When we were at the USASBE conference last weekend presenting the ACTiVATE program for an award, one woman stood up and said that she could not imagine enrolling in a woman-only program. She was a bench PhD and felt that she had learned a great deal by ‘toughing it out’ in a man’s world. I explained to her that having built my business in a very male-dominated industry I could understand her point, but from my experiences with the program through the last 3 years, I have seen a real benefit to the single-gender environment. It may not be for everyone, but for some women it made all the difference in deciding to join and succeeding in the program. Vivian Armor, one of the program’s Primary Investigators and the Director for the Alex. Brown Center for Entrepreneurship at UMBC, then pointed out that at our recent recruiting sessions, she has been asking if it mattered that the course was for women only. About half agreed that it was essential. By the end of the program, however, 100% of the participants have consistently stated that the single-gender environment was important. What changed?

The ACTiVATE program focuses on mid-career women who have already been out in the “man’s world” and been successful in it. That would lead us to believe, then, that being around all women might not be so critical. Some, like the woman mentioned above, actually feel it would be detrimental. I have to confess: several years ago I actually left a Business Roundtable because it was all women and I wanted to get male insight and advice. My perspective is different now.

While I agree that women can learn a lot from working and collaborating with men, one of the key factors in the success of this women-only entrepreneurship training was that having a single-gender environment is safe. It provides an atmosphere in which women who are already accomplished and used to being tops in their field can experiment and take risks as they learned new skills. While there are some people (insane as they are) who enjoy the discomfort of trying something new, most avoid it or at least shy away from doing so publicly. Starting a business definitely takes you out of your comfort zone. It is very different than the corporate environment and you have to rely, at least in the beginning, completely on yourself. It is not for the faint of heart, motivation, or energy.

The mutual support I have witnessed between the participants not only within the same ACTiVATE class but across all of the program’s alumnae has been inspiring. We are truly creating a New Girls Network to compete with the Old Boy’s one and we’re not alone. The Women President’s Organization provides single-gender support for women presidents with revenues over $1M. Count Me In’s Make Mine a $Million Program (for which I am a mentor) brings together women entrepreneurs who have already started a business but want to grow it beyond the magic million dollar mark. Having done that I can tell you – it’s not easy - but by bringing these women together, there is a real magic about doing it together. And it seems to be working!

An article in Tuesday’s Telegraph, a UK-based newspaper, confirms that this is not just a US phenomenon. Women all over the world are realizing that learning how to start a business within a group of other aspiring women entrepreneurs, or whatever commonalities make for an affinity group, is powerful. It doesn’t mean, however, that we should lock out the men from being involved in our business start-up or growth. It means having that like-minded support group as a base can give you an edge. The USASBE judges must have agreed. ACTiVATE won their national award for Best Specialty Entrepreneurship Education Program.

I am curious about your thoughts…agree? Disagree? If you’ve been involved with a women-only group, what was the draw for you?

Check out my Guest Blog on the Washington Post website. It is about a teaching opportunity I had with my daughter and her homework. Leslie Morgan Steiner, who writes the column/blog every day and is the Author of Mommy Wars, opens up some great topics for discussion…and there is ALWAYS a discussion!

This morning on my way to the airport returning home from an entrepreneurship conference in San Antonio (ACTiVATE won the top national award for “Specialty Entrepreneurship Education Programs”) we had an engaging conversation with our cab driver. He was asking about the conference we attended and when we mentioned entrepreneurship, we found that he had quite a lot to say around that topic. Apparently, he has had quite a history with entrepreneurship and had some interesting advice based on his experiences.

He shared that he has been starting businesses since he was a teenager and that other than self-help books out there (I didn’t ask him if he’d read The ParentPreneur Edge), he had received no business training whatsoever. His take on business is that you just have to do it. He used his vending business as an example. He went out on the first day and realized he didn’t bring enough change. The next day he went out with more change but realized he didn’t bring enough napkins. And so it went. By the end of his first couple of weeks in business, he had it down. He didn’t spend a lot of time planning out how much change he needed in the beginning – he gave himself permission to try it, be wrong, and correct it the next day. Interesting idea. Sometimes in life we just have to do it. Quit procrastinating, stop making excuses, get up off your butt, and do it.

I don’t necessarily advocate approaching everything in life or business with a complete lack of planning, but there is a place for considering it. All too often, we use uncertainty as an excuse to stall when we really should be just pushing ahead. When is the last time you just went for it. What makes you afraid to move forward?

I received an interesting e-mail from a fellow woman entrepreneur the other day that got me thinking. She was attending a trade show she hoped to one day (soon!) be exhibiting at and came across a company who appeared to be a competitor. She was devastated. Before that, she had thought she was the only one hitting her target market with the type of products she was creating. Now, she knew differently.

My first thought was that it is not uncommon for an inventor to think their product is the only one of its kind and more often than not, it’s not. Ideas seem to float around the universe with many inventions hitting the scene at the same time from two different and unconnected sources. Take the integrated circuit for example. Jack Kilby of Texas Instruments invented it in 1959 and then a few months later and completely unassociated, Robert Noyce, an engineer at Fairchild, did the same thing. Strange coincidence, isn’t it?

The other thing I realized is that competition does one of two things. It either motivates you or it completely takes the wind out of your sails. Some people view competition as a challenge and get really fired up by it. That’s great! Unfortunately I have seen many entrepreneurs who are afraid of competition when they really shouldn’t be. Think about it: if there isn’t any competition in a particular market, then either your product is so novel that no one has truly figured it out yet or else there isn’t a market. Where you see other companies selling the same thing it can actually be good news (providing the companies are successful). The truth about competition is that is means there are customers who are willing to buy. That’s a good thing!

True innovation comes when you meet a need in a different way, so the best thing you can do when you come across a new competitor is to learn everything you can about them and then go beat them at their own game.

I am really hard on myself. In talking with a good friend the other day, I was complaining about something (that now I can’t even remember what it was) and she yelled at me.

“Stop! Listen to yourself! You have achieved what many people only dream about – you are the author of a great book (The ParentPreneur Edge) that is positively impacting people all over the globe. You built and sold a successful business and you have a great husband and beautiful children…what’s your problem again?”

Julie – pity party of 1, you’re table is now available. I was busted! I encourage my class and clients to celebrate success and here I was, not taking my own advice. She was right – I needed to look at the positive – but why is that so hard sometimes? Through further discussion and another glass of wine, we decided we were both founding members of “The More Club.” It wasn’t that we wanted more money or more things; it’s just that with every accomplishment we had, we continued to raise our artificially-and-personally-imposed bar for what we had to do next. Rather than celebrating our success, we were already moving on to the next hurdle we had to cross sometimes before we’d even finished with the one we were currently jumping over. Why do we do that!?

Out of that discussion, I decided to create a “Woohoo! Journal” The name comes from a tradition we do in our family called “The Family Woohoo.” Whenever we are out as a family having a good time, any one of us can call a Family Woohoo and we all put our hands up in the air and say “WOOHOO!” Just TRY frowning after doing that…it’s pretty freeing!

The idea that I am working with for the book is that it is going to be a small, blank notebook that will fit in my purse and in it I will write anything good that happens. Big or small – it doesn’t matter. I won’t write my to-do list or items I need to shop for, just accomplishments and positive things that happen in my life. Next time I’m wallowing in self pity, I’ll open the book and remind myself what a wonderful life it really is. So what do you think of our initial sketch of a logo (on the left)?

What about you – are you a member of the More Club, too? How do you celebrate your accomplishments?