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.

Large banks like Wells Fargo, Wachovia and Key Bank have established programs aimed specifically at loaning money to women who want to grow their own businesses. Since establishing a billion dollar loan fund for women entrepreneurs, Wells Fargo has made loans to women business owners totally 28 billion dollars.

Julie Aigner-Clark was a young mom with a multi-million dollar idea based on her own personal need.

In 1997, Clark was a teacher who loved teaching kids about classical music and the arts in the classroom. But, she grew frustrated when she found nothing in stores for her toddlers to learn about the same things.

"I knew based on common sense, that if I wanted it, that there would be other parents out there who wanted it too."

Clark trusted her instincts, cobbled together her savings, and launched a series of children's educational videos called Baby Einstein. A mere five years later and with her videos flying off store shelves, Clark's entrepreneurial instincts paid off when The Baby Einstein Company enjoyed over $20 million in sales.

"I think women can be their own worst enemy. I didn't have an MBA, I'd never written a business proposal. I'd never been in an office environment. You have to believe in yourself and try to surround yourself with people who believe in your idea."

In 2001, Clark sold her business to The Walt Disney Company, reportedly for millions.

She then teamed up with "America's Most Wanted" host John Walsh to develop, "The Safe Side," videos that instruct elementary-aged kids about safety around strangers.

"I think especially for women, it's important to know what you're good at and what you're not good at. If you think you're excellent at coming up with logos and advertising then do it. But, if you're not good at having a trademark conversation with a lawyer, then know that you should have someone else do those things."

Like many working moms, Clark admits that being a businesswoman with small children wasn't easy. "With children at home, you've got to cook dinner and have a house to keep up. It does become overwhelming. When I could finally afford help, the laundry was the first to go."

Joy Mangano says she's learned that balancing work and family is possible. "There are 24 hours in a day and 7 days in a week. There is a way for women to accomplish both a successful business and make time for your family."

Twenty years ago, Mangano was a divorced mother of three young children living in a small two-bedroom apartment in Long Island, New York when she had a very simple multi-million dollar idea.

Having to constantly clean up after her kids, Mangano grew tired of bending over repeatedly to ring out her dirty mop when she cleaned the floors. So she invented a "self-wringing" mop she called, "The Miracle Mop."

Friends and family were skeptical at first. Mangano had mouths to feed and dance recitals to attend and was already struggling to make ends meet. Pouring her time and energy into peddling a mop at local businesses was risky.

Mangano was given a once-in-a-lifetime shot to sell her mops on the TV shopping channel QVC – and she nailed it. She sold an astounding 18,000 mops in one night, perhaps to many people who wondered, "Why didn't I think of that?"

Joy Mangano has never looked back.

The Home Shopping Network wooed her away from QVC and Mangano began selling a second ingenious invention.

She called them "Huggable Hangers", clothing hangers with a slim design to take up less space in your closet made of velvet so clothes won't slip off of them.

Today, about a hundred million "Huggable Hangers" later, Mangano lives in a 14-bedroom 42,000 square foot mansion just miles from that 2-bedroom apartment where she took that first risk with her "Miracle Mop."

Her motto: "Go for it."

"There is nothing insurmountable; you just change the landscape of the mountain you're going over and everything will be attainable in form or fashion."

For Robin Chase, founder of the urban car-sharing company Zipcar, starting her own business was a personal challenge generated while studying at MIT's Sloan School of Management.

"I wanted to try my hand at doing a high tech startup like my business school peers," she said. "Zipcar hooked me on the importance and centrality of transportation in our lives."

The company began 7 years ago in Boston with a small fleet of cars and has grown to 10 cities nationwide with 3,000 cars, many of which are hybrids, available for rentals by the hour, most often by city dwellers who don't have their own cars.

Chase admits that, as a working mom, she is one of the lucky ones. "I have a terrific husband and frankly my entrepreneurial endeavors would not have been possible without his support." With children ages 6, 9, and 12 at home, she says, "he was their prime caretaker and I was the 1950s dad."

"Women have to sacrifice more because right now in society they are doing more than their fair share. Most women work and also have prime childcare responsibilities as well as more than their share of the housework."

Chase stepped down as CEO of Zipcar after 3 years, but went on to start Meadow Networks, a transportation consulting company.

But she wasn't done there.

Most recently, she founded a travel sharing company called GoLoco, which she describes as "something like Facebook meets the ride board" inspired by her interest in addressing climate change.

Like other women entrepreneurs, Chases businesses were formed when she saw a need for something that wasn't there. So she decided to create them…herself.

"I would encourage women to trust their instincts more of the time. I think men do this more because they are taught to not question themselves. Women make wonderful bosses for today's world."

Chase echoes one piece of advice for women who want to start a business offered by fellow entrepreneur Joanne Shaw. "You're going to make mistakes, but never give up. Pick yourself up and dust yourself off. You never really lose until you quit."