Today I Googled “breaking through barriers” to see what would come up and it was a bit crazy—there are ads for life coaches, titles about mental barriers, even links to music albums with the title. And what I got from this search is that everyone is doing something to break through a barrier of some sort, even if it is just the hard caramel layer on a crème brûlée. Struggling to find what I was searching for, I knew I had to switch gears and be smarter than the machine (if that’s possible), but I was, and I drilled down my search: “breaking through barriers in business.” YAY Success!! To be honest, I don’t know what I was really looking for when I did this search, but I think it was mostly inspiration and I got just that.
Female entrepreneurs are some of the fiercest women I know—they face barriers every day that come from many different places… almost like a Google search. How they became an entrepreneur, what challenges they faced building their business, how far they had to stretch themselves mentally, financially, and sometimes, physically. Some of the entrepreneurs we encounter at Alberta Women Entrepreneurs (AWE) work in industries that are primarily male dominated, so they have a whole different set of barriers placed on them for that alone. Each day female entrepreneurs are breaking through these barriers and reaching far beyond them.
On February 17, 2016 AWE will be hosting Learn from Alberta’s Best Leadership Day. Join us all day and stay for our closing keynote Nicole Bourque-Bouchier as she shares insights about how she broke through barriers and continues to today. Nicole is the 2015 Celebration of Achievement Award recipient and shared some of her story with us last year:
“Through my experiences being a business owner I’ve learned a lot about myself. I’ve learned a lot about how resilient I am and what motivates me.”
Alberta Women Entrepreneurs is a not for profit organization dedicated to enabling women entrepreneurs in Alberta to be successful contributors to the economy. Since 1995, AWE has provided unique programs and services to women in business through mentoring, advising, financing, and skills and network development. AWE believes that full engagement of women in our economy leads to stronger communities. Learn more at www.awebusiness.com.
