Entrepreneurship is my favorite topic - to talk about, to read about, to think about, and to write about. I get excited every time I hear about a startup business and especially enthused to learn that it is a woman-owned business. For some reason, that I can only attribute to a mutant gene gone wild, I am obsessed with dissecting small businesses and discovering the dark horse. As I turn the pages of Zero to One, written by Peter Thiel, founder of PayPal, I understand even more the importance of daring to be different. 
Thiel defines startups as "the largest group of people you can convince of a plan to build a different future." In other words, a startup requires new thinking. Think about it!
In a very scary way, the most notorious startup in the world today is ISIS. This is not a political blog, but the comparison must be made. In the world of business, Apple continues to lead the way.
But, I want to make my point with smaller businesses and in ways that you, the reader, can adopt. To begin I'll start with my own business, launched in 1998, Women's Business, a newspaper for business and professional women.
The first question you might ask is how is launching a new newspaper building a new future. The answer is not completely in what the business did, but how we did it. First, the paper was written only by women and only about women. Why? Because at the time less than 10% of all journalists writing for newspapers were female. Second, business women were an anomaly in the business pages of all newspapers, business and general, and Women's Business changed that. But, that is not the complete story of how we were different from the norm. Newspapers generate, and continue to generate, their revenues from advertisers. Advertisers care about target markets. Women's Business was the only newspaper, at one time in nine states, targeting women in business.
Early on when I launched the paper I was asked why the front of the newspaper didn't look like my competitors. In other words, why did I insist on having a photo of a professional woman on the cover rather than news stories and headlines like all the others. "Easy answer", I would say. "No woman in business, or man for that matter, can stand looking at a professional woman on the cover of a newspaper without looking inside to find out who she is and why she deserves to be there." Women's Business caught the attention of professional business people, male and female, and the advertisers followed with their dollars. The how we did it story is what every startup must adhere to 'lean and mean'. For those not in the newspaper business, and for some that are, this answer may shock you, but we never paid for a photo or a contributed article. I knew women well - probably because I am one - and I knew most women hate the pictures they see of themselves in the newspaper or anywhere else if they haven't been able to choose them. So, I asked women to send in their own photos if when asked they wanted to be featured in the paper. Cover women were asked to have their own professional photo done of themselves in their work environment. The contributed articles were called expert articles and were submitted to our full time editor for editing on subjects that fell into our editorial calendar. Funny how many of those companies wanted to advertise when their expert articles appeared. But I promise, there was never a quid pro quo. These different approaches to a historic business model made Women's Business a very profitable company and led to our sale in 2004 - when newspapers were still heavily in the print business.
Many people ask me if I think Women's Business would be viable in today's newspaper environment. My answer is always, "I believe it would be if we continued to dare to be different in an industry still struggling with change."
I don't struggle with change. As a matter of fact, I thrive on change. I believe true entrepreneurs must thrive on change if they want be successful.
In his book, Thiel makes a case for secrets. Clearly, if you want to be an entrepreneur you must believe that there are things left to discover in science, medicine, technology and more. Daring to find the solution to problems that some people may not even be aware of is exactly how new companies are born.
As a business coach to women entrepreneurs, I can attest that most start out with the idea of being different. Unfortunately, too often along the way they are coaxed into following the status quo. Standing out often means not fitting in. Think about the successful women and men entrepreneurs you know. Notice all the ways they stick out from the norm. Daring to be different means paying a price, but it is a price every entrepreneur must consider.
