Joy to the World of Women Entrepreneurs!

Happy holidays and best wishes for a New Year of happiness in a world of peace.

Let It Snow!

What a beautiful Sunday in Chicago with all the freshly fallen snow. It's a great day to have fun and be as entrepreneurial as possible. Enjoy!

PrimeTime Women

Is that you? Then you will enjoy this book and post.

Do You Hear What iHear?

A good friend and colleague of mine -- Mindy Goodfriend -- is finally reaching the pinnacle of success in terms of what every entrepreneur dreams about: Getting your product featured on QVC.

Her dream comes true Thursday, December 13th, between 5:00-7:00 p.m. EST. The product, iHear, will be a part of the QVC "Practical Presents" Show hosted by Dan Wheeler.

Steve Nelson, co-founder of Cool & Useful Products (co-founded with Mindy), will be demonstrating iHear on the show.

iHear makes driving safer by amplifying the driver’s voice through the car speakers so that everyone in the car can hear. With iHear you can also make hands-free cell phone calls and play music from your iPod.

How cool and useful is that? Watch and BUY, that's all I have to say! And best wishes to Mindy!

Girls With Goals

As I see it, girls with goals turn into real women entrepreneurs. What do you think?

Supporting Budding Women Entrepreneurs

Over 360 women attended the first National Women's Enterprise Day, in the Mullingar Park Hotel, Mullingar (Ireland), yesterday. Aimed at encouraging and motivating women to start up a business, the event facilitated discussions between aspiring and existing women entrepreneurs about the challenges faced when starting up a business in Ireland.

And I love this quote because it applies to all of us:

Businesses exist to succeed but success can only exist with a strategy and a plan to drive it. I would encourage anyone, be they in business or considering a start-up, to believe in themselves as, with this allied to a well-planned business strategy, anything is possible.

Read the short piece here.

Study Debunks Myths About Women Leaders

A major research study released November 30th by Babson College and The Commonwealth Institute finds that woman-led businesses in Massachusetts are strong engines of economic growth, consistently outperforming national and state growth rates for each of the six years that the study was conducted. The Top Woman-Led Businesses in Massachusetts: 2006 Results study found that woman-led businesses are key drivers of Massachusetts’ revenue and employment as well as strong sources of philanthropic activity. The companies reporting revenues in the survey generated $10.2 billion, and together, all of the companies surveyed employed more than 24,000 people in Massachusetts.

Following are key trends that the study uncovered:

* Woman-run businesses continue to grow.

* Debunking the perception that women predominantly run lifestyle or retail businesses, the CEOs in the study lead companies in every sector of the Massachusetts economy.

* In contrast to the perception that women business leaders are risk averse, women CEOs in Massachusetts on average are proactive and more likely to make bold decisions to maximize potential opportunities.

* Women leaders in Massachusetts stand out from their national peers in their degree of education and professional experience.

* In contrast to cost-benefit approaches to management that rely on cost cutting, women CEOs drive profitability through customer relationships, enhanced products/services and higher margin products.

* Nearly 80 percent of the leaders are personally active in nonprofit, civic and philanthropic organizations.

My favorite quote is by Dr. I. Elaine Allen, Associate Professor of Statistics & Entrepreneurship at Babson College and co-author of the study:

“These businesses are among the highest performing in the state and we can learn a lot from the CEOs leading them. They are focused on building strong businesses for the long-term and have committed themselves and the resources of their organization to growth. They take an entrepreneurial approach to business and are not afraid of taking risks to take advantage of business opportunities.”

Read more and download complete listing of companies and executive summary of the 2006 findings here.