How to Keep Your Marriage Strong while Running a Small Business
May 4, 2008
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If you are in business for yourself chances are good that you enjoy what you do, at least we hope that you do because after all, you got yourself into it. If you are married, Read more
Meet Rebecca Davidson, Founder of Savvy May Creations
May 2, 2008
After spending time searching for caps to markers Rebecca Davidson decided there had to be a better Read more
Startup Princess Kingdom News * April 4, 2008
April 4, 2008
I’ve been neglecting these news posts for a few weeks, my apologies! We have some great news to report today and share!!
Startup Princess.com Getting an Extreme Makeover! Relaunch Planned for April 21!
Startup Princess has FINALLY found a solution to our nearly 20 month old dilemma…how do we develop a website with zero budget? I’ve considered getting a loan, I’ve talked to people about sponsoring it (and bless Sarah Lewis of Findable Blogs who DID sponsor a major site upgrade in 2007 for us and continues to be a great mentor plus our blog sponsor with helping us with widgets and plugins and more).
I’ve wanted a very sharp, beautiful, easy to navigate, and clear site that would demonstrate our purpose and 
mission of helping women entrepreneurs more effectively. A site that would be easy to find articles, find resources, and find connections… now we’re working hard to relaunch and “make it happen” thanks to a very very affordable wordpress template (only $79!!) to demonstrate we are more than just a blog, we are an organization empowering women entrepreneurs with monthly events, conferences, and more! The template is not enough… we have to customize it and for that we are indebted to Startup Princess Sarah Bray of S Joy Studios whom is sponsoring our complete redesign!! We are so grateful, Sarah! Many many thanks to you from me, our members, and the thousands of women who read this site everyday! Your redesign will communicate who we are and help us to “Express ourselves all over the place” as your business slogan says. We’re thrilled for the opportunity and extreme makeover.
For our Utah members, 
April 17th is our next event featuring Internet Marketing Specialist Janet Meiners… she beat me to publishing about it, here’s her link.
Loraine McCall Wins $5000 at BYU Home-Based Business Plan Competition
April 2, 2008
I am a very proud Fairy Godmother today… perhaps my most proud moment as a business mentor. Today reinforced why I do what I do, and why I’ve chosen, “Empowering Women to Fulfill their Dreams in Business” as my Mrs. Utah competition platform.
Two months ago I taught a standing-room-only class on “How to Write a Business Plan for Beginners and Procrastinators” at BYU and then encouraged them to pitch their business ideas to each other, I wanted them to network, get over fears, and share their ideas. Loraine McCall was the first to raise her hand and she wowed us all by her courage and strong business idea and ability to communicate her vision in less than 2 minutes… I gave Loraine a Startup Princess magic wand that day as a symbol of her “magic” and encouraged her to compete in the Home-based Business Plan competition this term. I knew she would have a great chance because of her original idea, however I knew it would be a challenge for this young mom, busy Spanish Translation major, (born in Puerto Rico, raised in New York), to find time to write a business plan in less than 1 week besides other commitments, etc, but Loraine did it, she entered the competition and was one of the 4 selected to the finals.
Yesterday I met with each of the teams and reviewed their presentations and gave them ideas and feedback. Each of the teams have solid concepts and companies destined for success, however, to be honest none of them were ready for today’s event, so I gave it to them straight–I told each of them what to focus on and rework to “make it happen” and it was very rewarding for me personally to see the results of our mentoring sessions–they each worked very hard to be prepared today. I LOVE LOVE LOVE mentoring, particularly in early stage business when ideas area fresh and execution is uncertain, offering suggestions, discussing marketing plans, and possible partnerships, etc.
Today when I watched the students as an Advisor/Mentor for the competition (not a judge) along with Faculty Advisor, Kim Scoville (a Fairy Godmother too) I couldn’t be more pleased with the confidence, revised powerpoints, and high-level, professional, national-competition quality presentations of each of the teams! WishCraze is going to “own” social shopping on the web for “Tweens” youth ages 8-14 and beyond… check it out, make a wish gift list of your own!, and Realty Solutions has a great lead generation company for agents affiliated with ReMax.
Loraine of Hand in Hand, “Heroes in Training” wowed us with her passion, her ability to share her vision to empower the lives of young children and has developed a product that when patented will be a wonderful gift for children! I nearly cried through all of Loraine’s presentation because of how far she came and I knew in my heart she was the winner… and the judges agreed (even though I really didn’t have a “say” in their decision).
She’ll receive weekly email/phone mentoring for six months from me, as Startup Princess is a sponsor of the competition as well as $5000 from BYU Founders of the Center for Entrepreneurship to get her business off the ground!!
I couldn’t be happier for her and this exciting new venture. Loraine has a 16 month old baby and is a very dedicated wife and mother, this will be a perfect opportunity for her to create additional income for her family while remaining at home. Loraine represents the “Home-based Business Plan” ideal winner perfectly, she has a strong, creative and original business concept which can be developed in a flex-schedule/home life style with promise of strong income for years to come.
Today there was some discussion for making the BYU Home-based Business Plan competition a national one where college students all over can apply, wouldn’t that be incredible!?
I love being a part of the Center for Entrepreneurship at BYU, where my love for business began in 2005 when I was a competitor and semi-finalist at BYU, and then won 2nd place nationally at Wake Forest’s national MBA competition while I was a grad student in Theatre, so I was much like Loraine, foreign to business, without business classes/experience. Perhaps that’s why I cried today…close to home. I know how hard it is to pull off a great presentation while you’re a mom and while you’re so new to the field.
Congrats to Startup Princess, Loraine! She’ll be a local celebrity around BYU’s Marriot School of Business now… she deserves it.
The Why’s and How’s of Business Networking
April 2, 2008
We’ve found that women entrepreneurs are not always familiar with the value of networking and how to go about doing it…
Conquering Fears of All Kinds
March 29, 2008
Celebrate with me! I conquered two fears this week (1) Driving Long Distances alone with kids (12 hours RT) and (2) Getting “Judged” in a Swimsuit (my choice, breakthrough any anxieties early I figured!)
Why Vegas? To meet up with my new friend, former Mrs. United States 1997 and Mrs. America 2002, Laurett Ellsworth Arenz. How did I meet Laurett you might wonder? To be honest, it was one of you… a blog reader/online friend who introduced me to his mom via a comment on this site! CRAZY. He likes to be on the downlow about his famous mom, so I won’t tell you who it is, but those of you who know any Ellsworth bloggers, you might figure it out! Ironically Laurett is a member of my church and we have mutual friends, including Cherie Burton who is also mentoring me for the pageant. Laurett grew up in Utah although competed in Maryland for their titles. Before we decided to meet in Vegas we had a couple of phone sessions where we worked on my platform, preparing for the interview, and she gave me a lot of resources for where to find my wardrobe too.
Conquering Fear #1 -Driving 12 Hours on my own
Laurett was in Vegas for a conference at the new, hip and modern Red Rock Hotel so it worked well for us to meet there since I have family in St George (1 1/2 hours north of Vegas) and could stay with them and they could watch my girls while I traveled further to meet with Laurett the next day. I was determined to make it there so I pushed forward any fears of driving the distance alone with my two girls (ages 2 and 4) and set myself up for success. Read more
Parallels of Business Strategy and Playing Solitaire
March 26, 2008
As I was sitting here with a fever of 101, not able to sleep and playing a game of Free Cell, Read more
Mentoring from God, Fitness Training, and More
March 24, 2008
Mentoring from God
On Wednesday I was privileged to speak to a conference of women at church about Charity- the Pure Love of Christ specifically about being a true follower of Christ. It is very humbling for me to speak about such intense and sacred topics and I appreciated the opportunity to study, prepare and deliver the message. I felt guided and mentored by heaven in the process and it increased my desire and hunger to include God more fully in my daily life and efforts in all I do. Read more
Meet Amy Long, Founder of Secure2Me
March 20, 2008
Amy Long had just had her third child when she realized she had a great product Read more
Triumphs and Failures on the Pageant Journey
March 16, 2008
Here we are again, another crazy-busy week (for all, I’m sure!) If you saw my kids’ playroom and bedrooms yesterday you’d wonder where their mother’s been…
This week was a full week, not only for me with Startup Princess events and pageant prep but with my son’s school play, Willy Wonka where he’s one of the 110 Oompa Loompas! School plays=long rehearsals and in the charter school where we go, it also means lots of volunteer hours. I was make up girl this week… lots of red cheeks, red lips, eye liner, and making sure kids behaved backstage, etc. It has been a fun and rewarding experience for everyone.
Looking back at the week I can see where I succeeded and well, failed. It’s time to re-evaluate things and plan on a better week! Read more
