Author Archive
Got Ambition?
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Laura Yecies (learn more about Laura at the end of this post)
Laura Yecies, CEO of SugarSync
I recently stumbled upon a women and workplace survey from MORE magazine which raises the question of the ambition of women, and lays out data from the survey related to what we really want from our careers. A few stats especially caught my eye, including “When asked point-blank, 43 percent of women described themselves as less ambitious now than they were 10 years ago; only 15 percent reported feeling more ambitious.”
I discussed this with a fellow (woman) colleague and we both reached the conclusion that from our experience woman are not less ambitious, just giving voice to our conflicted emotions while we seek the ideal work-life balance for our stage in life.
Below are some of the stats from the survey with my interpretation of the reason for the stat breakdown, plus a little advice to my brethren on how to stick with the program.
Stat: 43% of the women surveyed say they are less ambitious now than they were a decade ago.
Peer-to-Peer Small Business Loans Beat the Big Banks
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Dan Azeroual.
There’s no question that the big banks & Wall Street are under Congressional and regulatory siege (or is it the other way around?).
The reason, of course, is that if Washington is going to bailout the too-big-to-fail banks, then Washington needs to show everyone, from the “Occupy Wall Streeters” to the Tea Partiers, that it’s going to be calling the shots, all the way down Wall Street, to keep the bankers in line to prevent another financial fiasco. Oh yeah, it will get the banks lending to businesses again too.
Easier said than done.
Unfortunately, the bottom line is that lending to businesses is just not happening, for reasons that run the range from there’s still too much toxic debt on the big bank’s books (because the original Geithner plan back in ’09 had a snowballs chance in hell of saving the big banks, which were effectively insolvent) to regulation unintentionally hamstringing the smaller banks, who are, paradoxically, more likely to make small business loans, but now it’s not worth the headache & cost in paperwork and oversight.
Why You Want Women on Your Team
Posted by: | CommentsPost by Jane K. Stimmler, contributing Women on Business writer
Making a case for more female participation on Boards of Directors, executive groups, strategic committees, project task forces or, well, just about any group, just got a little easier. A recent research study described in June’s Harvard Business Review submits that having a group comprised of more women will ultimately lead to greater success. Why? Because, with women participating – and the more women the better – a group’s “collective intelligence” rises, giving the group a higher score on the tasks they were given. Even the teams which had members with higher IQs didn’t score as high as the teams with women.
Professors Anita Woolley and Thomas Malone compared the study teams after they asked them to complete several tasks including brainstorming, decision-making, and complex problem-solving. They found that “many of the factors you might think would be predictive of group performance were not…” Though they caution the findings are preliminary, “if a group includes more women, its collective intelligence rises.” They went on to point out that part of the findings can be explained by differences in social sensitivity, which was also found to be important to group performance. Many past studies have shown that women tend to score higher than men in social sensitivity skills such as listening, collaborating and sharing constructive criticism.
Supplementing Your Income With A Home Job While Building Your Business
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Traci L. Dillard-Bell (learn more about Traci at the end of this post)
Building a home business can be physically, emotionally, and especially financially exhausting, but there are ways maintain a steady stream of income by taking on a part-time home job early on while creating your business. Having a side income can reduce some of the stress when trying to make ends meet while you are getting your home business off the ground.
You might be asking how you can find ways to earn money part-time at home during this business building process. The answer is easier than you might think. While legitimate home jobs may seem difficult to come by for some, once you know where to look for these opportunities and you do find legitimate ways to work out of your home, the possibilities are endless. In this article, I will go over some of the proven ways you can find work at home that will help you avoid scams or investment opportunities. I will discuss certain search strategies to help you find real, legitimate work that you can do in return for pay.
You Don’t Have to Choose Between Your Career and Your Relationship
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Susie Collins (learn more about Susie at the end of this post)
The tension and stress have been there for, it seems, all time. Historically, as more and more women entered the paid workforce, more and more women felt the tug and pull.
It continues today.
There are a growing number of career opportunities for women these days. While discrimination has certainly not disappeared, there are more women holding higher-paying and higher authority jobs than in the past. Women are CEOs, teachers, doctors, managers, chefs, legislators and more.
It is exciting to grow a career in a field that you are passionate about. Difficulties can arise, however, when growing your career seems to interfere with your ability to also consciously create the kind of love relationship or marriage you want.
Sometimes a woman’s partner feels threatened by the career achievements or higher salary and esteem that a woman attains. Other times, her partner is unhappy to come home to an empty house with no dinner waiting. (By the way, even some of the most “liberated” men can be disappointed or put off to do most– or all– of the cooking and home care.)
5 Ways to Improve Communication Overnight
Posted by: | CommentsGuest post by Maranda Gibson (learn more about Maranda at the end of this post)
I was thinking the other day about how I’m addicted to multitasking. I was hanging out with a friend, just chatting, and suddenly I realized that I had checked my email about five times in a 20 minute span. Why was I doing that? We use email to communicate but when you have conversation happening right in front of you why would you continue to try to find it somewhere else?
We’re all guilty of doing this at the office too. We have busy schedules, sometimes over working ourselves, getting stretched too thin, and because of that, we often try to juggle many things that we have on our to-do lists. What we don’t realize is that the possibility is there that the multitasking gene could be messing up interaction with our clients, friends, and colleagues.
Learning how to disconnect ourselves from our smartphones can be a one-day-at-a-time process, but here are some things you can do right away to improve your communication with everyone around you, in any format (phone, face to face, conferences, social networking).
DIY, the Small Business Mirage
Posted by: | CommentsUnedited guest post by Alina Popescu (learn more about Alina at the end of this post)
For most women running a small business, constantly growing it also means cutting all unnecessary costs and trying to save whenever possible. If a fee seems a bit much for a certain service they might want to contract, they turn to the Do it Yourself/DIY approach. In most cases, doing anything yourself is not that difficult. There must be someone in your office with the skill set needed to learn how to and then do a good job at it!
While true, in most cases, this approach is counterproductive, unless you’re choosing the DIY option for services you are already offering. If you run a design agency, it would be crazy to hire someone else to design your corporate website. If you’re offering accounting services, you don’t need an outside accountant brought in to deal with your accounting papers. If you’re a PR professional, there really is no need for someone else to provide you with public relations services.
Other than this specific situation, DIY is more of a waste then a help on the long run. And here are a few reasons why:
Step Out of Your Comfort Zone
Posted by: | CommentsPost by Jane K. Stimmler, contributing Women on Business writer
Recently it was announced that Jill Abramson will be the next Executive Editor of The New York Times. Ms. Abramson is the first woman to lead the organization and another example of a woman breaking through the barriers to obtain a top job. She is to be congratulated on what is clearly a victory in the gender equality wars.
However, while there are more women in prominent positions than there were a few decades ago, let’s not be lulled into thinking things have truly changed or that there has been a major shift of power. Though women are about 50% of the population and the workforce, and in spite of the fact that more and more women have been graduating from colleges and universities with undergraduate as well as advanced degrees, the statistics show that, by and large, men continue to have the lion’s share of the power positions in nearly all sectors.
It is truly discouraging that women cannot seem to make more progress in reaching gender equality and I have to believe that the only way we’re going to do it is by stepping out of our comfort zones and taking more risks. It’s a little like that adage “you have to break a few eggs to make an omelet.”
