Celebrating Female Entrepreneurs on International Women’s Day

International Women's Day is a global day marked annually on March 8 that celebrates the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women. The day also marks a call to action for accelerating gender parity. In honor of International Women’s Day, I would like to highlight just a few of the delightful and practical women-founded businesses that I value having in my life.

OUI the People. Karen Young is the founder of OUI the People, which is a direct-to-consumer beauty company that is committed “to changing the language of beauty.” According to Young, when she was younger, her mother banned beauty magazines in the house but subscribed to National Geographic. That sort of practicality is alive and well in OUI. OUI stands out by delivering realistic and effective tools for living your best life in your skin while leaving the antiquated view of beauty behind. OUI’s razors are the best!

Freda Salvador. This amazing company, founded by Cristina Palomo-Nelson and Megan Papay, makes shoes that have become a staple in my closet. The shoes are amazingly feminine, comfortable, durable and unique, while also being timeless in appearance. Freda Salvador also makes a point of highlighting inspiring women in its “The Freda Women Series.” Most recently, the series highlighted Amber Lewis, founder of Amber Interior Design. Amber’s designs provide fresh inspiration for those that love the cool California canyon styling (like me!). 

Syringe Saves Santa

In a year where we have heard a lot of “no,” one recent development had people (children, mostly) across
the world excitedly yelling “yes!”

Santa, who is arguably one of the greatest entrepreneurs of all time, had a tough task ahead of him this year. Like all good entrepreneurs, Santa adapted throughout the holiday season, including by hosting gift-giving brainstorming sessions remotely in lieu of his annual mall visits. Even with his adaptations, however, maintaining social distancing and avoiding unnecessary travel would have made Santa’s already challenging task of delivering gifts to children across the world impossible.

As a frontline worker, Santa recently had an unexpected visit to the North Pole from Dr. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. Dr. Fauci saved the day, explaining, “I took a trip up there to the North Pole. I went there and I vaccinated Santa Claus myself. I measured his level of immunity, and he is good to go. He can come down the chimney, he can leave the presents, he can leave, and you have nothing to worry about.” 

With the go-ahead to travel (by reindeer, of course), Christmas was saved by Dr. Fauci and a team of scientists. Santa Claus did, in fact, come to town — masked and vaccinated!

Hang in there, entrepreneurs. If your adaptations don’t solve all of your problems, the cure may be just around the corner.

Farmers Are the Ultimate Entrepreneurs

Fall is here (although it looks like winter outside at the moment!). This time of year always makes me think of farmers across the upper Midwest harvesting their crops. I consider farmers to be the ultimate entrepreneurs and, generally, some of the smartest and most determined people I have ever met.

Like many entrepreneurs, 2020 has presented a lot of challenges for farmers who, even before this year, were already battling declining profit margins, low commodity pricing and increasingly unpredictable and extreme weather patterns. Farmers are constantly innovating, growing businesses by themselves and taking full responsibility for the success of their products, from seed to harvest. I think entrepreneurs can learn a lot from America’s farmers.

Here are three things entrepreneurs can learn from farmers: 

• Use your mission as motivation. For an entrepreneur to be successful, the entrepreneur better have a mission that matters and motivates them. A farmer’s mission is to produce the world’s food and other essential agricultural products. Farming is essential and fundamental to society. An entrepreneur’s mission should be equally as critical.
• Employ data analytics. Farmers rely on sophisticated data analytics to aid their decision-making, such as what crops to plant and when to plant them, whether to contract in commodity futures and when to sell products. Data allows farmers to evolve and to avoid relying solely on historical practices to dictate future actions. Entrepreneurs should use data to help them innovate with knowledge and confidence, particularly when you’re operating in a high technology environment where things can change rapidly.
• You are only as good as you word. Farming communities are typically small and a farmer’s word means everything.
  Trustworthiness matters and can be a key driver in establishing a positive business reputation, business longevity and key business relationships. Of course, written agreements are relevant and can be important (how could a lawyer like me say anything different). Like farmers, entrepreneurs should value their verbal commitments at least as much as written legal agreements. 

There exists a misconception that farmers and farming are behind the times. Those of us who work with or have been exposed to farmers feel the opposite way. Just like high tech startup entrepreneurs, farmers frequently embrace innovation, work tirelessly and are among the first to take on risk and innovate if there is a potential return. 

Entrepreneurship in the Classroom

Earlier this month, a fellow entreVIEW author told us the tale of how his entrepreneurial-minded daughter recently launched a baking business. While I won’t fail to at least briefly acknowledge how much I love hearing about female-led startups (probably even more than I love baked goods!), this post is about why entrepreneurship should be taught in schools at an early age.

I don’t believe entrepreneurship is genetic or inborn. Instead, I believe an entrepreneurial nature can be fostered through imagination, creation and innovation. I, like Dan's daughter, am lucky to have grown up encircled in entrepreneurial sprit. I grew up on a farm and had no better friend and mentor than my Grandpa, a farmer. I followed him everywhere and learned a lot about what it takes to be an entrepreneur, including work ethic, risk management, the impact on reputation and business longevity of keeping a handshake promise and more. In a lot of ways, I view farmers to be the ultimate entrepreneurs. Not everyone is as lucky to be inherently surrounded by entrepreneurship from a young age, which brings me back to my original premise: entrepreneurship should be taught in schools at an early age.

Unless my memory fails me, I did not have a single class on entrepreneurship from elementary through high school. For those without an inherently entrepreneurial home life, school may be the only exposure a young student has to entrepreneurship, especially in rural areas. As with all other fundamental subjects taught in school — math, science, music, etc. — entrepreneurship as a school subject would encourage students to engage with the world around them and imagine what could be different, brainstorm creative problem-solving ideas and scale-up innovations.

COVID-19 Crisis: a Catalyst for Entrepreneurship

If any of you have read your emails lately, you are probably aware that “We're All In This Together” during these “difficult” and “uncertain times.”

All joking aside, the global coronavirus pandemic and corresponding policy restrictions have caused the rethinking of countless business practices. For many, video meetings have become a primary form of communication and home workspaces have become workers’ exclusive offices; we are experiencing major shifts in how businesses operate.

Some businesses – especially restaurants, retailers and manufacturers of consumer goods – have experienced a sharp drop in demand or even a complete derailment. At the same time, many people are experiencing shortages, whether it is of products like personal protective equipment (PPE) or hand sanitizer or services like fitness classes. Businesses are responding to America’s challenges by engaging in new entrepreneurial activities. 

As a fellow entreVIEW author has recently pointed out, there are real opportunities presented by this crisis for entrepreneurial-minded businesses. Here are a few businesses in my backyard (Minnesota) that have been reinventing themselves in order to survive the global coronavirus pandemic, including some businesses that are showing citizenship and resourcefulness in developing creative responses to emerging challenges with scarce resources (in combination, citizenship and resourcefulness are drivers of socially aware entrepreneurship, which is something I love promoting and talking about): 

Entrepreneurial Tips for 2020

With February here, we are now firmly into the year 2020. At this point, you may finally be readjusted to working a full five-day week (good for you!) and fully back in the swing of things. Even so, if your dream of launching your own business has not dissipated in the new year, we have a few high-level tips for you on how to take the leap from employee to entrepreneur. 

Develop your skillset. As an entrepreneur, you will likely need skills you might not have acquired yet. Right now, you may be excellent at your job. If you are a high school guidance counselor, for example, your skills likely include an ability to work with youths, create and implement a plan with actionable school-to-career steps, develop a guidance curriculum, coordinate with social services agencies and parents, and maintain records. So you are adept at performing a handful of tasks within specific boundaries, but you haven’t ever had to run an entire organization from top to bottom. You likely don’t have experience in forming an entity (we can help!), hiring practices, payroll, bill collection, or managing human resources. As an entrepreneur, especially as a new entrepreneur, you will likely be responsible for all of that and more.

Prepare to keep learning. Running a business will require continuous learning as technology, consumer trends, market standards, and customer or client demands change. Daunting though it may be, you don’t have to go it alone. Early and continuing success can be fueled by online, and sometimes free, business courses and seminars. 

For example: 

• LinkedIn Learning offers a range of courses relevant to entrepreneurs and business leaders, including “Learning Data Analytics,” “Time Management Fundamentals,” “Strategic Thinking,” and “Project Management Foundations.”
• Women Who Code has a list of ways to start learning how to code right now for free, which include iTunes U, Kids Ruby, Mozilla’s Developer Network, Google’s Code University, P2PU, and Net Tuts+.
• Coursera offers hundreds of free courses, including Business Foundations, Business Analytics, and Excel Skills for Business, among many, many others.

Your area community also may have support groups for entrepreneurs or business-minded people. Unless you have worked long enough in a large operation and been privy to the inner-workings of building and growing a business, you will most likely have a steep learning curve to overcome. Take advantage of the tools and resources available to you to make your transition from employee to entrepreneur smoother.