Smart secrets from women CEOs

By SmartMoney

Alexandra Lebenthal's role model was a Wall Street pioneer. As a young girl growing up in the 1960s, she often visited her grandmother, Sayra Fischer Lebenthal, at the family's municipal-bond firm in Lower Manhattan.

"The office was in the financial district, overlooking New York Harbor," recalls Lebenthal, who became president of the family's Lebenthal & Co. at 31 and now, at 42, is starting up a new retail-brokerage venture at Israel Discount Bank of New York. "I remember my grandmother sitting at this desk, with the Statue of Liberty behind her. That's pretty strong imagery for a 4-year-old girl to have."

And an unusual one. Many female business owners credit their hard-working fathers as sources of inspiration. But few can say they were exposed to successful female business leaders in their early years. Even today, many women proprietors lack female role models.

Though women start businesses at twice the rate of men, many find it difficult to grow their companies and tap into venture-capital networks. Less than 3% of women-owned businesses report $1 million or more in annual revenues, according to data from the Center for Women's Business Research. Some female entrepreneurs say they're also still dogged by a stereotype that they lack financial know-how, resulting in banks or investors hesitant to work with them.

Lebenthal says she didn't absorb her grandmother's trailblazing efforts while growing up. But now, "when I think back on the experience, I think of the incredible significance that she had on me," she says. And she makes sure to have a physical reminder in her office: her grandmother's gigantic, semicircle desk made of cherry wood.

Lebenthal recently had the desk moved to her new offices, IBD's Alexandra & James unit. "When I was able to call storage and say 'Get me the desk!' it was a great moment," she says.

What to do if your grandmother wasn't a business pioneer? Here's advice from some of America's most successful female entrepreneurs.

Barbara Corcoran, real-estate mogul

Ask Barbara Corcoran, 57, about her credentials, and she lays it on the line: straight D's in high school and college, and 20 jobs by the time she had hit her early 20s. At 23, she quit her job as a waitress, borrowed $1,000 from a boyfriend and started a tiny real-estate firm. Over 25 years, she turned that loan into a $5 billion real-estate empire -- and explained how she did it in the book "If You Don't Have Big Breasts, Put Ribbons On Your Pigtails."

What's your top advice for female entrepreneurs?

Forget the fact that you're a woman and out-hustle everyone else. Being an entrepreneur is all about hustling harder and persevering longer than the next guy. Whether you're a girl or a guy makes no difference.

In your career, have you dealt with any particular challenges as a woman business owner?

Not really -- I've operated on "gender blind" mode. There's enough occupying your energy, your space and your objectives to worry about and focus on. I've just never thought of myself as a girl. I think of myself as a businessperson at work.

Women view you as a role model. What's one thing about yourself you want them to know?

The hardest challenge is convincing yourself that you have the right to be there. That has always been the little voice in my head that has tried to undermine my efforts all along the way. So I've learned to talk back and tell the little voice that I have the right to be there. And that's pushed me over the edge in many situations when I thought I should duck out instead.

Bobbi Brown, creator of high-end makeup

Bobbi Brown, 49, says her love affair with makeup began when she discovered her mother's collection of cosmetics. She spent much of the 1980s working as a professional makeup artist.

Frustrated by the lack of flattering makeup on the market, she launched her line of cosmetics in 1991. Her makeup is now sold in high-end department stores around the world.

What's your top advice for female entrepreneurs?

You have to be passionate about the product or service you're offering. You also have to make sure that it's a product other people either need or really want. Then you have to figure out how to let people know about it. Start small and don't invest a lot of your own money. There's a lot of learning and mistakes in anything you do, and if you start too big, it can be very costly. In other words, make sure you have the foundation built before you build the house.

In your career, have you dealt with any particular challenges as a woman business owner?

Early on, I told someone in the industry about my idea and they said that the last thing the industry needed was another makeup line. That comment obviously didn't stop me. There were also the days when I made in-store appearances throughout the country, and some clients didn't like the natural look and didn't understand the concept of yellow-toned foundation.

I've never really felt that being a woman challenged me in the business world. The only time I was aware of it was when I was on a business trip in Japan while pregnant. The businessmen there didn't know what to make of me!

Women view you as a role model. What's one thing about yourself you want them to know?

I want women to know that even though I am a career woman/businesswoman/entrepreneur, my personal life and my family always come before my business.

Dany Levy, Web-based media pioneer

For Daily Candy founder Dany Levy, 34, spreading the word about the latest trends has paid off big time. Her daily e-mails featuring the latest dish on sample sales, must-have accessories and fabulous eateries now appear in 11 cities, and cater to an audience of fashion-forward consumers that advertisers covet.

In just six years, Levy has transformed Daily Candy from a start-up Web business to a valuable media property, closely watched by hipsters and potential buyers alike.

What's your top advice for female entrepreneurs?

Try to boil down what you're doing to one very simple idea. And ask a lot of questions. That's the nature of being an entrepreneur. It doesn't matter if you come from a farm or if you went to Harvard Business School. The fact is, you don't know jack until you're doing it.

Read a lot about different people you admire and hear what they have to say. I admire Nell Merlino (who helped create Take Your Daughter to Work Day and the Make Mine a Million women's business contest). I admire someone like Kate Spade, who grew her business at the right pace -- slowly -- and then blew it out of the water.

In your career, have you dealt with any particular challenges as a woman business owner?

What's been a challenge for me is my self-doubt. You really have to work to overcome the "I don't know how to do that," "I wasn't taught that in school" and "I don't know how to do math" mentality. You just have to take a deep breath and go beyond that, and rely on your personality and your strength.

I operate in a world where the other entrepreneurs who are as successful are male, and my investors are male. You've got to tune it out. If someone has an issue that I'm a woman, and I show my cleavage sometimes, or I wear a short skirt or that I can be total bitch on wheels -- that's their issue. You are an entrepreneur before anything else.

Sometimes I get a big kick that I sit there in these big strategy sessions and there's a bunch of men and me. It's kind of flattering. I just wish there were more women doing this and it wasn't an anomaly.

Women view you as a role model. What's one thing about yourself you want them to know?

That at my core I'm kind of a geek. It gets all glossed over in a "Sex and the City" way. The fact is, I sit in front of my computer most of the day and edit. And I go to the same restaurants over and over and over again. It drives me crazy when people say, "What's the new hot spot?" and I'm like, "I just edited the piece, I don't remember the name."

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