Last week The Leading Women Entrepreneurs of the World, exclusively represented by the STAR Group and supported here by Starla Williams, Select Sites Group, came together (many arriving in their own corporate jets) in Bermuda to honour 15 new Leading Women Entrepreneurs.

In the six years of the STAR GROUP's existence, more than 295 women from more than 50 countries have been honoured. Featured in publications such as Fortune, Forbes, and USA today, and supported by Corporate Underwriters such as IBM, American Airlines, Qantas, Christian Dior, and so on, the list of previous honourers reads like a global Who's Who. Collectively, the companies these women own represent in excess of $100 billion US Dollars in annual sales, a phenomenal average of more than $400 million per honoree.

I had dinner with some of these international Entrepreneurial Honorees during a 'dine around' at a simply gorgeous Old Slip Lane private home, provided for the evening due to the generosity of yet another lovely lady. It struck me that here they were sitting in serene and understated elegance, yet they all possess the requirements of the ultimate entrepreneur: critical thinking, the ability to see the big picture and grasp opportunities in niche markets, the courage to take risks to succeed.

And while entrepreneurship is not exclusively a female attribute, these ladies were united by other common strengths. They ventured into traditionally male-dominated business fields; they were ethnic minorities and new immigrants to foreign cultures, channeling those disadvantages into a celebration of diversity; they are multilingual, rather tolerant of Western one-dimensional linguistic complacency, even though they were first challenged to learn English to achieve their goals. In classic female attention to detail, many of them simultaneously, own & operate more than one business. They are single, divorced, widows, wives, mothers, eldercare providers, generous as mentors in sharing knowledge, and nurturers of dreams.

Here are some of their stories:

Years ago, a friend's father was an independent long-distance trucker. He made a good living hauling from Maine to Boston, and almost as often Atlantic to Pacific. It was (and still is) an exhausting physical job in a fiercely competitive market. With rigs costing a minimum $150,000, gas, tolls, meals on the road, freight levies, federal, state & local income taxes, sales taxes, liability & health insurance, financing, pension plans, and most importantly, maintaining an excellent driving record, the trucker, whether male or female, is a business. Significant hours on the road impact the planning that a trucker needs to implement to be cost-effective and profitable.

Enter Cheryl Womack, CEO of the National Association of Independent Truckers (8,000 members strong) who twenty years ago realised the opportunities in this niche market, took huge personal risks, and became an extraordinary success. By providing cost-effective insurance, retirement plans, low-interest credit cards and more to her Trucker membership, Cheryl's customers were able to do what they do best, move goods around the world. She has perpetuated her vision by donating millions of dollars to Kansas University for student-athletes education & training, as well as mentoring and teaching business courses using her Big Ideas concepts:

1. You can't grow a business without great people.

2. Start a business to be in control of your destiny.

3. Good things can happen quickly.

4. Duplicating what works is a good strategy.

5. All of life's experiences can be applied to a new business venture.

This year, at age 50, Cheryl has focused her commitment on the promotion of global women entrepreneurs by recently purchasing the STAR GROUP from its visionary founders, Wayne Cline and his late wife, Anita Alberts.

Maria de Lourdes Sobrino, President and CEO of LuLu's Dessert and the Fancy Fruit Corporation immigrated to the United States from Mexico. In her home kitchen by hand on a daily basis, she made 300 Mexican gelatin desserts. Today, LuLu's Dessert and Fancy Fruit factories produce more than 60 million cups of dessert and 15 million frozen fruit bars annually. Last August, Mrs. Sobrino represented small businesses as a keynote speaker at US president Bush's Economic Forum at Baylor University in Texas.

Diminutive, warm and charming, Virginia P'an, CEO, TransCapital Group began her early career on Wall Street, not exactly a receptive atmosphere for a young, Chinese woman. Her common sense statements speak volumes:

"I'm first generation American. So what? I don't believe in being a victim. If you don't have the skills, get them! You can't operate from a negative viewpoint. You must focus on your abilities and play the game."

That positive attitude propelled her upward, becoming the first female vice president at American Express Bank. In 1984, she established her own company, which specialises in assisting Western corporations such as Aetna Insurance and PepsiCo foods form strategic alliances within the Chinese market.

With a warm smile, Indira Senanayake Kulatilake, Founder/CEO, Universal Labels (Pvt) Ltd, told me that she started her Sri Lankan business by drawing label designs by hand, then weaving them with a hand loom. Her mini-workshop with two employees was next to her house, where her mother-in-law helped out by watching her two-year old son.

After more than twenty years of hard, hard intense work, she now employees 75 people in a modern factory that produces millions of labels to adorn clothes that you and I may just be wearing today.

Her ultimate sharing vision is to launch mini-entrepreneurial female businesses in rural Sri Lanka so that other women can remain with their families. Out of sheer economic survival, thousands of Sri Lankan ladies each year are forced to leave their homes for lives of domestic servitude abroad.

Many have returned decades later worn out from years of physical and mental abuse only to find that their families have moved on, indifferent to their needs and not interested in even knowing them.

Bermuda, too, has our share of Leading Women Entrepreneurs. Pamela Ferreira, CEO of the MarketPlace, and legal consultant to Mello Jones & Martin, was one of the keynote speakers at the Best of Bermuda ceremonies held at Ace Global Group headquarters. In an eloquent and moving presentation about her family's trials, tragedies, and sheer test of faith in operating a business (which brought tears to many in the audience), she told us of asking her son what he thought an entrepreneur was. He said it best. "Real entrepreneurs are ordinary women with extraordinary determination."

For inspirational websites to succeed at your dreams, please send me an e-mail.

Some source references from Asiandiversity.com and KU Connection

@EDITRULE:

Martha Harris Myron CPA CFP is a Bermudian, a Certified Financial Planner (US license) practitioner and VP, Personal Financial Services at Bank of Bermuda. She holds a NASD Series 7 license, and formerly owned a US financial services practice meeting the needs of 400 individual and corporate clients.

Confidential E-mail can be directed to marthamyron@northrock.bm.

This article expresses the opinion of the author alone, and not necessarily that of Bank of Bermuda. Under no circumstances is this advice to be taken as a recommendation to buy or sell investment products or as a promotion for financial plans. The Editor of The Royal Gazette has final right of approval over headlines, content, and length/brevity of article.