Join our lovin’ Meet & Munch next Wednesday

The Network of Entrepreneurial Women is a big proponent of love, and February is the month to celebrate it. On Wednesday, February 12 our Meet & Munch will feature nurturing connections and sneak peeks of spa treatments at Salon Four 14.

Salon Four 14 is a Paul Mitchell focused hair salon that offers a relaxing, professional, yet fun atmosphere including a delicious-sounding Lather Lounge. The salon is located at 1129 Nerge in Elk Grove Village in the strip mall next to Subway and Dunkin Donuts at Nerge Road and Devon Avenue.

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NEW – The Network of Entrepreneurial Women is a group of Chicagoland business women who are upgrading business networking with fun and creative events that inspire attendees to work together, refer each other and most of all cheer each other on as the membership succeeds. Events rotate around various suburbs on a semimonthly basis, usually the 2nd Wednesday and 4th Thursday of the month.

Can’t make this week’s event? We have our Chocolate Cocktails, Women and Wellness scheduled for 6 to 8 pm on Thursday, February 27th at Anna Shea’s. RSVP for our upcoming events at Meetup. You can like us on Facebook, where the events will be listed as well.

Closing out the NEW year

The Network of Entrepreneurial Women closed out the year with a lovely party at Anna Shae’s Chocolate Lounge in Barrington last week.

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We warmed ourselves by the fireplace as we enjoyed the whimsical and girly setting.

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Chocolates are made on site here, and we couldn’t resist sampling pieces.

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I imbibed in the delectable S’mores Martini.

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We exchanged business cards as we discussed what’s new and big in our businesses.

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Then we had fun with a pub-style trivia quiz on which both teams did quite well.

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They didn’t go home empty-handed.

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After wishing each other happy holidays we were on our way to more merry-making.

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The three NEW cofounders crafted our fun and varied calendar for 2014.

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The recipe exchange continued with a buttered rum demonstration.

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It was delicious.

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We will see you in January for our next event!

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NEW – The Network of Entrepreneurial Women
is a group of Chicagoland business women who are upgrading business networking with fun and creative events that inspire attendees to work together, refer each other and most of all cheer each other on as the membership succeeds. Events rotate around various suburbs on a semimonthly basis, usually the 2nd Wednesday and 4th Thursday of the month.  RSVP for our upcoming events at Meetup or like us on Facebook, where the events will be listed as well.

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Crain’s Small Business Roundtables

October began with much energy that has not let up yet.

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The Network of Entrepreneurial Women was invited to Crain’s Small Business Week, and we hosted an afternoon of networking, business discussions, and fun at Shannon’s Irish Pub in Glen Ellyn.

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photo courtesy NetworkHoncho.com

We had some wonderful and lively ladies attend and each of us took away new wisdom.

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photo courtesy NetworkHoncho.com

Karen McCormack hosted a roundtable discussion on health care reform, which garnered a lot of attention and discussion. She had prepared some handouts for us that shed more light on the upcoming changes, including the different healthcare standardized plans, called metallic tiers.

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Navigators are available to assist consumers in enrolling in a plan on the new (insurance) Marketplace. Navigators are not licensed insurance brokers and cannot offer advice about the insurance itself.  Healthcare brokers can assist in determining whether one should change to one of  the new plans or allow a ‘grandfather clause’ to take effect and stay in their current plan for another year.

“People will still deal with health insurance companies.
They will either get help paying for it or not.”
~ Karen McCormack

Karen is a certified healthcare broker, which is different from a navigator. She has federal and state licenses, certifications to sell on the new marketplaces and is also certified in Medicare. Her consultation is free of charge and provides a well-researched overview of individual options, including catastrophic supplemental plans. She has extensive knowledge and experience with health insurance and the companies that provide this insurance.

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“Our country is undergoing a paradigm shift in the way that insurance is delivered and used by consumers. We are all learning what this means individually, but insurance brokers have been immersed in the changes for the past several years and are on the front end of the learning curve,” Karen said.

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Technology expert Erica Thomas facilitated a discussion on social media, something many business owners are daunted by. Highlights of her discussion included insider tips on how to maximize the impact of social media for business, and group collaboration on how to translate successful traditional marketing techniques into equally successful online marketing campaigns.

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Erica shared several of her tried-and-true tips for managing an effective social media presence for your business, focusing on methods she has used in social media consultations for years, and on what she has learned as one of two lead programmers at NetworkHoncho.com.

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Then, each attendee shared what their favorite traditional non-internet methods of marketing were, and the entire roundtable group participated in suggestions for using the same methods online.

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The most popular non-internet marketing was word-of-mouth, and each roundtable found itself noting how mind-to-mind business connections online, when approached correctly, can be as effective for business as face-to-face interactions.

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photo courtesy NetworkHoncho.com

Then those who hadn’t visited my table yet gathered for a fun and colorful creative session.

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Even those claiming not to have a crafty bone in their body realized that making a flower and a stick figure is easier than it seems. To me it is the perfect analogy to business and life. We can look at a straight line and bend it any way we want to.

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You can be daunted by the end goal but it might be simpler to complete a project than it seems.

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Like pipe cleaners, life is very forgiving in letting us make changes, and we can infuse our own personality into our business and our lives.

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Our roundtables were followed by Shannon’s delicious dining options, and we had a blast toasting to a successful day. More photos are in our Meetup album, and past events can be perused on this blog.

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We are looking forward to the Halloween bash at RA Sushi October 24 from 6 to 8 pm. RSVP at our Meetup page or Facebook page.

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The pipe cleaner men project is here. And the flowers came from this link.

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NEW – The Network of Entrepreneurial Women is a group of Chicagoland business women who are upgrading business networking with fun and creative events that inspire attendees to work together, refer each other and most of all cheer each other on as the membership succeeds. Events rotate around various suburbs on a semimonthly basis, usually the 2nd Wednesday and 4th Thursday of the month.

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Meet, Munch & Mastermind at Crain’s Small Business Week

“Great group of women
who truly care about expanding each other’s businesses!”
~ Casie Fields

Crain’s Chicago Business is hosting Small Business Week from September 30 through October 4, and NEW-The Network of Entrepreneurial Women is excited to participate and to be featured in the magazine!

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We will host Meet, Munch & Mastermind, an afternoon of roundtable discussions, in Glen Ellyn on Tuesday, October 1 from 2 to 6 p.m.  

Participants will attend 30-minute sessions of discussions on Healthcare Reform, Social Media for Business and Creativity in Business.

After each session, you’ll have the opportunity to rotate on to a new table with a different group of fellow participants to enjoy another lively, enlightening discussion. Each session will provide opportunities for brainstorming personal concerns/questions related to the topic discussed.

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Shannon’s Irish Pub, 428 N Main St, Glen Ellyn, where we had a delicious lunch at our initial Glen Ellyn outing, is hosting our group, and we’ll of course follow the business masterminding with a networking dinner.

“The great thing about Progressive Networking is
that you learn about other women’s awesome businesses,
and you even get feedback which helps your own business.”
~ Erica Thomas

Roundtables will include:

The entire half day event is free. Each participant pays for her own dinner from Shannon’s Irish Pub Special Event Menu

. RSVP at MeetUp or via Facebook. 

Learn more about previous Network of Entrepreneurial Women events.

“Fantastic group of women! I am looking forward to next time!”
~ Lina Bauer

Lighthouse relaxation

Last Wednesday the Network of Entrepreneurial Women gathered at Blue Violet Body Works for networking, a lighthouse tour and mini-spa treatments.

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We had a lovely time learning more about the Elgin business community and its amazing entrepreneurial women.

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These women are doing amazing things in the Elgin community and the entrepreneurial community as a whole.

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Blue Violet Bodyworks offers a variety of massage therapies, including swedish, lympatic, craniosacral, deep tissue, reiki, reflexology, shiatsu, essential oils and athletic. Each massage room is themed, offering a different kind of energy.

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We were treated to restorative mini-massages and mini reflexology sessions. There was ample time for networking as well.

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The munchies were delicious and the climb up the lighthouse gave us a unique perspective of Elgin.

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All NEW co-founders were recipients of a gift certificate drawing, so we look forward to revisiting this location and exploring Elgin’s upcoming events.

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Our next event is at the Awakenings Foundation Center on 4001 North Ravenswood Avenue, Chicago on Thursday, September 26 from 6 to 8 p.m. You can RSVP here.

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The Awakenings Foundation is a center which supports the healing of survivors of sexual abuse through artistic expression. The artwork of Gabriel Orion Marie will be available for a special preview, and the new Judith Dawn Memorial Gallery will open its door for the first time. The evening will also feature a tour of the Main Gallery along with wine and light refreshments.

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The mission of the Awakenings Foundation is to support the healing of artists who are survivors of rape and/or sexual abuse, and to share their stories with the public as a means of raising awareness about the problems faced by survivors in our culture. Most survivors find it empowering to share their stories and get feedback, and this gallery offers an exhibit space to do so. The Awakenings Foundation hopes that visitors leave with a greater sense of understanding and compassion for all who struggle to heal from sexual violence. It is estimated that one out of every three girls, and one out of every five boys, will be sexually violated in some manner before they turn eighteen.

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The Awakenings Foundation also administers the Judith Dawn Memorial Fund for the Arts, a program that makes financial awards to survivors who wish to pursue the creative arts as a means of healing, empowerment, and expression. Currently, the Gallery is staffed Wednesdays through Fridays from 11 am to 4 p.m.

We’re super-excited to be part of Crain’s Business Week.

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Our ad was featured in the September 9 issue, and the program will include 30 minute roundtable sessions on:

A casual dinner will follow, where attendees will each have the opportunity to eat, network and connect with women business owners from a variety of industries from throughout Chicagoland. Shannon’s Irish Pub is hosting the event at 428 N Main St, Glen Ellyn, IL on Tuesday, October 1 from 2 to 6 p.m. RSVP here.

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NEW – The Network of Entrepreneurial Women is a group of Chicagoland business women who are upgrading business networking with fun and creative events that inspire attendees to work together, refer each other and most of all cheer each other on as the membership succeeds. Events rotate around various suburbs on a semimonthly basis, usually the 2nd Wednesday and 4th Thursday of the month.
Can’t make this week’s event? RSVP for our upcoming events at Meetup. You can also like us on Facebook, where the events will be listed as well.

NEW recommended business books

Reading biographies is inspiring, but sometimes we have to get into the nitty-gritty of business planning. We will discuss our favorite business books at tomorrow’s NEW Wine Women and Wellness event from 2-4 p.m. at 57th Street Books. RSVP on Facebook or our Meetup Group, or just pop in!

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Business, health and life insurance consultant Karen McCormack of McCormack Consulting Group has the following recommendations:

The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
“Most of us use checklists of some sort, but this is a great exploration of those critical areas like aviation and surgery, where doing things exactly right, every time, can mean the difference between life and death”, said Karen.  “The author explains how a simple checklist can produce a reduction in deaths from surgical complications, elimination of hospital infections and other fascinating stories of how they work in different applications.”
“Checklists are so much more than the things we want to get done each day and resonates with the business owner inside who knows that systems and organization are important, but doesn’t realize how much they can improve efficiency, communication and safety.”

Mastering the Rockefeller Habits by Verne Harnish
“This is a hands-on, meat and potatoes kind of book that guides business owners and leaders through the concept of having and using a strategic plan,” she said.
“From the one-page strategic plan process, to the practical actions you can take to strengthen your business culture this book is more like a business cookbook—follow the recipe and you can have tasty success and growth too!”

Good to Great by Jim Collins
“A classic must-read compares pairs of similar companies with equal opportunities available to them, where one achieved greatness and the other didn’t.  This was based on an extensive 5 year study of the performance of well known companies over a 15 year period,” said Karen. “The author examines characteristics and traits of the companies leaders and offers some specific strategies and practices that the great companies use.”

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell
“Gladwell is one of my favorite authors, who’s style of writing really makes you go, aha! Why didn’t I see it this way?” Karen said.
“While this book is a study of success and what makes some people highly successful (Outliers) and others not, it’s done in a storytelling format that is both fascinating and easy to read.  He examines culture, background, when and where someone was born, even family history as an explanation for these outliers.  He is well known for authoring the 10,000 hours rule which refers to the claim that it takes 10,000 hours to become expert at something.”

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I’ve found the following to be helpful as I made the transition from corporate jobholder to solopreneur:

The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber
E-Myth is a great non-nonsense approach to setting up a business. It basically walks the reader through the operations of a business and insists that even as a solopreneur, you sort your roles out by category so that as you grow you have job descriptions at the ready to help you outsource tasks. It is not as complex as an actual business plan, but does showcase the need for a distinction of roles so you can avoid the pitfalls other businesses have faced from relying on reactive management and implicit partnerships.

I’m very inspired by Chris Guillebeau, author of The Art of Nonconformity and The $100 Startup.
The Art of Nonconformity addresses how we get caught up a sort of Groupthink of what our lives are supposed to be like, but that living our true wishes and aspirations can be far more rewarding. I still feel ‘conformist’ in many ways, but this book has helped me realize that I may not be so weird with my dreams after all.

The $100 Startup offers case studies and worksheets to debunk  the myth that we need angel investors or huge savings to make our dreams come true. Chris interviews a variety of businesses making a minimum of $50,000 in annual income, showing that 1. We don’t have to wait for a big payday to realize our dreams and 2. Success doesn’t necessarily consist of 6-figure or million-dollar goals.

I also have the Business Plan workbooks pictured above, but have not made it through either of them, because my business has been in such flux over the past year in terms of artistic focus and even the products that are actually selling. My goal is to get back to these though and set up a more formal business plan as I flesh out what makes sense for me from a financial and creative perspective.

What I do is check all these types of books out from the library, and if they resonate with me I buy them to actually use them. Ultimately you have to determine what inspires you, what appeals to you, and whether you learn through audio, visuals, reading or other means. It never hurts to fill your brain with insights and the experience of others, and then to pull out of that knowledge what applies to you.

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On that note, I also want to mention The 4-Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss. It is similar to Nonconformity in that it values efficiency over working the traditional 9 to 5 job. I like this book for its thought-provocation and its resources, but it is skewed toward more service-oriented vocations or electronic products, making heavy use of Virtual Asistants, automated systems, and the internet. Not as applicable to those with handmade products, retail stores, or location-oriented businesses. I also think that most entrepreneurs like being involved in the day-to-day operations, and this seems to be more geared toward people who like to live a mobile lifestyle away from the business. I can’t find the article now, but there was a journalist seeking Tim out to see how he is doing, a few years later, but not being able to track him down, causing a bit of skepticism on the truth of his claims.

I’ve read numerous books on starting a creative business too, but that list will take some time to compile. Join us tomorrow to share your favorite reads!

The Gutsy Women Booklist

“I collect new books the way my friends buy designer handbags.
Sometimes, I just like to know I have them
and actually reading them is beside the point. …
The mere act of buying them makes me happy —
the world is more promising, more fulfilling.”
~ Dora in Literacy and Longing in LA

This coming Thursday, July 25, NEW is hosting its Wine, Women and Wellness event at a bookstore. It’s been a long time since I was in 57th Street Books, but I remember it being a wonderful, old-fashioned bookstore experience. If you are a bookworm, you definitely want to come and hang out with us that afternoon. You can RSVP on Facebook or our Meetup Group.

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As a bookworm, I am having a hard time picking my favorites to share with the group. So I went through my quote books picked by how many pages certain authors filled with their wisdom, which turned out to be a lot of gutsy, entrepreneurial women.

“Focus on what these seemingly disparate women
have in common:
They are all risk takers and decision makers
who know that creativity doesn’t just happen by itself
but requires hard work.
Each realized that in order to pursue her passion,
she had to become a savvy businesswoman.
All have learned to ask for help and to offer it.

~ Kathie Fitzgerald, Crafting a Business

To me, the ultimate gutsy woman I learned of in childhood was Miep Gies, the woman who helped hide Anne Frank in an Amsterdam attic. Anne Frank Remembered is her story. Since then, there has been a theme of reading about independent women throughout my life.

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“Cooking was so endlessly interesting
that I planned to make a career of it,
though I was sketchy on the details”
~ Julia Child (age 39 at the time)

From a more entrepreneurial perspective, My Life in France by Julia Child was a fantastic complement to the Julie/Julia movie when it came out. I love Julia Child’s sense of humor, and her groundedness as she details her journey to TV stardom.

“I laughed. Me on television?
What an idea!
We had hardly seen a single program
and didn’t own a television set.”
~ Julia Child

Recently I completed Confessions of Madame Psyche which is a captivating novel about an Asian-American girl/woman set in Northern California from the early 1900s to 1959. I learned a lot about California History but also admired the entrepreneurial perspective of a family capitalizing on a young girl’s ‘psychic abilities’ and the business aspects that come with that. It is a great book to get lost in on a weekend. What struck me is that Mei-li has a variety of ‘careers’ throughout her lifetime, from being a psychic to literally joining the circus to other vocations (can’t spoil the story by listing them).

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I’ve written about Margaret Fountaine, a ‘spinster’ who was fascinated with butterflies and made a business of collecting them. Another entrepreneurial lepidopterist was Maria Sibylla Merian who traveled to Surinam on her own to research and draw tropical butterflies and other critters. I’ve read Kim Todd’s Chrysalis: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Secrets of Metamorphosis and Die Blumenkönigin: Ein Maria Sibylla Merian-Roman, with Die Falterfrau: Maria Sibylla Merian by Uta Keppler still on my shelf to be read.

New Co-Founder Erica Thomas recommends Shiksa Goddess: Or, How I Spent My Forties by  Tony and Pulitzer Prize winning Playwright Wendy Wasserstein.
“I found this book to be very motivational,” Erica said. “Wasserstein writes honestly about her goals and her passions, and what she learned about herself as she attempted to accomplish a to-do list she wrote for herself. She writes about both her successes and her failures, but mostly about those goals that you are driven to fight for no matter what. It’s also an immensely funny, passionate read that is hard to put down – which doesn’t hurt.”

Another book Erica enjoyed is But Enough About Me: How a Small-Town Girl Went from Shag Carpet to the Red Carpet by celebrity journalist Jancee Dunn.
“This is another favorite by another wildly successful woman author who writes about herself with ego-free self-deprecation and wit – I always find it reassuring to read about highly successful women at the top of their careers who still face ordinary human challenges like insecurity,” Erica said. “As Dunn describes her first experiences interviewing some of the biggest celebrities imaginable, it is her stories of how she overcame her own insecurity around these titans that inspired me, and that I still refer back to.”

“An award is just a little icing on the cake,
a fun night, but it can never fully define you
or be the declarative sentence that describes your genius,
because it doesn’t.”
~ Goldie Hawn

I checked out A Lotus Grows in the Mud by Goldie Hawn on a whim, and was surprised at how much depth this actress known mostly for playing a ditz has on a personal level. I filled my quotebook with pages of her wisdom, and will borrow the book from my mom (whom I gifted it to) again for a refresher.

“If we just let go and trust
that things will work out the way they’re supposed to
without trying to control the outcome,
then we can begin to enjoy the moment more fully.
The joy of freedom it brings
becomes more pleasurable than the experience itself.”
~ Goldie Hawn

Dream Doll: The Ruth Handler Story was a captivating read about the story of Barbie as a business, with a variety of misadventures interspersed. I read it years ago so I don’t remember specifics, but it was enlightening.

Crafting a Business: Make Money Doing What You Love profiles a variety of woman business owners in the crafting industry, which was very inspirational to me when I was still thinking of taking the plunge into a creative business from a corporate job.

Since many crafty women aspire to be Martha Stewart, I have to put Martha Inc. on the list. It was a very insightful book, but not in a good way, unfortunately. Part of me wishes I could still be a Martha fan, but while I admire her ability to build an empire, as a person I do not aspire to make my way the way she did.

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Years ago I read Millionaire Women by Jeanne Torrence Hauer, which profiles 16 high-profile businesses including The Pampered Chef, Mary Kay Cosmetics, Lillian Vernon Company and Two Men and a Truck. In the pre-wikipedia age, it was nice to get insight into how long it took for these woman business owners to make it, but the book might be dated by now.

In the pre-blogging era, I also found Diary of a Small Business Owner by Anita F. Brattina insightful, taking us through her growing pains with an expanding company and employee management. Her company appears to be defunct now, so I am not sure if this is a good example anymore.

Writing books is not as easy as it seems.

“Persons who have read the book have told me
it must be marvelous to be able to sit down and dash off sentences that read so smoothly.
I have a hard time convincing them
that the sentences I consider the easiest to read in the book
are the ones that I labored over and rewrote and rewrote
before I was satisfied I had made my meaning clear.”
~ Margaret Mitchell

On a trip to Atlanta I was captivated by Margaret Mitchell and John Marsh: The Love Story Behind Gone With the Wind. It is a very long read, but I loved learning about the relationship between her and John (he was so devoted) and the “perspiration in quarts and the application of the seat to the pants to the seat of a hard typewriter for months and years” (John Marsh’s words) that went into gone with the wind.

“Despite its length and many details
it is basically just a simple yarn of fairly simple people.
There’s no fine writing, there’s no philosophy.
There is a minimum of description,
there are no grandiose thoughts, there are no hidden meanings,
no symbolism, nothing sensational —
nothing at all that made other best sellers best sellers.
Then how to explain its appeal
from the 5-year old to the 95-year old?

I can’t figure it out”
~ Margaret Mitchell

A few other books celebrating gutsy women are shown here.  Want to celebrate more women writers, perhaps for a whole year? Check out this blog from the UK.

Stay tuned for a listing of recommended business books another time!

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cartoon via Evanston Public Library

(Note: I am linking to Amazon.com for convenience, but I recommend keeping your LOCAL bookstore in business by ordering from there, or use your library for a more economical way to get your wisdom on–renewals let you keep books for up to 3 months).

“Why are we reading if not in hope
that the writer will magnify and dramatize your days,

will illuminate and inspire us with
wisdom, courage and the possibility of meaningfulness,
and will press upon our minds the deepest mysteries,
so we may feel again their majesty and power?”
~ Annie Dillard, The Writing Life

NEW – The Network of Entrepreneurial Women is an exciting, fresh group of Chicagoland business women who are upgrading business networking in the Chicago suburbs and beyond. Focusing on no nonsense networking, the group holds fun and creative events that inspire attendees to work together, refer each other and most of all cheer each other on as the membership succeeds together. The NEW art of networking involves semi-monthly events that remind us why we love being entrepreneurs, and introduces attendees to other radiant, inspirational women entrepreneurs as we form a community that is open-minded, focused and friendly.

Booklist at a glance: