Imagination, Innovation & Liberation.

A Celebration of Female Entrepreneursthroughout the ages

International Women’s Day 2015

Mary Cummings, Work Your Way

The theme of International Women’s Day 2015 is “Make It

Happen”.

We think it’s a perfect theme to celebrate the many women who forged through

setbacks, challenges and in many cases, bucked the trend of their time.

Women who created

economic and professional independence

to start their own business

Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1739)

Introduced blue indigo dye into South Carolina, making it become one of South Carolina’s most important cash crops, second only to cotton.

She had a major influence on the colonial economy, and was the first woman to be inducted into South Carolina's Business Hall of Fame.

Image: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Edward_Greene_Malbone_-_Eliza_Izard_%28Mrs._Thomas_Pinckney,_Jr.%29_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

Mary Katherine Goddard (1766)

Early American publisher and the first American postmistress.

She was the first to print the Declaration of Independence with the names of the signatories.

Image: https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/mary-katherine-goddard

Lydia Pinkham (1875)

A shrewd business woman and clever marketer, who marketed her home ‘Vegetable Compound’ remedies to women, while educating them about women’s health issues.

It became one of the best known remedies for women at the time, and some of the products are still available today.

Image: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/photos/mdwomgoddard,0,2065075.photo. Licensed under PD-US via Wikipedia -

Sarah Breedlove “Madam C. J. Walker” 1905

Regarded as the first female self-made millionaire in America.

After experiencing a scalp disorder due to harsh hair products, Madam Walker developed and marketed a line of hair and beauty products for black women, even starting her own mail order catalogue and training ‘beauty therapist’ sales agents to keep up with demand.

Image: "Madame CJ Walker" by Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.) http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Madame_CJ_Walker.gif#mediaviewer/File:Madame_CJ_Walker.gif

Carrie Crawford Smith (1919)

During the era of mass migration of African Americans from the South to the North, Carrie recognised an opportunity to help new arrivals find work.

She opened an employment agency, soon establishing it as the go-to agency for domestic help, with standards that employers had to accept to help protect her workers’ reputation and dignity.

Image: https://www.nwhm.org/media/category/education/biography/biographies/carriesmith.jpg

Margaret Rudkin (1937)

Her stone-ground wheat bread recipe improved her son’s asthma and food allergies so much, that the family doctor recommended it to other patients. By the end of 1939, Rudkin sold more than a million and a half loaves and had to move the business from her garage to its own factory.

She sold the business to Campbell Soup for $28 million, becoming the first woman to serve on Campbell’s board of directors.

Image: https://www.nwhm.org/media/category/education/biography/biographies/carriesmith.jpg

Joyce Chen (1958)

Chinese restaurants were hard to come by when Joyce opened her restaurant in 1958. She was encouraged to start the restaurant by Asian students from Shanghai, who were so homesick for the kind of food she prepared, that they lent her the start-up money.

She’s credited with developing the flat bottom wok after becoming frustrated with trying to use traditional round woks on the flat surfaces of American stoves, and the first line of bottled Chinese stir fry sauces for the US market.

Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Chen

Jean Nidetch (1963)

Jean simply wanted to lose weight and keep it off. In spite of losing the weight, however, she found her resolve weakening, so she gathered friends together to form a weekly support group.

Those weekly classes developed into the well known Weight Watchers Corporation.

She sold Weight Watchers to Heinz in 1978, for a reported $1 billion.

Image: https://www.nwhm.org/media/category/education/biography/biographies/carriesmith.jpg

Sandra Kurtzig (1974)

As founder of business and manufacturing software producer ASK Group, Sandra was one of Silicon Valley's first female tech entrepreneurs.

She founded ASK as a part-time job, using $2,000 of her own savings, running the business part-time from her bedroom "to keep her mind occupied" and increase her income.

The company was acquired in the early 1990s for $311 million.

https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/sandra-kurtzig/

Oprah Winfrey (1984)

How could we not include Oprah. She was born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a teenage single mother and later raised in an inner-city Milwaukee neighbourhood.

She landed a job in radio while still in high school. It was her emotional ad-lib delivery that eventually got her transferred to the daytime-talk-show arena, after which she launched her own production company and became internationally syndicated. The rest, as they say, is history. She’s worth an estimated $3 billion.Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey

Maxine Clarke (1997)

Maxine’s little 10 year old friend Kate couldn’t find a stuffed toy that she wanted. Kate then said: "These are so easy, we could make them.“ She meant a simple craft project, but Maxine had bigger ideas.

She went on to establish the now, well-known Build A Bear Workshops, which has over 340 stores around the world and annual revenues of $120 million.

Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey

Arianna Huffington (2005)

Author, columnist, co-founder and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post.

She’s frequently named among the most powerful and influential. In 2009, as #12 in Forbes ' first-ever list of the Most Influential Women In Media; as #42 in The Guardian ' s Top 100 in Media List; and as the 52nd most powerful woman in the world by Forbes, in 2014.

In 2011, Huff Post was acquired by AOL for a reported $315 million.Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianna_Huffington

Co-Founders - Kathryn Minshew (pictured), Alex Cavoulacos and Melissa McCreevy (2011)

Kathryn and her co-founders were three ex-McKinsey consultants, frustrated with the lack of career resources for ambitious professional women, so together, formed the online career community The Daily Muse and jobsite The Muse.

They launched with just $2,710. In 2013, they received $1.2 million to continue growing the business. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Minshew

Of course, we could have mentioned so many more.

Of the ones that we have, some are well-known

and perhaps others not so,but we still think they’re all

amazing.

Their contributions have greatly impacted society today and have

paved the way for female entrepreneurs

to follow in their footsteps

1.5 million self-employed women in the

UK (representing an increase of around 300,000 since before the economic

downturn*)

*See www.prowess.org.uk/facts

"Involve your children as much as you can. Helping mum run the business can be a fun game and you will be nurturing the business spirit of future entrepreneurs in the process.”

Monica CostaEditor & Founder of London Mums www.londonmumsmagazine.com

Image www.memorygate.co.uk

“For me, running my own business means freedom.  Freedom to create, grow and live my life without the regret of never having tried.“

Soila SindiyoFamily Trained Mediator, Editor & Founder of The Divorce Magazine www.thedivorcemagazine.co.uk

Image www.goddessportraiture.co.uk

“If I could wish for just one gift for my kids it would be self esteem. They will encounter failure in life, but with self esteem, they will not feel inhibited. They’ll pick themselves up again, push a little harder and reach their goals. It’s what my parents fostered in me. I’d be nowhere without it.”

Natalie WillsPublishing Consultantwww.nswconsulting.co.uk

Image www.aytonwest.com

“I’ve always believed that you need to stay focused and remain positive. It’s the only way you can keep moving forward.”

Annie ManningAuthor & Marketing Quality Consultantwww.anniemanning.com

“With the wonderful changes in the way people work now, the connectivity we have thanks to the internet, and my love of travel, people and freelancing - I think the future looks interesting.”

Nan SheppardFreelance Writerwww.thingsIvefoundinpockets.com

“Running my own business has been the toughest thing I’ve ever done, but it’s also been, by far, the most satisfying and rewarding. I can’t imagine ever going back to being employed.”

Mary CummingsFounder, Work Your WayBit.ly/WorkYourWayStartups & Bit.ly/NicheServicePackagesClub

Image www.memorygate.co.uk

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Over to youWill you #MakeItHappen?

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