Launches, People & Other News
Griselda Kumordzie Togobo reviews Sue Stockdale's new book about business and growth strategies, The Growth Story: Successful Business Growth Strategies used by Women Entrepreneurs.
It’s the aspiration of many female entrepreneurs to build successful businesses. How you plan to achieve such growth is one of the challenges that most small business grapple with.
Sue Stockdale’s The Growth Story charts the journeys of women entrepreneurs and the strategies they adapted to turn their ideas into multi-million businesses.
Sue Stockdale is an inspirational speaker and coach and the first British woman to ski to the North Pole, having represented Scotland in track and field athletics. She is also currently the London Chapter Chair of Women Presidents Organisation.
Sue gives some sound advice that resonated with me such as:
“Growing organically made us a lean company and gave us the opportunity to become experts in all growth stages.
"We did all the work in-house and this allowed us to save money and have the cash available for growth” Brenda VanDuinkerken
Guest post from John Gerzema, whose new book, The Athena Doctrine, examines the rise of feminine traits and values. Part of The Next Women Career Theme.
For centuries, workplaces have been dominated by masculine codes of conduct: Be tough. Buck up. Don’t cry. Those codes are still entrenched today, of course, but their grip on corporate culture is loosening—and feminine values are gaining an ever-stronger foothold.
Traits like candor, flexibility, patience and vulnerability have emerged as remarkable assets in today’s rising leaders—and, as a result, have trickled down into company culture, reshaping dynamics in both the workplace and society at large.
In the Athena Doctrine, a book I co-authored with Michael D’Antonio, we examined the changing role of gender traits across the globe. We surveyed 64,000 people in 13 countries across a wide swath of cultural, political and economic diversity. We gathered data from Canada to Chile and Mexico to Indonesia.
Guest post from Karen Mattison, Founder of Timewise Jobs, a jobsite for professional level part time jobs, who we featured in this interview earlier in the month. Part of our Career Theme.
In the course of launching Timewise Jobs, I began receiving calls and emails amazing ‘hidden’ part timers out there – heads of marketing, finance directors, managing directors; people who had quietly been working less than five full days a week for years, and were hitting all their targets, growing businesses and designing the next big thing.
I conducted research and discovered these brilliant people were just the tip of the iceberg.
Travel-minded entrepreneurs with location free businesses are in the perfect position to contribute their skills and experience to developing countries.
Location free skills
Location free or location independent businesses aren’t tied to an office or physical location, which means the people running them can do so from almost anywhere in the world.
The fact that they tend to be web-based companies - providing anything from information services to software applications or communicating and working with clients remotely – also helps; location free businesses are well placed to help support the growing need and development of ICT within developing countries.
When
it comes to making an enterprise really WORK there are a million things
that need to be done. Juggling and prioritising are the order of the
day and most of us live in the hope that someday the laws of time will
change and all of a sudden we find ourselves with another ten hours a
week, gratis.
Well, what if I told you that by making some simple shifts in how you work you could create those ten extra hours?
And it doesn’t mean spending time implementing new complicated workflow systems. It doesn’t mean taking on another six staff members. All it means is that you still prioritise, and you end up doing more of the stuff you love to get done?
Sound interesting? – well keep reading, because whether it’s the networking, or the writing, or the reporting or the managing of staff you love, there is a way that you can rock your revenue, whilst juggling everything else in your life and business, and still have fun doing it.
To finish 2012 in style, we're announcing the top ten most popular The NextWomen articles of 2012, judged simply by the number of times they have been read by you, our community!
We're so excited about what 2013 has to bring; we've got some incredible articles and high profile interviews lined up for you, starting with our Editorial Theme of Africa in January!
Wishing the whole The NextWomen community a very Happy New Year.
And the winners are ...
1. Interview: Lisa Falzone, Co-Founder & CEO Revel Systems, on Her $3.7m Funding Round & Best iPad Business App of the Year Award
2. Interview: Sue Chen, Founder & CEO, Nova Medical Products: They Told Me I Wouldn’t Be Here If I Had a Brother
3. Top Ten Power Women in Russia by Yakov Sadchikov
Ever wondered what it would be like as a woman in the male dominated world of trading? Read this fascinating guest article by Terri Duhon, Author of How the Trading
Floor Really Works. Part of this month's theme of Finance.
20 years ago, when I was studying Math as an undergraduate at MIT, I was vaguely aware that the world of finance, my chosen career path, was dominated by men. Because I had just spent two years at MIT where women were the minority and in particular I was studying Math which had only 10% women at the time, I was not fazed. As a student I felt that I had experienced a true meritocracy. My academic experience was one in which my gender didn’t seem to play a part. I was mostly aware of gender issues through my mama and other older female relatives. But to me, they were their issues and particular to their generation. I had heard stories of single women not being able to rent an apartment and of wives being subservient to husbands but those were not my issues and clearly times had changed.
We are honoured and delighted to publish this guest piece from the Founder of Women's World Banking, the world's first women's microfinance network, which has a portfolio $7 billion, savings of $3.5 billion and serves 26 million clients, 80% of whom are women.
Published as part of this month's theme of Finance.
MIchaela Walsh is an activist, scholar, mentor, educator, and author. She has been a pioneer female manager for Merrill Lynch, the first female partner at Boettcher & Co, and the founding president of Women’s World Banking. She taught at Manhattanville College, served on the Boards of several institutions, and was chairperson of the 59th United Nations DPI/NGO Conference in 2006. She has received numerous awards, including an honor in 2012 from Women’s Funding Network for changing the face of philanthropy.
On the publication of her book, Founding a Movement: Women’s World Banking 1975-1990, which tells an extraordinary story of a grass roots movement that changed countless women's lives, The NextWomen asked Michaela to reflect on the changing times and the book.
Rigid career
structures and inflexible working hours are top career obstacles for women.
It’s ‘Up, Out or Different’ – according to new research from executive coaching
company Talking Talent. It surveyed over 2500 working women in the UK which
reveals that over 50% are at a ‘career cross roads’ - unsure whether to
progress up, out or pursue a different career altogether.
The NextWomen Mobile Tech Theme.
Emma Rose Metcalfe (pictured left) is the Co-Founder of How Do, a knowledge-based mobile social platform which recently closed a significant seed round led by Wellington Partners alongside Horizon Ventures (Mr Li Ka-Shing) and angel investor, Peter Read.
Registered as ‘How Do You Peel a Banana? Ltd', the platform launched last month and is available on iOS (iPhones)
How Do uses only sound and image to capture and share real-world, everyday knowledge.
An example of a How Do can be seen here.
We spoke to Emma about her recent fundraising success; how How Do was developed; and why not being able to offer wages has helped her to recruit the right team.
Upcoming Events
27 Jun 2013 - 08:00 - 28 Jun 2013 - 17:00London, UK
27 Jun 2013 - 15:30 - 18:00Amsterdam, The Netherlands
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