The Women Entrepreneurs Blog @ Simon

The Business of Fashion

Andrea has always been interested in fashion so it’s no surprise that when she started a company it was fashion-related. Andrea is only 23 years old but she is the proud owner of Studio 28 Couture, a website where consumers can design their own dresses and then have their one-of-a-kind pieces tailored to perfection by Andrea’s expert seamstresses.

Andrea started the business in February 2007 when she was just a junior in college and nope she wasn’t studying fashion, she was an Optics major at the University of Rochester. Andrea had few resources and contacts but she knew she wanted to start a business. Studio 28 Couture was the perfect answer. She could draw on her html coding skills to design the website, custom-made dresses meant there would be no need for inventory and best of all the business was in line with Andrea’s interest in fashion.

A Dash of Passion with Michelle Robson: Part II

On Monday, we shared the start of the inspiring Michelle Robson story...please visit our Monday post, and then come on back as we conclude the story of EmpowerHer.com...

Fortunately, a firm called Mita Group from Washington DC, a company specializing in website design and development, happened to stumble upon the site. They emailed her expressing their interest in having a meeting regarding her website’s potential. “Three of them flew out to meet me on their own dime,” said Michelle. And they told her that her tiny website could potentially be worth over $100 million.

At this point Michelle decided to seek the advice of someone more knowledgeable about the technology industry. Through personal contacts she was able to get Mita’s proposal in the hands of Shahi Ghanem, former President of DivX, one of the world's leading developers of video compression, security, and distribution technologies, and former CEO of Brickfish, a networking company that regularly hosts competitions in art and design.

Ghanem called her immediately and asked her to fly out to meet him and an attorney the next day. They thought she had a really interesting idea which held great potential if executed correctly.

A dash of passion can take you a very long way

We are often told that we should follow our dreams and pursue our true passion but what happens when we don’t know where our true passion lies? For Michelle Robson it took reaching one of the lowest points in her life to truly find her entrepreneurial calling.

Michelle is founder of EmpowHer.com, a website dedicated to not only educating women about their health but connecting women to other women who share their health concerns. She founded the website after she became terribly ill and could not find another woman who could understand what she was going through. Michelle had received a complete hysterectomy that so eroded her quality of life, she even contemplated suicide.

“I was thrown into menopause and instantly lost all my hormone levels. It was not gradual. I was told to take these drugs and you’ll feel fine but I didn’t feel fine,” explained Michelle.

Michelle went online searching for someone to talk to but all she found were hormone replacement ads and whenever she posted a question, she never got a response. At that point Michelle vowed that if she ever got better she would dedicate her life to ensuring that no woman would feel as frustrated and alone as she was.

Women Entrepreneurs: A Likely Group of High Achievers

Just the other day my partner, Tom, sent me a link to an article about the myths of being a woman entrepreneur. I'm sure all of the outstanding women who contribute to this blog can see themselves in that article, as I see myself in it.

Here are some key points the writer, Margaret Heffernan, makes in her "5 Myths About Women Entrepreneurs" for the Boomer: Lifestyle section of MSN.

First, she notes that not all women entrepreneurs are 'young.' That's a touchy word with women - especially today since we women over 40 still think of ourselves as young and... 40 is the new 30, right? Still, many new businesses are being started today by women who are either retired from corporate America, or just ready and eager to do something new and exciting with their lives. In the article, Heffernan showcases a woman of 67 - who didn't let that number connected to her birth certificate keep her from starting a new business!

Heffernan's #3 Myth-busting piece of advice is that you DON'T have to be an expert. I found this one very telling as I would have thought expertise was crucial to successful entrepreneurship. However, as Heffernan says of her example (a woman named Fisher who knew nothing about sewing but started a women's clothing business, anyway), "What Fisher did have was the insight that as women's lives got more complicated, they would want their clothes to be simpler." She also notes something I tell people all the time over at my marketing to women blog, "Women are responsible for 83% of consumer purchasing. We are the ones buying not only for ourselves but also for our children, husbands, and parents."

It speaks to the realization that what you don't know, you can learn. Believe it.

This is an excellent article for all students of entrepreneurship. This is an excellent article for young women in high school - a true demonstration of the "can-do" spirit we call entrepreneurship. The other points Heffernan makes will rock your socks off.

(the article was originally published in MORE magazine, July/August 2007)