Forbes has released their Most Powerful Female Entrepreneurs list and I hope you guys find it as inspiring as I did. Most of these women are young and beautiful business moguls. One of my favorites on the list is 29 year old Sara Blakely, the inventor of Spanx. She went from selling fax machines door to door to starting what would become a billion dollar empire. At just 29, if that’s not inspirational I don’t know what is.
Sara Blakely, Founder SPANX
At 29 Blakely invested her entire life savings, $5,000, trying to come up with something flattering to wear under her white slacks. Six months later the one-time Disney World ride greeter and door-to-door fax machine salesperson found her new line of shaping underwear named one of Oprah Winfrey’s Favorite Things. Since then Blakely has taken Spanx from a one-product wonder sold out of her Atlanta apartment to a powerhouse with $250 million in annual revenues and net profit margins estimated at 20%.
Oprah Winfrey, Founder and CEO OWN
Oprah Winfrey is the founder three times over: Founder of Harpo Productions, the Oprah Winfrey Network (OWN) and founder of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.
Gisele Bundchen, founder Sejaa Skincare
The world’s most powerful supermodel is also a natural skincare entrepreneur. Her line, Sejaa, has reportedly been in ongoing negotiations with Shiseido for years without reaching terms.
Tory Burch, Founder and CEO, Tory Burch
The billionaire Queen of the $200 ballet flat, the 2008 CFDA winner paid her dues working with designers Vera Wang, Ralph Lauren and Narciso Rodriguez before launching her own brand out of her Manhattan apartment in 2004. Her self-titled lifestyle lines range from accessories to ready-to-wear, and benefited early from an endorsement by Oprah Winfrey in 2005.
Arianna Huffington, Founder Huffington Post
Huffington created the Pulitzer prize-winning (and AOL assimilated) Huffington Post which continues its momentum in 2013 expanding to new international editions. In May, Huffington Post Japan marked the media site’s first Asian outpost, following Canada, U.K., France, Spain and Italy.
Beyonce Knowles, Cofounder House of Dereon
Beyonce created the fashion label House of Dereon with her mother, Tina Knowles, in 2004. In May of 2012 Beyonce added another credit to her entrepreneurial CV when she launched shop.beyonce.com, a branded apparel and accessory marketplace.
Read more at FORBES.com
