WOMEN IN CHARGE NURTURING THE BOTTOM LINE.Byline: BARBARA CORREA Staff Writer Mary Ann Mitchell Ann Mitchell (born April 22, 1939 in Stepney, East London, England) is one of Britain's leading stage and television actresses. As a child she attended Raine's Foundation School and went on to train at the pioneering East 15 Acting School, an establishment inspired by the always knew she wanted to start her own business. She just wasn't sure what kind of business she wanted to run. Even though she'd always been unusually talented at running computer systems, Mitchell says she never thought of it as anything more than a job. So when she decided to open her own business she started a beauty salon. And when that failed, she opened a catering company, which also fizzled. Eventually, Mitchell landed at Hughes Aircraft Hughes Aircraft Company was a major aerospace and defense company founded by Howard Hughes. The group was based near Ballona Creek, in Culver City, California, USA, on the Pacific Coast. Hughes Aircraft was acquired by General Motors in 1985. in El Segundo El Segundo (ĕl sēgŭn`dō), industrial city (1990 pop. 15,223), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1917. Its products include navigation and computer systems, aircraft parts, office machines, telephone apparatus, and , running the aerospace giant's computer centers. She realized for the first time that this was her entrepreneurial calling. ``I thought, this is easy,'' said Mitchell, who started Computer Consulting Operations Specialists in Culver City Culver City, city (1990 pop. 38,793), Los Angeles co., S Calif., a residential suburb of Los Angeles; inc. 1917. It is a center of the U.S. motion-picture industry, whose roots in the city date to c.1915. Its chief manufactures are rubber products and computers. almost 20 years ago. Do what you like Mitchell was named last month by business portal DiversityBusiness.com as California's 15th largest woman-owned business, measured by annual sales. Her company, as well as the 99 others named, show that companies led by women have come a long way from beauty salons and catering. The largest woman-owned business in California is Act-1 Group, a $718 million temporary employment firm based in Torrance. Other prominent local businesses headed by women are Pinnacle Petroleum in Seal Beach Seal Beach, city (1990 pop. 25,098), Orange co., S Calif., on the Pacific coast; inc. 1915. It is a beach city with an active art colony. Transportation equipment and concrete are among the city's manufactures. U.S. naval stations are nearby. , Music Express Limousine in Burbank and RLR RLR Rahal Letterman Racing (motorsports racing team owned by David Letterman and Bobby Rahal) RLR Roller RLR Red Light Running RLR Reinforcement Learning Repository RLR Receiving Loudness Rating Advertising & Marketing in Pasadena. Uphill battle Uphill Battle was an metalcore band with elements of grindcore and noisecore. The group was based out of Santa Barbara, California, USA. History Uphill Battle got some recognition releasing their self-titled record on Relapse Records. Women who run some of these businesses say that despite their success, the road there has been difficult, and many hurdles remain for female business owners. Patti Regan, founder of The Regan Group, a movie and entertainment marketing company in Manhattan Beach Manhattan Beach, city (1990 pop. 32,063), Los Angeles co., S Calif., on Santa Monica Bay; inc. 1912. It is a residential and beach community with an oil refinery and nearby factories that produce transportation and electrical equipment, computers, and pottery. , said she lost a contract with a Japanese company because of her gender. ``Even though our work was much better than our competitor, they pretty much said, we don't want to work with a woman-owned company,'' said Regan, whose company promoted USA Network's ``Psych'' by dispatching street crews on two-wheeled Segway electric scooters decorated with the show's logos. ``I think it's shocking to some people when they hear a limo company is owned by a woman,'' said Cheryl Berkman, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. of Music Express Limousine, a $44 million family-owned business in Burbank. Mary Ann Mitchell says being a woman has had its limitations. ``If I was a ... man with my energy and my business acumen and my personality, it would have been a heck of a lot better,'' she says. While women now account for almost half of all business owners and open businesses at twice the rate as men, their revenue rates are much lower. Of the roughly 23 million privately owned businesses in the U.S., just over one million of them generate $1 million in sales or more, says Erin Fuller, executive director of the National Association of Women Business Owners The National Association of Women's Business Owners (NAWBO) is an organization in the United States founded in 1975 that has the purpose of networking the approximately 10. . Of those companies, something like 850,000 are owned by men, and around 250,000 are owned by women, she said. ``To have women trailing men (by that much) is troubling, because when you reach one million in revenue, the economic impact in your community is more significant, with job creation, etc.'' Two of the big problems women and minority business owners face is access to capital and access to markets. Fuller said, quoting the Center for Women's Business Research, that women-owned businesses win 9 percent of venture capital investment deals and get just 2.3 percent of all venture capital dollars invested. Dream big, girl Some female entrepreneurs say women themselves sometimes help fuel these discrepancies because they don't dream big enough. Renee Fraser, who launched her own ad agency after working for Bozell and Young & Rubicam, says businesswomen sometimes fall into the trap of settling for less. ``You can get into a cocoon cocoon: see pupa. thing where you think, this is good enough,'' Fraser said. ``I'm not going to go for those big accounts, whereas men are always reaching farther.'' Margaret M. Bradshaw, national director of small business banking for Comerica, is trying to change that. She heads an initiative launched 18 months ago that aims to help women ``who may not have the same network of good old boys that good old boys do.'' The bank runs seminars and outreach programs to teach women small business owners to package a loan request in a way that bankers comprehend. ``Sometimes people don't understand that if you have good collateral why anything else matters.'' The bank announced in September plans to open 10 new branches in California, and women are one of its focuses for small business and corporate loans. ``Women-owned businesses are one of the fastest growing segments in the country,'' said Bradshaw. ``California accounts for 58 percent of small businesses in our entire footprint.'' Suited for multitasking multitasking Mode of computer operation in which the computer works on multiple tasks at the same time. A task is a computer program (or part of a program) that can be run as a separate entity. Despite the hurdles, women have a few advantages that help a lot, especially in particular lines of work. ``I'm not into labeling, but I do think a lot of women are very skilled at integrating work and personal lives,'' said Fuller. ``We know that 86 percent of women will make the same purchases for their business lives as their personal lives. They'll say, `Oh I'm at Costco and I need paper towels at home, why not get some for the office.''' ``I think being a woman has helped,'' said Patti Regan. ``Owning your own business, you have to multitask, you're constantly juggling. There are always several fires going at the same time and women can multitask extremely well. I have a lot of women who work for me who are single moms or working moms and they know they have a short time to get stuff done and they are extremely productive.'' Feminine intuition Feminine Intuition is a science fiction short story by Isaac Asimov, originally published in the October 1969 issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and collected in The Bicentennial Man and Other Stories (1976), The Complete Robot also helps in marketing. ``I'm in a networking group with 15 other CEOs,'' says Regan. ``I'm the only woman. Things that are common sense to me baffles them. A lot of it is instinct knowing the emotional side to morale and team building. The other CEOs call me and say, `I don't get it.' '' Regan and Renee Fraser also both say accountability among staff is very important. ``I'm big on accountability,'' Fraser says. ``Whenever we go work with a client, we're not just about building the ad budget. Sometimes that means events or PR or a buzz campaign. Within a large corporation there are incentives for selling certain kinds of media, but when you have your own company you don't have to do that.'' Finally, women business owners Many online and offline organizations have been created to collect information about businesses around the world owned and operated by women. Many other organizations have been created to assist the women that own and operate those businesses. emphasize that they don't fall into any male-bashing stereotype. ``There seems to be this idea that when you're a woman-based company, you're against men. ``It's not true,'' says Fraser. ``I'm not a strident feminist. We make sure we get a lot of testosterone testosterone (tĕstŏs`tərōn), principal androgen, or male sex hormone. One of the group of compounds known as anabolic steroids, testosterone is secreted by the testes (see testis) but is also synthesized in small quantities in the in our office.'' barbara.correa(at)dailynews.com (818) 713-3662 CAPTION(S): 2 photos, box Photo: (1 -- color) no caption (Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. , businesswoman) Staff illustration by T. Gapen (2) Mary Ann Mitchell, president and CEO of Computer Consulting Operations Specialists Inc., in her office in Culver City. Evan Yee/Staff Photographer Box: Some of the leading women-owned businesses in Southern California Southern California, also colloquially known as SoCal, is the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. Centered on the cities of Los Angeles and San Diego, Southern California is home to nearly 24 million people and is the nation's second most populated region, Source: Diversitybusiness.com |
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