Did you see the record number of women among Australia 100 fastest growing start-up companies?

Huge congratulations to these admirable role-models featured on the just-out BRW Fast Starters list.

There are 18 women chief executives and 38 (or 20%) female founders—but as the Australian business magazine points out, this means women are still under-represented among Fast Starters.

The inspiring 18 women CEOs run companies in fields as diverse as electrical cabling wholesaling, immigration law and online retail to photography and recruitment. That is triple the number from the previous year.

And of course, big congratulations to the men among the list, too.

THE DOWNSIDE

BUT it was also interesting to see the downside—the lack of life work balance.

As the report put it: ‘A common characteristic of the owners of fast growing businesses is their unrelenting work ethic.’

Translated, this means:

• Nearly one-third of the entrepreneurs on the list clocked up more than 60 hours a week
• Another third devoted between 50 and 60 hours a week
• 66% admitted to being contactable at all hours every day

Here’s some of that downside spelt out:

• More than 40% experienced anxiety and 4% depression since starting
• More than 30% relationship stresses (including divorces)
• 13% reported some degree of loneliness

Their solution?

Many business owners who suffered burnout or similar said reconnecting with their family and friends and achieving a greater work life balance were crucial to their recovery.

BRW reporter Kath Walters says of the women: ‘Today’s fast women are younger, more hopeful, more ambitious, more comfortable with risk.’

Let’s hope they’re also ensuring they have some life work flow, too!

When the President and First Lady of the most powerful country in the world hold a conference pushing for more flexible work conditions, it must be time to celebrate the coming of age of work life balance. Mustn’t it?

It was most impressive to see US President and Mrs Obama convene the White House forum celebrating more flexible work situations, such as telecommuting and flexible hours or job sharing and part-year work.

We’ve long quoted Michelle Obama on the topic. She’s often spoken about the realities and guilt that come with trying to be the best mother while also being the best worker.

Here are just 6 points from the event worth repeating:

Some words from President Obama…

• Workplace flexibility isn’t just a women’s issue.  It’s an issue that affects the well-being of our families and the success of our businesses.  It affects the strength of our economy — whether we’ll create the workplaces and jobs of the future we need to compete in today’s global economy.
• And ultimately, it reflects our priorities as a society — our belief that no matter what each of us does for a living, caring for our loved ones and raising the next generation is the single most important job that we have.  I think it’s time we started making that job a little easier for folks.

And some from First Lady Michelle Obama…

• But here’s the thing: As we all know here today, it just doesn’t have to be that way, doesn’t have to be that hard. And that’s something that I learned for myself, not just as an employee but as a manager, when I discovered that the more flexibility that I gave to my staff to be good parents, and I valued that, the happier my staff was likely to be and the greater chance they were to stay and not leave, because they knew they might not find the same kind of flexibility somewhere else.

A new White House report also showed that flexibility actually improved productivity. And we know from our research that our perception of flexibility made women believe they had work life balance.

Finally, a telling statistic from the conference:

• Today, two-thirds of American families with kids are ‘juggler families’ where there is no spouse at home full time to deal with many routine and emergency family needs.  This is the complete reversal of the situation in 1970 when almost two-thirds of married couples had one spouse at home.

So what’s happening in your work place? And have you started your own company to give yourself flexibility?

Here are the next series of trends following on from last week. These are great to help you better understand consumer thinking and the changing needs and wants of your customers.

5. Buy Local

Demand is soaring for locally grown and made products which is great for small business owners and local communities with most of the money coming back into the community. According to Entrepreneur, the buy local thinking comes from the growth in the farmers markets. In the US alone there are almost 5,000 farmers markets across the country, and they are experiencing more than 5percent annual growth for the past five years. Consumers are seeking out cheaper, healthier options locally.

Are you able to source from local suppliers? If you can, do it. If the costs seem prohibitive or the supply is inconsistent – talk to the supplier and other businesses and see if you collectively find solutions. I know a business that was able to save significantly on their distribution costs after talking to other local businesses and establishing a group distribution system with a local transportation company.

Don’t forget to tell your customers you support local suppliers.

6. Flourishing Pet Industry (Comfort Seeking?)

The recession hasn’t phased the pet industry. While owners may be cutting back on spending on themselves they continue to look after their pets. The American Pet Products Association revealed total pet spending in 2008 topped a whopping $43 billion. The forecast for 2009 is $45.4 billion. Pets can provide great comfort at times of stress – and economically we’ve certainly had plenty of stress.

If you’re in the pet industry – capitalise on the increased spending. If you’re not, do you offer something to help your customers feel happy and comforted? Another example is comfort food – which is always popular during tough times. Last year when the sales of cars through to organic groceries was slowing, chocolate sales continued to climb. Swiss chocolate makers had record sales as did Thorntons in the UK.

7. Constant Partial Attention or also known as Constant Partial Stupidity

With the barrage of media that we are constantly monitoring our attention is becoming fragmented. We are dealing with so much digital information we have no hope of remembering and with our minds in many different places our thinking becomes scattered and we face avoidable mistakes… It’s like our brain is trying to multi-task far beyond what we have expected of it before as we try to do more things and faster.

Richard Watson of NowandNext.com has some great examples: missing an appointment because you read an email too fast and didn’t see the footnote about the last minute change of venue…struggling to remember the increasing number of passwords, so that getting money out of an ATM is a bit of a lottery…simply forgetting phone numbers including your home telephone number.

Many people are struggling because we are in a world of too much information and not enough functioning memory. According to Watson, “human attention is finite so inventing new distractions like Twitter is all very well but there are consequences, such as our inability not to notice or remember simple bits of information.”

Look at ways you can make it easy for your customer and show them you understand their desires and needs.  Send them reminders – and personalise them. Don’t add to the digital load – but look at other ways to reach them. ‘Lumpy mail’ (direct mail in the post) is popular again because it reaches people differently to the mainstream.

8. Digital Isolation

As we have become more connected in our digital world we are also feeling more isolated. We are creating and joining lots of online communities but the connection is an illusion. We can now share with a global audience what we are doing each day – but are they really friends?? As Watson puts it: “how can any friendship be properly maintained in 140 characters.” Research in the US has found that American’s have fewer real friends. Loneliness and depression are likely to continue to rise. Let’s hope there is also a push back from digital friendships, with time being instead spent on building real relationships, with a focus on quality not quantity.

Great opportunity here for any business or product that helps people reconnect with family and friends or helps people to think about what is important to them and gives them information and tools to give attention to the important things.  Show your customers how you understand and you can respond to their need to reconnect.

Sources: Richard Watson, 2010+, 10 Trends and Provocations, January 2010,

 UK Trends, Entrepreneur.com 2010

Business Market Forces Live, 7 October, 2009, The Guardian,

UK Chocolate Sales A Sweet Spot in the Recession, April , Time, USA

Already the months of 2010 are marching by.. but as a business woman or entrepreneur, have you taken the time to consider what trends are for predicted for the next 12 – 18 months and what they might mean for you in your business? Well in this four part series we will share with you some of the interesting trends that we can expect to see both personally and in business- and some we are already experiencing.

1. Economic Confidence
Economic stimulus will be driven from the recession. This ‘upside-down economy’ is creating lots of entrepreneurial opportunities if you’re prepared for change and instability. Results from a US job market index (Challenger, Gray & Christmas) revealed that 8.7 percent of job seekers gained employment by starting their own businesses in the second quarter 2009–up from the record low of 2.7 percent during the last quarter of 2008.

Successful business women and entrepreneurs manage change successfully by looking at ways to improve their flexibility and adaptive capacity. Manage your cashflow to help you ride out lows. Make sure your business plan includes a risk assessment and strategies you will follow if particular scenarios eventuate.

2. Re-sourcing
The tide is turning on companies outsourcing activities to developing economies because of cost. Customers are starting to increasingly question the social, environmental and ethical costs of the products they are buying and they are seeking transparency. In response companies are starting to look locally. For example, Steif the German toy maker moved all its production facilities back to Germany from China because “money isn’t everything.” The prediction is that this change will start with companies offering luxury products and services bringing their outsourced components such as call centres and production plants back home.

What are the social, environmental and ethical costs of your products or services? Make sure your customers and suppliers know about the efforts you are making to minimise these costs.

3. Expecting Less
With social, environmental and ethical considerations increasingly central to discussion and decisions, there has been a shift in thinking from the individual to the group where the needs of others need to be addressed. This shift means sharing- so some people will get more and others will get less than what they are used to. To accommodate this change we’re seeing people buying less, learning to make do with less, mending things rather than replacing them. Fad or a long term change – who is to know?

Irrespective of how long this trend is around for, it is useful to consider how you are able to demonstrate to your customers and suppliers your products and services provide value for money and if relevant, their longevity.

4. Conspicuous Non-Consumption
Where with expecting less you do so because you believe what you are doing is right, this point acknowledges some people want others to notice their actions. So a behaviour we can expect to see is of some people wanting to be green and being recognised by others for doing so. They will seek out opportunities to flaunt their ‘good behaviour’ and demonstrate how much of a trend setter they are. Great for others to see more hybrid cars on the road – but the personal conviction needs to be behind their behaviour to bring about significant impacts.

As a business woman can you see an opportunity to appeal to the ‘trendsetter’ with your products, branding and communications?

With special guest Dr Doris Jeanette of the Center for New Psychology in Philadelphia.

“Women feel more guilt and there are so many extra expectations on women, especially those with children at home.”

These, or similar words, we’ve heard from so many working moms that we decided to find a way to help all of us who are torn by guilt. That’s why we set up Guilt Free Business Mothers - and why we are finishing this special webinar series with this vital topic.

Is guilt something you live with? Or find difficult to handle?
Would you like some clear thinking by an psychologist not only expert in this area but with proven strategies to help ditch the guilt?

This week Valerie McDougall and Jayne Jennings of Guilt Free Business Mothers will be revealing the 7 Ways to Avoid the Guilt Trap in a live public webinar they are providing free as part of a 7 week series: The 7 Essentials to Guilt Free Living for Business Mothers.

Listeners this week will also discover why our special guest calls guilt ‘the worst experience known to humans’.

Change your outlook, and maybe your life, as you discover:
1. What causes guilt
2. Why guilt is so widespread among women
3. The 7 essential steps to stopping guilt?
4. How we keep ourselves on track, guilt free … and more!

Register here for the webinar. There will be some great giveaways announced during the call so don’t forget to register!

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This week’s webinar is part of a special 7 week series: 7 Essentials to Guilt Free Living for Business Mothers. The series is being offered FREE to celebrate the launch of Guilt Free Business Mothers.com. Valerie McDougall and Jayne Jennings, together with 7 successful entrepreneurial women will be sharing their powerful and practical secrets and strategies for guilt free living for mothers and working moms who are serious about growing their business AND being there for their children. They reveal the really practical and highly effective actions that set them apart from the mothers who seem to constantly struggle with competing demands.

We all know that parenting can be hard work as a business woman. Research shows that women who start a business to get some degree of flexibility for family life can end up working double-shifts – working on the business and then coming home to household chores. There is washing, cleaning, cooking and children’s homework to deal, plus ensuring time for conversation and cuddles. No wonder we are exhausted at the end of the week and then it all starts again all too soon.

This week Valerie McDougall and Jayne Jennings of Guilt Free Business Mothers will discuss how we can simplify our daily lives to make parenting that little bit easier for ourselves, in a live public teleseminar they are providing free as part of a 7 week series: The 7 Essentials for Guilt Free Living for Business Mothers.

We get told we don’t have to be superwomen. Yet in reality it is hard to stop striving – we want to make our businesses a success and certainly want to be the best mothers we can be – then there are always more bills to pay to keep us on our toes. So it is a hard to slow down and get off the treadmill. But by following 7 practical steps you will realise it is possible to simplify your daily family life and enjoy the journey a whole lot more – plus save yourself some time and money.

Guilt Free Business Mothers with special guest, Nicole Avery of Planning with Kids, will share with you some great practically ideas to help you each day. You will discover:

1. How you can lead a simpler life – without investing a lot of time to make it possible
2. The 7 steps to simplifying your daily family life?
3. Simple things we can do each day to help us keep on track and keep things simple
4. And more..

To register for the teleseminar simply click on the link: http://www.guiltfreebusinessmothers.com/teleseminars.html There will be some great giveaways announced during the teleseminar. So don’t forget to register!

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This week’s Teleseminar is part of a special 7 week series: 7 Essentials for Guilt Free Living for Business Mothers. The series is being offered FREE to celebrate the launch of Guilt Free Business Mothers.com. Valerie McDougall and Jayne Jennings, together with 7 successful entrepreneurial women will be sharing their powerful and practical secrets and strategies for guilt free living for mothers who are serious about growing their business AND being there for their children. They reveal the really practical and highly effective actions that set them apart from the mothers who seem to constantly struggle with competing demands.

Guilt Free Business Mothers.com is an online resource for business mothers who want to grow successful businesses AND be there for their children — easily and without guilt. The focus is on providing practical and easy strategies for saving time and making money. From their research and personal experiences, Valerie and Jayne believe that ultimately they are the keys to getting rid of guilt and achieving success in business and as a mother.

After giving time and energy to our families and work or business, how hard is it to find any more for our relationships! It’s seems I am not alone. A US survey of working moms found that nearly 70% felt guilty about not giving enough time to their spouse, children or other relationships in their lives.

Why is this happening to us? Well…

• For the first time, more women than men are now in paid employment in the US
• Women are increasingly starting up their own businesses
• This economic empowerment of women is arguably the biggest social change of our times, according to the Economist
• But as the magazine also stated: Coping with this change will be one of the great challenges of the coming decades

The impact on our relationships is one of the challenges we face as divorce rates continue to increase. Interestingly, leading British organizational psychologist, Professor Cary Cooper of Lancaster University, said: “Societies where people are having to work excessively long hours are not good because [people] can’t invest in their relationships or private lives.”

None of us want things at home to start to unravel – but there is every chance they will if we don’t work on our relationships – and we could end up spending a lot more time and energy picking up the pieces if we don’t as well. Another thing to consider is being the best role model for our kids. What are they learning from you about the important relationships in their lives?

Well I love my partner and would hate to not have him in my life. So I know I have to make an effort. But I have to admit it isin’t always easy as time goes by to come up with something new and fun. So I am really looking forward to talking with a relationship coach as part of the 7 Essentials to Guilt Free Living free webinar series. She is going to talk about how to have a delicious relationship as a business woman and mother. I am looking forward to getting some ideas to get a bit more fun and spark into my relationship. If you think this sounds good, register at: www.guiltfreebusinessmothers.com/teleseminars.html

Women’s hormones are often a taboo subject, particularly in the business arena. Yet as women the health of our hormones has a huge impact on how we feel and behave and our overall health and energy levels. Research is now revealing that working women, in particular working moms, are experiencing radical changes in their hormones which can significantly impact how they feel, behave and even their appearance.

This week Valerie McDougall and Jayne Jennings of Guilt Free Business Mothers will tackle this subject head-on in a webinar they are providing f*ree as part of a 7 week series: The 7 Essentials for Guilt Free Living for Business Mothers. Listeners this week will learn what the research is revealing about the changes in women’s hormones and discover some valuable tips on keeping hormones happy.

Most of us women take the functioning of our hormones for granted – they do what they do and we just have to cope with any changes they throw at us. But let’s take some time to think about them for a minute. Do you notice any changes in the way you feel each month? Some days do you lack energy and feel grumpy for no reason or become anxious about things that would normally not bother you? You may be experiencing the signs that are becoming increasingly common among working women. As women are juggling multiple roles, following men up the corporate ladders, matching them on the sports field and generally becoming more stressed trying to do it all we are seeing hormone changes. Women are experiencing increased levels of testosterone – reaching levels similar to those in men. That’s right, women are turning into men.

From recent research by Queensland naturopath and health adviser Sam Beau Patrick the results are very clear. This is happening to women. As working moms we are all at risk. So what can you do to prevent this happening to you or your daughters?

Guilt Free Business Mothers with special guest, Sam Beau Patrick will share with you the answers to this critical question. You will discover:

1. What the research is revealing about women’s hormones
2. Reasons behind changing hormone levels
3. The 7 unspoken truths about your hormones
4. Actions you can take to keep your hormones healthy
5. And more…

To register for the teleseminar simply click on the link: www.guiltfreebusinessmothers.com/teleseminars.html. There will be some great giveaways announced during the teleseminar. So don’t forget to register!

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This week’s Teleseminar is part of a special 7 week series: 7 Essentials for Guilt Free Living for Business Mothers. The series is being offered FREE to celebrate the launch of Guilt Free Business Mothers.com. Valerie McDougall and Jayne Jennings, together with 7 successful entrepreneurial women will be sharing their powerful and practical secrets and strategies for guilt free living for mothers who are serious about growing their business AND being there for their children. They reveal the really practical and highly effective actions that set them apart from the mothers who seem to constantly struggle with competing demands.

Guilt Free Business Mothers.com is an online resource for business mothers who want to grow successful businesses AND be there for their children — easily and without guilt. The focus is on providing practical and easy strategies for saving time and making money. From their research and personal experiences, Valerie and Jayne believe that ultimately they are the keys to getting rid of guilt and achieving success in business and as a mother.

Do you have to cut off part of your life to be a success?

In the past particularly, many men felt they had to disconnect from their family to achieve success at work. Women have been guilty of that, too.

The insightful and amusing writer, David Sedaris, gave a perfect illustration of this in a story in The New Yorker .

It’s worth reading in full, but the snippet I want to focus on tells of a friend recalling a management seminar she’d attended where they discussed having to cut off part of your life to be a success—and used the symbol of a four-burner stove to represent our lives.

One burner represented your family, one your friends, the third your health, and the fourth was your work.  The instructor had declared that in order to be successful you had to cut off one of your burners. And in order to be really successful you had to cut off two.

Sedaris described his friend as seeming genuinely happy with a successful business.

“I asked which two burners she had cut off, and she said that the first to go had been family. After that, she switched off her health.”

How about you?

It’s a good question for each one of us. Have you switched off any of your burners?

We could plunge into deep discussions on the meaning of life, of success—and more. But what the results of our www.NewNorma.com white paper Life Work Balance Strategies for Women Entrepreneurs and Business Owners shows is that it does really get down to how we think. (Check out the 11 strategies from successful business women outlined in the free e-white paper.)

Maybe we can’t keep all the four burners on high all the time—that would be cooking up trouble and stress anyway! However, when it comes to health, family, friends and work it’s worth getting the recipe right. But what’s wrong with one simmering while others bubble away at a good boil?

Are you someone whose eyes glaze over at the mention of profit and loss sheets and financial statements? Do you have a fear of finances because you didn’t do well in maths at school? Many business owners are running a business with really no idea of how much that are spending and receiving each week – having to wait to find out from their book keeper or accountant. By avoiding the financial side of your business you are holding yourself and your business back from achieving your financial goals.  If you don’t have a business the information is equally important to helping you better manage your money and make more of it!

Even if you are feeling pretty comfortable with your business finances – do you want to be a bigger, braver, bolder, happier, healthier and wealthier entrepreneur? We hope you said YES!

This week Valerie McDougall and Jayne Jennings of Guilt Free Business Mothers will be discussing the topic of financial intelligence. They will share with you 7 financial terms you need to know if you are serious about making money, in a live public teleseminar they are providing free as part of a 7 week series: The 7 Essentials to Guilt Free Living for Business Mothers.

Now we’re in business to make money, so we owe it to ourselves, our families and our businesses to get serious about the money side of things. Simply by understanding some important financial terms you can supercharge your business success and profits. This is incredibly valuable information for business owners that we know will make a difference to you in your business.

Guilt Free Business Mothers with special guest, financial guru and wealth coach, Judith Morgan, will share with you:

1. The 7 financial terms you need to know if you are to build successful, profitable businesses
2. What you can do to grow your financial intelligence and become more financially savvy – easily
3. The simple things you can do each day to help keep you on track
4. And more…

You can register here.  There will be some great giveaways announced during the teleseminar. So don’t forget to register!

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This week’s Teleseminar is part of a special 7 week series: 7 Essentials to Guilt Free Living for Business Mothers. The series is being offered FREE to celebrate the launch of Guilt Free Business Mothers.com. Valerie McDougall and Jayne Jennings, together with 7 successful entrepreneurial women will be sharing their powerful and practical secrets and strategies for guilt free living for moms who are serious about growing their business AND being there for their children. They reveal the really practical and highly effective actions that set them apart from the mothers who seem to constantly struggle with competing demands.

Guilt Free Business Mothers.com is an online resource for business moms who want to grow successful businesses AND be there for their children — easily and without guilt. The focus is on providing practical and easy strategies for saving time and making money. From their research and personal experiences, Valerie and Jayne believe that ultimately they are the keys to getting rid of guilt and achieving success in business and as a mother.