ConnectAmericas will regularly present a Book Guide for women entrepreneurs, where you will be able to find information, inspiration, success stories and lessons to apply to your companies. 

“Today, the key to being a successful businesswoman is to be current on the latest management trends and have the capacity to work in teams and delegate. She must also be a motivator, willing to set her own style and, therefore, be capable of differentiating herself,” affirms Leonardo Glikin, Director of CAPS Consultores and author of the book “Iguales y Diferentes. Los espacios de la mujer en la empresa de familia (Equal and Different. A Woman’s Place in the Family Business).”

Below we share our choices for this 1st Guide:

• Make a name for yourself: Robin Fisher Roffer writes for women entrepreneurs and professionals to help define their business core, their unique qualities in the world (professional DNA), and to develop their personal brand applying the same successful technique used to develop company brands and products. Based on the author’s personal and professional experience, the publication includes advice and tips, such as how to design a business card.  
• Lean in: The author, Sheryl Sandberg, is the Chief Operating Officer of Facebook and is considered to be one of the most influential women entrepreneurs. Before she served as Vice President of Global Sales at Google and as Chief of Personnel at the U.S. Treasury Department. This book argues that the majority of women are looked down upon for top corporate positions and that it is women themselves who undermine their professional progress. The author describes how she later became bitter about not asking for full maternity leave with her first child or how she would carry out conference calls while hiding a breast pump.
• The Personal MBA: After researching the best MBA programs, Josh Kaufman concludes that they are a waste of time and money; and that actual experience in doing business and texts can teach you more than university. He bases this upon the notion that the best method to learn is to do in order to reach the universal principles behind every successful business. The author estimates that the largest companies only hire between 5,000 to 10,000 MBA graduates a year, out of the more than 200,000 students that obtain this degree. 
• Iguales y diferentes. Los espacios de la mujer en la empresa de familia / Equal and different. A Woman’s Place in the Family Business: Human relations within a family company deserve thorough analysis; and the role of women (daughters, mothers, wives) in these organizations, even more. Leonardo J. Glikin wrote this practical book to help women in family businesses find their place and to make it their own. It also helps men working in family businesses interact with their couples, mothers, sisters, daughters, mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, with the idea of preserving family relations and consolidating the business project.  
• El Libro Rojo de las Mujeres Emprendedoras/The Red Book of Women Entrepreneurs: This book is geared towards women that want to start a business project and to all those interested in learning about women in the world economy. It is a documented book that intends to reveal the profile of women entrepreneurs in a concise and orderly manner. Guernica Facundo Vericat also reviews the factors conditioning all women entrepreneurs, ending with a description of the most useful tools and skills to manage any business project. The author is a natural-born entrepreneur who has lived through most of the experience of what led her to write this book.

Other support tools

Glikin suggests getting to know your weaknesses and their impact on the business in order to make the best training choices. Otherwise, you will tend to learn more about what you already know or focus on very operational issues.   

When asked about the multiple roles that women play today, the author sustains that it is imperative for women to raise awareness in their families (including young children) about the importance of their place in the work world; and how it is necessary to channel demands so that they don’t hamper the company’s management. “Without guilt, setting clear limits, both with respect to the invasion of work at home as with the invasion of home at work,” he adds.