As a 32-year-old woman, I am well aware of all the challenges, heartache and fear that go into being self-employed. Three years ago, I was working as an attorney for a law firm. I was overworked, had no time to have a life and found myself wondering why in the world I had wasted so many years of my life getting a law degree. Fast-forward to today…although I work harder and am … [Read more...]
What Does Having It All Mean to You?
Recently, there has been a lot of debate among smart woman on whether Moms can truly have it “all.” Some, like Facebook’s Sheryl Sandberg, say yes, and share their tips on how you too can have a thriving career and family. Others, like former State Department official Ann Marie Slaughter say no, unlike what we’ve always been told, for women it’s just not possible. At least … [Read more...]
From the World Series to the Boardroom
On Wednesday night, the umpires in the World Series gave the business world a lesson in quality. If a call is the right call, it’s the right call. The call was new, upset some people and could still have repercussions but the spirit of the call was spot on. The umps did what all entrepreneurs should do and here is what I learned from the call. Confer with your colleagues This … [Read more...]
Ch..Ch..Changes
I know that I’ve spoken of this before and I hate that I am writing about it again, but if I just had this situation chances are that many of my readers are struggling with something similar as well. I have a colleague that I worked with and the relationship crashed and burned. To me it was a part of business, while we did not work well together I didn’t see it as anything … [Read more...]
The Knicks and Your Business
Reorganization is a part of business, it’s as common as copy machines and coffee cups. What else is common? How often they fail at creating anything different in an organization. The Knicks seem to be on to something, so here is what you need to know. Get back to basics The Knicks are bringing back Steve Mills and with over 26 years’ experience, but the genius thing? They are … [Read more...]
Women Catch the Entrepreneurial Spirit and Win
Sponsored by VISA Business: Over the past 15 years, the number of women-owned businesses has grown by 54%. Today, there are over 8 million women-owned businesses, and women are founding businesses at a rate 1.5 times higher than the national average. Those women-owned businesses generate revenues of $1.3 trillion and employ 7.7 million people. That’s 40% more people than … [Read more...]
Why Consultants Suck
I know what you’re thinking…I’m a consultant so either this is a self-loathing mea culpa or I have a point. Bear with me because I do in fact have a point. The thing about consultants is that we generally are really skilled at something, that’s why we’re consultants. But we are workers, fixers, problem solvers. We aren’t business owners and that is something that I have come up … [Read more...]
Buy and Get Out!
As entrepreneurs sometimes we get so preoccupied with making sales that we forget to take care of the customer. Sadly enough that seems to be the rule rather than the exception the bigger the company. I had one such experience with the vendor Verizon Wireless chose to insure their devices. My company moved to Verizon less than a month ago and as a consultant I get paid by the … [Read more...]
For Love of the Game
This morning I had the privilege of attending an Executive Breakfast that focused on employee engagement and what that actually means. It was a timely discussion because I hear the phrase employee engagement in just about every explanation of what’s wrong with an organization. But what is it really? What does employee engagement mean and why is it important to your business? … [Read more...]
The Business of Deceit
We all know that a sweet lie feels better than a hard truth, but in business it’s supposed to be all about the facts. In a world where perception can be skewed as quickly as a tweet is posted, how can you make sure that your business is telling you the hard truth all of the time? The truth is that you can’t. You can’t make sure that everything that reaches your eyes is beyond … [Read more...]