Now that you have vetted your concept from many ideas into the best idea, you are ready for the second phase of growing your start-up:  Commercialization. Commercialization is where the entrepreneur does feasibility testing and market assessment. At the end of this phase, she knows the cost of creating her product versus the value the…

Welcome to entrepreneurship and welcome to the creative process!  The first stage is called Opportunity Discovery.  Chances are you have been through a creative process before, that’s what Opportunity Discovery is, a creative process. Opportunity discovery is the process of developing your awesome idea into something that can be tested as marketable. There are many…

In my previous post “When you look in the mirror, do you see an entrepreneur staring back at you?”  I mentioned that most successful male and female entrepreneurs are in their forties.  This comes from the great Kaufmann report, Anatomy of an Entrepreneur. While this might give those of us in this age group a sense of comfort,…

Maybe you are an entrepreneur.  Or maybe a corporate executive.  In either case, you’re changing the world around you and chances are you’re ruffling a few feathers along the way.  That’s part of being an agent of change. When you challenge someone’s status quo, you will face push-back.  When you challenge the status quo in…

Most first-time entrepreneurs have crow’s feet and work experience. Turns out you don’t have to be a twenty-something Harvard drop-out to start the next game changing business. It’s true. the fastest growing segment of entrepreneurs is over the age of 50 the average successful high growth entrepreneur is between the ages of 40 and 49…

Growing up I knew a few guys who became musicians in order to, umm, play the field just as much as play their music. I was reminded of this when listening to Mick Jagger read Top Ten Things I, Mick Jagger, Have Learned After 50 Years in Rock ‘n’ Roll” on the David Letterman show….

Hello.  My name is Patti and I am an accidental activist and unintentional feminist. A decade ago if you introduced yourself to me as an “accidental activist and feminist”, I probably would’ve smiled politely, shook hands and figured out how to exit the conversation without appearing rude.  I held pre-conceived notions of what a feminist…

Ok, so 2 blog posts in 2 days is a personal record and now makes up two-thirds (as in 2 out of 3!) of my posts so far, but I couldn’t let this topic go without discussing one more thing: Cultural constructs that make up the status quo that many of us, including Gene Marks…

Gene Marks’ Forbes article, “Why Most Women Will Never Become CEO” is having the impact that might have been intended:  a lot of buzz, discontent, agreement, the whole shebang.  http://www.forbes.com/sites/quickerbettertech/2011/10/31/why-most-women-will-never-become-ceo/2/ I enjoyed the article, much in the way I would enjoy a reality TV show – with distraction, humor, a grain (or two) of salt,…

According to the US Bureau of Statistics, by 2014, over 50% of the workforce will be employed in businesses that are creating or employing IT.  Current workforce statistics show us that women are now 56% of the workforce; and that representation is going to continue to increase.  So, with more women in entering the workforce…