Attending a Middle East/North Africa Businesswomen’s summit in Tunisia in 2005 as one of a handful of US delegates teamed with 200 women business owners from 15 countries across that region changed my life. Prior to that, I honestly didn’t know Arab women could own businesses. After meeting them and talking with them, I learned that not only are there women entrepreneurs in the Middle East but they experience many of the same challenges that we do. Outside of religious and cultural issues, the day-to-day issues and needs are the same across the globe. We talked about communication issues, marketing challenges, hiring a management team, and planning for your business exit. One evening I had an engaging conversation with a women who owned a chocolate factory in Jordan and we discussed the positive things that our being entrepreneurs has taught our children. I knew then that my passion for empowering women in entrepreneurship needed to go global.

One of the projects I am honored to be working on is a committee for a public/private partnership to help women entrepreneurs in Iraq. The U.S.-Iraqi Businesswomen’s Partnership has been formed between the U.S. State Department and various women’s organizations to pair women entrepreneurs in the U.S. with women business owners in Iraq. Yes, women in Iraq can own a business, but they face many of the same challenges that we do here in the US without much access to business assistance or support. Our hope is that by teaming success-minded women together across the great cultural divide in a non-partisan way will foster not only increased understanding and respect but ultimately lead to a growth in the women-owned business in Iraq, leading to greater economic empowerment. We are still recruited American Women Entrepreneurs so if you are interested in giving back on a global level (don’t worry – no travel is involved!), check out the program description and let me know you’re interested! Hurry - the program starts in Mid-June…

Instead of buying a volleyball and naming it Wilson or driving your spouse and friends crazy talking about your business, what are some ways you can combat loneliness when you’re just getting started?

Networking can have terrifying connotations to some people and a new book by Lynne Waymon called Make Your Contacts Count provides great advice and tools for productive networking. For others like me, networking represents an adventure. I love meeting new people and learning about what they do. So many incredible opportunities have emerged in my life because of the people I have met. I found early in my business, though, that I had to choose carefully which associations or events I attend. First, I had to determine what I wanted to get out of the group. Were these potential customers, service providers or connectors? If none of the above, then I at least needed to admit that I was just going for the food.

One of the best-kept secrets for fledgling businesses, especially technical businesses, are business incubators. I wish I had known about them when I was starting out 12 years ago. Not only do they offer office space, but many offer a variety of consulting services to help young companies get off the ground. Additionally, the collection of relatively young businesses can remove the isolation so often accompanying a single-person launch. Even if you aren’t ready or don’t need to move out of your house, many have affiliate programs that give the entrepreneur access to the services and networking opportunities without having to pay for actual office space.

The bottom line is that there is a whole world of opportunity for connecting outside of your office. In addition to combating the isolation associated with start-up, you might just find some business connections you can use!

I was talking with my friend the other day when she lamented how tired she was of her routine. It wasn’t that she didn’t like her chosen profession - she loved what she did. She was just tired of it following the same pattern, the same drudgery day in and day out. I had to admit to her – I had no idea what she was talking about. Ever since the first day I went out on my own 12 years ago, I can’t say that sameness has been a problem. On the contrary, there are days when I wish I could know what to expect.

If you find that you are comfortable with routine and like to know what is going to happen next, don’t become an entrepreneur (or a mother, for that matter!). You don’t know when, you don’t know where, but you can be sure that things will not go as planned at some point. In my book I call this “Spit (up) Happens” and the best advice I can give new business owners is to expect the unexpected. For example, I started the company without contracts – I did work based on a hand shake. When our first large (six figure) opportunity came up, I knew in my gut we had to formalize the agreement. Even though I had a strong relationship with this client and there was a great deal of trust between us, I had to treat the transaction as just business. It was a good thing I did, because shortly after it turned into a multi-million dollar deal, my customer was bought out by a multi-billion dollar company. I would have been at risk of losing the business had I not had our agreement formalized.

Do you have anything that you have done to prepare for the unexpected? How about  going against your gut instinct and then regretting it?

I am not a television watcher, but when an idea wakes you up in the wee hours of the morning, the TV offers some company in the otherwise silent night. This morning a rerun of “Roseanne” was on, which I didn’t watch when it was on prime time but was better than being sold on losing 115 pounds in 8 months with a body makeover.

This particular episode had a humorous exchange between two men – one was crying over a lost love and the other was not particularly good at dealing with emotions. His advice to his sobbing friend was to ‘get over it.’ He told him to quit his crying, dust himself off, and move on. What refreshing advice.

How many times do we spend too much energy over-analyzing a failure? It is natural to mourn a loss or be sad when things don’t work out the way we wanted, but to let a disappointment paralyze us or keep us from doing what needs to be done is criminal. Evaluate the situation, learn from it what you can, and move on! Bad things happen and while there are some things we can do nothing about, we can control how we react.

One of my first management hires in my company years ago was a gentleman who had a lot more management experience than I did, but his approach was not consistent with our culture. I gave this man too much leeway and it cost me. He lasted about five months, which was four months too long. In the end, I felt like a failure. However, when I looked at what I learned from it, I realized the lesson was a valuable one and helped me to continue to grow my business.

Successful entrepreneurs have mastered the art of learning from failure. Read Rich Dad Robert Kiyosaki’s book, Before You Quit Your Job and you’ll see how many times he failed but learned from the experience. Sometimes, you can even learn more from a failure than from success – it’s all in how you look at it. So when is the last time you failed? If you’re not failing, you’re not taking enough risks.