All Business Becoming Global

It's always a treat to see one of our very own WPO Chicago members featured in a prominent news article.  In this case, Shea Soucie, co-owner of Soucie Horner, Ltd., a custom residential design firm, is featured in the Chicago Sun-Times article:  Women at work:  'All business becoming global,' Chicago importer says.

Shea started a new business, SHIIR, to import fine rugs (pictured) and decorative carpets and sell them across the country and worldwide.

Congrats to Shea!  We are very proud of you.

Screenshot courtesy:  SHIIR

A Friend's Support Along With WPO Can Make Women Better Entrepreneurs

According to Harvard Business Review, the people we choose to surround ourselves with often matter a great deal to our success — especially when we are trying to thrive as entrepreneurs.

That’s because spending time alongside other motivated and successful people -- fellow WPO members, for example -- can have positive effects on our own success.

Read more:  A Friend's Support Can Make Women Better Entrepreneurs

How to Make $80,000 a Month and Pre-Qualify for WPO Membership

Alicia Shaffer's business, ThreeBirdNest, makes $80,000 a month selling handmade leg warmers, scarves, and headbands on Etsy. Here's how she does it and also pre-qualifies for WPO.

How One Woman Makes Almost $1 Million A Year On Etsy

WPO Heads to Baltimore in 2016

Every year, the Women Presidents' Organization (WPO) hosts an annual conference in a different city. This year we hosted it in Phoenix.  The conference attracts over 800 members, representing successful women-led businesses from all over the world, sharing expertise and business strategies and learning from interactive seminars and speakers.

We are proud to announce that our 2016 annual conference will be held in Baltimore, April 7-9, 2016, at the Baltimore Marriott Waterfront.  Mark your calendars now to attend.  If you are not already a member, become one.

WPO has set a goal of making the 2016 annual conference in Baltimore the organization's largest ever. We are exploring the possibility of adding a job fair, with jobs provided by WPO members. Attendees will have the opportunity to travel to our nation's capital for behind-the-scenes events at the conclusion of the conference.

Meanwhile, read our recent press:  Women's Business Leadership Group Is Coming to Baltimore

The Owner's Journey: How to Sell or Transfer a Company

At some point in a business owner's lifetime they wonder what they should do with their business -- sell it or transfer it, for example. Entrepreneur in Residence at Columbia Business School Barbara Roberts (pictured) has created a Whitepaper, "The Owner’s Journey: Experiences shared and lessons learned from entrepreneurs who successfully sold or transferred their business to family members."  It's all you need to execute a finely tuned exit at your business.

Barbara says:

"There has been significant sale and employee and family ownership transfer activity in the private company space over the last few years as baby boomers head into retirement.  However,  many successful entrepreneurs do not know all of their options for sale and transfer and are not well-prepared to give up ownership of their companies."

Commissioned by U.S. Trust as a Columbia Business School Whitepaper, the paper follows eight successful entrepreneurs who nurtured and grew their businesses and then grappled with the challenges of sale or transfer to family members.

The 44-page Whitepaper can be accessed free here.

Snapshot of Barbara's background:  Barbara is trained in facilitation and mediation, and certified in coaching by the Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara.  She works with CEOs and owners of venture-backed and family-owned private companies as a board member and coach/consultant in all stages of entrepreneurship from startup through sale, and works with families on succession planning.  She also chairs peer learning groups at TIGER 21 and the Women Presidents’ Organization and runs succession planning workshops for the NYC Economic Development Corp. and New York Public Library.

Barbara is available to answer any questions you might have about the report and welcomes private consulting/coaching and speaking opportunities on growing a business.  She can be reached via email at BR.

You might also be interested in a previous Whitepaper she wrote, "Life After An Exit:  How Entrepreneurs Transition to the Next Stage after a Sale."  We posted about it here on March 7, 2011.