is why fashion designer Rebecca Minkoff created The Female Founder Collective, a powerful, high-impact network and education platform designed to help women build wealth, scale their businesses, and offer access to content, learning and capital.

Women need community to support one another.  

Today, the FFC has grown into a thriving community of 25,000 founders, spanning industries from beauty to healthcare to tech. Most of their early supporters, including prominent founders Aurora James, Zanna Roberts Rassi, Michelle Cordeiro Grant and others, are still part of the network today.

Learn more about the movement here, which is needed more than ever now in such a volatile market.

Alice Walton Joins the $100 Billion Club

These 15 people have 12-figure fortunes. One of the individuals featured is Alice Walton, the only daughter of Walmart founder Sam Walton (d. 1992):

In September, 2024 Walton became the world’s wealthiest woman once again, overtaking French L’Oréal heiress Françoise Bettencourt Meyers, who had surpassed her for the previous two and a half years. The Walmart heiress is best known for spearheading the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in her family’s hometown of Bentonville, Arkansas. She has given away an estimated $1.7 billion, including a recent gift of $249 million to help fund the new Alice L. Walton School of Medicine, also in Bentonville. 

In all, the 15 “centibillionaires” are worth $2.4 trillion, nearly $400 billion more than a year ago—and more than the planet’s 1,500 “poorest” billionaires combined. Put another way, this group of just 0.5% of the world’s 3,028 billionaires holds an incredible 15% of all billionaire wealth.

Here's more focusing on the world's richest women 2025.

How Women Entrepreneurs Navigate Being in a Male-Dominated Field

Wright State University hosted a panel featuring four female business owners in the food and business industry.  The event provided a platform for these entrepreneurs to share their unique experiences, challenges, and successes.

One was Mary Crumley-Effinger, Managing Partner at Texas Roadhouse.  She shares how she navigates being in a male-dominated field.  

"For me, like we said before, it's a male-dominated field, so making sure you find those allies and the people to look up to whether they're in your business or a business like yours. It doesn't necessarily have to be the same restaurant business. Someone that you can ask to support you in your endeavors," Crumley-Effinger said. 

Read the entire article here to learn what other female business owners had to say.