Women entrepreneurs

Female Entrepreneurs We Can All Learn Something From

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Women are more powerful than you really know — but why don’t you know? It may be because female entrepreneurs aren’t exactly discussed in the mainstream. If you hear about one, it’s usually a puff piece…a sort of “look what this one woman can do!” type of segment or article that discusses what she’s’ accomplished in spite of being “just a woman” instead of in spite of all the hurdles women have to overcome.

The next time you’re worried about your own struggles as a female entrepreneur, look to these shining examples of female power.

Sarah Blakely

If you’ve ever tugged on a pair of Spanx, you have this woman to thank. Known as one of the wealthiest entrepreneurs in business, her shapewear invention has earned her $1 billion in profit over the years. Thanks to her inventive mind and a need for better undergarment options, Blakely cut up a pair of pantyhose and created the most innovative underwear since the push-up bra. Since her iconic invention, Blakely has created a privately owned company and has diversified into jeans and yoga materials.

Mary Kay Ash

If you’ve never heard of Mary Kay Cosmetics, you may have been living under a rock. Founder of the iconic makeup brand, Ash originally created her company in 1963. Ash married at 17, had three children with her first husband and then divorced him in 1945. She founded her makeup company in 1963, one month after the death of her husband that she had intended to go into business with. Despite her situation, Ash persevered and established herself as an incredible entrepreneur.

Sheryl Sandberg

Don’t immediately recognize this name? You may have read her critically acclaimed book “Lean In,” or you might frequent the little social media site that she’s the COO of: Facebook. One of the things Sandberg champions is female empowerment and entrepreneurship. Sandberg loves giving back to the community, even when faced with extreme hardships, like the sudden death of her beloved husband.

Arianna Huffington

Signed on as editor in chief of The Huffington Post through 2019, Arianna Huffington is one class act. Creating a blogging aggregate turned credible news site, Huffington has paved the way for budding journalist and thought influencers by giving them a great and wide platform to host their content. Huffington has had her ups and downs throughout her career, but she’s definitely come back swinging every time.

Jenny Craig

It’s hard to maintain a steady place in the weight loss industry, but Jenny Craig has been successful at being on top since she began her eponymous company. If there’s one thing to learn from Craig, it’s that adaptation is key to staying alive in business. Her company has changed throughout the years, keeping current and up to date with weight loss trends as they shift and evolve. Since the company was founded in 1983, Craig has branched out from Australia to over 700 weight management centres around the world.

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The 4 Big Qualities You Need as a Female Leader

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womentreps It’s a man’s world – but women in business are steadily working to change that. Make no mistake that largely influential women exist, and have always existed, but women in a business setting often have to work ten times as hard to receive the same level of respect as their male peers, and female leaders are looked with a magnifying lens. In short, it can be hard to lead a team, a business or a project as a woman – but it’s possible, and you can succeed.

All leaders require key traits, but women need those and then some in order to gain the respect of their peers, employees and others within a business setting. These are the four biggest qualities you need to succeed as a female leader:

Stability

Men often see a woman who is emotional as unhinged, while also reacting to cool, calm and collected women with choice expletives. In many situations, you can’t win for losing – but that’s okay, because the task at hand is really what should be king.

A strong female leader is one that is emotionally stable, and this isn’t just to jab back at the peers who attribute weakness to moodiness. Any leader must be calm and collected, but female leaders have something more to prove in how they are even, resourceful and emotionally clear-headed when making decisions.

In short, they don’t crumble in the face of adversity – they overcome it and are better for it.

Purpose

To be a leader you must be a visionary, and this means creating an innovative plan and executing it with purpose. When a leader makes a purposeful decision, they’re showcasing many other important leadership qualities: intelligence, resourcefulness and power. To be purposeful is also to know how to communicate well – you can execute orders clearly and see your plans come to fruition.

Determination

It was Eleanor Roosevelt who said “You must do the thing you think you cannot do.” Women in business know this idea very well, but female leaders must internalize it. All leaders must be determined, but women should be driven by the determination to prove themselves.

Female leaders don’t have it easy, and in a perfect world they would only have to work as hard as their male counterparts. Instead, determination and the idea that they must use all their skills and resources to make it to the top is why we have the powerful women figures that we have today.

Confidence

Finally, all female leaders should exude confidence. A confident leader is a leader that people can trust, and they know that everything will go according to plan under a leader who is sure of themselves and their ideas. This is the most critical quality because confidence is what gets people to follow you – no one wants to trust in an unsure leader, male or female.

Also, female leaders will likely be questioned more than their male counterparts. While this isn’t a reality that is agreeable, it’s one that must be faced head on. A good leader takes their confidence and wields it like a shield – that’s how a female leader becomes successful.

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3 Books Every Female Entrepreneur Needs on Her Shelf

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If you’re a woman in the business world, you’re likely familiar with the idea of “the boys club.” The realms of industry, innovation and entrepreneurship have long been dominated by males, and there is still a very patriarchal edge that lingers in these settings. As a woman who is also an entrepreneur, you can fell unwanted, threatened or intimidated in these spaces.

The key is to rise above this preconceived notion and do your best without allowing others to compare you based on gender. To be a woman is to be strong, confident and sure of yourself. This should shine through in your business acumen.

Still, it can definitely be hard to be a female entrepreneur some days. You want to shine bright, but the pressures, possible harassment and discrediting can get you down. When you need a positive pick-me-up, try out one of these three amazing books by female entrepreneurs. Once you read these three, keep going back for more – it’s never a bad thing to support female writers and share in their sisterhood.

“Ladies Who Launch” – Victoria Colligan, Beth Shoenfeld, Amy Swift

This is one of the best entrepreneurial introductory reads in the world, let alone just for women. The spin on this book is obviously riddled with female empowerment, but aside from that the advice is ingenious for any entrepreneurs who need a little help launching their first business. Any men who happen to be reading, you should pick this up as well.

Colligan, Shoenfeld and Swift are three female entrepreneurs who have all been in your shoes – a little beaten down by the male environment that they work in, but they put a female and spirited perspective on success. They don’t believe in succeeding in spite of being a woman, they believe in succeeding because you are a woman, and there’s nothing more empowering than that.

“Shark Tales: How I turned $1000 into a Billion Dollar Business” – Barbara Corcoran

Not everyone is born with a silver spoon in their mouth, and that’s incredibly true of “Shark Tank” star Corcoran. Her “rags to riches” story tells the tale of a young waitress bussing tables in a diner who gets a $1000 loan from her boyfriend.

Through hard work and experience, as well as failures and triumphs abound, Corcoran found out that success was still something she could accomplish, even coming from where she did. Now the female entrepreneur is a real estate tycoon who helps others blaze their own trails in the business world.

“Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead” – Sheryl Sandberg

As the CEO of Facebook, Sandberg obvious has a pretty strong business resume, and her success is one that women the world over should triumph. Only recently have women found their foothold in the higher-up tech industries, and Sandberg is paving the way for millions of girls who want a piece of that pie for themselves.

Her book details her success and strategies, but also sends across an even more important message: the world actually needs more female leaders for a myriad of reasons, and it’s time we start allowing it to happen. Sandberg also doesn’t shy away from controversial discussions, like career vs. family and money over enjoying your life.

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Female-Friendly Business Resources for the Savvy Business Woman

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Let’s be real – the business world isn’t exactly female-friendly. You’ve probably experienced this at some point in time during your career. Whether it’s a few smug male glances or all-out sexual harassment, you’ve got a lot to deal with as an entrepreneurial woman in a world dominated by men.

It’s more important than ever for everyone to support women in fields of expertise. As a woman yourself, it can be hard to find people who are willing to be in your corner. Thankfully there are indeed female-friendly resources out there for support, ideas, networking and help for all of your entrepreneurial needs.

Feminology

If you need someone in your corner that is willing to go to bat for your business, Feminology is there for you. Their female-empowerment message is perfect for women entrepreneurs who are just starting out on their first official business venture. For a yearly fee, Feminology will guide you and your business through your fledgling phases, making sure it succeeds.

Feminology also regularly holds and endorses workshops geared toward giving women the tools they need to succeed as a businessperson, including marketing ideas and networking tips.

American Business Women’s Association (ABWA)

As a female entrepreneur, it’s important that you network in spaces that are safe and welcoming to you. If you’re going it alone, it can be hard to find opportunities to branch out and network outside of small circles. The ABWA gives women from all different business backgrounds the opportunity to get together and learn about leadership and education, as well as providing a great pool of female entrepreneurs to connect with.

BizyMoms’ Small Business Center

You should never stop learning. You could have a PhD in literally every subject possible, and there would still be new information to learn. Maybe you aren’t there yet, but the point still stands – BizyMoms’ dedciates a portion of their site to offering female entrepreneurs access to e-courses, directories, informative articles and even a newsletter to subscribe to for updates on women-friendly resources.

Rich Woman

You can already tell this is a site for you, right? Rich Woman is dedicated to female empowerment in the business world by connecting with other like-minded business women. There’s also an added element of financial education and business presence for entry-level female entrepreneurs that still need a little bit of help getting their foundation set.

The BOSS Network

 Are you a BOSS? If you are, then you’re a pretty smart lady – this network of women is all about being empowered and aligning together as businesswomen. They’re all about promoting the health and wellness of women, both in the business and spiritual sense. If you want to network and just swap some business stories with some savvy women, this is the place you should be.

TED for Women

 You’ve probably heard of TED conferences, or at least seen snippets of them on YouTube. If you’ve never seen a full TED conference, you should definitely check one out. If you want one that piques your interest, check out their videos tagged “women.” Most of these videos talk about women issues and their place in the working world. Watch a few and be totally inspired.

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Check out these 3 social networks for Women Entrepreneurs

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Over the last decade, women have really been changing up the business climate, being incredibly innovative, and simply inspirational. Ubeam innovative wireless, Hopscotch’s element for teaching kids how to code, and other great ideas such as Hitlist were all founded by women. From CEO Mathilde Collin who created the “Front” application, to Danielle Morrill who dreamt up the game-changing Mattermark, women all over are bringing their sharp focus, prime empowerment mantra, and hard work ethic to investors and other elements of the digital think tank worldwide.

Mattermark has software that lets users look at information about startups based on Twitter feeds, CrunchBase, SEC data, and more. We wanted to show you some of the best social networks out there today available for women, so you could find your own hive to cultivate the next bomb you drop on the ever-changing business landscape.


Lean In: This is a web-based platform that lets you literally create your own “circle” of strong peer support. Developing from the pleasantly-changing comfort of men and women having the gall to step further out of their comfort zones, this is different then Facebook: you really put a bit of thought into the kind of circle you want to begin, and then interact in many different forums, private and public. Examples of what you can find in a large city such as Denver are “Women Warriors”, “Lean In Colorado University”, “Working Girls”, “Fire Within Me”, and “Victory Torch”. These circles grow together by collectively putting to use the benefits of peer mentorship, and over 80% of those who participate claim that belonging to a Circle led to a positive change in their life.


Walker’s Legacy: This excellent online Women’s social group is full of Industry knowledge about personal finance, resident experts, business, health and well-being, and many other topics that are perfect for startup innovators and entrepreneurs. Local Women’s Leadership Brunches are an excellent way to meet others with similar interests, understand your strengths and weaknesses, and clearly define the vision you want for your future AND your business. This entity was founded in 2009 as a quarterly women in business lecture series, designed to inspire all types of women to understand their purpose and learn from others who have had great success. The very first series was named in honor of Madam C.J. Walker, who was a true pioneer and innovator, and also the first self-made millionaire in the history of this great nation.


World Pulse: This online network really caught our eye because of its truly global reach. Tens of thousands of women leaders from more than 185 countries all over the globe connect here and create strong ripples of emotion and hope leading to change, and thereby changing thousands of lives. The community consists of community voices where you find journal posts, training where you can access information to cultivate your own growth, a resource exchange, a library where you can share tons of great information to others, and a group directory. You can browse the member directory for women with similar interests as yours, and best of all, it is a cost-free service. World Pulse themselves do not provide direct funding, but they do a top-notch job of connecting you with the entities that do. An emphasis on financial needs, a very diverse and innovative community, and a focus on humanitarian issues are just some of the great things that sets World Pulse apart from others.

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