Girl Bo$$ (Inspiring Female Entrepreneurs from All Over The World)

The world has became a more open space for not only men but also women to create, inspire, and break all the barriers possible to finally be able to stand at their own feet and determine their own life directions. Even though, there are still some conditions when it is slightly harder for women to really go into the way of equity with men, so in this blog post, I want to dedicate my writing to inspiring female entrepreneurs who are making tangible differences in order to support live and economic prospect improvement for women all over the world.

Steph Lorenzo

As the founder of Project Futures, Stephanie is such a powerful human being who believes in the ‘power of purpose’ that she uses as her motto when she enables professionals to be creative and innovative. Human trafficking and global sexual exploitation are two issues that interest her the most and encourage her to do collaboration with young people across Sydney to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process of making a useful platform. A book about sex trafficking and one life-changing trip to Cambodia made her stands up from her seat and decided to do something about it.

Her game was on in creating a movement that would help facilitating the end of global human trafficking and slavery, one shitload of job that many people would choose to ignore. Her passionate vision followed by purpose driven action plan managed to establish a non-profit organization called Project Futures in 2009. One valuable thing we can learn from this superwoman is to discover our ‘why’ in life so we will be able to empower ourselves to take action and achieve desired results regardless of the size of our dreams.

Anjali Datwani

Anjali Datwani started UrbanJourney with her brother Raj on 2010 when they moved to Singapore from New York. Through a lot of hard works and strong entrepreneurial instinct, UrbanJourney has since become a resource for food, drink, and travel experiences around the region. UrbanJourney was going trough a lot of idea changings as well as ups and downs but that didn’t stop the siblings from keeping up their hard works to create a digital lifestyle magazine with the focus on food and drink.

The idea started out when Anjali had trouble in finding some nice dining scenes and cool bars in Singapore that she started to wander around alone, do features on spots only if she came out of it with a positive experience. As the business grows, Anjali keeps on encouraging women to start pursuing their passion to have full flexibility of determining their own schedules and getting ahold of their life completely.

Wendy Tan White

The co-founder of Moonfruit was pursuing her degree in computer science when she discovered that back then nobody could publish anything themselves on the internet unless they were developers. She then teamed up with her best friend, Eirik Pettersen, and her now-husband Joe White to create a platform where users could express themselves in whatever they were creating.

Wendy highlights one of the most important things that connect women and technology. Nowadays, digital economy is the fastest growing in the world and there are a lot of jobs and opportunities there. Wendy thinks that the representative of women in that field is such an important thing so that our voices can be heard globally. When being told that she inspires so many women to be brave enough to break the barriers, she said that a female role model is very needed because as much as we hate to admit, women might need more push to do the unthinkable. Wendy also agrees that we need more female leaders and mentors within organizations that will provide a better support and guide women through their careers.

Lori Greiner

This girl boss really knows how to be productive. She has created over 600 products, holds 112 U.S. and international patents and has been a part eight seasons of ABC’s “Shark Tank” as a judge and an investor. Her key to success? Go to bed at 1 or 2 a.m., always make effort to work out to keep your body and mind refreshed, and never forget breakfast. She admits that simple things like those really help her to turn one simple idea into a multi-million dollar international brand.

She can tell instantly if a product is “a hero or a zero” and this is clearly shown through her many thriving investments and a 90% success rate on new items that she launched. She also has immaculate negotiation skills and ability to know and identify emerging brands and invest in them. Her inspiration comes from her passion to bring happiness to people by making their everyday lives easier. She believes that female’s success is a combination of talent, hard work and perseverance, as well as sincere and energetic appeal. She also believes that if you’re lucky enough to be successful, you have the responsibility to give back. She keeps on helping other entrepreneurs be on their own feet and enjoy the same success like she has.

Amina Slaoui

Amina Slaoui is the CEO of Groupe AMH, an organization provides care for 1,400 patients in Morocco, including physiotherapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and psychotherapy. Her main goal through the organization is to rehabilitate and reintegrate vulnerable people back into society. Her turning point of view happened when she realized Morocco has little support or government assistance for people living with disabilities. As a mother of four, she really proves a point that a woman can be a successful entrepreneur and get a hold of her own life without neglecting her family. She also sits on the board of several associations fighting for the human rights.

Tina Tower

This amazing woman is an Australian producer and founder of production company, Nikhedonia Productions. She began working on her first film projects in 2017 in Children’s Action and Romantic Comedies. She started off pretty young just by the age of 20 and since then has built and sold various businesses including school readiness and primary tutoring franchise, Begin Bright. She was the winner of the 2014 Australian Telstra Young Businesswoman of The Year, and one of her successful keys is to always do what you love, in her case it’s storytelling and filmmaking, and always find opportunities to be on your own feet by doing what you love.

Limiao Cheng

Started as a VC, she now is a successful wellness entrepreneur thanks to her resolution to live a healthier and happier life. When she was a Bay Area venture capitalist, she noticed that many people are over-stressed and sacrificing too much of their health for careers. That inspired her to build Circle Chic in 2014. Circle Chic strives to introduce a social media platform to improve people’s nutrition, health awareness, and fitness through products and services from the world, including food and nutrition, fitness training, yoga, and balanced living.

Maggie Aderin Pocock

Have you ever faced certain challenges in your life that brought you to your lowest point where you’re not even sure if you could continue whatever you’re doing right at the moment that you believed as a journey to achieve your dream? You have? Did you give up? This girl didn’t. Her childhood was divided between 13 schools and she has dyslexia. But Maggie Aderin Pocock has since designed a host of space instruments, and now presents the Sky at Night. When she was a kid, she loved looking up at the stars in the sky. She isn’t even that sure what inspired her dream of becoming a space scientist, but one thing is sure: the passion Maggie had for space ignited a career and helped her overcoming her dyslexia.

Marissa Mayer

Meet American information technology executive, an early Google employee who went on to lead Yahoo for five years. This brilliant computer scientist who was the 20^th employee at Google and influenced many of the company’s signature features (say Gmail and Google Maps) thinks that an inspiring leader is someone who’s consistent and can communicate her or his expectations well. One of the most interesting things that she’s ever said for me is about how she deals when all the chips are stacked against her. When people seem like really are not into what you’re doing, develop a thick skin and stop giving feelings toward what others said about you online. She also added that life has its failures and you don’t really fail until you decide to quit before trying your best. What a powerful advice from a powerful woman!

Faith Nafula Wafula

She is deeply passionate about young people, human rights (especially women’s rights), justice, and rule of law. She is the director of Brydges Center Skills Development Project which trains and links up vulnerable young women to employment. Young, outgoing, and passionate about the plight about women and children, she earned a degree in law and graduated with honors from Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology in November 2012. She got selected as one of 15 from a pool of thousands of applicants countrywide to receive an award from the European Union to produce a radio documentary covering the life and struggles of street mothers through an organization called Docusound.

Layne Beachley

Layne Beachley is a former professional surfer that won the World Championship seven times. It is not an exaggerating statement to say that she is one of the most successful female surfers in history. Some of her keys to be a winner are how to be well prepared to overcome every challenge and maintain a winning mindset. As a female fighter, she also doesn’t stop there, but push herself to be a trainer and a facilitator of a series of workshops, igniting potentials in everyone she works with.

Some of the wise words that she said include the best way to learn is by making mistakes, always be curious, learn to listen to your intuition, and how you need certain degree of fear to develop yourself into a better being. She also encourages women to find their real passion and pursue something that makes you feel good and life seems worth it. For her, the ocean is her place of solace where she can experience a connection with nature and feel calm and relaxed. She wants you to be in an environment where you can create, inspire, and motivate yourself and others.

Abby Zhang

Coming from a background in finance, Abby Zhang co-founded fashion rental platform YEECHOO in 2014. Her journey of entrepreneurship is full with challenges that lead her to successes along the way. Launched in Hong Kong in 2014, YEECHOO is Asia’s largest platform for renting designer outfits and accessories. Customers can choose from hundreds of designers, order online, select a rental period, and the company will deliver your apparel to your doorstep. My admiration towards her is not just about her pretty face but also lot of words of advice that she gave. She believes that you can never be too smart, that you will always discover something new to learn every day, and that there will be other people that are better than you at certain things as well as you might be better than them in the other things so people have to always listen up and learn from one another.

Her brilliant final words of advice? Get yourself out there and talk to a lot of entrepreneurs. It might sound scary before you start but it’s a small step that leads to another. Those successful people might seem so big but there was this one time time when they also started small. Also, keep your mind open, read as many books and listen to as many podcasts as possible – you can learn so much from other people.

Anne O’Leary

She heads a team of 2,000 workers, striving to make Ireland part of a connected ‘Gigabit Society’, where every citizen can have access to premium broadband services. She believes that a focus on gender balance has been beneficial for all of her staffs. Meet the chief executive of Vodafone Ireland who is also a strong advocate of women in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. She used to recall to the time when women were not being included in any fields who seemed ‘masculine’ as such so now she is empowering women to pursue and expand their networks broadly as such as ‘masculine’ fields now are easily accessible for us. The key of surviving fast-paced and busy life is to keep all things organized. Exercise is also a must for it keeps you alert, focused, and energized.

Barbara Corcoran

Barbara Ann Corcoran is an American businesswoman, investor, speaker, consultant, syndicated columnist, author, and television personality. For her, the road to success was paved with humble roots and heartbreak. This inspiring lady doesn’t have a minute to waste and the keys to her success are being organized, being clever, and spending “every dollar like I was poor”. It is also important to keep a humble mindset no matter how successful you get.

Rosie O’Halloran

She is Rosie and she believes that our lives are a work of heart. In 2009, she ditched the construction degree she was midway through and journeyed to Uganda. There, she became aware of the challenges that the local women have. Back in Australia, she then co-funded the Institute for Global Women Leaders (IGWL), which is designed to empower young women as agents of change. With this grant, she will put it towards speaking to 5,000 high school students nationwide about IGWL’s initiatives, which will include a 2015 leadership program that will give school-leavers the chance to help victims of human trafficking in Bali while ‘building courage and resilience’.

Rosie O’Halloran also believes that in this globalization era where boundaries between countries are fading, certain problems can go beyond borders and that’s why they will require global solutions. Technology, in particular, has created unprecedented possibilities for interaction between people across the world on a scale not seen before. In this context, she believes that it’s such a striving opportunity for young women to lead the way forward.

Johanna Lepeu El Iman

She teamed up with her sister and are the people behind Zoobeetle Paris, a French luxury leather goods maker that have boutiques in Paris and Hong Kong. Being an entrepreneur and changing the scope of accessory design is surely a challenge but Johanna is bad-ass enough to overcome it. She said that being an entrepreneur means creating something from scratch, taking risks, and going above and beyond. It also makes you think on a grand scale, day after day. Plus, having her sister around to help her means having the chance to work hand in hand, together with your family to fulfill your dream.

Her key of being a successful entrepreneur is choosing the right partner, setting the trust sail on yourself, and listening to what is happening around you. Asking yourself the right questions and listening to something you don’t want to hear is the hardest part of the process sometimes but it’s something that you have to go through to achieve success. She wants to see more women turn into fearless businesswomen who are brave enough to make things happen.

Indra Nooyi

Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi is an Indian American business executive who served as the Chairwoman and Chief Executive officer of PepsiCo. As one of a handful of people of color who has significant position in a Fortune 500 company, she helped turning Pepsi into one of the most successful food and beverage companies in the world. She grew up in a middle-class family in India. When she and her sister were young, their mother challenged them at the dinner table each night to give speeches about what they would do if they were a prime minister or another world leader, and their mother will vote after that.

She highlights the thing about balancing the tensions between high-flying career and family responsibilities when it comes to women who ‘have it all’. She agrees that the biological clock and the career clock are in total conflict with each other. She also described the importance of making trade-offs in the next breath for women in a fast-paced career environment. There will be heartache, there will be pain, there will be some collateral damage underneath the surface, but strong women will be able to live with it, and more importantly, survive and strive.

Lynn Worsley

She is the woman behind All Women Recycling, a small business based in the Southern Suburbs of Cape Town that comes from Lynn Worsley’s desire to create a sustainable and profitable business while supporting the environment and empowering other women. The products created by this organization are produced by the women daily and are supplied to more than 30 retail outlets. Worsley’s goal is very simple and focused; to create sought-after upcycled products that have benefit for the environment and empower local women. The other vision is to create a safe place to nurture women with informal education and skills that will give them a better chance for a better life.

Business is business, so how does Lynn Worsley keep the small activity still profitable? Well, they listen carefully and respond to the needs and expectations of their customers and community. They encourage each other’s creativity and innovation as they seek to improve their performance and environment. As for her personal keys to success, she said “Be creative, be unafraid, and take that step off the mountain. I assure you it’s worth it”.

Le Ho

Meet the glamorous garbage queen: the entrepreneur who migrated to Australia with nothing and now owns a $10 million rubbish empire. She went from running a glamorous bridal business to picking up garbage off the street. She’s been recognized for her business savvy after turning an unsuccessful waste management company into a multi-million dollar empire in just five years. While the Capital City Waste Management founder may be leading the dream life now, she initially struggled with the challenges faced in the male-dominated industry.

Le Ho used to have a pretty cruel past time, left Vietnam with a fishing boat, spent a couple of days at sea before the engine broke down, got assaulted by a pirate ship, and was sent to a refugee camp. She and her family had a tough upbringing before they eventually settled in South Australia in 1981. She’s always been passionate about creating a business. The desire to learn and to make mistakes is important for every entrepreneur so they can do some improvements.

Hayley Lyla

She writes about fashion, design, and technology. Alongside Asia Times, she contributes to titles including MacauCloser and more from her home base of Hong Kong. Her other works can also be seen on her own lifestyle and fashion-focused blog, 179CM & UP, showcasing the stories of some of the Asia’s most interesting design and fashion. Her blog consists of a carefully curated edit of photography and personal thoughts and topics ranging from travel to food, design to fashion.

Lucy Kapkirwok

This is a story of a Kenyan woman socialpreneur who is providing an innovative, low-cost solution to menstrual management in poor communities. She grew up in a village where young girls and women got lack of access to affordable and hygienic menstrual management products, causing low self esteem and inevitable absenteeism from school. This condition inspired her to launch her compay, SANPAD, to provide young girls and women with a better life.

Her story really puts on inspiration to all the women out there who have been wanting to start their own business but are afraid to take a leap. Lucy doesn’t come from an entrepreneurial background and it took her 8 years to decide to start. It has been a challenging journey since she started her project, but she always looks forward with great joy and optimism. Her entrepreneur advice is to never give up, remain focused, seek support from like minded people, and never look back.