Did you know that 3% of women businesses exceed $1 Million?

Check out Countmein.org to tips, statistics, and info on women owned businesses.

Check out this neat info graphic on business women:

To read more about this graphic click here.

What better way to ring in the New Year than with a new edition of Orange Appeal? The newsletter has been sent out and it is full of fun events to start the New Year off right!  Check it out here!

Remember, if you’d like to get the Orange Appeal Newsletter emailed directly to you, click here to subscribe.

You can also purchase a 2 year subscription for only $20.

ATHENA PowerLink and Athena alumnus Debbie Farah were recently mentioned in the Florida Trend magazine. We want to send out a big congratulations to Debbie Farah for the incredible growth of her company over the past year. She has been featured on many different television shows and newspaper and magazine articles! We are very proud of you!

The latest Orange Appeal E-Newsletter is out with all of the Holiday events around town! Check it out here!

Remember, if you’d like to get the Orange Appeal Newsletter emailed directly to you, click here to subscribe.

You can also purchase a 2 year subscription for only $20.

Leslie Pratch, a clinical psychologist, recently wrote an article about why women leaders need to have confidence in themselves. Read a summary of her thoughts below:

Enthusiasm, charisma, clear communication, strategic thinking, and “cool minded” decision making are just a few of Virginia Rometty’s leadership characteristics. On January 1, she will become the first female CEO of International Business Machines Corp. An article from the NewYork Times says self-confidence may have played into her success.

Self-confidence is one of the elements of active coping, a set of behaviors central to executive success for senior leadership roles. Research conducted by the University of Chicago School of Business investigated the longer-term personality predictors of leadership. They found that the only measure that predicted leadership for men and women alike was an overall measure of active coping that indicates the ability to respond adaptively to stress and to grow.

Gender-based expectations for behavior influence the styles and evaluations of leaders. For instance, women are expected to display high levels of social (communal) qualities (affiliation, concern of others, spontaneity) while men display high levels of agentic qualities (exertion of power, assertiveness, competence).

As a whole, these findings indicate that women have to have high self esteem and high self confidence while leading in a communal style in order to be perceived as effective leaders. In short, they must be stronger copers in order to transcend the constraints placed on their leadership style. Virginia Rometty appears to demonstrate these characteristics.

For the full article please visit http://blogs.hbr.org/cs/2011/11/women_leaders_need_self-confidence.html.

Check out the latest Orange Appeal newsletter for upcoming holiday festivities! Click here to see what is going on around town.

We hope that everyone has a safe and fulfilling Thanksgiving!

Ruth Handler – Founder of Mattel & Barbie Creator

California female entrepreneur, Ruth Handler transformed her belief of girls playing with paper dolls, to dolls with breasts being vital to the child’s self-esteem. That belief led to the icon everyone knows as Barbie. From a garage in 1945, Mattel grew to become a Fortune 500 company. Ruth’s understanding of self-image continued later in life when she developed the “Nearly Me” breast prosthesis following a mastectomy. Disliked by feminists, Handler’s ability to stick to her vision shows the trait required by all small business owners.