The theme of International Women’s Day 2015 is “Make It Happen”. We think it’s a perfect theme to celebrate the many women who forged through setbacks, challenges and in many cases, bucked the trend of their time.

1. Imagination, Innovation &
Liberation.
A Celebration of Female Entrepreneurs
throughout the ages
International Women’s Day 2015
Mary Cummings, Work Your Way

2. The theme of International Women’s
Day 2015 is “Make It Happen”.
We think it’s a perfect theme to celebrate the many
women who forged through setbacks, challenges and
in many cases, bucked the trend of their time.

3. Women who created
economic and professional
independence
to start their own business

4. Eliza Lucas Pinckney (1739)
Introduced blue indigo dye into South
Carolina, making it become one of South
Carolina’s most important cash crops,
second only to cotton.
She had a major influence on the colonial
economy, and was the first woman to be
inducted into South Carolina's Business Hall
of Fame.
Image:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3b/Edward_Greene_Malbone_-
_Eliza_Izard_%28Mrs._Thomas_Pinckney,_Jr.%29_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg

5. Mary Katherine Goddard (1766)
Early American publisher and the first
American postmistress.
She was the first to print the Declaration of
Independence with the names of the
signatories.
Image: https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/mary-
katherine-goddard

6. Lydia Pinkham (1875)
A shrewd business woman and clever
marketer, who marketed her home
‘Vegetable Compound’ remedies to women,
while educating them about women’s health
issues.
It became one of the best known remedies
for women at the time, and some of the
products are still available today.
Image: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/photos/mdwomgoddard,0,2065075.photo.
Licensed under PD-US via Wikipedia -

7. Sarah Breedlove “Madam C. J.
Walker” 1905
Regarded as the first female self-made
millionaire in America.
After experiencing a scalp disorder due to harsh
hair products, Madam Walker developed and
marketed a line of hair and beauty products for
black women, even starting her own mail order
catalogue and training ‘beauty therapist’ sales
agents to keep up with demand.
Image: "Madame CJ Walker" by Scurlock Studio (Washington, D.C.)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Madame_CJ_Walker.gif#mediaviewer/File:Madame_
CJ_Walker.gif

8. Carrie Crawford Smith (1919)
During the era of mass migration of African
Americans from the South to the North, Carrie
recognised an opportunity to help new arrivals
find work.
She opened an employment agency, soon
establishing it as the go-to agency for domestic
help, with standards that employers had to
accept to help protect her workers’ reputation
and dignity.
Image:
https://www.nwhm.org/media/category/education/biography/biographies/carriesmith.jpg

9. Margaret Rudkin (1937)
Her stone-ground wheat bread recipe
improved her son’s asthma and food
allergies so much, that the family doctor
recommended it to other patients. By the
end of 1939, Rudkin sold more than a
million and a half loaves and had to move
the business from her garage to its own
factory.
She sold the business to Campbell Soup for
$28 million, becoming the first woman to
serve on Campbell’s board of directors.
Image: https://www.nwhm.org/media/category/education/biography/biographies/carriesmith.jpg

10. Joyce Chen (1958)
Chinese restaurants were hard to come by when
Joyce opened her restaurant in 1958. She was
encouraged to start the restaurant by Asian
students from Shanghai, who were so homesick
for the kind of food she prepared, that they lent
her the start-up money.
She’s credited with developing the flat bottom
wok after becoming frustrated with trying to use
traditional round woks on the flat surfaces of
American stoves, and the first line of bottled
Chinese stir fry sauces for the US market.
Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joyce_Chen

11. Jean Nidetch (1963)
Jean simply wanted to lose weight and keep it
off. In spite of losing the weight, however, she
found her resolve weakening, so she gathered
friends together to form a weekly support
group.
Those weekly classes developed into the well
known Weight Watchers Corporation.
She sold Weight Watchers to Heinz in 1978,
for a reported $1 billion.
Image:
https://www.nwhm.org/media/category/education/biography/biographies/carriesmith.jpg

12. Sandra Kurtzig (1974)
As founder of business and manufacturing
software producer ASK Group, Sandra was one
of Silicon Valley's first female tech
entrepreneurs.
She founded ASK as a part-time job, using
$2,000 of her own savings, running the
business part-time from her bedroom "to keep
her mind occupied" and increase her income.
The company was acquired in the early 1990s
for $311 million.
https://www.nwhm.org/education-resources/biography/biographies/sandra-kurtzig/

13. Oprah Winfrey (1984)
How could we not include Oprah. She was
born into poverty in rural Mississippi to a
teenage single mother and later raised in an
inner-city Milwaukee neighbourhood.
She landed a job in radio while still in high
school. It was her emotional ad-lib delivery
that eventually got her transferred to the
daytime-talk-show arena, after which she
launched her own production company and
became internationally syndicated. The rest,
as they say, is history. She’s worth an
estimated $3 billion.
Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey

14. Maxine Clarke (1997)
Maxine’s little 10 year old friend Kate couldn’t
find a stuffed toy that she wanted. Kate then
said: "These are so easy, we could make
them.“ She meant a simple craft project, but
Maxine had bigger ideas.
She went on to establish the now, well-known
Build A Bear Workshops, which has over 340
stores around the world and annual revenues
of $120 million.
Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oprah_Winfrey

15. Arianna Huffington (2005)
Author, columnist, co-founder and editor-in-
chief of The Huffington Post.
She’s frequently named among the most
powerful and influential. In 2009, as #12 in
Forbes' first-ever list of the Most Influential
Women In Media; as #42 in The Guardian's
Top 100 in Media List; and as the 52nd most
powerful woman in the world by Forbes, in
2014.
In 2011, Huff Post was acquired by AOL for a
reported $315 million.
Image: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arianna_Huffington

16. Co-Founders - Kathryn Minshew
(pictured), Alex Cavoulacos and
Melissa McCreevy (2011)
Kathryn and her co-founders were three ex-
McKinsey consultants, frustrated with the lack of
career resources for ambitious professional
women, so together, formed the online career
community The Daily Muse and jobsite The
Muse.
They launched with just $2,710. In 2013, they
received $1.2 million to continue growing the
business.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kathryn_Minshew

17. Of course, we could have mentioned so many more.
Of the ones that we have, some are well-known
and perhaps others not so,
but we still think they’re all amazing.

18. Their contributions have greatly impacted
society today and have
paved the way for female entrepreneurs
to follow in their footsteps

19. 1.5 million
self-employed women in the UK
(representing an increase of around 300,000 since
before the economic downturn*)
*See www.prowess.org.uk/facts

20. "Involve your children as much as
you can. Helping mum run the
business can be a fun game and
you will be nurturing the business
spirit of future entrepreneurs in
the process.”
Monica Costa
Editor & Founder of London Mums
www.londonmumsmagazine.com
Image www.memorygate.co.uk

21. “For me, running my own business
means freedom. Freedom to create,
grow and live my life without the regret
of never having tried.“
Soila Sindiyo
Family Trained Mediator, Editor &
Founder of The Divorce Magazine
www.thedivorcemagazine.co.uk
Image www.goddessportraiture.co.uk

22. “If I could wish for just one gift for my kids
it would be self esteem. They will
encounter failure in life, but with self
esteem, they will not feel inhibited. They’ll
pick themselves up again, push a little
harder and reach their goals. It’s what my
parents fostered in me. I’d be nowhere
without it.”
Natalie Wills
Publishing Consultant
www.nswconsulting.co.uk
Image www.aytonwest.com

23. “I’ve always believed that you need to stay
focused and remain positive.
It’s the only way you can keep moving
forward.”
Annie Manning
Author & Marketing Quality Consultant
www.anniemanning.com

24. “With the wonderful changes in the way
people work now, the connectivity we have
thanks to the internet, and my love of
travel, people and freelancing - I think the
future looks interesting.”
Nan Sheppard
Freelance Writer
www.thingsIvefoundinpockets.com

25. “Running my own business has been the
toughest thing I’ve ever done, but it’s also
been, by far, the most satisfying and
rewarding. I can’t imagine ever going back
to being employed.”
Mary Cummings
Founder, Work Your Way
Bit.ly/WorkYourWayStartups & Bit.ly/NicheServicePackagesClub
Image www.memorygate.co.uk

26. Join an amazing, growing &
supportive community
of female entrepreneurs, business
owners, freelancers
& consultants

27. Over to you
Will you #MakeItHappen?
Bit.ly/WorkYourWayStartups &
Bit.ly/NicheServicePackagesClub