entrepreneuralism

The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life

admin — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 01:00:00 +0000

I’ve always admired Ivanka Trump. As the Vice President of Real Estate and Acquisitions for the Trump Organization and owner of her own luxury jewelry line, I look to her as a role model. Her first foray into literature has been wildly successful, landing on the New York Times Bestseller List and garnering praise from the publishing community. Although the book starts out promising enough, with Trump refusing to apologize for the advantages she has enjoyed, her sage and learned advice begins to take a backdrop to anecdotes about her privilege.

Throughout the book, Trump attempts to prove that her success is not a product of her family name but of her hard work. This assertion, however, is undermined by constant references to her less-than-ordinary upbringing. Few if any people other than Ivanka Trump can boast that Michael Jackson attended their childhood ballet recital, nor could they brag about having a “part-time job” as a world-class fashion model while in school. Many of Trump’s youthful recollections involve some of the most influential people in the world and, while fascinating to read, discredit the notion that hard work will yield success similar to Trump’s.

Contrary to Trump’s belief, her career trajectory cannot be credited to hard work, at least not exclusively. Her refusal to acknowledge that high profile connections have played a role in her development is absurd. Prior to graduating from college, Trump was offered an internship at Vogue by Anna Wintour, the magazine’s editor-in-chief. I sincerely doubt that even the most brilliant fashion journalist with limited connections would be offered such a coveted position from the editor herself—and prior to graduation, no less.

It’s true that Trump’s successes are her own, but her book overlooks the fact that success comes from being in the right place at the right time, and is dependent upon having the opportunity to excel. Trump tries to downplay this notion, but I believe it is something that she understands intrinsically. Her book is called The Trump Card after all, undoubtedly a strategic decision to capitalize off of her family’s famous name. Branding the book as “Trump certified” probably didn’t hinder her chances of securing a publisher, either.

The Trump Card is an interesting read, but it is misleading to categorize it as “business and economics” literature. While the book offers generic career advice, it mainly serves to remind the reader that with hard work and persistence anyone can achieve extraordinary success, provided that they have a billionaire father.

Written by: Cheryl Santa Maria, August 11th 2010

Enterprising Women in Urban Zimbabwe: Gender, Microbusiness, and Globalization

admin — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:52:00 +0000

By Mary Johnson Osirim

Indiana University Press

In the early 1990s, Mary Osirim took a team of interviewers to several urban areas in Zimbabwe to learn about the lives and financial status of women working in the “microenterprise sector.” She found that while women were largely excluded from education and much of the Zimbabwean economy, some had found a niche as crocheters, seamstresses, hairdressers, and “market traders” in fruits and vegetables and other goods.

There is plenty of sociological theory—the author is, after all, an eminent sociologist—much of it concerning the damage wrought by globalization generally and more specifically by the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and the Economic Structural Adjustment Program of 1991, which seem here to overshadow colonialism and even patriarchy as root causes of poverty and oppression. And there are a lot of statistics: “Seventy-nine percent of the traders reported that they made all decisions about the use of profits from their enterprises”—which are suggestive, if taken from small sample sizes.

The essence of Enterprising Women in Urban Zimbabwe is in the voices of the women themselves. These women are trying to survive in jobs that have them vending in outdoors stalls in all weather and economic vagaries—many of them providing for families and extended families. The interviewers ask questions like “Why did you start this business?” and “Who makes the decisions in your family?” and “Does your husband assist with domestic duties?” The answers, although too often painfully synoptic, provide a mixed picture of these women’s experiences. Many of them are living on dreams deferred, still hoping that a career as nurse or air hostess is not entirely out of reach.

One crocheter reports, “I’m happy because [my husband] does not hit me. I live nicely. He gives me money.” One of the recurrent themes embedded here is the struggle for autonomy as made manifest in the women’s earnings: “Husband makes decisions about money and bills.” In some of the accounts, one can hear echoes of the novels of Buchi Emecheta, although her work captures a different time and place.

Time and place present a problem in this study. First, the interviews are fifteen years old, and so are most of the bibliographic references. In the Zimbabwe of the early 1990s, many apparently held out hope that Robert Mugabe would acknowledge the role women played in gaining Zimbabwean independence by creating meaningful reforms allowing women greater access to education and the workplace. Locating the study specifically in Zimbabwe is also somewhat problematic in that the workers are “cross-border traders" coming from, traveling to, and trading with nations throughout the region. In the strictest sense, their lives and experiences are not exclusively Zimbabwean.

Still, Enterprising Women in Urban Zimbabwe is a valuable report on the status of a worldwide phenomenon; the term “enterprising women” is more a generic label than a specific title: the transformative possibility of women’s entrepreneurial work throughout the world. At least in terms of this report, the experience of women in “microbusiness” has mitigated poverty for some, brought some measure of financial independence for some, and has changed the lives of a few. Overall, though, it does not, at least in Zimbabwe, seem to have had large-scale transforming effects in either the status of women or in the patriarchal traditions or the laws that still oppress them.

Written by: Rick Taylor, October 2nd 2009

The Boss of You: Everything A Woman Needs to Know to Start, Run, and Maintain Her Own Business

admin — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:13:00 +0000

By Lauren Bacon, Emira Mears

Seal Press

Have you ever thought the world might be ready for your hand knit tea cozy business? The successful owners of Raised Eyebrow Web Studios, Lauren Bacon and Emira Mears, have written a business book for women entrepreneurs who want to define their own success: The Boss of You: Everything A Woman Needs to Know to Start, Run, and Maintain Her Own Business. According to the authors, this is the book they wish they'd had when starting their business. Bacon and Mears interviewed several successful businesswomen and used their own experience to write a book about starting and maintaining a viable, independent business.

The Boss of You is split up into three sections. The focus of first section is defining a vision for your business, developing a plan, and coming up with financial scenarios. Bacon and Mears encourage readers to figure out the goals for their business (e.g., serving locally grown vegetarian food or being at home when the kids come home from school) and coming up with personal measures of success. Bacon and Mears also discuss the pros and cons of developing a business plan and advise its development if one is seeking outside funding, whether from a financial institution or a rich aunt).

The second section deals primarily with marketing your new business and features helpful tips on addressing your potential audience, developing marketing materials (e.g., hiring a graphic designer to develop a logo and company identity), advertising and promoting your business, public relations, and networking. Bacon and Mears suggest enlisting the help of friends and family to be your first focus group and to honestly tell you what works and doesn’t work for your product or service. They also focus heavily on networking with other female entrepreneurs to discuss business strategies or just to unwind after a difficult week.

In the final section Bacon and Mears focus on growing and maintaining your business. There are tips on hiring employees, customer service, and expanding your business. There is an additional resource section at the end of the book that includes recommended websites and books on the topics of writing a business plan, setting up an online storefront, networking, and swapping services with other business owners.

Bacon and Mears have written an encouraging business book for the indie business owner and DIY crowd. Throughout the book, the authors offer opportunities to make useful lists and write down goals, budgets, and new ideas. If I were going to quit my day job and start a business, The Boss of You is the book I’d want on my shelf.

Written by: Rekesha Spellman, August 4th 2008

Shapeshifters

admin — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 11:51:00 +0000

By Invincible

Emergence Music

The state of mainstream hip-hop is pretty damn depressing. The entire genre has been declared dead a number of times, and the best of a generation make reality shows instead of change. Similarly, the city of Detroit has been ridiculed as economically depressed and full of unprosecuted crime in the shadow of police scandals that have come to prominence again this year. Some might say these are symptoms of a dying city, if it not a dead one. Of the respective states of Detroit and hip-hop, it is also sometimes said that one death begets the other. So how is it that one could make such pronouncements about this city and the underground hop-hop movement, then witness such a birth from such supposed death? Perhaps the stories in newspapers don’t tell the whole truth. Wouldn’t be the first time.

So this leads us to easily understand the intro track titled “State of Emergency” on Shapeshifters, the debut album by Invincible. A wildly talented Palestinian MC, who grew up in Detroit Rock City and is a longtime member of the ANoMoLies all-female crew, her rhymes are continuous fresh breathes of air in a purportedly stifled creative environment.

This is where we are: a critical juncture in social movements and humanity. So why, if we’re so dead and doomed, is every positive, hopeful Invincible beat and lyric so right on? Explained in the liner notes, an unofficial motto of Detroit remains “opportunity in crisis,” legitimized further by albums like this one, self-built distribution rising up behind it. Despite being previously offered million-dollar record deals, Invincible created Emergence , what she hopes will serve as a distribution model for others working outside the system. She raps, she organizes, she has activist-based business savvy. What doesn’t this woman, this album represent? As she puts it in “Looongawaited”: “I’m striving to be one of the best, period/Not just one of the best with breasts and a period.”

The album features a slew of talented Detroit MCs including Finale, and local Detroit City activist/expert folk like Grace Lee Boggs, Gwen Mingo, and Ron Scott (who is, in full disclosure, a good friend of mine). Many of these collaborators are also featured in the docu-music-video that is included on the CD: “Locusts.” The themes on this album, and in the "Locusts" video, don’t make sense to me just because I have family from the same geographical area and grew up personally understanding small town Midwestern deprivation. These stories of gentrification, destruction, and rebirth are universal. And from a strictly artistic perspective, this album has me nothing but excited about recognizable, reworked samples and one of the most tightly produced revolutionary blueprints I’ve put in my boombox since discovering Dead Prez’s Let’s Get Free.

Invinicible says it herself: “My job is to make the revolution irresistible” (“State of Emergency”). A line from “Looongawaited,” and from the CD jacket, is important in a downloading age (a time I admit to reveling in): “You want good music/You gotta support it.” So, go do it. Best music purchase of the year. I'll put money on it.

Written by: Brittany Shoot, July 23rd 2008

Full-Time Woman, Part-Time Career: Launching a Flexible Business That Fits Your Life, Feeds Your Family, and Fuels Your Brain

admin — Thu, 12 Apr 2007 12:04:00 +0000

By Karen Steede Terry

CMS Press

As an independent woman who has considered on more than one occasion the seemingly pie-in-the-sky idea of starting my own business, I tore through Karen Steede Terry’s Full Time Woman, Part Time Career with as much élan as I tear through anything chocolate. I hoped to uncover a treasure-trove of secrets that could set me on the path to a great new career beginning. I was not disappointed, but after reading, I am acutely aware of the energy and persistence necessary to start up a small business. So, although the book has not quite persuaded me fleet-footed toward self-employed stardom, it is most certainly a resource that any goal-oriented, dedicated woman can turn to for solid advice.

If any woman is capable of addressing the nuts and bolts of starting up and running a small-business whilst balancing family obligations, it is Terry. Her credentials boast her success in software instruction, as well as consultations to Fortune 500 companies and state agencies. But the real draw Terry offers is that any woman can be prosperous both professionally and personally if she is committed. Proof lies in the book’s interspersed profiles of several women who have achieved their career goals through self-employment. These mini-biographies provide the reader both like-minded role models and practical business counsel. Jenny Harrison, a part time software and programming languages instructor, contributes valuable advice regarding individual endeavors into launching a business: “Don’t work part time if you think it’s going to be easy or that you’re going to get rich. It’s the flexibility you are gaining that’s important.”

It is this flexibility that Terry emphasizes throughout her book. The advantages a part time home business yields range from an increase in professional development opportunities, to writing off taxes for an office located in the home, to customized vacation time. The drawbacks of self-employment are to be seriously considered but fortunately, they are few, and Terry gives the reader a great deal of support with ideas for part time businesses – professional coaching, freelance writing, and public speaking among them – tips on how best to market oneself and maintain a professional image, and myriad resources to set the enthusiastic career woman on her way. To that end, the investment of time and energy put into starting one’s own business is far outshined by the rewards of doing so. As Ms. Terry herself professes, “No guts, no glory!” No glory indeed.

Written by: Ixta J. Menchaca, April 12th 2007