Thursday, October 28, 2004

Number of Women Setting Up Businesses In the U.K. Surges 28 Percent!

In the Times (U.K.)

I am posting this because I love the lead and it reminds me of women in America:

• NOT content with smashing the boardroom glass ceiling, women are now seeking to outstrip men in the entrepreneurial stakes, too, according to a new study.

Here's another interesting fact:

• Rebecca Harding, a director of the London Business School’s Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, an annual study of entrepreneurship, said that demand for a better balance between work and life had also increased the number of women entrepreneurs.

To read the entire article, visit:
Number of Women Setting Up Businesses In the U.K. Surges 28 Percent!


Flexibility in the Workplace: The Benefits Are in the Numbers

In HR.BLR.com

According to the recent report, "When Work Works: A Project on Workplace Effectiveness and Workplace Flexibility," employees who have access to flexibility use it.

But do they pay a price? You bet. Take a look:

* When asked how hard it is to take time off during the workday to address personal or family issues, 37% of wage and salaried employees say "somewhat hard" or "very hard."

* Overall, 39% of respondents report that employees who use flexible work options are less likely to get ahead in their jobs or careers.

* Sixty-one percent of employees working in organizations that have part-time employees say that part-timers receive less compensation on a pro rata basis than full-timers doing the same jobs just because they work part time.

* Only 28% of low-wage employees are allowed to take a few days off to care for a sick child without losing pay, without using vacation days, and without having to make up some other reason for one's absence, compared with 58% of high-wage employees.

* Nineteen percent of part-time employees versus only 9% of full-time employees do not have health insurance coverage from any source.

And we wonder why more and more women are choosing entrepreneurship over corporate work!

To read the entire article, visit:
Flexibility In The Workplace

Thursday, October 21, 2004

Got Fired! Start a Small Business

In Magic City Morning Star (Maine)

There are so many wonderful points made in this article, that you must read it in its entirety to fully appreciate but here's the climatic ending:

"Take your entrepreneurial skills and join the growing number of men and women who are starting their own small businesses. Americans will applaud you for it."

That dear friends, says it all. So if you got fired, consider it a lucky break. Anyone have a story you'd like to share where getting fired was the best thing that ever happened to you because it propelled you on to starting your own business? Go ahead ... make our happy day!

To read the article, visit: Got Fired! Start a Small Business

Stay-at-Home Moms Get Entrepreneurial!

In The Wall Street Journal (10/21/04) -- subscription only

WOW -- am I excited. Our GlobeTrade.com (yes -- I founded that company too) board of advisor Tamara Monosoff, and former business consultant and Clinton White House staffer, is featured today on the front page of The Wall Street Journal. Go out and grab a copy!

The article, "The Carriage Trade: Stay-at-Home Moms Get Entrepreneurial," talks about how many women who leave the work force to care for children, that motherhood is making invention a necessity. Tamara's claim to fame is the invention of a special latch to prevent the problem of toddlers (including her own) unraveling toilet paper all over the floor. Her business is projected to hit more than $1 million next year from the 'TP Saver' and her other products. She also just signed on for a book deal to write a guide for aspiring inventor moms while she runs her company and Web site to promote other mothers' products.

For more information on Tamara Monosoff and her company, visit:

• Board of Advisor Tamara Monosoff's bio on GlobeTrade.com

• Tamara's company: Mom Inventors

To read the entire article, visit Startup Journal by The WSJ:
• Stay-at-Home Moms Get Entrepreneurial!

Congratulations Tamara! On behalf of all women, we are so proud of you!

Tuesday, October 19, 2004

More and more sisters doing it for themselves

In The Journal-Pioneer (Canada)

One highlight but there are many more ...

"I think that the public are certainly becoming much more aware of the contribution that women entrepreneurs make to the economy," Callbeck says, noting in Canada it totals over $18 billion a year. "You have to build awareness, really, before you get a lot of action."

To read the entire article, visit: More and More Sisters Doing It For Themselves

Thursday, October 14, 2004

85 Broads and Tom Peters Say: Mark Your Calendar (10/19/04)!

In Posts

85 Broads is a women's networking group started in 1999, with HQ at 85 Broad St./Wall Street. They are sponsoring a Boycott, urging their members (and friends thereof, via word-of-mouth) to Not Shop on October 19. The idea is to demo Women's AWESOME Purchasing Power and PATHETIC Under-representation in Boardrooms & Exec Suites! So sad that one needs to do this sort of thing in 2004 ... to call attention to the Obvious! But need it we do, and One Old Guy (me -- that's Tom Peters speaking) urges one and all (M & F) to zip the checkbook, stow the credit cards ... on 10.19 ... and support 85 Broads & All Women!

Laurel here ... that won't be hard for me to do. I'm not a big shopper to begin with! What about the rest of you?

Posting coordinates:

85 Broads

Tom Peters!

Friday, October 08, 2004

Study Says Women Blocked from Top Positions in Leading Global Firms

In News VOA (Voice of America)

According to a new study, businesswomen continue to face obstacles at the highest levels of the world's top companies, even though women make up close to half of the global workforce.

To read the entire article, visit: Women Block From Top Positions in Leading Global Firms

Thursday, October 07, 2004

Women at Risk

In Pause blog

A BIG thank you to Jory Des Jardins at Pause who wrote a complimentary blog entry about "Escape:" Women at Risk

Tuesday, October 05, 2004

Women Execs Lag Behind ... apparently, all over the world

In Herald Sun (Australia)

Here's your good hearty belly-laugh for the day. This article talks about how women are lagging behind men in the executive suites. I know, I know ... you expected me to provide some great insights but what I discovered is so hysterically weird that I just had to share with you:

• "Fly business class on any given day across Australia (substitute USA?) and you can see that women are just not up there in equal numbers to men," EOWA director Anna McPhee said.

• Isn't this a weird analogy? ... "The pointy end of the plane is telling it how it really is in boardrooms and at senior management levels around the country."

• Sound all too familiar? ... "As corporate leaders face issues surrounding access to a skilled workforce, retention and sustainability, they need to look closely at culture, job design and workplace flexibility if they are going to win the global [women] talent war," she said.

• And just look at what a BIG bank chief executive has to say: 'ANZ Bank chief executive John McFarlane believed women taking time off to raise families and their preference for small business (or did he mean to say "their preference for owning a business!") over large corporations had affected the number of top female executives.'

I was going to stop here but you have to read these additional snippets:

McFarlane goes on to say, "I don't think we should torture ourselves if we don't have 50 per cent of our boards and management as women," Mr McFarlane told AAP. "That's not to say it shouldn't be a third."

"I asked the women if they were happy to go along with this, and of course they weren't," Mr McFarlane said. "They wanted to go along by their own merits. But it's not enough. It needs a push. If you want more women at the top, you have to put them there in the first place."

"Woman are far more creative than men. Less creativity means the business will create less ideas, therefore there's less opportunities," he said.

Well who has something to say to Mr. McFarlane? Gentlemen? Ladies?

To read the entire article, visit:

Women Execs Lag Behind (Australia)

Friday, October 01, 2004

Pause: Jory's thoughts while sitting still ...

In Cyberspace

Happened upon Jory Des Jardins blog today. We were both striking our keyboards hard on Tom Peter's blog involving a thread about Idiots! and unfortunately, it was not about animals.

Despite the craziness, Jory found me and I am thrilled. She is currently working in the corporate world yet aspires to become a full-time writer soon. I visited her blog and was impressed with its creativity, thoughtfulness and wonderful insights. Some day, Jory is going to make the leap over to entrepreneurship but before she does (and becomes wildly famous), I suggest you stop in and pay her visit. She welcomes you at any time:

• Pause blog

• Pause website

The Naked Truth: A Working Woman's Manifesto on Business and What Really Matters

In Jack Covert Selects

From the CEO of one of my favorite companies, 800-CEO-READ, Jack Covert reviews The Naked Truth: A Working Woman's Manifesto on Business and What Really Matters by Margaret Heffernan, Jossey-Bass Publishers, 288 Pages, $24.95 Hardcover, September 2004, ISBN 078797143X. His comments, on Heffernan's book, reinforce the mission of this blog:

Margaret Heffernan wrote an article in 2002 for Fast Company, because she sensed that something was amiss in woman's careers. So she launched an experiment and asked for women to share their experiences. Turns out the response was overwhelming. She was inundated with emails from women all over America; some were offering solutions to common problems and others were in dire need of advice. In her own words:

"My fast company experiment confirmed -- beyond my wildest imaginings -- what I had seen in my own career and the careers of many women I'd worked with and for: that women are still abused, undervalued, and alienated in a business world that still can't recognize and respect them; that the pressure to align personal and work values is urgent and unrelenting; and that many women are inventing solutions that, if they were shared, could make us a lot less lonely."

The book is filled with vignettes as told by real women in the business world today, discussing many different issues. Looking at the chapter names alone will give you a good idea of what is covered: Start Smart; Geishas, Bitches, Guys -- and the Invisible Women; Balls to the Wall: Toxic Bosses and Hostile Environments; The Emperor's New Clothes; Power and Where It Comes From; Sex, Love and a Vision for Life; The Whole Life; How High Can You Go?; Breaking Up Is Hard to Do; The Entrepreneuse; The Parallel Universe.

Women in the workplace, according to Heffernan, are certainly allowed to grow, and make a contribution in the early stages of their careers. But somewhere along the way, they are left to feel like trespassers when they want to get into top management. They are made to feel like gatecrashers. And she suggests that instead of crashing the party, women leave, and start their own party. And this book invites you to join this party, by learning from the participants' experiences. This book is not about complaining, but about the fact that women are problem solvers, and there are many solutions offered in this book which I truly believe you will find useful because it tells it like it is.