As a small business owner you become intimately involved in every area of your company and work closely with most of your employees. There are several perks to this. You gain an intimate understanding of how your company works, understand your clients and their needs, and see the company culture at work on a daily basis. Small business owners do not need to look at reports … [Read more...]
Live Your Passion and Increase Your Success
"Nothing in this world has ever been accomplished without great passion" - Hebbel, German Poet Passion for life and business is what excites us to jump out of bed in the morning and set out to accomplish our goals. As a business owner and professional it is very easy to set out on the path of success and keep walking until we reach that elusive finish line. … [Read more...]
GUTSY GALS and GLUTEN-FREE LIVING
We are now onto our second year of GUTSY WOMEN WEEKENDS (next one June 22-24, 2012) and we are making modifications due to a GUTSY woman in her 60’s, a social worker, mother, grandmother, and a woman who is thumbing her nose at MS and winning in her own way. Her name is Vikki and she drove up to The Country Place in North East Pa., got out of her van equipped for someone who … [Read more...]
Control Your Brand!
As a small business owner many things are out of our control. As daunting as this seems, I attended an event here in D.C. a few weeks ago that challenged small business to think about their brand in relation to the perception of their CEO. Big companies manage this perception, but as big business the CEO's are somewhat removed from the process. Small business don't … [Read more...]
Do Bosses Really Listen?
Today has been a common theme of acknowledging that ‘I guess I should have listened better’. I missed the event details for my daughter’s science competition, missed some bathroom renovation details, and didn’t notice that my client hadn’t signed the check until at the bank even though it was mentioned earlier. As I came to this conclusion I wondered if as bosses we do the … [Read more...]
Making The Hard Decision To Stay Or To Let Things Go!
We are talking today about when you are scared to move forward but you know that you have to make a choice to stay or to leave! Do you believe that sometimes things just aren’t meant to be? It’s a hard truth to accept, especially when you love somebody or something. It can make it harder to hold when the humane thing is to let go. As businesswomen, we have paths filled … [Read more...]
When the Student is Ready, a Teacher Appears
As I listen to the stories of the business world and how many mistakes CEO’s make, I think about how no one talks about the lessons that they learned on the way to that success. There is a tendency to hold out successful business owners as gurus, when the reality is that they were blessed with good teachers and the ability to learn from previous failures. For some of us no one … [Read more...]
Strong Women in the Front Row
Telling a group of men to “show up and be accountable” is new territory for most women. We have been in back of or on the side of our men for eons. Not that we have to be loud and bossy to get our way. We just have to be clear. Margaret Thatcher, portrayed by Meryl Streep in the film The Iron Lady, was a woman of depth and conviction. Strong in an arena that few women … [Read more...]
GUTSY GALS are Electricians
Sue was not feeling GUTSY; she was still in pain as she talked about an ugly spill that ended with a badly injured ankle. Several doctors told her she would have to be CAREFUL, very, very careful for, well…forever. Diana, sitting across the circle from Sue is a nurse. How could it be that she had the same ankle injury with that big, long medical name, a year ago? And she was … [Read more...]
Leadership Skills: You and $$$$$$$
One of the best leadership teachers in any era comes in the form of paper or metal. We love it, hate it, covet it, or disdain it. Our romance with money belongs in every leadership development program on the planet. Ever hear the expression “You can never be too thin or too rich”? First, too thin is called anorexia and you can die from that. Too rich, question is what … [Read more...]