Four Reasons Any Action Is Better than None…
It’s well-known that busy people get the most done. Their secret is simple: They never stop moving… writes Rosabeth Moss Kanter for Bloomberg Businessweek.
Of course, sitting still can be a good thing if it involves renewal, reflection, and focused attention (or having meals with the family). But sitting still can be a bad thing if it involves procrastination, indecision, and passivity…
…Small wins matter. Small wins pave the way for bigger wins. A nudge in the right direction, as Cass Sunstein and the new behavioral economists tell us, can lead to major tipping points (per Malcolm Gladwell) when you achieve critical mass. As I saw in my study of business turnarounds and sports teams, confidence — the expectation of a positive outcome that motivates high levels of effort — is built on one win at a time. Read on…
Not a truer word spoken! 
Actions speak Louder than Words.
What more can I say but DO something, anything, get moving…
Trends in Business Networking…
When Dr Ivan Misner, Founder and Chairman of BNI, the world’s largest business networking organisation, wrote his first book on business networking in the late 1980s, there were virtually no books or materials on the subject.
When he did media interviews, the most common question was: “Isn’t networking just a fad?” After 25 years, he doesn’t get asked that question anymore. This is a field of study that is coming into its own.
When he did my research for his first book, he could find almost nothing in the library on the topic. Today, type the words “business networking” into Google and got 150 million hits! Times are changing and so is networking.
Read about his three “trends” in business networking, as reported in mybusiness.com.au, that he foresees over the next several years. They relate to
- integration,
- education
- association
Carole Middleton: The Entrepreneurial Mum Who Raised A Princess
With thanks to www.workingmother.com…
Behind many major events, there is often a working mother making things happen. In the case of the upcoming royal wedding that woman is Carole Middleton, Kate Middleton’s entrepreneurial mum.
The elder Middleton was a stay at home mom when she launched Party Pieces in 1987 in the UK. Kate was 5 at the time and Carole landed on the idea for the business when she was unable to find affordable party bag presents for her children’s parties. The business grew to the point where her husband Michael quit his job as a flight dispatcher to help run it.
Now of course Carole is in the news for her royal connections, but that doesn’t mean her achievements as a working mother are any less admirable. The business now boasts 30 employees and visits to the company website surged 163% when William and Kate announced their engagement.
Read more about Carole Middleton in a recent Newsweek article.
Ready to SELL your Mother of a Business?…
“Beware The Business Sale Tsunami” says Michael Fingland for Business Essentials. Isn’t it about time you started to seriously think about what you’re doing with your Mother of a Business, and why you’re doing it?
If selling it as part of your “Super” is on your radar, then it’s time for you to seriously look at what you’ve got to sell. If you don’t like what you see, then best contact me on sell@theentrepreneurialmother.com and we can work through it together…
As the baby-boomer generation reaches retirement age, many thousands will be putting their businesses up for sale, or trying to persuade the next generation to take them on. Michael Fingland, of Vantage Performance, says there’ll be a veritable tsunami of businesses up for sale over the next five years – it will be a real buyers’ market.
Will you be ready?
This is definitely a path the entrepreneurial mother will be reviewing, and revisiting, with some regulatory over the coming months…
The Micropreneur Manifesto: How to Stay Solo, Bleed Passion, and Build Products that Matter…
By Rob Walling for ChangeThis.com.
Single founders creating products for niche markets are known by another name: micropreneurs.
Micropreneurs may write software. They might design themes for a blogging platform. They may produce exquisite wedding invitations, or how-to books. Micropreneurs are agile, inspired, independent, knowledge seekers who can’t live with the 9-to-5 status quo.
If this resonates with you, read on. This manifesto attempts to distill the key points you’ll need as you begin your micropreneur journey.
I learned every one of them the hard way…
Again, whilst I’m not fussed on yet another version of the entrepreneur tag, Rob offers plenty of good stuff to assist in alleviating start-up pain that we have all experienced in some form or other. Enjoy!
Huggies Australia MumInspired Grant Program; Registered yet?
Whilst I have a personal problem with the lameness of the term “mumpreneur”, it is nonetheless one that is being used to describe various forms of entrepreneurial mothers. However in this case, if a win comes from it, then that has to be a good thing, right?…
Seventy per cent of Australian women have thought more about pursuing a business idea since becoming a mother, according to Australian mothers surveyed in the Huggies MumInspired Report.
Currently women make up 33% of small business owners and the number is steadily climbing, which is fuelled by the growth of women starting their own business after having children, otherwise known as ‘mumpreneurs’.
The report highlights several barriers preventing mums from turning their ideas into a reality. The most significant barriers are; limited access to finance (62%), increased living expenses (54%) and a fear of failure (40%).
In response to the report, Huggies Australia announced the launch of the MumInspired Grant Program, which will award a total of $110,000 (five mums each to receive $20,000) to help mothers act upon their child-related business idea. In addition there will also be a People’s Choice Award, which will enable the public to vote for their favourite MumInspired grant recipient to receive an additional $10,000.
Registered yet?
A grant opportunity for entrepreneurial mothers…
Pleased to be able to tell you about the launch of the Huggies® MumInspired® Grant Program . Huggies want to take your innovative parenting ideas and turn them into a business reality. Huggies will be awarding 5 grants of $20,000 to the mums with the best ideas that nurture the relationship between mum and child by making their lives easier. Ideas need to be suitable for any stage from pregnancy up to 4 years old. That’s $100,000 in funding available!
Your idea could be just that, an idea! Or it may be that you have already set-up the business on a small scale and need some advice and funding to take it to the next level. Either way, Huggies can’t wait to hear your ideas. You will need to complete a MumInspired submission form and submit your idea between 15th March and 1st May 2011. Be sure to check out the MumInspired pages on our website too as they contain lots of information and resources on setting up and starting your own business. We also feature the stories of the Mums who have been awarded grants in the US so if you’re unsure as to whether to submit an idea, reading their life changing stories may be just the inspiration you need to do it!
Also, pop a reminder in your diaries now as Huggies will have a Celebrity Mum available on Thursday 17 March from 1-2pm on our Huggies Facebook page for a live chat! She will be ready and eager to answer all your questions about the MumInspired® Grant Program as well as anything else you may want to ask her.
Learning from Lionel Logue, The King’s Speech…
The latest from aCE talentNET consultant Elliot Epstein of Salient Communication…
SPOILER ALERT:
If you haven’t seen the Geoffrey Rush/Colin Firth movie The King’s Speech yet, then I recommend you go and see it and be aware that this article will disclose its characters and plots.
The King’s Speech has some great lessons for us in how to sell as well as consult and advise senior level clients.
This true story revolves around two key characters, King George VI and Lionel Logue, an unorthodox Australian Speech Therapist.
The King reluctantly ascends the throne after his brother runs away with Mrs. Simpson (you remember the story or were you staring at that cute girl/boy in class when this piece of history was being taught).
The King has an awful stammer which is not a great presentation technique when you’re about to galvanise the nation with your words to face the onslaught of World War 2.
After feeble and failed attempts by so called ‘experts’ to remedy the King’s stammer, he is dragged by his wife (the late Queen Mother) to see the odd Antipodean, Lionel Logue.
Does any of this sound familiar so far? Companies that have tried in vain to solve important problems despite numerous attempts with four or five suppliers, suddenly arrive at your office. Now what do you do? read on…
A Human Journey: From Agricultural to Entrepreneurial…
Ken Phillips (Exec. Dir.) and the team at “>Click here for the full article:
Some of Simon’s observations include:
“… entrepreneurial economies [are] based on knowledge and ideas rather than economies of scale.”
“There are big differences between the former industrial ‘managed’ economies and the new ‘entrepreneurial’ economies.”
“One outcome is that, while a managed economy favours large businesses and corporate managements, an entrepreneurial economy offers more advantages for small businesses and more opportunities and rewards for entrepreneurs.”
“Although there may be clear signs that the successful economies of the future will be entrepreneurial economies, a lot of our thinking has not caught up with this and is still derived from assumptions which were more appropriate to the earlier second-wave Fordist era when big business ruled.”…
Happy International Women’s Day…
and here’s to the launch of “The Feminine Entrepreneur” (by delightful fellow entrepreneurial mother, Cath Resnick)…
If there were more “Cath’s” around, the world would be a better place…
and to illustrate what I mean, she shares the first of her insights in this article.
Enjoy!
