Realbeautyis…

I just love me some Mike Michalowicz!

If you don’t know who he is…….READ ON..because he is about to rock your world. Mike is known for his best selling book, “The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur (TPE)” and is one kick butt entrepreneur extraordinaire.

His tell-it-like-it-is, no nonsense, straight-shooting approach is so deliciously rock solid that I haven’t even finished the book yet and I am already ready to read it over again.

In his book “The TPE” he offers up a clear and inspired strategy for not only lying the foundation for a successful business but for also guiding you through a deeper understanding of yourself. (and who couldn’t benefit from that!). Whether you own your own company, are planning to launch as an entrepreneur or simply want to start figuring out your place in the world of business, this book is a MUST READ. (and Mike is NOT paying me to say this, although if he wanted to, I would gladly accept!)

We love Mike, because Mike loves women!

And Mike is wise enough to know that empowering women to be their most powerful, confident selves is a sure-fire way to make certain that the world is a MUCH better place.

Here’s Mike’s Top 10 reasons why women entrepreneurs are rocking the world.

1. PRIORITIES – Women aren’t driven by trophies, the trappings that traditionally symbolize success (big house, sports cars, etc.). They don’t let a Ferrari bring down their business. Instead, they define success by quality of life, work-life balance, social impact and other intangibles. Now don’t get me wrong, women entrepreneurs like their own versions of trophies too. Think shoes and lots of them. They just don’t let their trophies trump running a cost conscious business.

2. COLLABORATION – In the new economy, winning is no longer about defeating your competitors, it’s about successful collaboration with your competitors. And when it comes to collaboration, women knock it out of the park because they’ve been collaborating with each other for thousands of years. Women inherently want to support each other, and this naturally yields strong collaboration. It’s encoded in their DNA.

3. MULTI-TASKING – In the beginning, start-ups are often a one-person band. Women are experts at juggling multiple responsibilities and endless micro-tasks, and so for them, handling the load in those first few years of business is as natural as any other facet of daily living.

4. SOCIAL SKILLS – Women know how to work the social scene. They bring the same skills they use in everyday life to social media, which is why they are dominating Facebook, blogs, Twitter and other platforms. They don’t pound their chest and say, “Look how awesome I am!” Instead they educate, share, connect, support everyone in their circle. Their circles are HUGE, and more importantly, they’re circles are active.

5. COMMUNITY – All of these social skills allow women to build a supportive community around their business, their aspirations. When they need help, encouragement, favors, when they need to put people in the seats, find key contacts, spark a sales surge or solve a problem, the people in their community rally around them. And it’s this supportive community that enables women to grow their businesses by leaps
and bounds. How do they build such committed communities? Re-read point #4 — Social Skills, bucko.

6. CUSTOMER SERVICE – Women entrepreneurs are customer-focused. In fact they don’t have customers, they have friends and they have students. According to a recent study, the only things that outranked the importance of their customers for women were family and religion. Customer-focused businesses always outperform other businesses because they’re forging quality, long-term relationships with their base rather than obsessing about the competition.

7. MOTIVATION – Women are aces at motivating their employees to work harder, faster, better because they create productive work environments that are team oriented, flexible and open to creative ideas. Women inspire, nurture, support; they don’t get caught up in power struggles or compete with their own employees. There secret? She understands the natural law of reciprocity. To gain loyalty, she gives loyalty. To inspire employees, she is inspired by her employees. To encourage hard work from her colleagues, she works relentlessly hard for them.

8. WILLINGNESS TO ASK FOR HELP – Thank God for my GPS! Without it, I would still be lost somewhere on the Long Island Expressway right now, since I will never, ever, ever pull over and ask for directions. For women, the story is a little (read that as: a lot) different. When a woman feels lost, she won’t hesitate to go to a knowledgeable source and ask for directions. The desire to seek out guidance allows women entrepreneurs to move faster, cover more ground, and avoid more road blocks, then the folks who don’t.

9. WORK-LIFE BALANCE – Women value and strive to create a balanced, harmonious work and family life. Because they always hold that goal in mind, they’re less likely to cave in to entrepreneurial burnout. Winning in business is a marathon — you’ve got to pace yourself, see the whole picture, take time to actually live.

10. MORE WITH LESS – Entrepreneurs who overspend will never make it. This is true no matter if the economy is up or down. Doing more with less is key if you’re going to succeed in business, not just because keeping expenses down helps your bottom line, but also because working within financial constraints leads to innovation. Women get it. Women-owned firms that bring in higher revenues than their male counterparts use an average of one-third less committed capital. Stick that in your pipe and smoke it.