Loooking For a Few Good ... Women!

This year I take encouragement from the fact that there were more women attending SxSW as leaders in the music, gaming and entertainment industry than ever before. I especially enjoyed the reports coming out of the workshop entitled: Breaking the Glass Ceiling -- Fearless Women Entrepreneurs. According to the event coverage from The Guardian, the event outcome hit upon a key principle that we at the SmartGirls' Way hold dear; support from other women is critical to overcoming the first hurdle of entrepreneurship -- the fear of failure.

Another hurdle that women entrepreneurs face is self-confidence in their strengths as women. A tri-University study released last week from Binghamton University, the University of Missouri and the University of Minnesota, attributes gender stereotyping as a primary barrier to women choosing entrepreneurship. The research was done to address a seemingly lack of role models among the pool of existing women entrepreneurs. Specifically, it unveiled a need to change the way entrepreneurship is discussed, portrayed and valued in dialogue with ALL genders.

And here is the Eureka moment for me. For the past few weeks, our founder has been interviewing women all over the country for the 100-100 - A SmartGirls' Way Project highlighting the success and strengths of women entrepreneurs. The issue is NOT that there aren't great role models out there confidently overcoming fears and gender barriers to build successful businesses. The issue is that not enough people know about them as a collective force, dramatically transforming the face of business in our country.

Events like the workshop at SxSW are a GREAT start to engage this collective force of role models. We want to take it to the next level by championing and celebrating the momentum and potential impact that women entrepreneurs bring to our economy.

If you know a woman entrepreneur who would be a great role model, tell us! What do you look for in a role model? What strengths do you most admire in those that have inspired you and ask yourself, what can they teach you about stepping up and launching your own type of entrepreneur?

Angry, Exhausted, Frustrated and Wrong!

by Jean Brittingham

I didn’t even know where to start when my new-media maven asked me to respond to this post by Penelope Trunk.  I get the power of a hyperbolic title, but really? Women Don’t Want to Run Start-Ups Because They’d Rather Have Children?

There’s so much wrong here it’s hard to set your sights.

At the same time I completely feel for her.

And before I say anything else, congratulations Penelope on leading (what one can hope) will be a great success in your third start-up. It’s clearly been a struggle that lasted too long with too little reward. That in itself is dismaying, but it’s much more distressing when women with talent who have begun to carve a spot for themselves succumb to the models that make entrepreneurship exhausting, silly, and impossible to love.

Let’s begin with the premise behind Trunk’s (and Jeff Steibel’s) definition of entrepreneurism as a disease.  This particular definition suggests that these two (and a few other business writers with this view of entrepreneurship) think they “own” the definition.  Entrepreneurs to them are men (and the OCCASSIONAL woman) who take on VC capital against an unlikely bet and work horrific and thankless hours (the thanklessness comes mostly from the VC partners but also from the team you are driving and the family you are deserting) to breakthrough the probability factor and post an amazing win. 

Or at least get a buy-out so that you break even.

This isn’t THE Entrepreneur typology; it’s ONE Entrepreneur typology.

The state of the planet, the state of the economy, the state of our lives and the incredible number of human beings who have GREAT ideas they are turning into GREAT businesses means that this is a limited and limiting view of entrepreneurs.

Most importantly--it’s not going to help us construct the next economy.

Instead, I see a future (and many join me here) where both the investment community and consumers take note of and then begin to actively foment support for some different breeds of entrepreneurs. 

While I am not at all sure about the role Solopreneur’s will play in the next economy, it is clear that the reemergence of a craft economy plays a significant role in the future. These individual contributors, who are often working in complex networks and loose affiliations with others, are crazy, all right—crazy smart.

More interestingly (at least to me) are the new breed of social entrepreneur—where a much higher proportion of women are striking out and making a difference while making a living. These social entrepreneurs are developing businesses that offer solutions and hope because they see themselves and their business ideas as an integral part of a better world.

And finally, there are the women who are breaking through and making businesses work well and also work with their lives—businesses that create financial success for founders and a growing contingency of employees. These women believe that you can, and should, have a life and a business, a financial goal and an nonnegotiable ethos, a current reality that works and a future that works better.

Suggesting that women don’t want to be entrepreneurs because you have burned yourself out by “manning-up and buying-in” to a set of investor and personal standards that leave no space for anything but profit, is not the future of entrepreneurs.

It’s not the future of anything.

Life is too short, the planet is too fragile and frankly, Penelope is right—there are children to raise.  The part she got wrong is giving up one to get the other. I believe we can change the rules instead!

Up to Scale: Does your product or business stand a chance?

by Jean Brittingham

I keep running into articles about how important it is that innovation be scalable. I just want to say, “duh.” It really seems too obvious to write about. And yet, too often it is overlooked in the thrill of innovation—and maybe even more so in young entrepreneurial organizations. Worse yet, there hasn't been a lot written about how to test in advance if your "baby" will scale. 

Even in large seemingly capable corporations and organizations I have seen enthusiasm for an idea generated by a charismatic leader with a devoted team completely over ride the signals that they are getting that at least one critical ingredient for scalability is missing. 

So what does it take? There are five determinates to scalability. You can apply tests for each of these at any time in the design and development process, and entrepreneurs should certainly inform their design, test, re-design process around some tool to help assess scalability attributes as the idea evolves. As I use to tell young engineers and designers when I lectured to college seniors, "out in the world—it doesn’t matter how perfectly engineered your solution may be. If people don’t like it, it won’t get built!"

When combined, the characteristics of a product that are easily scaled are a measure of convenience. Humans are generally very practical. We like new things but we like the new things to integrate easily into our lives.

If you use this scale, you don't need a perfect score on all determinates, but you best not have a low score on more than three. And, I probably don’t have to state the obvious, but you should not be the only one scoring your product*, invention, business idea, project or breakthrough organizational turn-around. Ask as many others to understand, use, and score your idea as you can get to sit still for it. (*note: when I say “product” from now on it means all of the above)

In my experience, here’s the simplest most direct way to go about this process. 

Define each of the characteristics in the graphic below for your product, service, change initiative, etc.. For example, what does it mean for your product to be accessible.

Ask your customers, team members, boss, champions, and other stakeholders to rate your product against the definition. If you have a known skeptic, for sure ask her to rate your product. It will skew the score probably but if they take the test seriously it will give you valuable information about design shifts you might need to make. 

If they don’t like the definition after they have tried your product on for size, let them offer a new one. 

Gather all the scores, create a composite and give yourself a very hard look. 

You will have specific information about how to redesign, shift and improve. You may even find that you are ready to go—launch away. If the scores actually feel discouraging, you should assign someone from your team to go back and do some one-on-one interviews. You will need detailed information to understand why what you thought was great didn’t make the cut for convenience.

Let’s run through my scores for the iPhone (no not even the new one, I haven't upgraded yet—the lines are inconvenient!).

Accessible – I give it a 5 as a tool and a 3 as a phone. I don’t really like to use a headset with wires, have worries about wireless headsets, and it’s not a comfortable phone to hold to my head. It does have a good speakerphone and lets me do some things while I’m on the phone. It nets out at a 4.

Affordable – It’s an expensive phone, but we all know it’s much more than a phone. If there is one great frustration it’s the lack of flexibility in the plan. AT&T—not as happy with them as I am my phone. Still, generally for all I do on it, it’s pretty affordable. I’ll give it a 4.

Reliable – No doubt. I’ve gotten “unlost,” found the best local pizza, managed friend meet-ups and entertained myself on planes for hours. A solid 5.

Secure – This is an interesting attribute measure. Think of it this way-- does it make me feel safe and happy? This single convenience attribute is why organizational change initiatives often don’t get off to a ripping-good start. They don’t make people feel very safe—unless there is a great leader at the top communicating constantly about the benefits at the end of the pain. For my iPhone, I do feel safer when I have it with me. I also do worry about someone knowing everything about me (I know, I know) if I lose it. It’s a 4.

Interesting – This is where the iPhone shines. It is fun, intuitive to use, and there is new stuff for it all the time. Of course it’s a 5. I'd give it a 10 if I could.

Overall: 4.4 This thing should scale!!

Lower scores are acceptable when you are introducing a brand new technology or making a dramatic shift in culture or business model. Scores may be low because of resistance to change—but don’t assume this is true. You need to engage people and be open to improving your product to really understand barriers.

Feedback of this type will help you determine if your idea will scale easily and smoothly or if you are in for a crazy hard climb!

Women Entrepreneurs--the New Equal Rights Amendment

It's interesting how consistently I am hearing from women who are perplexed that after 100 or more years of active effort to achieve equity in pay, opportunity and representation, we are still pushing a very heavy stone up a very steep hill. And further, we're pretty tired of hearing that things are all good.

Here's the issue from my perspective. While there may be a few men out there who consciously and with an agenda are seeking to keep women from achieving their goals and making progress, most of what is going on is unconscious, a part of the culture of male designed institutions that we have been living in for over 4000 years. It's not personal, it's just business. And politics. And culture.

And working to change culture from the inside is not very effective. You only have to look at the current resistance to clean-energy to understand the incredible hold that an in-place culture has on us. Who would vote for dirty over clean? Who would think that societies should spend tax dollars to supplement the incomes of traditional energy giants while they increase profits and decrease investment in clean energy options. It's not logical. It's not smart. But it is common. We're used to it so we don't even (mostly) notice it.

Culture is like air. We can't recognize it because we swim in it every day. Asking the male dominant culture to recognize the things they do that make it difficult for them to see, appreciate, and nominate women into positions of influence is a bit like asking a fish to describe water--or asking them to choose air instead.

After 50 years of focused effort, the statistics are abysmal.

So, what do we do now?

Well, as a start, how about we quit trying to break through glass ceilings with rubber (or even glass) hammers?

How about we demand parity studies and mentoring programs that ease the cost of entry into traditionally male dominated industries--and encourage and empower women to start their own businesses?

How about we build a serious movement of women entrepreneurs and help them understand that they can build businesses that are not only financially successful but are also great places to work and that these great places can allow for families, communities and a healthy and vibrant future?

I'll be discussing these issues in future blogs, but for now I think it's important to acknowledge that what we have been doing is not achieving the hoped for changes--in equity and fairness and importantly in achieving the balance that a woman's viewpoint and approach brings and that the world so needs now.

As a well-known women leader on Wall Street recently commented when asked if the meltdown would of happened if there were more women engaged in the decision-making process, "Women tend not to bet the farm, understanding as we do that the kids need to live on it."
Now is the time for the new entrepreneurial movement--fueled by the power and passion of women. Join us!