Top Entrepreneurs Say Take Risks, Follow Your Gut

June 29, 2007 — -- Take risks, trust your instincts, rely on help from loved ones, and never give up. These are words of wisdom from a few of the most successful women entrepreneurs today.

Joanne Shaw, President and CEO of The Coffee Beanery, is one of them.

But, go back to 1976 just months after she opened the doors to her first specialty coffee store in Dearborn, Michigan and Shaw recalls turning to her husband and saying, "Oh gosh. I'm not sure this was such a good idea."

Turns out, Shaw had an excellent idea and, today, The Coffee Beanery operates in twenty-eight states and seven countries.

Throughout her thirty years as a successful entrepreneur, Shaw has learned that taking risks is an essential part of success. She urges any woman who aspires to own her own business not to be afraid of the unknown. "Without risk", says Shaw, "you're never going to accomplish anything."

Shaw was a 33-year old mother of two young boys who ran a business delivering specialty coffee to local offices when she had an idea. Why not try selling specialty coffees to shoppers at the mall?

So, Shaw left the distribution business in the hands of her husband and took out loans to put her idea into action. "I leased everything from the hot water heater to the signs I put out in front of the store."

"Most people didn't know about espresso unless they had traveled in Europe. It was a brand new idea here. It was the Pepsi generation when a lot of people were drinking soda" says Shaw.

"We converted non-coffee drinkers to coffee drinkers by fulfilling their need for something sweet." Shaw created a dessert coffee that had chocolate and whipped cream on it and her customers went wild.

With the help of a very supportive husband who helped with the kids and household chores, Shaw opened nine stores in eight years.

According to the Center for Women's Business Research, an estimated 7.7 million businesses in the United States that employ more than 7.1 million people are majority owned by women.

For the past two decades women-owned businesses have been growing at twice the rate of all businesses. One reason for this is the increasing access women entrepreneurs have to financing.