It's not too late to finish off the list of the best business books in 2008. Strategy & Business does this feature every year around this time.
Just as we revealed a long time ago through the Women Presidents' Organization (WPO), other female entrepreneurs are also discovering that there are strength in the numbers when it comes to building online relationships.Thanks to social networking, they are sharing ideas and contacts, collaborating on projects and opening business doors for each other. More and more female business owners are recognizing the benefits of working together, and social networking makes it more convenient.We, at WPO, have always believed in the power of social networking. Find us (request an invitation) at LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter.
Now, Angela Jia Kim, a New York businesswoman, hopes to bring like-minded female entrepreneurs together through her new boutique social networking site, SavortheSuccess.com.
With the generous assistance of WPO Chicago member Mary Bahr, we hosted our first ever WPO Chicago Town Resource Meeting December 2nd from 2:00-4:00 p.m. at the offices of MAB Advertising.It was a great meeting and I also felt that the women that represented CDW, RR Donnelley, Chicago Park District and the University of Chicago, to name just a few, provided very honest answers and comments regarding their diversity programs and how to "get in" to these organizations.Mission accomplished!
They provided insight as to how the purchasing departments are structured and what their processes are. They also took the time to network with us and take our information.
I personally feel that when I contact these women for an appointment (if I do it the proper way) they will take the time to meet with me.
It was also great to meet women from the other WPO chapters in Chicago and hear about their businesses.
If you are contemplating what book to read next to help build your business, you might try one of these on for size over at Tom Peter's (a keynote speaker at our 2009 conference in San Diego) blog entry, "Books, Books, Books ..." 
In global marketing and branding, sticking out like a giraffe is not necessarily a bad thing.
Marsha Firestone, President & Founder, Women Presidents' Organization, will join IBM and more than 75 countries around the world in launching the first ever Global Entrepreneurship Week (GEW), November 17-23, 2008.
What a curious way to approach this. Still wondering how social media works? So are we. But expert Peter Kim has it figured out in a very thought-provoking and comprehensive manner at his blog Being Peter Kim.
I breeze through a business book a week and this week I finished the latest creation from authors Norm Brodsky and Bo Burlingham called The Knack: How Street-Smart Entrepreneurs Learn to Handle Whatever Comes Up. Messrs. Brodsky and Birlingham are two of my favorite columnists at our media partner Inc. magazine. Full disclosure: I did not buy the book. Their publicist sent me a complimentary copy.1. Numbers run a business. If you don't know how to read them, you are flying blind.To find out about the other nine lessons, visit "Street Smarts: Secrets of a $110 Million Man," and if you like what you see, buy The Knack. Small price to pay for a zoom lens into Brodsky's mind.
When I started out, I thought that CEOs ran businesses with the help of their top executives. What I didn't realize is that a business is a living entity with needs of its own, and unless the leaders pay attention to those needs, the business will fail. So how do you know what those needs are? There's only one way: by looking at the numbers and understanding the relationships between them. They will tell you how good your sales are, whether you can afford to hire a new salesperson or office manager, how much cash you will need to deal with new business coming in, how your market is changing, and on and on. You can't afford to wait until your accountant tells you these things. Nor do you have to become an accountant. You do have to know enough accounting, however, to figure out which numbers are most important in your particular business, and then you should develop the habit of watching them like a hawk.
One of the topics that continues to come up during our WPO Chicago chapter sessions is social media. Some of the questions are: What is it? Why do I need it? Who uses it? How do I develop a strategy around it?
How many times have you heard people say, "I only want star players on my team!" Well that's called talent and whether in good times or bad, companies compete for the best, the brightest and the hardest-working stars who outshine the merely competent.
Great quote from Seth Godin:Everyone isn’t going to be a leader. But everyone isn’t going to be successful, either.More here on where the quote came from.
Success is now the domain of people who lead. That doesn’t mean they’re in charge, it doesn’t mean they are the CEO, it merely means that for a group, even a small group, they show the way, they spread ideas, they make change. Those people are the only successful people we’ve got.
Chad Moutray, Chief Economist & Director of Economic Research at the U.S. Small Business Administration, Office of Advocacy poses the following question through Linked In:
According to Technorati's amazing report, State of the Blogosphere 2008, you better blog! It's a global phenomenon.
Here is an abundant amount of unconventional wisdom for succeeding in a downturn and how behavior matters.
Fascinating results. See whether you agree or disagree. Find out more here. And, as always, weigh in with your two cents. We're ready!
PINK magazine has a fabulous conference coming up on September 24 at the InterContinental Hotel downtown Chicago.
Browse the ecorner: Stanford University's Entrepreneurship Corner brought to you by Stanford Technology Ventures Program and discover popular videos, podcasts and speakers -- all on the subject of building a business. Find something that suits your needs. 
We had the wonderful opportunity to exhibit at the Women's Business Development Center Chicago 22nd Annual Entrepreneurial Woman's Conference where the Women Presidents' Organization has been a longstanding partner for many years.
The September issue of Entrepreneur magazine has a special focus on the Women Presidents' Organization talking about how some of the business world's most influential women get together to take on the future. 
Watching the Olympics, I could not help but think of the similarity between Olympic gold medal winners and business owners who brave it out to grow a business successfully.
Our 5th Annual WPO Chicago Summit and No-Host Dinner on August 14th was a huge success thanks to our two key sponsors, Harris and IBM, who generously underwrote our program content and continue to bring us greater insights and connections.
How do you find managers who can turbocharge organic growth -- that is, internally generated growth -- for your company? How do you nurture them?
A new study by Equilar Inc. found that external hires for a CEO position recruited from outside a company earn more in their first year than those promoted from within.
Two great articles about small business innovation were featured recently in The Wall Street Journal and we wanted to make sure you saw them:
Eved Services won a Stevie Award for Best Overall Company under 100 employees in The 2008 American Business Awards.
Are you comfortable running your own show and having your "life partner" work for you?
Find out how WPO Chicago member Shelly Sun (pictured), President, BrightStar Healthcare is living and doing her dream here. Be inspired to make a difference.
WPO Chicago suburban member Angelika Coghlan, President (pictured), Catwalk Consulting, takes home the additional title of President, NAWBO Chicago.
Congratulations to WPO Chicago member Michelle Hayward, President of Bluedog Design (pictured with flowers from her WPO Chicago sisters), for being awarded 2008 Business of the Year through the ATHENA Power Link program at the S.H.E. reception last night.
As a proud partner, join us Thursday, June 5, at the CEC as we celebrate the value that business advisors provide to entrepreneurs. The S.H.E. Reception connects successful women business owners with seasoned entrepreneurs and professionals. Both men and women are encouraged to attend.
What a great post about our conference here. Many thanks to Athena Schindelheim at Inc.com's blog for covering our event so meticulously!
The UPS Store and Entrepreneur announced Entrepreneur magazine's 2008 Entrepreneur of the Year award. There are two awards: one for an emerging business (less than five years in business with fewer that five employees) and one for an established business owner. Candidates will be judged based on the positive impact they've had on their industries, customers, employees and communities.
More often than not during WPO chapter sessions members claim when running their businesses that they just need to get out of their own way to move the company ahead.
On May 6th, we sent out the following message privately to all WPO Chicago members:Many of you participated in the WPO annual conference in Chicago 2006 when we had Gary Hamel as our keynote speaker. According to yesterday's WSJ article he continues to be ranked No. 1 as an author, consultant and key influential business thinker.Afterwards, I followed up with the author of the article, Erin White, and mentioned how I had the great privilege of listening to Gary Hamel, Jim Collins and Malcolm Gladwell at WPO annual conferences over the past three years and that I am glad she asked the question, where are the women? I ended my message with "please remember my name" for perhaps some day I might be a part of the list (gutsy, I know).
And for those who had the opportunity to attend this year's conference in Boston with Malcolm Gladwell, he's featured as No. 4 on the list.
The question becomes and the article points this out ... where are the women?
More, more, more on our fabulous Boston conference."Global integration is the new playing field ... and innovation is the way you win the game."
Speaker, blogger, author and entrepreneur-extraordinaire Marilynn Mobley, Senior Vice President, Strategic Counsel at Edelman, considered the absolute best public relations firm on the face of the earth, gave a knock'm dead presentation at our conference on how to generate great ideas that drive innovation.
Were it not for our WPO founder, Dr. Marsha Firestone (pictured), none of this would be made possible.
We have returned from an exhilarating conference and will continue to blog about it.
Yesterday was magnificent listening to Malcolm Gladwell's presentation on, "Learning From Picasso and Cezanne: Ways of Understanding Creativity," covering two great creative geniuses who may seem similar but are really quite different in terms of how long it took them (approach) to become great masters of work. 
Our conference is set to begin shortly with our founder, Dr. Marsha Firestone, giving opening remarks and keynote speaker Malcolm Gladwell (pictured) is up first to address a crowd that is expected to be more than 600 members, sponsors, supporters and facilitators of the Women Presidents' Organization.
We are getting ready to head to Boston to take in all our WPO conference has to offer. If time permits, I will try to blog about what's happening. After all, with so many great keynote speakers -- from Malcolm Gladwell to Sung-Joo Kim to Marc Lautenbach -- there will be much to learn and talk about. We wish to share more information about our annual conference in Boston April 23-26. Visit here (Part II) and here (Part III).Our annual conference held in Boston this year is just around the corner: April 23-26. Have you signed up yet? If not, don't wait a second longer.
Our very own Ann Sachs (pictured), President & CEO, Sachs Morgan Studio, Theatre Design Specialists, earns the distinction of the 2008 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner. Each year, the Signature Awards (photos available for viewing here) recognizes women who best exemplify the commitment, determination and endurance that it takes to create a successful, long-term business.
This is a wonderfully inspiring entrepreneurial story by Jim McCann, founder of 1-800-Flowers.com, as told to Patricia R. Olsen, at The New York Times (3/16/08). There are many important lessons in it for all of us who run a business. Why just look at how observant (sensitive) Jim was when he remembered this about his grandmother:MY father was a painting contractor who ran the business out of my grandmother’s house. His father died when Dad was 19, and my grandmother had to continue the business. For a long time she made believe that my father was running it, but we all knew it was she, in the background.So many twists and turns his career took but as he says in the end:
If you look at highly successful people, they make the same number of mistakes as others, but they recover quickly. They don’t sit around moaning about what they’ve done wrong.Now isn't that the truth? Read the entire article here.
WPO Chicago downtown I chapter member Sandye Lerner, President of Comprehensive Therapeutics, is inducted into the Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame by the University of Illinois at Chicago Institute for Entrepreneurial Studies.
In 2007, the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO) celebrated ten years of helping women presidents of multimillion dollar companies achieve even greater success. Over the course of those ten years, President and founder Dr. Marsha Firestone learned a lot about fast-growth businesses and has had first-hand exposure to their leaders.
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