Women Entrepreneurs Click here to go back to list of all articles
"Be bold, be daring and don't be afraid to raise the roof.
Even if you just nailed one down."- Marlene Ferber, Solution Delivery Officer, ClientLogic, Inc.
Read Tom Peters on Women, Wowing and Working
Read The Journey by Francis J. Friedman
Read Balancing Work and Home by Lata Tokhi
Read What Women in Business Want by Lata Tokhi
Women in Business
Tom Peters on Women, Wowing and Working
Along with my obsession with chocolate, women's leadership and the Southwest, I have long admired the refreshing, inspiring, and definitively inventive management guru Tom Peters. His truly remarkable visionary business philosophy was instrumental in my own journey which resulted in creating the organization that is Women's Leadership Exchange® today.
In his most recent book, "Re-Imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive Age" Tom acknowledges that women "roar"; that as "the biggest trend in the world", we are the primary decision maker for virtually every purchase imaginable. He also coins the concept of "WOW " projects: projects that matter, make a difference, or transform the world.
A few months ago, WLE E-Newsletter Editor Barbara Silver and I had the opportunity for a brief online interview with Tom.
LG: There is no doubt in my mind that women roar. Women also believe in WOW projects. The question is how do women's WOW projects or businesses get noticed by those corporations that seem to have earplugs on?
TP: Leslie, having listened to horror stories from hundreds of powerful women - from the former Lieutenant Governor of California to my own wife - I know how difficult it can
be for women to get the respect they deserve from the male powers that be. The important thing to remember about building WOW projects, however, is that it is all
about passion, imagination, and persistence. When you find yourself in a company that fails to notice your insight and ideas, you have to take the power. Don't wait for them to hand it over. Getting noticed by corporate higher-ups is less important than gaining
respect and enthusiasm for your ideas from your peers and other dynamic people in your company. Once armed with enthusiasm and a great idea, you are more likely to be able to move your WOW project with or without the help of your boss.
LG What tools or cool Ideas do entrepreneurial women need to brand themselves--to stand out as innovative and to communicate to others? (read that "ignorant corporations, clients, men, etc".)
TP: Today's business world is all about the individual, so, whether you are a man or a woman, you have to be aggressive about making yourself stand out. You must become an independent contractor of your own ideas. Arm yourself with attitude! Arm yourself with distinction! Arm yourself with creativity! Sharpen your existing skills and pair them with new skills and innovations. Get web savvy. Start your own blog. Constantly reach outside the box, try new ideas, and refuse to fear failure.
Dubbed "the father of the post-modern corporation" by the Los Angeles Times,
Tom Peters' latest book is "Re-imagine! Business Excellence in a Disruptive
Age" (DK Publishing), hailed as one of the best business books of 2003 by
Amazon.com. He also co-authored the landmark "In Search of Excellence".
Visit his website at www.tompeters.com.
Leslie Grossman, co-founder of Women's Leadership Exchange® and a serial Entrepreneur, is also President of B2Women, a consulting company that helps corporations market effectively to women in business.
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The Journeyby Francis J. Friedman
I saw her as I walked into the meeting room. A colleague I had known for a number of years. "How are you?" I asked. "Fine" she said. "I've have left my old job". "What are you going to do?" I asked. She looked away for a long pause and then replied, "Take a few months off and see what I want to do". In that moment I knew she was on The Journey.
Changes in the fortune of our economy ripple through our psyche. For many these ripples pass through unnoticed. For others, these ripples set off seismic tremors deep within. Tremors that are disturbing in the thoughts they rattle lose and the upset they portend. These psychic tremors awaken the place in our heart where we begin to ask the disturbing question…"am I doing the right thing with my life?"
Not a comfortable question in the middle of a career or in the middle of an economic downturn. It's an especially disturbing question with a family and bills to pay. But never the less, a question that starts as innocuously as low back pain and soon becomes that spot on our psychic planet that just won't go away.
You know the questions. Why am I doing this? I don't feel appreciated, I'm knocking myself out and getting nowhere, the job has lost all of its fun, and I don't know if I want to do this even when the economy picks back up again. For some people these questions are escape fantasy because things are tough. We pray for deliverance out of the tough times.
But for a few, these are THE real questions. Questions the spirit is asking at a time in life when the mind is willing to at least listen. Minds find many "reasons" why the thought of leaving the job or leaving the city where you grew up is preposterous. The mind will also tell you that you will get over these feelings and to stay focused on doing what you need to do right now because the unknown future is fearful.
Joseph Campbell in his "Power of Myth" series on PBS with Bill Moyers talked about the "hero's journey". The inner journey of the spirit seeking its own higher self. He pointed out that we have seen this journey in stories and myth as the journey our hero sets out on to find the treasure. Its as much a story of conquering dragons and giants and finding a chest of gold, as it is a story of finding ones inner spiritual self.
In my experience, significant change brings on the start of "The Journey" for some people. Small psychic ripples of awareness grow into thoughts and feelings that have been long dormant. They shake the day-to-day routine into awakening the "dare" to think, "I can't go on living like this any more". The dare to admit to ones own self that things are not working and its time to move on…in spite of the fear and without knowing exactly where or what moving on means.
Some people have a very quick awakening and they respond by quitting their job, selling the house, putting the furniture in storage and sailing around the world. We read stories about these people in magazines and marvel at how they rocketed into action and "just took off" for places unknown. Our jaws drop as they describe how they were awakened and transformed in one weekend, convinced their significant other, and off they went to live their dreams.
Some of my friends and colleagues have been more sneaky about their journeys. They were not happy at work. They felt out of alignment with their organization and with themselves. The daily struggle was getting old. Tahiti beckoned but they were far from ready to answer this siren call. So they remained cowards and got themselves fired.
Being fired is not such a bad thing. In the course of life, it is "deliverance" at another person's hand (a blessing in disguise). Getting fired means you have to think about where you are going and why you are going there. And if you have no ready answers to these questions you get to think about them anyway…because your journey has already begun.
Having seen this, and mentored it, a number of times in my career, and watching what happens, I have come to realize that sometimes providence steps into our lives and forces us to think about things we have successfully tuned-out in the hustle of our usual day-to-day living. Being fired, having a health crisis, or facing a major economic or political crisis forces us awake. Forces us to ask what's going on inside of ourselves at a deeper spiritual level. After 9/11 a lead partner at my accountants office decided he wanted to give back to society. He resigned from the firm and became a schoolteacher.
Our business is an intense business. It requires passion and commitment. Long hours of paying attention to many details and the many different people we have to accommodate and please. The attention paid to "them" does not leave a lot of time to pay attention to "me". The "me" that needs nurturing and refreshment. The "me" that may be yearning deep down for more meaning in the life that you are living.
The biggest part of taking The Journey is listening to that small voice or discomforted feeling deep inside. To open yourself to the thoughts that follow those feelings. Are you willing to listen? Is there flow in your life or are you stuck? Are you willing to be curious about re-establishing the priorities in your life at this time? Will you not push these thoughts away and instead allow yourself to wake up to the possibility that it is time for a change?
Each journey is different. Some are small journeys and look like a minor mid-course correction in a persons life. Other journeys are major and represent a 180-degree turn from where the person had been going. Each journey brings its own fears, dragons and pots of gold. Each journey has its own lessons. Each journey brings you closer to your self.
Small journeys might be music lessons on that instrument you always wanted to play, volunteering in a soup kitchen, visiting hospital bound patients, teaching Sunday school, or meditating on a regular basis. Major journeys might mean changing careers, bicycling across America by yourself, getting reacquainted with your significant other, or getting reacquainted with you and the spirit that once brought joy to your life.
Joseph Campbell said it well when he said,…"The seeker sets out on his journey". Who among us now recognizes it's time to set out on The Journey.
Francis J. Friedman is President of Time & Place Strategies, Inc. a New York City based full service consulting company to the domestic and international tradeshow, meeting and association communities. In addition to consulting, writing and speaking on the technical and business issues facing our industries, he is also an observer and mentor to the human side of managing and living in high-pressure and fast moving businesses. He may be reached by email at tjfconsult@aol.com
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Balancing Work and Home by Lata Tokhi
Work is addicting...and more so when your computer is your office or shop! And while you spend hour upon hour to network with other netpreneurs and provide online customer services to your clients, you tend to neglect a dozen odd household jobs.
Hours seem to fly by when work online. As for your household duties, with great effort, you just take care of the most basic ones like fixing dinner, driving your kids to school etc.
Cleaning, Organizing, Buying Groceries, paying your bills, going to the post office etc. are postponed till the last hour. So how do your balance your work along with your home?
There are two important steps to do this. First, make yourself realize the fact that you HAVE TO take some time out for your home and there is no excuse in the world to avoid that.
Secondly, start organizing your available time. Here are some quick steps to help you balance your work as well as your home.
1. Divide available hours between your home and your work diligently.
2. Set timers when you are working online.
3. Maintain a 'To Do' list or a diary.
4. Picture yourself going through the troubles of paying your bills later than allowed.
5. Set aside some time for all those jobs which require you to go outside. For e.g. going to the market, post office, bank etc. Try to coincide these with each other. Say, for example, you could take care of these after driving your kids to school.
6. Make up your mind and start some kind of organizing/ decorating/ renovating activity around your house. These are so addicting that once you start, you will enjoy yourself a lot.
7. Similarly, take up your favorite hobby in the afternoon. You will love the change and enjoy getting creative.
8. Plan weekly activities. Take up cleaning once a week. Go for outings once a week. Call upon a friend once a week. This will help you maintain your social life as well.
9. Surf the net for information related to a hobby. This will get you started with that hobby and also give you the much needed break from work.
10. Surf the web with your hubby or children. Show them websites of their interest. That way, you will also get to spend more time with them.
Just like the old saying - 'You Eat to Live, You do not Live to Eat', I'll say
'You Work to Live, You do not Live to Work'. It's no use being successful on the cost of your home and your family.
The 'Dot Com Women' of today are not women who stay online for hours with a guilt feeling on the back of their minds. They are women with a strong desire to succeed in their personal and professional lives. And you are one of them! That's why you chose to read this, isn't it?
Good Luck with your efforts to striking a balance between your work and your home!
About the Author
Lata Tokhi is the Founder and Editor of Dot Com Women, http://www.dotcomwomen.com a premier women's website and fast-growing online community, and Celebrating Christmas, a resource for celebrating Christmas in style. Visit her websites for lots of homemaking and business ideas, free downloads, free Ezines and message boards for women to network and share.
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What Women in Business Want by Lata Tokhi (Founder, DCW)
The number of women doing business is going to amaze you. It is predicted that by the year 2005, 40% of all firms will be woman-owned.
What is it that drives women into business? A lot of things, probably. But a few commonly known are financial security, additional income, sense of achievement, productive accomplishments etc.
Once into business, Women part ways with their male counterparts. Their ways, their means and even their goals take a different path. They are
hardly interested in the usual clichés of 'Hardcore Business Tactics' like Professional Ethics, Business Etiquettes, Corporate-Wars and the stuff, if
stretched beyond a line.
A Woman in business cannot derive any satisfaction from stealing away business from a fellow business owner. Much less will be her satisfaction in drawing attention to her business by cold advertising or bad-mouthing a competitor.
Why so? Because this is NOT what a women wants from her business! This is not what she believes will help her business! If you are of the opinion that steady sales will put a business woman's mind to rest, you've got it wrong. Nor can a big, one-time deal do that. Some green bucks may bring temporary happiness and comfort, but definitely not what a woman seeks in order to keep her business going great guns.
Then, what is it that a woman wants? If not money, steady sales, exposure to public - WHAT ELSE? Here's the answer to this age-old stumper - Relationships!
It's Relationships, long-lasting business and semi-personal relationships that spell the success of a woman-owned business. It is only when she develops strong business relationships and a satisfactory level of networking, that she is assured of a good footing for her business. She is assured that these relationships will help her when nothing else is working for her business.
If you are a business woman, it is possible that you have still not realized what you exactly want. But, some more time, experience and meditation upon this subject will bring you to the same conclusion - that you are looking for Relationships! Relationships with your clients, fellow business owners and even competitors will be the strength your business will be based upon.
Start building relationships this very moment. Do an 'extra little thing' for your clients, know your competitors, mix-up with fellow business women. Some places to start are
http://www.dotcomwomen.com/forums
http://www.internetbasedmoms.com/bb
http://www.mothersworkathome.com/phpbb2
Keep in mind that WOMEN WANT RELATIONSHIPS! Network with other women, make your clients feel special, love your competitors and before you know, your business starts thriving on relationships.
About the Author
Lata Tokhi is the Founder and Editor of Dot Com Women, http://www.dotcomwomen.com/ a premier women's website and fast-growing online community, Celebrating Christmas, a resource for celebrating Christmas in style and i love to CRAFT, a craft site full of free craft projects. Visit her websites for lots of homemaking and business ideas, free downloads, free Ezines and message boards for women to network and share.
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