March 2012

When you start digging, you find out all sorts of interesting things, both good and bad. I’ve been researching the success factors that unite highly successful women entrepreneurs. Along the way, I’ve learned about ways in which small businesses can help themselves move up the ladder of success, how focusing on work/life fit can help a company grow and, yes, the factors that help women entrepreneurs succeed as well as pitfalls to beware of.

Just a reminder -- well, maybe I’m nagging a bit; I have been saying it for a long time -- it’s not a sign of weakness to ask for help. Too often entrepreneurs -- especially women -- think they have to do it all. But that’s not true, according to the very successful women I’ve been interviewing.

Moms aren’t the only ones asking for more flexibility in the workplace these days. Men, Gen Y, and Baby Boomers are making the same demand. But what works for one doesn’t work all and what works for the business matters, too.

Read all of How Changing Corporate Culture Is Good for Business and Employees on Forbes.

Some 80 percent of women entrepreneurs were girl scouts once. Maybe that's not just a coincidence.

Corporations, states and Uncle Sam offer loads of free help to women-owned businesses. Grab it and pull yourself up to the next level of growth.

I’m as concerned as the next person about the failure of women-led businesses to thrive. As the Kauffman Foundation has found, women-owned businesses are an untapped economic resource. So it’s a pleasure to find a book that does two things: helps women entrepreneurs and points out that women don’t need to become more manly in order to succeed.

Wave after wave of financial bad news has hit the nonprofit sector. In 2008, major donors cut back but foundation grants were still coming in, until 2009, when funders cut back. Then in 2010-2011, government contacts went on the chopping block … and they’re still there.

I’m sure you are all aware that the cost of advertising is just plain…well…outrageous. Placing ads in magazines, newspapers, and on the radio can cut deep into a business owner’s pocketbook. So what are small- to medium-sized businesses supposed to do? You sure can’t compete against the advertising budgets of the big guns! And if you try to say, “Why bother advertising or marketing at all?” you risk going completely unnoticed, which could put you out of business.