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I’ve heard one too many female entrepreneurs preface a challenge they’ve had with the statement “maybe it’s just because I’m a woman but I find it hard to”…(you can fill in the blank): ask for what I want; settle for something less than perfect; not to try to do it all myself. These statements make me cringe. I’m not a fan of sweeping gender generalizations and I’m certainly not keen on women attributing their challenges (challenges that many people experience by the way) to the fact that they are female. Women entrepreneurs get enough flak for not being more like men without us READ MORE » 
This infographic from Educational Leadership speaks for itself! So interesting.
Thanks to @awesomepeter for sharing! -Adelaide READ MORE »
A lot of people have asked us today to weigh in on this post: Are Women Starting the Wrong Kind of Businesses? I haven’t commented (other than RTs) mostly because I agree with a lot that has been said. Especially with Tara Hunt’s point about the simultaneous creation and degradation of the “pink collar ghetto” (also beautifully articulated in this post here). And with Tory Johnson’s point about us as a society being long past telling women what to do professionally. But I’ve also kept quiet because every time this issue is raised so is the issue about whether women are starting businesses that are “big enough”. Do READ MORE »
This past weekend I was hanging out in Austin (fun city!) and I had a discussion with some folks about our book (check out our new book video!). All of the people I was chatting with were in corporate positions and were not business owners. Their immediate response to the topic of entrepreneurship was fascinating. Several people made a comments that all had the same theme – that being an entrepreneur = being a workaholic. As I started to dig a little deeper, they explained that their impression of entrepreneurs was that they were “married to their businesses” READ MORE »
Adelaide and I almost fell out of our seats yesterday during our GROW it! workshop as one of our members, Judi Rosenthal shared her thoughts on how she has decided to grow her business. She has an incredibly successful business with many possible avenues for growth. Why did we almost fall out of our chairs? Because she articulated, from her experience, exactly what our book, The Big Enough Company: Creating a Business That Works for You (coming out in Sept, 2011) is about – growing a business in a way that meets your needs. Here are Judi’s thoughts, in her own READ MORE »
I know what you might be saying to yourselves, “What? Are you crazy? Not grow my business? Isn’t that the point? How else will I be successful?” I hear your concern. Before you dismiss the choice not to grow, take a minute to think about your goals and impact of growth. Much of the business world has a real addiction to size. We believe that bigger is better. Period. We impress each other by talking about numbers of employees, sales, market share and locations. From the second that most entrepreneurs start their business, they are encouraged to start thinking about just READ MORE »
Last week I read an article by Meghan Casserly of ForbesWoman. She writes the Girl Friday column. It’s always terrific but this post was of particular interest. Those that know me will know why! I tried to post my comment on Forbes.com because I wanted to add to the conversation. However, I’ve been battling with the website for over a week and for some reason can’t get registered. Rather than just letting it be, I decided to post my comment here and urge you all to read the article. The Original Article: Female Founders: Overcoming the Cupcake Challenge and ‘Mompreneur’ Stigma My Two Cents: (seriously…this was my reply right after READ MORE »
One of the most enjoyable aspects of the “winter break” from Christmas to New Years is the time I spend with my kids. Sure, there was a lot of juggling as still I needed to work, my kids were off from school and my babysitter was on vacation. But somehow we managed, and in the process had a lot of fun, too! From my perspective, it was great to slow down, get off a schedule and just chill out. We weathered a snowstorm, made all sorts of delicious new recipes, saw the Nutcracker, watched Toy Story (1, 2 and 3) and played READ MORE »
Calling all almost-there businesses and laborers of love: In honor of DailyCandy’s 10th Anniversary, they are launching the Start Small, Go Big Contest to find the next big thing in fashion, food and fun. Want to take your fledgling enterprise to the next level? Enter Daily Candy’s Start Small, Go Big Contest by September 6. One winner from each of the signature categories (fashion, food, and fun) will win a $10,000 trip to New York City, a write-up by DailyCandy editors, and a day at DailyCandy Academy, where you’ll mingle and brainstorm with the now-iconic entrepreneurs we knew way back when. For more information, please visit http://www.dailycandy.com/startsmallgobig/contest.html. Image
(image courtesy of pretty little studio) We built our business to meet the needs of women entrepreneurs. Our content and programs focuses on helping these women learn the business of running a business and how to think like entrepreneurs. But we face a consistently big challenge in doing this. “Entrepreneur” is not how many independently-employed women see, label, or refer to themselves. What do they call themselves instead? Self-employed, freelancer, consultant, designer, practitioner, writer, coach…you get the idea. It’s not that these other labels are untrue; they just don’t tell the full picture.If you have chosen to go out on your own and READ MORE »
(glass piggy banks by Roost from Velocity Art & Design)(article in full posted on Huffington Post 12/1 – Adelaide Lancaster) Apparently the independence we women entrepreneurs seek is coming at a big price. The benefits of entrepreneurship are driving more women than ever into self-employment, yet the financial rewards necessary to make this trend stick, still elude most of us. In October the Center for Women’s Business Research published the first ever study on the economic impact of women business owners in the US. The following data were rightly heralded by many media outlets as a great triumph: * There are approximately READ MORE »
(photo courtesy of Simon Le)
IGC member and speaking coach extraordinaire, Jezra Kaye, brought to our attention the fact that it is National Women in Business Week (yahoo!) and in the process let us know about a really interesting organization Moms Rising. The piece that Jezra sent was Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner’s post Woot! 23 Million Employed by Women-Owned Businesses, which thoughtfully highlights and documents the draw of self-employment and entrepreneurship for women who are dissatisfied by current professional options. We are clearly on the same page and this is something we often write and talk about READ MORE »
Last week we wrote Entrepreneurship for the Rest of Us: A Conversation about Women’s Business Growth, which talked about the important role that flexibility plays in many women’s ventures (as compared to men’s) and the impact that that has on the growth of women’s businesses. It was inspired by two posts by Jason Cohen and his wife Darla Cohen, both entrepreneurs, but was also informed by our work with hundreds of women entrepreneurs who everyday are grappling with decisions on how to best build businesses that work for them. I was reminded of this post and conversation by Judith Warner’s recent piece READ MORE »
(photo courtesy of Andrew Lee) I wanted to share this really important post – Response: Sacrifice Your Health for Your Startup – from a woman named Darla Cohen. It illuminates a conversation that I have frequently, and in fact one that I have had the last two days in a row. A conversation about women’s business growth. She wrote on her husband’s blog (Jason Cohen of A Smart Bear – a blog I like and read a lot) in response to his post: Sacrifice Your Health for Your Startup. Understandably, his post generated a lot of READ MORE »
Next up: the impact that women are having on the world of philanthropy.Installment 4 of the women’s work series focuses on the extent to which women are reshaping the world through philanthropic donations and leadership, and charitable contributions. There has been lots of news coverage recently about women and philanthropy, sparked no doubt by READ MORE »
Next up: the impact that women have on social change and economic development.I had an interesting conversation a few weeks ago with Joanna Krotz (philanthropy expert, author of The Guide to Intelligent Giving, and editor at Town & Country) that focused on women as a source of both social change and global economic development. Specifically we talked about the extent to which women are being chosen READ MORE »
First up: the impact that women have had on our professional landscape.David Leonhardt of the NY Times published an article entitled “Financial Careers Come at a Cost to Families”.At first glance, the article READ MORE »
As I read Matthew B. Crawford’s “The Case For Working With Your Hands” in The New York Times Magazine, I felt that he was articulating a daily experience that many satisfied entrepreneurs could relate to. (I also think this article should be required reading for all career seekers.) His experience details his path – for all intents and purposes – towards READ MORE »
Often when Amy and I are working with our female entrepreneur clients, we talk about the importance of understanding ‘why’ you are starting a business. What is the motivating factor or goal? Financial stability, earning power, flexibility, autonomy, filling a social need, engagement…etc. Understanding this why will not only help you to set your business infrastructure and determine appropriate offerings and products, but will also help you to solicit and find advice and resources that are relevant to the kind of business that you want to create!It is frustrating when the variety of reasons that women have for starting businesses are not properly recognized, especially when women’s businesses are compared to men’s. People start READ MORE » |
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