Hosts and Speakers at Coca Cola Tour: Adelante! Photo courtesy of Coca Cola

I had the extraordinary opportunity to co-host the Coca Cola Tour: Adelante empowerment event for Los Angeles area Latinas. As part of this event, the brainchild of  Media Entrepreneur Nely Galán, several speakers inspired hundreds of women. One of them was Nell Merlino, founder and President of Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence. The non-profit organization is one of the leading national providers of resources for women to grow their micro businesses into million $ enterprises. She was motivated to start her initiative “Make Mine a Million Dollar Business” after reading astounding statistics that out of 10.5 million women business owners only 250,000 have a million dollars or more in revenue!

Here were some of Nell’s top lessons to grow your business:

• Tell people what you need including help! Growing a business is not a solitary activity. You need to mobilize people you know

• One of the brilliant things women do with their businesses is that they solve a problem for their community and for their world. Think about solving a problem, thing about how you have a solved a problem.

• The biggest challenge women have in growing their companies, is thinking that they have to do everything themselves. Figure out what only you can do and what you do best and find others to do the rest.

• Time is the most precious commodity for women entrepreneurs. Look for ways to get others to do what’s on your To Do list. For example, consider using a grocery delivery service rather than spending the 2 hours in the grocery store. Move stuff to someone else.

• Think about how you can expand your capacity for growth. You make cupcakes? Those who grow their cupcake businesses into multimillion dollar businesses figure out how to go big. Think starting a franchise. Think selling to Wal-Mart.

• Lots of opportunities with government contracting work. At least 5% of contracts must go to women-owned businesses. Certify as a woman-owned business. Go to organizations like CountMeIn.org to get help with how to broker those opportunities.

• Think with the end in mind. Dream big. To grow a business into a multimillion dollar business you have to let your imagination run wild.

• Speak in the affirmative language. “We are not trying, we are!”

If you want to see this inspiring advocate for women in action, watch this video. Her Recipe for Success list starts at approximately 26 minutes into the video. And please consider sharing it with every woman entrepreneur you know.

As Nell says, for women entrepreneurs making money is about doing what we want to do for ourselves and our families. Go grow your  business!

For more on the Coca Cola Tour: Adelante movement, visit their Facebook Page.

Michele Ruiz ~ Empowering Entrepreneurs to Empower Themselves!

I’m a former news anchor/reporter turned entrepreneur. I blog about my Life as a Latina entrepreneur which includes being a Mom, a Latina woman in the business world, and an entrepreneur. I share real life, tips, know-how, lessons I’ve learned and insights I think may be helpful to you as I launch and build my next company. Hope you’ll join me! You can follow me on my website MicheleRuiz.com, on my Facebook Page , Twitter (@micheleruiz01), LinkedIn,Google+, and YouTube vlogs. Thank you for support! Mil gracias por su apoyo!