20 Amazing Women Entrepreneurs

Posted on 18. Aug, 2010 by Adam in Business, Entrepreneurship

These days, it seems successful entrepreneurs are popping up everywhere. And some of the most impressive entrepreneurial success stories are those of women who have accomplished amazing things in every area of business imaginable. From IT to retail, and from marketing to inventions, women have shown they are a force to be reckoned with. So we’ve put together a list of 20 of these amazing women to pay tribute to their accomplishments and recognize their contributions to the entrepreneurial world. They are truly an inspiration to us all.

	Sarah Prevette – Sprouter.com An entrepreneur long immersed in the startup community, Sarah has a firsthand familiarity with the common pitfalls of early stage startups and a grasp of the tips and tools that foster success. Sarah is the founder of Sprouter.com, and the Twestival Organizer for Toronto.
	Mari Smith – MariSmith.com Dubbed “the pied piper of the online world” by Fast Company Magazine, Mari Smith is a relationship marketing specialist and social media keynote speaker, trainer, and consultant. Mari believes that “there’s no such thing as competition, most definitely for the small business owner and certainly for the solopreneur, because there’s only one ‘you’.”
	Gabrielle Bernstein – Gabrielle Bernstein Inc. In her book, “Add more ~ing to Your Life,” Gabrielle Bernstein says, “My mission in this lifetime is to help guide my generation to shift their search for happiness from the outside to the inside.” Gabrielle is also the founder of Women’s Entrepreneurial Network, a non-profit professional organization that connects female entrepreneurs, and HerFuture.com, which connects women with mentors.
	Genevieve Thiers – SitterCity.com Genevieve Thiers is the founder of SitterCity.com, the $5 million Inc. 500 company that matches service providers with service seekers in the areas of babysitting, housekeeping, tutoring, and more. Based in Chicago, the site hosts over a million profiles and provides services coast to coast.
	Maxine Clark – Build-A-Bear Workshop, Inc. Maxine Clark served as the President and Chief Merchandising Officer at Payless Shoesource, Inc. prior to starting Build-A-Bear Workshop. The company has over 340 stores all over the world and has annual revenues of over $120 million.
	Robin Koval – Kaplan Thaler Group, Ltd As co-founder of the Kaplan Thaler Group, Robin Koval is a marketing strategist and new products expert. Her marketing ideas include, the “Yes, Yes, Yes” Herbal Essences campaign as well as the famous AFLAC duck quack. Robin is also the best selling author of several books on marketing.
	Nancy Evans – iVillage.com Nancy Evans is co-founder of iVillage.com: The Women’s Network. The company, begun in 1995, provides effective solutions to everyday challenges facing women in their many roles as professionals, parents, friends and partners. iVillage was acquired by NBC Universal, Inc. in 2006.
	Ann Moore – Inventor of The Snugli A pediatric nurse by trade, Ann Moore invented the Snugli, a baby-carrying sling, while on a Peace Corps mission in the 1960s. To this day, Snugli is the most popular on-body baby carrier in the world, and is now owned by Evenflo.
	Linda Mason – Bright Horizons Family Solutions Founded by Linda Mason in 1986, Bright Horizons is the world’s leading provider of employer-sponsored child care, back-up care, early education, and work/life solutions. Linda Mason is also the author of The Working Mother’s Guide to Life: Strategies, Secrets, and Solutions.
	Lisa Druxman – Stroller Strides Stroller Strides, Lisa Druxman’s brainchild, was started out of a need for Lisa to stay fit right after having her first child. She started the business from her home in San Diego, and now the company boasts over 300 franchises nationwide.
	Carrie Wilkerson – Barefoot Marketing Group Carrie Wilkerson, known as The Barefoot Executive, is the founder of Barefoot Marketing Group, where Carrie and her network of experts have quickly become the definitive resource for work at home professionals. (Check out our interview with Carrie – here.)
	Gina Bianchini – Ning.com After Harmonic Communications, a company she co-founded, was acquired by Dentsu, Gina Bianchini co-founded Ning, an online platform for people to create their own social networks. Ning was launched in 2005 and has since raised over $104 million in capital and has become a top 100 global website and one of the world’s most valuable start-ups.
	Juliette Brindak – MissOandFriends.com One of the most inspiring stories on our list, Juliette Bindak founded her company, Miss O and Friends, at the age of 10. By the time she was 19, just last year, the company had a value of more than $15 million. She also published her first book at the age of 16, which has sold over 120,000 copies.
	Ali Brown – Ali International Recognized on the 2009 Inc 500 list and recipient of the 2010 Enterprising Women of the Year award, Ali Brown is a true entrepreneur. She quit her job in 1998 and was down to less than $20 when she wrote an e-book, and everything changed. She has since become a foremost authority in driving sales and marketing via e-mail publishing, and even publishes her own magazine, Ali.
	Loral Langemeier – LiveOutLoud.com After reaching a net worth of $1 million, Loral Langemeier decided she would start Live Out Loud, a coaching and seminar company to help others reach this same level of success. The company started small with one office in 2002 and within 5 years grew to a $19 million dollar company. She is also the resident money expert on the Dr. Phil Show.
	Sara Blakely – Spanx 2002 Entrepreneur of the Year Award winner Sara Blakely says on her Spanx website, “With $5,000 in savings out of the back of my apartment, a whole lot of internet research, patent writing, cold-calling, less-than-shy demonstrations for buyers, and a call from Oprah…Spanx was born!” Sara has also formed the Sara Blakely Foundation, which focuses on supporting and empowering women around the world.
	Amilya Antonetti – Lucky Napkin Because of a severe allergic reaction her newborn son had to synthetic cleaning products, Amilya Antonetti founded Soap Works, a company that produced natural cleaning products. After selling the company, Amilya started Lucky Napkin, a company that assists people in taking their ideas “from mind to market.”
	Susan Handley – Beijo Bags Susan Handley first started designing handbags when she was ten years old. Now, Beijo Bags provides opportunities for over 1000 independent sales reps all over the US and Canada to have fun and make money, selling top quality handbags and accessories. The company currently produces over $25 million in annual sales.
	Kate Everett Thorp – Divine Caroline (Real Girls Media) Named one of the Top 25 Women to Watch by Advertising Age, Kate Everett Thorp has masterminded a media network for women, called Real Girls Media. She has received numerous accolades, including Real Girls Media being named in OnMedia’s Top 100 Companies list.
	Janet Rickstrew – Tomboy Tools After attending a Pampered Chef party 2000, Janet Rickstrew saw an opportunity for a similar concept with tools designed just for women, and Tomboy Tools was born. The company started with less than 1,000 square feet of warehouse space and now operates a 13,000 square-foot distribution facility on Denver’s West Side. Their Hammer Out Breast Cancer campaign has contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Susan G. Komen Foundation.

Please join us in congratulating these amazing entrepreneurial women on their inspiring successes. And if you’re an amazing woman entrepreneur, be sure to share you story with us!

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Tags: Business, entrepreneur, entrepreneurs, women, young entrepreneur

31 Responses to “20 Amazing Women Entrepreneurs”

Madison

18. Aug, 2010

Nice list of female entrepreneurs, it is good to see them recognized too!

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Bryan Haines

18. Aug, 2010

Great list – thanks. I interviewed Sarah Prevette a couple of months ago. Here is the feature interview:

http://onlinebusiness.about.com/od/successstories/a/sarah-prevette-interview.htm

Thanks again for the great content.

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Escort Agency London

18. Aug, 2010

We bought the Evenflow Snugli front and back pack soft baby carrier with our first child. She loved it, as have our other two children, but I think I love it more.

Thanks Ann Moore for coming up with this Snugli.

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JohnAtBlogtrepreneur

18. Aug, 2010

@Bryan: Thank you for your kind words. The Sarah Prevette interview you did is great! I’d recommend it to everyone.

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Jake Adams

18. Aug, 2010

Excellent list of entreprenant women. The fact that these ladies are also successful go-getters just makes them even more attractive!

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Carolyn Anderson

18. Aug, 2010

Thanks for the inspiring list of women.

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Corinne

18. Aug, 2010

Thanks for this article Adam! This is very inspiring. These women are great and have done great things for themselves. They all seem to be pretty young too which is even more motivation!

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Jane

18. Aug, 2010

Great list of women who refused to sit and wait. Inspiration to any woman who hopes to start a business someday or who is in business already-Thanks

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Smooth Entrepreneur

18. Aug, 2010

Great post. Everyone loves reading motivational success stories– it can push people to finally take that leap of faith into entrepreneurship.

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Maxine Clark

18. Aug, 2010

I am honored to be in such great company! Thanks to all women business leaders for the difference you make in the world!

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JohnAtBlogtrepreneur

19. Aug, 2010

@Maxine Clark: We are thrilled to include you and honored that you visited us here. :)

Thanks all for the great comments about these inspirational entrepreneurs!

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Robin Koval

19. Aug, 2010

Thanks so much for the honor of being included with such an inspiring group of women. And to my partners on the list — you ladies rock!

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Hello Ladies

21. Aug, 2010

Awesome, inspiring list.

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Mari Smith

21. Aug, 2010

Many thanks for the kind mention, Adam!! Fabulous group of powerful women!! :)

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Carlton

21. Aug, 2010

I amazed to see how women are running such large companies in profit. Great work and thinking.

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JohnAtBlogtrepreneur

22. Aug, 2010

@Carlton: I know your comment is meant in a positive way so I’m just teasing, but be careful. These women are amazing, but the fact that women are running large companies isn’t amazing. In fact, women are or have been CEOs of some of the largest companies in the Fortune 500, including ADM, Xerox, HP, PepsiCo, Kraft, Rite Aid, Reynolds, Safeco, Western Union, eBay, and the list goes on.

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Business Tips

24. Aug, 2010

Thanks for sharing this, it is a valuable information.

Behind every successful Man there is a Women. But who is behind every successful Woman?

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Andrew

24. Aug, 2010

Fabulous list of women! A hearty congratulations to all those mentioned here. More Power and more blessings!

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Patrice

24. Aug, 2010

Great list! Those women are really an inspiration. Congratulations to all of them.

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Ivan Silva

24. Aug, 2010

I congratulate all of these entrepreneurs who are an inspiration to those of us who dream of their success. I interview Latin American entrepreneurs also a growing list of successful people from South America

Congratulations

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car battery

24. Aug, 2010

It’s really cool to see so many successful female entrepreneurs. Congratulations and more power to them for future endeavors. Hopefully, they inspire more young girls to follow in their path.

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sell things on ebay

24. Aug, 2010

Some pretty powerful and inspiring women there. I was reading about Ali Brown just the other day and how she literally had nothing before she wrote her book. Sometimes I think it does people good to hear stories like that, so they know there is always a way for them too.

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Fernanda

25. Aug, 2010

How inspiring as a female who is running her own business also, this encourages me to improve me business and strategies!

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Napkin Rings

02. Sep, 2010

Gina was always a lovely girl as far as i remember and im so glad she made it this big. Nice to see all these girls being so successful.

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email search

11. Sep, 2010

Definitely, this is just the start. There’s so many more amazing women out there…

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Tej Kohli

13. Sep, 2010

Now the Woman playing an Important role in Business , No doubt that they run business and enterprises smoothly

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tires

15. Sep, 2010

Pretty fun to look at this list, surprisingly I did not know any single one of these women but yet I did know of some of their successful websites, one example is ning I knew of it, but just din’t know the woman behind the success! Great to see them being successful!

Till then,

Jean

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watch anim

22. Sep, 2010

Thanks for this article Adam! This is very inspiring. These women are great and have done great things for themselves. They all seem to be pretty young too which is even more motivation!

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Sandra Ackerman

27. Oct, 2010

This young woman, Yvette Kendall from Chicago, Illinois is one to watch for in the near, near future. She have developed patents and products that have received global acclaim and I just revel at how she has the ability to develop product after product, month after month. She is not franchising existing businesses, she is creating her own over and over again; anyone can push cosmetics and real estate, that floor plan has been laid, I give respect to the one that becomes the “Corner Stone”! She is such a pioneer, over the years there has been countless women that have become associated with her that has attempted to copy or steal her innovative businesses and concepts, it has not happened because they don’t have what Yvette Kendall has; she has truly been Blessed.

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sadie

11. Feb, 2011

Great to see women entrepreneurs given recognition, but I’m a bit sad to see that all listed here are white women, and 16 out of 20 are blonds. Is this truly representative? If so, that’s an unfortunate indication of how appearances and race still matter, even when you are only considering one gender.

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Angela

06. Mar, 2011

Hmmmm….makes me feel like I should get my hair lightened :) Just a brunette joke.

I’m sort of with Sadie the lasts commenter.

There are a lot of other skin colors, ethnicities, and sizes and, yeah, I sort of feel like they are missing in this group of 20.

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20 Amazing Women Entrepreneurs

31 Responses to “20 Amazing Women Entrepreneurs”

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