Take a little trip with me for a moment. Imagine you're at a tech conference and attending a popular panel. The room is packed. The panelists are all men and the topic is their successes as entrepreneurs - how they've succeeded, lessons they can share with us, etc. The opening questions are pretty basic stuff - tell us about your company, how you got the idea, your biggest successes and failures. The panelists are then asked whether they've been able to balance work with home life and how they fit kids into their busy schedules. They pause over the question, not sure how to answer. It's an odd question to ask a bunch of men. Balance isn't something they think much about; it's just something one does as a functioning adult. They work, they go home, they attend soccer games and feed their...

Today's post is from Lisa Russell, Chapter Director for Sharp Skirts's Chicago Branch. Almost a year ago, we launched the Sharp Skirts Chicago chapter and we’ve since built an amazing local network representing a wide range of startups, women-owned businesses and aspiring entrepreneurs.  The unique tone and dedication to providing women the content and connections they need to build smart, successful companies has allowed Sharp Skirts, both online and in person, to be recognized as a valuable, dependable resource among Chicago entrepreneurs. Just as many of you, I continuously strive to leverage my resources and experiences to personally encourage and empower others to challenge themselves and successfully reach their goals.  Whether it’s in my time spent with Sharp Skirts or volunteering...

I'm not a big fan of lists. There are 10,000 of them - especially this time of year - all aiming to make a definitive statement on who is hot or cool or successful at that moment in time. We're doing one anyway, partly because Forbes has pissed us off again. This probably is not the best way to make business decisions. But one could argue that the very existence of Sharp Skirts is due to annoyance with entrenched attitudes and ideas. When there is nothing left at which to be annoyed, we'll go away. Forbes published its '30 Under 30' list earlier this week and, not only were there a measly two women on the list, they shared their spots with men. It was stunning and exasperating. The original Sharp Skirt, Chris Shipley, first spotted it and emailed me. Let's come up with our own list, she...