Clearwater is mirroring the national surge of female entrepreneurs, which shows that one of every ten US women is now starting or running a new business. (1)
Jayme MacCullough is a local example. After spending more than a decade as part owner of the family business, MacCullough – a mother of five — is now launching her own company in the Clearwater area.
“I want to be available to my boys when they need me. Being a small business owner is really key to that flexibility: scheduling my own hours, ordering my own day, building my own network. Women have traditionally had to juggle so many things, so we’re very focused.”
AchieveHERs, a local group of female business leaders and entrepreneurs sponsored by the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce, has recruited national entrepreneurship expert and CEO Jaynie Smith to help Clearwater stay ahead of this trend. Smith will be speaking to an audience of more than 200 businesswomen on Thursday, November 6, at the Hilton Carillon in St. Petersburg.
“Someone said to me, ‘Think of it this way: Do you want a company to take care you, or do you want to take care of you?’ The next day I quit,” says Smith, who previously climbed the ladder of corporate America. “I was afraid. Living and working in New York City, I didn’t have two nickels to rub together, much less a year’s worth of savings. I just took a leap of faith. Other women need to hear how the net appears when you make the jump.”
“Women want to control their own pay, their own futures, their own financial freedom,” according to Tina Tenret, CFP. As Vice President of ProVise Management Group, Tenret specializes in helping divorcees and widows create financial plans to help achieve their goals. “Especially since the economic downturn, we are seeing more women take charge, and they’re relying on help from other women to do it.”
The Babson College report also shows the trend’s positive potential for the job market: 36% of women in 2013 wanted to grow their businesses by more than six employees in the next five years, up from 31% in 2012.
Ironically, MacCullough designed her new venture to teach personal liberty seminars to empower business leaders.
“America was founded on the basic principle of self-governance, that we are governed by another only if we consent. That resonates with people. They know they are not necessarily designed to have someone tell them what to do day in and day out. The entrepreneurial mindset is spreading like wildfire.”
About the AchieveHERs Signature Event
Keynote Speaker: Jaynie Smith, Best-Selling Author and CEO of Smart Advantage,Inc.
Date: Thursday, November 6
Time: 11:30-1:30
Location: Hilton Carillon, 950 Lake Carillon Dr, St Petersburg, FL 33716
The event featuring Jaynie Smith is open to the public. Tickets cost $50 for Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce members and $60 for non-members. To reserve tickets to the event, click here.
About Jaynie Smith:
Jaynie L. Smith is an internationally recognized business keynote speaker, best-selling author, and CEO of Smart Advantage, Inc. Jaynie spent 24 years of her career as a corporate consultant specializing in helping businesses define and communicate their competitive advantages to differentiate themselves from competition. She is author of the best-selling business book Creating Competitive Advantage and has been featured in Entrepreneur, Industry Week, Entrepreneur, Industry Week, Investor’s Business Daily, NY Enterprise Report, Business Strategies Magazine, Sales and Service Excellence, Profit Magazine, New York Times, PGA Magazine, and Whole Foods Magazine among many other magazines and newspapers. She has more than years’ experience working with Fortune 500 companies and has appeared on several TV business shows including FoxBusiness.com, ABC World News This Morning & MSNBC.
About AchieveHERs:
To meet the demand of businesswomen in the Clearwater region, AchieveHERs was established under the auspices of the Clearwater Regional Chamber of Commerce to be a regional leader providing skills, insights, success stories and support to women in business. AchieveHERs is open to both established women in business and those aspiring to lead. For more information or to inquire about membership or attend events, visit their Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/AchieveHers or their website at http://www.achievehers.org.
The founders of AchieveHERs include several successful entrepreneurs and businesswomen:
Ernestine Bean, President and CEO, Morton Plant Mease Foundation
Kristi Cheatham, Manager, Clearwater Gas System
Sheryl Conrad, Executive Vice President, HUB International Florida
Doreen DiPolito, Owner, D-Mar Contracting
Carol Hague, COO, Johnson, Pope, Boker, Ruppel and Burns
Karla Jo Helms, CEO, JoTo PR
Kathy Rabon, Chief Development Officer, Ruth Eckerd Hall
Stephanie Schlageter, Owner and Founder, Radiance MedSpa
Diane Stein, President, RepMan Group
Suzy Sofer, owner of Cody’s Original Roadhouse
Tina Tenret, Vice President, ProVise Management Group
For more information about the AchieveHERs, or to sign up for updates and upcoming event information, please visit http://www.achievehers.org or call 727-461-0011.