Where Does Your Heart Belong?

Ever dream of owning your own business?  That's how this business owner got started.  She dreamed about owning a bakery and then made it a reality.  From the moment Emily Grable stepped inside the North Canton, Ohio-based Hazel Artisan Bakery Café, she knew it was where her heart belonged.

Nine years after visiting Hazel Artisan Bakery Café for the first time, Grable’s dream came true.

She purchased the bakery, located at 1176 S. Main St., saying it was something that was just “meant to be.” It was a transition she was comfortable with, having worked as a pastry chef for the previous owner for more than a year before taking over the business herself.

Grable is now one of nine million women-owned businesses operating in the U.S., according to the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO).

Read the entire article:  Cafe owner finds calling in pastry  Facebook Page here.

Screenshot courtesy:  Hazel and Rye

Definition of Entrepreneur? Good-Looking Men Who Don't Have Jobs

When Carla Walker-Miller (pictured) first encountered the word "entrepreneur" while she was growing up, she thought, "it meant good-looking men who didn’t have jobs. That’s what she saw in the magazines: men talking about their ideas and starting companies but never seeming to work."

Fast-forward to today when Walker-Miller is running Detroit-based Walker-Miller Energy Services, employing 43 people and on pace for generating annual revenues of $7 million this year (2015).

Walker-Miller talks about how she broke out of the corporate world, the challenges of being an African American woman in business, and how she keeps her work-life balance.

Read the entire article:  Entrepreneurs must buy, bargain, finesse their way to the table

Photo courtesy:  Carla Walker-Miller

Just Be Who You Are

Serena Williams (pictured) is a world class tennis player and has medals to prove it.  Do you describe yourself as the best entrepreneur in the world?  Better be careful here.  You don't want to come across as full of yourself.

Here are some words that are great when other people use them to describe you--but you should never use to describe yourself.  For example, drop “innovative,” since most people aren’t.

Just be who you are.

27 Words You Should Never Use to Describe Yourself

Screenshot courtesy:  EJI

Yes Country for All Women

What a great day to celebrate not only the birth of our nation but the fact that the best country for women entrepreneurs is ... drum roll ... United States, (Canada, Australia, Sweden and the United Kingdom) according to a global report commissioned by Dell.

Those women entrepreneurs aren’t just starting a business for themselves but also are adding jobs, expanding into new markets and even looking for export opportunities, said Aidis [Dr. Ruta Aidis, project director of Dell’s Global Women Entrepreneur Leaders Scorecard].

Read the entire article:  The best country for women entrepreneurs is ...

Note:  Coming up on July 7th is Escape From Corporate America's 11th birthday!  My how time flies when you love what you do and are passionate about it.  I hope you enjoy our posts.  To many more years of entrepreneurial empowerment!  Here's our first post back eleven years ago.