Strategies and Tactics for Women by Dr. Shannon Reece

Welcome to the Weekly Wrap Up!

Nothing is more misleading than the start-up stories that depict overnight success. More often than not, people neglect to be completely transparent and share the struggles and actual timeline that lead to their business making it onto the map. This week I looked for honest stories of hard work, perseverance, great ideas and belief in self that led entrepreneurs to their success. The only way to make the entrepreneurial journey easier is to pursue something with determination that taps into your talent.

This weekly wrap up was designed to share the blogs, websites and/or businesswomen that I found particularly helpful this week.  My top blog picks this week center around Tips to Start-Up Smart. Enjoy!


Top Blog Picks

Matt Michiewicz: How I Started 99designs

Matt Michiewicz started his first business at 14, and not too much later founded 99designs.com (@99designs).  Talk about a start-up whiz! See his top 3 start-up challenges and how he successfully overcame them in this post from Entrepreneur.com.  By the way, 99designs.com is a great service with an amazing talent pool right at your finger tips.  My experience with them has been outstanding!

Nike Women & The ‘Make Yourself’ Movement

Named one of Nike’s top women bloggers, Lisa Barone, Founder of Outspoken Media, shares her story of how she “made herself.” Her two secrets to success have been a solid belief in herself, and an intense desire to prove naysayers wrong. See how she transformed her life and business when she started to laser focus on her message and stopped spending time thinking about what critics might have to say out it.

Seeking Startup Advice? Look No Further Than Your Pizza Box

Not to be a killer of dreams, but not everyone can become the next founder of something like Facebook. Be smart about the business your decide to pursue. A small idea can turn into something really big. From a meager start in a converted broom closet, John Schnatter, founder of Papa Johns Pizza (@PapaJohns), developed a large-scale business by offering a simple upgrade to an already high demand product. See the lessons you can learn from his success in this additional post from Entrepreneur.com

Lesson #4: Infuse Your Company with a Survival Mentality

From Evan Carmichael comes a great post about Anita Roddick, founder of The Body Shop. What started out as a mean for supporting her family, Roddick’s survival instinct become the foundation of her hugely successful enterprise. Through her scrappy approach she learned to innovate, a strategy the company continues to utilize.


Featured Site
A great site for information on business, money, career, life and style, LittlePinkBook.com is one stop shopping. It’s like “Daily Candy” for women in business, and was recognized by Forbes as a Top 100 Women’s Website in 2010. Founded by Cynthia Good, Pink offers a daily digest to help women achieve equality in business, and is a wonderful resource I recommend you explore. Find out more @LittlePINKBook.


Woman of Excellence
Congratulations to Fire Starter Extraordinaire herself, Danielle LaPorte, Founder of White Hot Truth!  This professional powerhouse is the epitome of feisty and brilliant rolled into one. As a “strategic and intuitive business advisor,” Danielle teaches no-holds-barred authenticity through entrepreneurship.

I love, love, love what she said recently, “You need to be who you are and what you stand for…Not being yourself is very risky business.” I am still getting to know the extent of what Danielle teaches, but everything has resonated so strongly with me, that I am motivated to learn more. If you want to do the same, you can find her on Twitter @DanielleLaPorte, and might be interested in listening to her interview with Jonathan Fields.


That wraps up this post. I hope you enjoyed my picks for the week.
In case you were wondering, I have no affiliate relationship with anyone I call to your attention on this blog. This is simply my way of spreading the news about information and individuals I have found particularly helpful.
Until next week, keep reading, keep learning, keep growing!