If you had a mentor help you launch and grow your business, you know how valuable their advice and experience was to starting a business. The Institute for Economic Empowerment of Women (IEEW) understands how important mentorship is, and how hard it can be for women entrepreneurs in other countries to find the right kind of help for their businesses. Their “Peace Through Business™” program, entering its fifth year, is bringing 29 women entrepreneurs from Afghanistan and Rwanda to the U.S. to take part in leadership development. These enterprising small business owners will partner with American business owners in similar industries around the country for training. The program will culminate in the IEEW Summit July 25th and 26th in Washington, D.C. For more information on how you can become an international mentor, attend the summit, or see who is partnering with IEEW,  check out their Facebook page.

If you had or have a mentor, what is the most important thing you’ve taken out of the relationship? How are you a mentor to other entrepreneurs? Join the conversation below!

When we first saw this blog, we had to chuckle. After all, who better to dispense small business advice to young Jedi–er, entrepreneurs–than wise old Yoda? The Entrepreneur’s Yoda, a.k.a Lonnie Sciambi, has some great advice for entrepreneurs, both those just starting a business and those who have been at it for a lifetime. In this recent post, Are You the Major Bottleneck in Your Own Company?, Sciambi challenges small business owners to look inward and ask themselves if they have fallen into that trap of doing too much themselves, hindering their company’s growth. He writes, “Entrepreneurs who want to truly grow their company need to constantly evolve and grow themselves.” We couldn’t agree more and encourage you to read and heed Yoda’s sage advice.

What are some changes you can make to your business process to help you grow? How have you gotten out of your own way to help your business? Share with us your thoughts below!

Women entrepreneurs know the importance of assembling an effective and intelligent team.  All businesses understand that hiring someone they can trust and rely on as their second-in-command is essential.  However, picking that second-in-command isn’t always an easy task.  Inc.com recently published an article identifying 5 steps to picking your 2IC.  The tips range from hiring internally to coaching a new hire instead of managing them.  Wild women entrepreneurs can definitely learn some great tips from this informative article. Certainly, some of our political candidates could, as well!

Who is your second-in-command? Who can you rely on to step into your shoes when you need?

When starting a business, earning a profit is obviously at the top of your list of goals (unless, of course, you are starting a non-profit). But an interesting study has found that women entrepreneurs, more than their male counterparts, tend to have an equally important goal–to be socially conscious and run their business in a way that will benefit others.

Sociologist Mary Godwyn is releasing a new book next month based on research she has done on the clientele of the Small Business Administration’s Women’s Business Centers. In it, she explains that there are two types of entrepreneurship–profit-driven and social. The women she studied refuse to be buttonholed into one of those categories and in turn are not only making a healthy profit, but changing the lives of others in their communities, as well as overseas. Read this interview with Godwyn for more insight into women entrepreneurs and their innate desire to add social value to their businesses. Then come back and tell us, what social value does your business add to your community? How can you become more socially conscious?

At The Wild WE, we encourage women entrepreneurs to be creative in all aspects of starting a business. It’s key to innovation, as well as successful team building and problem solving. However, a new study about to be published in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology finds that creative people tend to be less effective leaders. In his blog post “Are the People in Your Organization Too Smart to be Creative?“, Chunka Mui discusses some of the finer points of the study and how the deep-seated bias that organizations appear to have against openly creative people can severely hamper progress. As Mui explains,

“Innovation is needed, and creative leaders at multiple levels are often the missing links between strategy and results.”

But if creative people continue to be passed over for leadership jobs, either they will end up leaving or they will begin holding back on their ideas. Neither is a situation that businesses should wish to find themselves in if they want to continue to move forward. Creative thinkers–and leaders–are necessary to compete in today’s constantly evolving market.

What value do you place on creativity in your small business? Are you rewarding the creative thinkers on your team?

We know women are resourceful, smart, and successful. Just how resourceful, smart, and successful? Well, according to the Center for Women’s Business Research, the answer is very. 40% of all businesses in the US are now owned or co-owned by women. Read the rest of the article here for more interesting stats.

Our favorite quote from the article?

“They’re rediscovering the art of ‘bootstrapping‘ and keeping your overhead low and keeping your operating costs low so you can adjust to these economic shocks and keep adjusting,” says Jeffrey Cornwall, director of the Center for Entrepreneurship at Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.”

We think Ja-Naé, our CEO and the queen of bootstrapping, would agree!

Happy New Year Folks.

If you recall from last year, to the day, I declared my 10 of 2010  list.  So how did I do?

1. Stay healthy or else the rest of this list won’t matter. Bad allergic reaction at a party. Long story. Health is always a work in progress.
2. Either upgrade or buy a new desktop computer.
   I actually brought a laptop and I won an iPad.
3. Finally get my driver’s license (I’m a native New Yorker, so driving hasn’t been a priority.)
4. Schedule informal Coffee Conversations with friends and colleagues.
5. Spend more time with my family (especially my growing niece.)
6. Write more with pen and paper I have been writing & blogging more especially thanks to #reverb10,  Evernote and the iPad.
7. Speak or attend at more conferences than I did last year. Attending yes, speaking not so much. Does being a Genius at WordCamp NYC count?
8. Look for collaborative opportunities with resourceful people
9. Find clients that I enjoy working with so that work doesn’t feel like “work”. Like my health this is also a work in progress?
10. Achieve one more internet certification. Actually 2 more thanks to certain developments in the industry, but that’s what make this all the more fun:)

So this year, instead of adding more goals. I’m going to focus on the ones I didn’t finish and work from there.

A couple of tools that are helping me through this are:

O Dream Board. If you are familiar with The Secret DVD, and the Law of Attraction you probably know about Vision Boards.You don’t have to go to the supply store to start your vision board. You can now create a vision board online.  I have already created 2 online boards and I’m more focused now than I was last year.

I also found a tool via the #reverb10 resources called How to Conduct Your own Annual Review by Chris Guillebeau.  You can adjust the categories and goals as you see fit. It can be also be a great tool for some to use to see measurable results.

Do how did you fare with your goals from last year? What did you learn? How are you going to use it to propel you forward in 2011?

Equality among races, nationalities, and genders is something Wild WE strive for in the business world and their communities.  Even though we are closer than we have ever been at any point in civilization, there is still a long road ahead of us.

Ja-Nae Duane, the author of “How to Start Your Business with $100”, has an interesting blog up about 5 simple ways we can help women win as tech leaders.

The technology industry is one of the largest industries where women are severely underrepresented.  Blaming men is not the answer.  It is up to us women and entrepreneurs to take action and bring about change.

If you are a woman in the tech industry, you could become a mentor to other women or volunteer to speak at tech panels and conferences.  Inspiration is the key to encouraging other women to take on roles in male-dominated industries and promote real change towards equality.  Who are some women in the tech industry that you admire?

As women entrepreneurs all over the world can attest, when you start a business, you constantly face obstacles. How successful you are as a leader depends on how well you overcome them. As Ja-Naé talks about in today’s small business podcast, “Leaders, Change Your View”, all it takes is a willingness to change your perspective of the situation.

What situations have you found you were able to navigate more successfully once you took a different view? Share with us so we can learn from one another!

For women business owners, the need for excellent PowerPoint presentations while soliciting partners or customers is crucial to a successful small business. As a women entrepreneurs, we need to know our audiences before creating PowerPoints to address them. This is a crucial process for us all.

Given my artistic sensibilities, I enjoy designing PowerPoints for business presentations. However, sitting down to organize images, write text, insert graphics and add animation to a presentation is VERY time consuming. On top of that, the hard part about designing my own presentations isn’t just about the time. It’s recognizing the importance of professional – and catchy – presentations!

Well-executed presentations can offer potential clients and partners the absolute best first impression possible of you and your business. Presentations for current partners will ensure continued quality control within your small business. You could spend hours trying to design your own presentation, or you can hand the task off to someone who can get it done quickly and efficiently.

One organization that handles other businesses presentation design is www.123PPT.com. 123PPT offers creative and concept development, along with technical capabilities to develop state of the art presentations not only through PowerPoint, but also through Adobe FlashDesign, CD-ROM, DVD, video, and animation. 123PPT will give you esti­mates based on your exact needs.

A similar business presentation organization is ProPoint Graphics. ProPoint offers Flash and PowerPoint presentation design services. ProPoint serves large and small business alike, and similar to 123PPT, ProPoint will give you a quote on request.
Who designs your PowerPoints? How do you decide what content to include in your PowerPoints? How do you implement your brand in your PowerPoints? We would love to know, so shoot us a line.