What You Can Learn from the Most Successful Women in Business
When it comes to following in the footsteps of other successful women in business, there are so many great lessons out there to help you get started. Women are taking the entrepreneurial world by storm, and you can, too.
If you’ve come to the Million Dollar Mama Club site, it’s probably because you are ready for a change. You might have decided that its finally time to be true to yourself follow your dream and if you have, you’re in good company here! We are a community of dreamers: writers, professionals seeking a career change, artists, stay at home moms and new mompreneurs united by a passion for purpose. We believe we are made for more than settling for the status quo and we know that you are too.
In addition to creating beginning level business resources for women, we are curating articles, research and other resources resources for creative women that want more. Our goal is to create a website where you can find information that will support and inspire you as you begin building your business and following your dream of success…whatever that may be! We are an unabashedly feminine brand that has created products that save you time, are easy to use and affordable.
What you Can Learn from the Most Successful Women in Business–8 Lessons You Can’t Miss
1. You can use your business to extend the ladder of success to others.
Adena Hefets of Divvy Homes created a different kind of real estate company that offers a rent-to-own homeownership model. In an industry that’s quickly becoming exclusive about who is allowed to participate in the American dream of owning a home, Hefets built a progressively inclusive business model.
“For my family, owning a home helped us live the American dream and save for our future. So I founded Divvy to provide this same opportunity to others.”
That’s the kind of entrepreneurial spirit that makes successful women in business a win for everyone else.
Adena Hefets–Founder of Divvy Homes
2. You can use your success to eliminate inequality for future entrepreneurs.
Alexandra Zatarain of Eight Sleep observed something troubling as she watched her co-founder and husband reach out to investors for her startup.
The pool of investors, like her husband, already knew each other, and all happened to be white males.
Investors tend to prefer lending to people they already know, hence a cycle of perpetual inequality that excludes women and minority entrepreneurs.
“Now it’s my chance to bring other people into these circles—to do that job of diversifying. Because it won’t happen on its own,” she explains.
Successful women in business have a unique perspective on their industries, a fact that has great potential for creating more equitable futures for our daughters and granddaughters.
Alexandra Zatarain–Founder of Eight Sleep
3. You don’t have to choose between motherhood and a great career.
When Allison Robinson started The Mom Project, her goal wasn’t just to connect talented professional moms to great companies. The real goal was to show the world how critical mothers are to the workforce.
“An estimated 43% of highly skilled women leave the workforce after becoming mothers. This is the jarring statistic I read while on maternity leave from Procter & Gamble with my first child.
I started to imagine a future where women would not have to choose between parenthood and their careers and could not stop thinking about what a real solution might look like. Inspired by the birth of my first son and on behalf of moms everywhere, I founded The Mom Project in 2016.”
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking successful women in business have to sacrifice their career to have a family or vice versa – today, it’s possible to have both.
Allison Robinson–Founder of The Mom Project
4. As a matter of fact, pregnancy can even light a fire under your career.
Co-founder and CEO Ally Davidson had to do some insane pivoting for her company, Camp Gladiator, in March 2020. Not only did she have to shift her company’s differentiated workouts to an online platform overnight, but she had to figure out how to maintain a real sense of community among her members.
And she had to lead workouts for her fitness groups – all in her third trimester of pregnancy. As a result, the company gained 20,000 new members, and her pregnancy workout videos gained hundreds of thousands of views, single-handedly propelling the company to success.
Turns out, successful women in business can have tremendous impact on their companies even while they’re growing another human!
Ally Davidson–CEO & Co Founder of Camp Gladiator
5. You shouldn’t let perfection get in the way of progress.
When Amany Killawi had the idea to build the LaunchGood platform to build social enterprises from the Muslim community, funding was a problem. She needed cheap funds fast to get the idea up and running.
Rather than waste time and money on business loans, she used what she managed to get from a couple of seed rounds. With just $10,000, she managed to build a platform. More precisely, “a really crappy, bad first version of our platform,” she points out.
Since then, LaunchGood has raised over $155 million in crowdfunding for Muslim-centric enterprises. Oh, and the platform managed to get a makeover, too.
“Sometimes, that first run at building something feels really awkward. You have to let yourself sit in the awkwardness,” Killawi says.
Another great lesson for the future generation of successful women in business – things might not feel perfect at the beginning, and that’s okay.
Amany Killawi –Founder of Launch Good
6. Your willingness to persevere will pay off.
Feeling sluggish after long hours in her office throughout the harsh winters in Minnesota, Amber Leong decided it was time to get creative. That’s when she founded Circadian Optics, a company that helps bring sunlight to deskbound workers.
Her success didn’t come without overcoming several challenges, though. After immigrating to the United States, Leong reportedly had to sell her car, cash out her 401(k), and battle a life-threatening illness before she could make it happen. Finally, she caught a break when she landed almost $1 million on Shark Tank to put her idea into action.
The benefits of her sun lamp include energy boosts and mood enhancement – all without the harmful UV rays of other sun lamps! In addition, we can all benefit from her innovative solution during the winter months.
7. You don’t have to work with investors who feel like a good fit.
When you’re trying to get a company off the ground, any interest in investing can feel like good interest. But for Angela Benton, creator of Streamlytics, there’s an unnamed power dynamic between investor and startup that can feel uncomfortable. So Benton encourages new entrepreneurs to be cautious about who gets a piece of your equity.
“You need to ask: Are they a good fit for what you’re building? And if they aren’t, you should feel OK and empowered to say, ‘Thanks for considering us. I don’t think it’s a good fit.'”
Incidentally, writer, producer, and actress Issa Rae became an angel investor in Benton’s Los Angeles-based company – an investment that has left Benton feeling empowered.
Angela Benton–Founder of Streamlytics
8. Actually, there are investors and entrepreneurial groups exclusively interested in supporting women.
Anu Bhardwaj is a woman in the startup technology space, so she knows a thing or two about feeling a lack of inclusion when it comes to issues of investment and entrepreneurship. That’s why she founded Women Investing in Women Digital, a platform dedicated to lifting the voices of women-led startups, investors, and innovators.
Bhardwaj is committed to using the platform to connect the world’s most ambitious women through digital media, including women in sectors spanning from leading corporations to non-profit institutions.
“When people see that you’re after excellence, that’s when they want to follow, ultimately. It’s not about what you say, it’s about what you do.”
Anu Bhardwaj–Founder of Women Investing in Women Digital
Now that you’ve gleaned some of the insight and wisdom each of these creative, successful women in business have to offer, it’s time to put yourself out there. Learn why your dreams matter and take a first step to follow them with our best-selling resource, The Playbook: Guide to Following Your Dreams. If you dream of success that you have not made a reality it is time to stop talking and start taking action. You have what it takes to overcome the odds!
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