Specific Instructions

1. - Research specific grants that meet the needs of your business. The federal government doesn't offer women-specific grants, but several state governments do. Search on your state's small business website to track down applicable grants. Start your search for private grants at www.grants.gov and www.srainternational.com.
2. - Contact women's development and professional organizations in your area. Ask if there are opportunities for women entrepreneurs in your field. Be prepared to outline your business proposal.

How to Get Work Done While Living a Great Life

1. Have a plan and map it out (find a tool that works for you.) “If Everything is Important then Nothing is Important”.

2. Stop thinking you can remember everything in your head, get a second brain and write it down (digital journal or paper journal.) “The Mind is for Thinking Not for Storing”.

...And their Leaders From the List

No. 1: Shazi Visram, Happy Family in New York, N.Y.
Launched in 2006, Happy Family makes packaged organic meals and snacks for all age groups. It reported gross revenues of $63 million last year.
No. 2: Kathy Mills, Strategic Communications in Louisville, Ky.
Strategic Communications provides communication and IT services to business and government clients. Between 2010 and 2012, its gross revenues grew 80 percent to $42 million.

No. 3: Shelly Sun, BrightStar Franchising LLC in Gurnee, Ill. 

The health-care staffing franchisor was founded in 2002 and now counts over 250 locations across the U.S. and $212 million in gross revenues.
No. 4: Tiffany Crenshaw, Intellect Resources in Greensboro, N.C.
Intellect Resources provides consulting, recruiting and hiring solutions for businesses in the health-care IT market. Its gross revenues climbed from $1.5 million in 2010 to $30 million last year.

It is Difficult, but not Impossible

1. Find your own balance. - There IS no perfect balance when it comes to motherhood, career & marriage. It's up to you to prioritize, make adjustments and decide what you are and are not prepared to do. Be willing to re-negotiate your work duties, as well as your parenting duties. They WILL change over time.
2. Choose "good enough" over "perfect." - All the pressure that women today put on themselves today to be the perfect mother, the perfect worker, and the perfect wife (with the perfect physique!), takes the joy out of motherhood and saps us of energy. When something needs to be done, ask yourself: is it important that the job is just done, or done perfectly? 9 out of 10 times, the answer will be "just done."

Effective Leadership Brings Personalities Together

In building a championship business team, professional women must break the traditional hiring model to be most successful. Far too much hiring is done with a sole focus on skills and experience with little attention on whether the new hire’s personality is a fit for the culture of the company.

16 Years of Women-Fueled Growth

According to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 1997 Economic Census, of the 20.8 million businesses in operation at the time of the census, 5.4 million (or about 26% of all U.S. businesses) were women-owned. In 2013, however, that isn’t quite the case.

American Express OPEN’s study found that women-owned businesses now total an estimated 8.6 million, accounting for 29% of all U.S. enterprises. Aside from the largest publicly traded corporations, women-owned enterprises saw the greatest rate of growth from 1997 to 2013: