a good mother is someone always with their children…says who?
A most interesting article in TheAge this morning by Jacinta Tynan, (even if it is called “Rebecca Gibney and other mums on juggling work after baby“) discussing the whys and wherefores of working mothers and part-time jobs etc, and the new Australian legislation that came in earlier this year.
Apart from the fact that I don’t get the whole juggling thing! I know, call me crazy, but what’s with the juggle?…the key line in the article for me is the following…
…Part of the problem, Broderick says, is that most Australians have a deeply held cultural belief that a good mother is someone who is always with her children. “When you bring that belief into the workplace, it’s no wonder we are where we are.”… read on
I’m not sure I agree with this… do you?
I for one know that I am a much better mother because of what I do outside our 2-person family unit. And have always espoused this very viewpoint, so am I one of the only one’s?
I really do hope not.
the world’s richest self-made women…
now this is an interesting article in TheAge.com this morning…
…in 1998 Meg Whitman took a leap of faith and accepted a job as chief executive of eBay, then a small tech firm with 30 employees. The payoff was equity in the burgeoning company.
Thanks to that decision, Whitman soon joined the ranks of the 1011 billionaires in the world. Rarer still, she’s one of just 14 female billionaires in the world right now who earned their fortunes, rather than inherited them. The richest of them is China’s Wu Yajun, worth $3.9 billion and ranked 232nd in the world in March when we published our 2010 Billionaires list. By contrast, 665 men are self-made billionaires including the three richest people in the world, Carlos Slim Helú , Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
All of these self-made female billionaires have impressive personal stories, but the dearth of them is itself a story, and begs the question of why so few?
read on…
This is a most eye-opening read. Not only because of the low representation of self-made women billionaires (2%) but because they are there at all. I suspect this is a fairly recent phenomenon, and one which will/can only improve over time. The key of course is building such a Mother of a Business, as well as being the Mother you long to be…especially if I have anything to do with it!
I’m one of only 3% of $1mil revenue+ Women-Owned Businesses…whoa!
I’m one of only 3% of $1mil revenue + women-owned businesses. How’s that? Isn’t that amazing! Actually, that places me in rather exclusive, but fairly lonely, territory really. How do I know this? SHARON G. HADARY for the Wall Street Journal shares some great insights with her latest article “Why Are Women-Owned Firms Smaller Than Men-Owned Ones?”. (The statistics come from this article also.)
The phenomenal growth of women-owned businesses has made headlines for three decades—women consistently have been launching new enterprises at twice the rate of men, and their growth rates of employment and revenue have outpaced the economy.
So, it is dismaying to see that, despite all this progress, on average, women-owned business are still small compared with businesses owned by men. And while the gap has narrowed, as of 2008—the latest year for which numbers are available—the average revenues of majority women-owned businesses were still only 27% of the average of majority men-owned businesses.
While the number of women starting their own business outpaces men, revenue for female owned companies still lags behind. Hear Sharon Hadary, Former Executive Director and Founder of the Center for Women’s Business Research, discuss this trend and what women can do to improve their prospects.
There are those who will say that these numbers substantiate what they always knew: Women just don’t have what it takes to start and run a substantial, growing business. But I don’t buy that: More than a quarter of a million women in the U.S. own and lead businesses with annual revenue topping $1 million—and many of these businesses are multimillion-dollar enterprises. Clearly, many women have the vision, capacity and perseverance to build thriving companies.
So what’s holding back so many women business owners?
continue…
Nothing as far as I’m concerned.
To find out how I’ve done it, and continue to do so, I invite you visit www.theentrepreneurialmother.com
How the Black Saturday bushfires changed my experience of Change…
Ever doubted if your approach delivering the results you anticipated? After surviving the Victorian “Black Saturday” bushfires of February 2009, aCE talentNET consultant Karen Curnowreflects on how she chose to cope with this truly life-changing event and the lessons and reminders it offers to all of us involved in managing change…
…I’m not advocating that everyone should think and feel as I do but I am suggesting that this is what worked for me and that how I chose to think about and feel about this sudden, abrupt change in my life deeply shaped my recovery and influenced the subsequent choices I made about my life. Many months later, it has also caused me to reflect on my previous work in organisational change management and to wonder how I could ever have imagined that I could manage anyone else’s change.
To be clear, I haven’t suddenly decided that all forms of organisational change management no longer work. I just believe that in many cases we get the emphasis wrong… keep reading, it’s worth it.
You can have it all, just not all at once…
not sure I agree with all of this… but each to their own
well worth sharing nonetheless
…The real “unfinished business of the feminist movement”, says Phillips, is flexible work patterns for men as well as women, so dads can take on the role of full-time carers.
Without the involvement of men – the ones who run companies, the ones who lead the country and the ones we live with – the lot of women will not improve….
10 tips for Mums Who run Businesses
Being a Mom and running a business is like having two full-time jobs. Inc.com asked women who do it for their advice on how to juggle running a family while building a business…
Katherine Reynolds Lewis, founder of CurrentMom.com (who I used to write Travel Tuesday for) was happy to oblige with the 10 tips…
great work!
JK Rowlings… now there’s an entrepreneurial mother
even if she didn’t realise it at the time…
as JK tells it…
An easy life? Between 1993 and 1997 I did the job of two parents, qualified and then worked as a secondary school teacher, wrote one and a half novels and did the planning for a further five. For a while, I was clinically depressed. To be told, over and over again, that I was feckless, lazy — even immoral — did not help.
Is this resonating with you?
It did me, hence why I’ve blogged about it.
The fact remains that the first time I ever met my recently retired accountant, he put it to me point-blank: would I organise my money around my life, or my life around my money?
What a great question.
Seriously think about that one, and if you can truly answer it to your satisfaction, then good on you. This in some respects in the essence of being an entrepreneurial mother…
JK, if I ever get to meet you, I’ll certainly thank you for sharing on this gem of wisdom.
Whilst the bulk of the article is politically driven, it’s worth a read it you want to understand some of the finer detail around the UK system of “benefits”. My hope is that you don’t know it, or any variation, to intimately. Or if you do, now might just be the time to start your own entrepreneurial mother journey…
Want to know more? here’s where to go
http://www.theentrepreneurialmother.com
Shift Presentation Secrets with Joanna Martin
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of spending the entire day with Dr. Joanna Martin and her team. What a day…
Yes, that’s me with her loveliness!
What makes this 1 day event so valuable is that you learn skills and strategies that will not only make you a better speaker, but a more profitable and successful business owner.
I am able to use the lessons from the day either to enhance my current presentations, or to develop new presentations that are brilliant, smooth, professional, polished, fascinating and that will make you a lot of money.
I also learned how to use seminars or small group presentations to massively increase my sales and client retention.
This is key to Joanna creating what she affectionately describe as “The Ultimate Lifestyle Business”.
If you get a chance to spend time with Joanna, it will be time well spent I can assure you.
The next SURVIVOR Series…how to be called Mum!
Whilst this is tongue in cheek, and maybe not so fair in parts, it does emphasise what many a mother could deem to be true…
Who would apply do you think?
Six married men will be dropped on an island with one car and 3 kids each for six weeks.
Each kid will play two sports and either take music or dance classes.
There is no fast food.
Each man must take care of his 3 kids; keep his assigned house clean, correct all homework, and complete science projects, cook, do laundry, and pay a list of ‘pretend’ bills with not enough money.
In addition, each man will have to budget in money for groceries each week.
Each man must remember the birthdays of all their friends and relatives, and send cards out on time–no emailing.
Each man must also take each child to a doctor’s appointment, a dentist appointment and a haircut appointment.
He must make one unscheduled and inconvenient visit per child to the doctor or hospital.
He must also make biscuits or cakes for a social function.
Each man will be responsible for decorating his own assigned house, planting flowers outside and keeping it presentable at all times.
The men will only have access to television when the kids are asleep and all chores are done.
The men must shave their legs, wear makeup daily, adorn himself with jewellery, wear uncomfortable yet stylish shoes, keep fingernails polished and eyebrows groomed.
During one of the six weeks, the men will have to endure severe abdominal cramps, back aches, and have extreme, unexplained mood swings but never once complain or slow down from other duties.
They must attend weekly school meetings, church, and find time at least once to spend the afternoon at the park or a similar setting.
They will need to read a book to the kids each night and in the
morning, feed them, dress them, brush their teeth and comb their hair by 8:00 am.A test will be given at the end of the six weeks, and each father will be required to know all of the following information:
each child’s birthday,
height,
weight,
shoe size,
clothes size
and doctor’s name.Also the child’s weight at birth,
length,
time of birth,
and length of labour,
each child’s favourite colour,
middle name,
favourite snack,
favourite song,
favourite drink,
favourite toy,
biggest fear
and what they want to be when they grow up.All the above must be completed whilst working in either full time
(preferably) or part time employment to assist in the financial input for the family.The kids vote them off the island based on performance.
The last man wins only if… he still has enough energy to be intimate with his spouse at a moment’s notice.If the last man does win, he can play the game over and over and over again for the next 18-25 years eventually earning the right…
To be called Mum!
Sass & Bide – Madame Clicquot would be proud!…
Sass & Bide’s Sarah-Jane Clarke and Heidi Middleton are the Australian winners of the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award 2010.
The award commemorates Madame Clicquot, who was arguably the first woman entrepreneur. Janet Holmes à Court, a previous winner of the Award and chair of the Australian judging panel, said: “Madame Clicquot was an innovator with global ambitions; creative, brave, tenacious, unconventional and ahead of her time.” said Janet Holmes à Court. “These are qualities the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award recognises and celebrates, and which Sarah-Jane and Heidi possess in abundance.”
The Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Award began in France in 1972 to commemorate Madame Clicquot, and to honour women who possess her qualities of vision, innovation, entrepreneurial drive, leadership, individuality and tenacity.
read on…
