Yes, You Can Build a Business or Launch a Product… Even in This Economy!

On the journey to launch a product idea, the very first step is often the most difficult to take. Why is that? Because you have to know what the first step is. Most people who have never run a business have absolutely no clue what to do with their great idea. Instead of focusing on only step No. 1, they start to paint a big picture, get overwhelmed mentally, and tuck the idea back into their head.

Sound familiar?

Well, maybe it’s finally time to take action. Yes, even in a sluggish economy. Read more

New Learners for the New Economy

While things are looking a little brighter, the economy still seems to be in a bit of free fall. If you aren’t looking for work yourself, you know someone who is searching for a job, who just graduated, or is tuning up their skills so they don’t get permanently furloughed or downsized.

What qualities do you need as a learner to adapt to our new economy? What learning attributes do employers seek in the flatter, fragmented and constantly changing workplace? Many of the ways we were taught to be learners in school stand in direct contrast to the qualities we need in today’s economy and job market. Read more

From Minimum Wage to Rooftop Gardens

Teresa Carleo’s client roster reads like a who’s who in New York real estate development. But her success started with the question, “What am I going to do with my life?”
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How Far Have You Traveled?

Fran Lessans took the phrase “find a need and fill it” to heart and built a thriving business.

When a door closes, Fran Lessans is tenacious enough to keep knocking until it reopens—or looking until she finds a new one. The CEO and president of Passport Health has worked to prove herself and her business model in the medical industry.

“Being a nurse and a woman was a challenge,” Lessans says. “There were a lot of roadblocks.” The stigma that, as a woman, she wasn’t intelligent or savvy enough kept some hospital CEOs, her initial prospects, from agreeing to see her. She finally determined to take on a male, minority investor early in the life of her business. It seems (almost) unimaginable now, but in the early 1990s, discrimination against women was still so fierce that she realized she “needed that deep voice” to do presentations. Read more

The Sweet Life

Rachel Thebault went from investment banker to baker. By living her passion she’s enjoying a very sweet life.

For those who’ve acquired an education and built a career in a specialized field, making a major change can be unsettling—especially if you’re uncertain as to what the change should be. Rachel Thebault knows the feeling. After majoring in economics and working for Merrill Lynch and Bank of America as an investment banker, the long hours and hectic travel schedule had Thebault rethinking her career choice. “It didn’t allow me to have a lot of my own time outside the job,” she says. Read more

Decoding Work-Life Balance

How one home-based entrepreneur copes with the challenges

Georgette Pascale, like many entrepreneurs, used the experience she gained as an employee to create a successful business of her own. After working with clients as diverse as Delphi Automotive, Puerto Rico Tourism Company, GAP, Bruce Springsteen and Shania Twain, she founded Pascale Communications LLC in 2004, an all-female, all-virtual firm specializes in healthcare public relations. And that’s one tip she shares from her success: Find a specific need, and then use your skills to create a business that caters to that niche. Other tips include doing what you love, making the best possible decision—even if it’s not the most popular decision—and drawing on the wisdom of mentors. In this View from the Top, Pascale shares her thoughts on creating a work-life balance.

For three decades, corporate America has turned the issue of “work-life balance” into a pseudo-quest for the Holy Grail. A Google search nets lists a mile long from academic institutions and publications offering suggestions on how to achieve this balance. Frankly, I found them confusing and often stress-inducing. I was left asking: “I have to do all of this to balance my home-based business and my family?” Read more

Joy on the Job

In a fearful economy, the best leaders bring positive emotions to work. 

Everyone is terrified of the “R” words: recession, reorganization and rescue. They are on our minds and constantly in the news—and they put fear into our hearts. All that fear bubbling around reminds me of Scooby-Doo saying “ruh roh” when things go wrong. Too many people are allowing a sense of “ruh roh” to dominate their work and personal lives and affect them negatively. Read more

Hybrid Entrepreneurship: The Best of Both Worlds

There’s a gold mine sitting under the rough crags and crevices of the economic quake we’ve all been worried about for the past year: the opportunity to be inspired, excited, creative and profitable as hybrid entrepreneurs. Read more

Home-Grown and Nationally Known

A Colorado mom learns tricks of the trade as a small-business owner.

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Women of Influence

Shattering stereotypes and raising the bar, these women are shaping America’s future.

The May 2009 issue of our sister publication, SUCCESS magazine, recognizes women who are shaping not only their communities but the world by putting their passions and strengths to use. Their varied stories and backgrounds relay the message that regardless of where a person begins, she can finish strong and successful. Read more

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