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Most Influential Female Entrepreneurs

By | Andrew Lu

We are living in an amazing time when women can succeed in different areas and share their experiences and support with others. Of course, in many career spheres, there is still significant gender inequality, complicating the process of getting to the top, but this doesn’t stop strong and intelligent women. The stories of many successful women are read from the end, and it seems that this is a fairy tale worthy of Cinderella, where all the miracles happened in one day. But when wealthy and influential entrepreneurs start telling what they have started with, it becomes clear that success is hard work that requires healthy and developed habits over the years.

It is not difficult to become an entrepreneur on papers, and most financial transactions can be performed on your smartphone. While creating a business that will not disappear together with the initial capital and will inspire you for more than one year is a more serious task. Here are the most powerful and famous female entrepreneurs who can become role models and inspire girls all over the world to start their own business. Men are looking for ways to propose to these women, but it is always a challenge.

Sarah Blakely

Sarah Blakely is running Spanx. Earlier, she was one of the top management representatives of Nike, and thanks to this incredible woman, the brand has changed its policy and started offering not only sportswear but also clothes for activities in the open air, even though Blakely held this post for only 2 years. However, once starting as a sales manager, Sarah came up with an idea to create her own business that would be specializing in developing and producing corrective underwear, and after her 29th birthday, she invested $ 5,000 in such underwear that allows everyone without exception to put on any outfit and still look gorgeous. She is the sole proprietor of the company, and five years ago, Blakely became the part-owner of the Atlanta Hawks basketball club. Since 2012, this beautiful woman is among the most influential females all over the world according to different magazines and ratings.

Sofia Amoruso

This girl is unique since she is a rare representative of the millennials-billionaires who has earned her money not in the showbusiness but on the Web. She launched her fashion company, which is called Nasty Gal 13 years ago, being a 22 years old girl. At first, her variety of products included only vintage things for people who are in love with fashion. So, more than 10 years have passed since that moment, and nowadays, Nasty Gal can easily compete with such big companies as H&M and ASOS. The average company’s income is about $ 350 million, while in 2012, it was about $102 million. If you are interested in her life story, you can read her autobiographical book, besides, there are high chances that soon we will see her autobiographic sitcom on Netflix.

Diane Hendricks

We’ve turned into one of the biggest distributors in the USA and carried roofing materials to huge and small roofers,” Diane said about the company that she and her late husband Ken founded in 1982. When her spouse died in 2007, Diane decided to not sell the company. This strong lady dealt with the downturn of 2008 and even purchased the competing company Bradco Supply in 2010. The value of these companies has been doubled over the past 11 years.

Kathy Ireland

Supermodel Kathy Ireland has created a huge corporation, she put her soul and marketing skills into more than 17,000 products. Everything is being sold so smoothly that it makes a profit of $2.7 billion. Kathy was discovered by the Elite modeling agency when she was a young 16 years old girl. And while building her model career, Kathy continued to come up with additional business projects. One of them has given great results. Having entered the furniture sector, Ireland chose a non-standard way and focused on a special approach that her company would provide its customers with. Thus, the statement, “Great solutions for families, especially for busy moms” has turned into the company’s slogan. For example, rugs are treated in a special way for protection from spilled water and other liquids to preserve colors and prolong rug life.

Tony Ko

Tony was born into a family of emigrants and being a 13 years old girl, she moved with her parents from Korea to Los Angeles, where the family business began to flourish. The girl actively helped in the development of the store. Thus, at first, she traded along with other employees, then she was given access to more serious affairs. At 25 years old, Tony conducted independent marketing research: she compared the prices of cosmetics in supermarkets and pharmacies. The data obtained was astonishing – freely accessible products had inflated prices, and their quality was disappointing. The girl, who was already a fan of makeup, decided to create her own line of cosmetics, which would be of quality as a “pharmacy” and at a price as a supermarket. So, in 1999, the NYX brand appeared. At the time the brand was created, Tony was only 26 years old. She had been involved in NYX development for 15 years until she sold the brand to L’Oréal. After a couple of years, she took up a new business – the creation of stylish sunglasses at affordable prices.

Katrina Lake

Katrina Lake is the founder of Stitch Fix, an online store that selects clothing for customers based on statistic data and fashion tips. A couple of years ago, their sales were about $251 million, demonstrating that a San Francisco start-up has become a comfortable shopping helper for women who don’t have enough free time for offline shopping. Even though Lake hasn’t earned her first billion yet, she is on the list of ambitious and influential entrepreneurs who will soon take a place among the top 50 powerful female entrepreneurs on the globe.

Dorothy Herman

Nowadays, girls adore stories about self-made women who have shown everyone that everything is possible in this world. Thus, Dorothy is the part-owner of a reputable company in New York, which sells apartments for about $23 billion a year, and her income is about $620 million. The company hires more than 6 thousand managers in 86 offices. When she was 10 years old kid, her family got into a car crash in the result of which her mom died, and dad was seriously injured. Dorothy became a mom when she was 19. In the 80s, she got a job of a real estate agent in a small company that was bought by a bigger one over time. In the 90s, Dorothy became the owner of most of the latter company.

Ivana Trump

The top model, the ex-wife of the American billionaire and US President Donald Trump was seriously interested in business 30 years ago. First, she was her husband’s second hand, she ran his Trump Organization company, then she became president of the Trump Castle casino. After the divorce, Ivana took up high fashion and journalism: she created the Ivana brand of clothes and accessories, which unites clothing factories located around the world and launched the glossy magazine. Besides, Ivana wrote several novels, played a small role in the Hollywood movie “Club of the First Wives,” and took part in several reality shows.

 

 

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