Women Business Owners Survive and Thrive During Global Pandemic

More than half of women business owners are the breadwinners in their families. 

Among women of color, it’s an even greater share — 65% — and these breadwinning entrepreneurs are being disproportionately affected by the pandemic, according to a report by small business platform Gusto and the National Association of Women Business Owners, which polled about 1,200 women business owners.

And here's the deal.  The hardships breadwinning women entrepreneurs have faced during the Covid-19 pandemic have led to a $1 billion drop in spending on children, a recent report estimates.

Learn more about what these women business owners have had to do to survive and thrive during the global pandemic.

Financial Freedom Is a State of Mind

According to Tony Robbins, financial freedom is not just about money.

“We all want to be truly free,” Robbins writes in The Path. “Free to do more of what we want, when we want, and to share it with those we love. Free to live with passion, with generosity, with gratitude and with peace of mind. This is financial freedom. It’s not an amount of money; it’s a state of mind.”

Check out his 8 steps to financial freedom.

Finding a Mentor or Experienced Adviser

Connecting and networking with experienced advisers can help your business grow.  To find a mentor, you need to open your eyes and ears.  Oftentimes, they can be right in front of you – even in your own WPO chapter.

While getting a mentor may seem like common sense, there's a gap between knowing a best practice and putting that knowledge to use. 

Forbes indicates that 76 percent of people think mentoring is important, but only 37 percent currently have a mentor. Having a mentor increases the chances of success and helps avoid the costly mistakes of entrepreneurship [and business ownership.]

Learn the common, costly mistakes a mentor can help your business avoid or mitigate, where to find mentors, how to be a good mentee, and where to turn for additional resources.

Bluedog Design #1 for Best Places to Work in 2021 by Crain's Chicago Business

Culture matters.  Just ask founder and CEO of Bluedog Design, Michelle Hayward (pictured), who just earned the #1 spot as the Best Places to Work in 2021 by Crain's Chicago Business.  We are busting our buttons with pride because Michelle is a force for good and also a WPO Platinum member.  We are thrilled for her and her team on earning this extraordinary achievement.

It takes creativity, hard work, tremendous effort and 'intent' to achieve this honor, especially during such a harrowing time in our lives.

Congrats to Michelle Hayward and her team.  Great leaders inspire others to become great, too.  Lead on! 

Learn more.

How to Push Forward When You Are Tired

What sustains your work, especially when you are tired?

Have a look at 4 women who talk straight on what keeps them moving forward – from making an impact, to remembering your why, to listening to music, to connecting with new people.

Read on.

Jump-Start Emotional Engagement Among Your Employees

Financial results are an outcome, not a root driver for employee performance. A growing body of evidence tells us that overemphasizing financial targets erodes morale and undermines long-term strategy. 

When a leader spends the majority of their airtime on a “make the numbers” narrative, it creates a transactional relationship with their employees, making them more likely to create transactional relationships with their teammates and customers.

Learn how you can jump-start emotional engagement among your employees, keep your focus on building belief in the larger purpose of the work.

12 Ways to Spark Motivation

At Sara Moniuszko's latest article for USA Today, she starts with, "Feeling unmotivated?  You're not alone!"

She goes on to say that with the one-year anniversary of pandemic lockdowns in the United States and no definitive end to the pandemic in sight, many are struggling now more than ever to spark and maintain motivation.

Sara rounded up 12 ways you can try to spark some motivation, whether for work or play.  Test if they work for you.

Let's Sharpen Our Business Leadership Skills Post COVID-19

Let's reexamine the way we lead our businesses and our people, and redefine strength itself. 

COVID-19 has ushered in a new template we should be following when recruiting our managers and team leaders. Those with highly developed “soft skills” will be the ones who take our organizations into the future.

Read on to learn what leadership looks like post COVID-19.  It requires real change.

How to Stand Out in Someone's Inbox

You may think storytelling would come in handy if you’re preparing for a presentation, but Lee Lazarus and Janine Kurnoff, founders of The Presentation Company and co-authors of the book Everyday Business Storytelling, say it can also help your email get answered.

The challenge with email is to cut through the noise and stand out in someone’s inbox.  Here's how to do it.

Are You Experiencing COVID-somnia?

With March being National Sleep Awareness Month, we thought it only fitting to talk about how sleep is so hard to come by, especially during a global pandemic. 

In fact, so many people have been having trouble catching zzz's that scientists and reporters have coined this widespread sleeplessness "COVID-somnia." And as we approach the one-year mark (or "coronavirsary") this month, stress and uncertainty might very well continue to wreak havoc on our shut-eye.

These three nonfiction sleep books might help you come up with some practicable and effective sleep solutions so you can better manage your business and your personal life.

Reach Your Greatest Potential By Strengthening Your Mental Muscle

Reaching your greatest potential doesn’t require you to work harder by adding desirable habits to your already busy life. Instead you can work smarter by eliminating the routines that erode effectiveness and siphon off mental strength. 

Here are the 13 things mentally strong people don’t do.

The Story of Presidents' Day

It all began in 1800.  Following the death of George Washington in 1799, his February 22 birthday became a perennial day of remembrance. 

While Washington’s birthday was an unofficial observance for most of the 1800s, it was not until the late 1870s that it became a federal holiday.  Senator Stephen Wallace Dorsey of Arkansas was the first to propose the measure, and in 1879 President Rutherford B. Hayes signed it into law – the first to celebrate the life of an individual American.   Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, signed into law in 1983, was the second.

Read on to find out the story of Presidents' Day and who championed to shift the celebration of several federal holidays from specific dates to a series of predetermined Mondays.

What Common Traits Are Essential for Business Ownership Success?

There's a reason why successful female business owners like WPO members are, well, successful.  They are able to overcome the many challenges facing them in order to start their own companies. 

But how? As the article says, no two women are alike—they all have their own stories, but these are some of the common traits found among successful women who started their own businesses.

What's the Biggest Change You've Ever Made?

What's the biggest change you've ever made and what impact did it have?  Meanwhile, here's what four CEOs said.

Women Entrepreneurs Elevate Their Businesses With Access to SBA's New Platform

SBA recently launched Ascent, a brand new free e-learning platform that provides help with issues ranging from hazard pay to how to create a profit and loss statement. 

The agency partnered with the White House, the U.S. Department of Labor's Women's Bureau, and the U.S. Department of the Treasury to develop the new tool.

When you get to a million dollars in annual revenue, pay a visit to the Women Presidents' Organization.  And when you need help going global, try out Women Entrepreneurs Grow Global®.  All these great organizations are here to serve your growth needs.

Learn more about Ascent.

Turn Your Ideas Into a Project that Feels Fun and Manageable

It’s the start of a new year (2021), which means setting goals and making resolutions. If that includes being more creative or finding time to work on passion projects, you’re not alone. 

Facebook creative director Ji Lee believes that side projects are critical to staying inspired and not getting burned out by work, especially when working from home.

Check out her ideas here because doing is everything.

How to Support Women Entrepreneurs In 2021 and Beyond

Supporting women entrepreneurs isn't something we should do just one day a year – Women's Entrepreneurship Day.  Here are seven practical ways we can celebrate and support female founders year-round.  We like No. 5:

Join a women’s entrepreneur organization [like the Women Presidents' Organization].  Hundreds of networking organizations support women in business and female entrepreneurs. Many are funded exclusively by membership dues, and joining them supports their mission.

Happy New Year! Let's Show Our Leadership Resiliency, Adaptability, and Strength in 2021

Only the tough will survive and thrive through 2021, so let's get started!  No need to set resolutions this year because we learned the hard way that sometimes curve balls come our way (COVID-19) and the only way to dodge or navigate through them is to figure out a new plan.

A handful of experts came up with 7 alternatives to setting resolutions for 2021 that will boost our confidence, happiness, and productivity throughout the year.

Check them out.  Meanwhile, let's show and practice our leadership resiliency, adaptability and strength in 2021.  Oh, and did I forget to tell you to be kind and help others?  Try.

Find Your North Star in 2021 from WPO Chicago

©2020 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Best wishes for a life you were meant to live in 2021:  happy, healthy, productive and prosperous.  It starts by finding your own North star.

Season's Greetings From WPO Chicago!

©2020 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Wishing you a happy holiday season and a wonderful (much better) new year.

The Light At the End of the Tunnel on the Global Pandemic

According to Bill Gates, the health emergency could end during the spring of next 2021.

"For the spring, the numbers are going to change drastically and it will be possible to return to normality," commented the tycoon [Bill Gates] during an interview for NBC. He also thanked people to become aware of the importance of wearing a mask and other necessary care for decrease the number of infections.

Read more about what else Gates said on predicting the end of the global pandemic.

She Roots Out Racism in the Construction Industry

Deryl McKissack is the fifth generation in her family to carry on the building business tradition. The roots of her firm date back to the 18th century.  

As a 59-year-old Black woman and the founder and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based architecture, engineering, and construction management firm McKissack & McKissack, Deryl's seen racism and sexism firsthand.  

Her firm is a 2020 Inc. Best in Business honoree and she is a leading voice combating bias in her industry.  

Read more about how she built her business with $30 million in revenue – and with a mission to root out racism in the construction industry.

Give Women Business Owners What They Need

Covid-19 has exposed the deep inequities women business owners continue to face, despite the economic dynamism they contribute to our country.

Women-run businesses make up 40 percent of all businesses in the country and their revenues invigorate our local economies. Last year alone women-owned businesses generated $1 trillion in revenues.

Winter has come and the crisis is far from over.  Let's give women business owners what they need.

Draw On Your Backup Plan

The U.S. recently broke a single-day record, with more than 160,000 new coronavirus cases. California became the second state with more than one million confirmed cases, joining Texas. And perilously, more Americans are now being hospitalized for Covid-19 than at any other point during the pandemic.

What's in store for small businesses?  A lot of uncertainty continues in the weeks and months ahead.  Draw on your backup plan:  new product or service launch, different strategy, more competitive pricing.  Whatever it takes to finish strong, do it.

Plot Your Company's Strategy in COVID Era and Beyond

Christian Stadler writes about strategy for Forbes and says, "If companies take an honest look at their strategic plans last year, how many factored in COVID-19?"  He goes on to say, "AI and forecasting work well for existing customers and markets in stable environments. Regardless of whether we get a vaccine or not, the era we are entering now is not one of them."

Read on to learn 3 ways Stadler believes a world characterized by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity (VUCA) calls for new ways to plot the future.

Build Resilience

A recent report by the Entrepreneurs Network, in conjunction with Barclays, shows that female-founded equity-backed businesses were twice as likely to have faced significant disruptions — such closed premises or a delayed product launch — than businesses founded by men.

"If we want a complete recovery from this recession, we need to see as many entrepreneurs as possible innovate and create new jobs,” says Aria Babu, author of the report. “This means we cannot afford to keep barriers which prevent female entrepreneurs from realizing their full talents.”

Read more how startups by female founders are the most affected by the pandemic. 

Stay Positive

Stay positive.  Why?  Because negativity can have toxic effects on you and your business.

In fact, Christine's [Porath's] research has shown over and over that we falter when exposed to negativity or rudeness. Witnessing rudeness interferes with our working memory and decreases our performance. Mere exposure to rude words reduces our ability to process and recall information. We tend to shut down, stop communicating, and cease being helpful to others. Dysfunctional and aggressive thoughts (and sometimes actions) skyrocket.

Learn more about how to thrive when everything feels terrible.

How to Prepare Your Business for the Next Crisis

Faced with the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s and a global economy that’s expected to have shrunk by 4.4% by the end of the year, a team at PwC have come up with a five-point plan to ensure businesses are not caught napping by the next global crisis.

PwC says:

1. The global economy is expected to shrink by 4.4% by the end of the year.
2. Businesses need to be better prepared for the next crisis.
3. A new five-point plan to achieve this includes conquering our fear of AI and data analytics.
4. It also includes finding a way for people and machines to work in harmony.

Read more about the 5 things businesses could do right now to prepare for the next crisis.

Suddenly the World Wanted Only One Product

As business owners know, speed and agility are it.  If you don't have those traits going for you, well, let's just say 2020 has crushed you.  

Case in point:  Etsy is a U.S.-based e-commerce company best known for connecting individual crafters and artisans directly with consumers. But when CEO Josh Silverman heard in early April that face masks would be a key component of the general public’s fight against the coronavirus pandemic, he mobilized sellers — fast. 

Within days of the release of public health guidelines, Etsy had more than 20,000 sellers with masks ready for purchase. As Silverman put it, “It’s as if we woke up and it was suddenly Cyber Monday, but everyone in the world wanted only one product, and it was a product that basically didn’t exist two weeks before.”

Read on to see how this ties back into the importance of speed and agility to survive in 2020 and thrive in 2021.

Don't Let People Speak Over You

USA Vice President Mike Pence interrupted Senator Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for his current job, a total of ten times over the course of their recent debate, double the times that Harris interrupted him. 

Pence’s interruptions at the debate, however, were seen by many as a particularly obvious example of the way gender and interruption often interact, especially in the workplace, something that was noted by Democratic Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Twitter.

This episode just further drives home the point:  Don't let people speak over you, especially when you have the floor.

Read more:  'Mr. Vice President, I'm Speaking.' What Research Says About Men Interrupting Women—And How to Stop It

Men Have It Easier

More than half of female small business owners say men have it easier.  Fifty-four percent of women-owned businesses feared they’d have to permanently shut their doors because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new research.

The study, commissioned by Groupon and conducted by OnePoll, aimed to understand how women small business owners are meeting the challenges COVID-19 presents.

Learn more here.

Take Your Work Seriously But Be Joyful in Your Play

What follows below is a wonderful tribute by Ryan Park for The Atlantic on Ruth Bader Ginsburg.  Ryan is an attorney based in Durham, North Carolina, and a former law clerk to U.S. Supreme Court Justices David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

As Ryan says, Justice Ginsburg’s legacy belongs to all of us.  He goes on to say, "But no matter how seriously she took the work, she was always joyful in her play."

It buoys me to see people inspired to carry forward her vision of a more equal and just society. She would have expected no less. And if she were still here, she’d reassure us with a smile and a hug, and tell us to get to work.

Read the entire article, "My Friend and Boss, Ruth Bader Ginsburg."

Grow Your Business Even During the Harshest of Times

Here are 9 tips for how women-owned businesses can grow their business even in an economic crisis.  Many of these tips we are sure you have already applied. 

17th Annual WPO Chicago Summit 9/10/20 a HUGE Success!

©2020 Women Presidents' Organization.  All rights reserved.

A big shout out of thanks and gratitude to all the people who worked their tails off for our 17th Annual WPO Chicago Summit that took place Thursday, September 10th from 1:30-6:00PM CT.  Yes, you read that right on the time. Don't ever let people tell you that you can't run a virtual meeting – a 1st for our Summit! – for more than an hour and keep people engaged, enthusiastic and informed.  Our Summit was a HUGE success!

We had more than 50 people participate from all over the world from the Women Presidents'​ Organization and even had the great pleasure of our CEO joining us, Camille Burns.

The theme this year was "Create a Powerful Advisory Board" and our experienced presenters were Barbara Ford, Mary Elworth, Ann S. Deters, Sandy Marsico and Patricia Miller. Thank you all for sharing your experience with us! You guys rock!

Thank you to our Steering Committee members: Margo Jacquot and Ann S. Deters. And to Laura Fairman for her great design work, as always.

Special thanks to the WPO sponsors who attended – can't mention them all but I'll bring in two who spoke briefly: Kathleen Christy CPA, CTFA, CEPA, PNC and Kerri Adams, Financial Wellness Account Executive, Prudential - we appreciate your support.

Finally, thank you to the entire WPO family who signed up for our Summit (you know who you are) because you made our program that much more vibrant and informative. With gratitude ...
(#WPO, #CreateAPowerfulAdvisoryBoard).

Reminder: 17th Annual WPO Chicago Summit 9/10/20

Be Still. Find Your Joy

A few tips to be still and find your joy in everyday life.

5 Business Owners Share Their Tips on Thriving During COVID-19

The five businesses highlighted in the article below for GoDaddy (Open We Stand unit) have been thriving through COVID-19 and we can all learn important lessons from them during this time. They reexamined their strategies, got creative, and made tough decisions on how to adapt and sustain long-term growth for their businesses.

Here are five key tips we can learn from these small business owners that can impact our own strategies going forward into the future.  Two of the business owners featured are former and current WPO members.

Read more:  What we can learn from these 5 small businesses thriving through COVID-19

17th Annual WPO Chicago Summit 9/10/20

How WPO and PNC Empowers Female Entrepreneurs

To support the continued trajectory of women-owned companies and the financial health of the women who own them, PNC Wealth Management is a corporate sponsor of the Women Presidents’ Organization (WPO), an international peer-to-peer mentoring model for women who own and run high revenue-generating businesses.

Across its consumer footprint, PNC supports approximately 45 WPO chapters and has been instrumental in founding several chapters in communities where women presidents lacked a peer network.

Read more about PNC, WPO, and the in-depth conversation Beth Marcello (left), director of women’s business development at PNC had with WPO Executive Board member and Xtreme Solutions, Inc. president, CEO and founder Phyllis Newhouse (right).

Doing Good: Disaster Relief Pro Bono Portal

Key ways you can help people affected by COVID-19 and other recent disasters.  Find pro bono opportunities, including those helping victims of the COVID-19 pandemic, below.

Learn more here.

Helping Business Women Reach the Million Dollar Mark

Julia Pimsleur first she took her passion project from a side hustle into a full-fledged business. Then she ascended to the even more difficult peak of turning a business making a few hundred thousand dollars a year into one generating millions per year.

“I’ve [says Julia] always been interested in moving the needle on something for women and realized this was it… I want to help close the economic gender gap by helping more women scale up their businesses.” She decided she wanted to help other women to reach the million dollar mark and beyond by providing them with coaching, community and mentorship.

Learn more on how it takes a totally different skillset to scale a business to a million dollars.

Note to Julia:  Once you work with a woman and they hit the million-dollar mark, send them our way!

JOIN Us: WPO Digital Conference July 22-23, 2020

The Women Presidents’ Organization Annual Conference - Reimagining Business - has been reconfigured as a digital event on July 22ⁿᵈ and 23ʳᵈ. Now we can engage our entire international membership base with impactful content – from thought-provoking keynote speakers to workshop sessions and networking opportunities – all without traveling.

Here's what you can discover by attending.

Conference schedule

Register here.  Look forward to connecting with you!

Time to Kick Back and Do a Little Reading Outside of Business

Find out what Assistant Editor Kate Cray, at The Atlantic, recommends right now as a good read, with a focus on the classics.

The Books Briefing

Gary Hamel and Harnessing Everyday Genius

We are big fans of Gary Hamel.  He spoke at a WPO Annual Conference in Chicago back in 2006.  What an event, filled with extraordinary insights, energy and over-the-top learning.

And now Gary is still at it with his high level intellect.  He, along with Michele Zanini, talk about Harnessing Everyday Genius for Harvard Business Review..

The crux of the article:

This workplace alchemy—turning dead-end jobs into get-ahead jobs—doesn’t require new legislation or billions of dollars in public spending. It just takes commitment to building organizations that kindle the spark of everyday genius in each human being.

Read it all, here.

Cities Where Women Are Most Successful

The new rankings, from the website SmartAsset, analyzed the “percentage of women with a bachelor’s degree, median earnings for women working full-time, percentage of business owners who are women, housing costs as a percentage of women’s earnings and the percentage of full-time working women earning $75,000 or more.”

Here's what they discovered.

Illustration credit:  SmartAsset

One Woman's Battle with COVID-19

With COVID-19, it's likely you know someone who has gotten it – a colleague, a neighbor or family member.  And should that be the case, you can always lend a helping safe hand – from a distance – and have the person realize they are never alone.

Read this story about one woman's journey getting COVID-19 and how she discovered a support team to help her.

Color Blind or Color Brave?

Open Your Hearts and Be An Ally to Black People

Some good resources curated by Susan Diamond, Vice President, Chapter Chairs and Chief Learning Officer, Women Presidents’ Organization.

From Paulette Turner – Chapter Chair, Fort Worth, TX
Black People Need Allies, Too

Nancy Geenen – Chapter Chair, Silicon Valley, CA
This will make you understand privilege

Betty Hines – Chapter Chair, Greenbelt, MD
10 Books About Race to Read Instead of Asking a Person of Color to Explain Things To You

Laurel Delaney – Chapter Chair, Chicago
75 Things White People Can Do for Racial Justice

Leaders Who Have Already Had to Prove Themselves Are the Most Effective

Women account for less than 7 percent of the world’s leaders, so the fact that so many have distinguished themselves during the COVID-19 pandemic is noteworthy. But that’s not all.

Some of the worst-performing countries are led by unapologetically old-fashioned “men’s men.”

In the article below, the authors says:  "If traditionally “feminine” traits don’t explain female leaders’ strong performance in times of crisis, what does?"

The authors go on to say:  "The answer may be related to the path women take to power, which is generally more demanding than that faced by men. In particular, it may be linked to the “glass cliff” phenomenon, whereby women are more likely than men to be appointed to leadership positions that are “risky and precarious.”

The authors close with:

While many factors are shaping outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic, leadership is undoubtedly one of the most important. It should surprise no one that, by and large, it is the leaders [who also start and run businesses] who have already had to prove themselves who are the most effective. That very often means they are women.

Read the entire opinion piece, here.