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Our
Proverb 31
Business Model, Honoring
Mothers,
Beauty, Brains & Business |
Our “Proverbs 31” Business Woman Model
Personal Development,
Home Making, Business Enterprise, Economic
Sustainability, and Community Outreach
The Proverbs 31 Business Woman
understands that her business and its success are
directly related to her God-given talents, skills,
abilities, and the plan He has for her life.
These qualities are uniquely her own, and are part
of her shape, being, and individual purpose. She
seeks the Master Plan He has for her business plan
and her life. Her delight in doing business
springs from her integrity, desire to serve others,
to do good and prosper, and her motivation to help
herself, her home, her community. She values
all who would be her customers and provides quality
products and/or service to help meet their needs and
interests, while providing her a sustainable income,
She does her business as though it were a ministry,
for it is. She reveres God and His Son Jesus
Christ as Lord, and serves Him
with all her life, and seeks to glorify Him by
serving others. Her goals are to be a
positive, innovative, wise and caring woman; a
productive manager of time, money, and
resources (about handling business); know her
strengths, abilities and what she has to offer
(empowered); effectively develop relationships and
conduct business with merchants and customers
in the marketplace (networked); plan and be able to
build wealth for the well being of her family,
buying land and other resources as needed
(sustainability), look out for and care for her home
and friends; a treasure and delight to her husband,
and valuable contributor to her community. She
works to not just make money, but also to make a
positive difference in someone's life (has a “heart
& soul for doing business”). She is a celebrated
woman by those who know her (blessed).
--Written by Tekelia
C. Kelly, Founder/Owner Sisters In Business.Net
Taking
Care of Business:
Like Mothers, Like Daughters
by
Tekelia C. Kelly
My grandmother, born on The Fourth of July-Independence
Day, was an independent woman who valued freedom and
independence. I remember she used to sell the best frozens in the neighborhood! I would of course get
them for free.
My Granny had a good business sense
when it came to managing her finances. I took note
how she handled her money: from putting quarters in
those Federal Savings Bank cards, to where to keep a
special stash of cash. Seeing how she handled her
business helped me be sober-minded and savvy when it
came to handling my own finances.
When I think about it, I have several "sisters in
business" ancestors. As a youth I saw my mother work several what is now known as "home-based businesses"
such as selling Tupperware, Aloe Vera, Avon, in an
effort to
supplement her income for our family. I now
see she had an entrepreneurial spirit, and was truly
a “sister in business”, with a heart and soul
for taking care of business, on which her family
depended.
My mother-in-law, Mrs. Martha Kelly, would have been considered
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Maelene B. Crutcher,
Beloved Mother
of Business Owners Tekeia C.
Kelly (SIB)
& Dorothea Johnson,
Inner Glow Skin Care |
today
a resale shop merchant, as she offered her goods at
flea markets, so that she would, like my
grandmother, have money to buy Christmas gifts, be
able to set up savings for grandchildren, take
herself shopping, or just have money for a rainy
day. These women were all “sisters in business” in
their own way, and remind me of the
Proverbs 31 Woman.
Did you
have a mom or special woman in your life that you admired
for how she took care of business? Tell us about it.
We’d like to hear about moms/women who influenced
you and helped you learn how to
“take care of business". Send us your story.
We may share it on our website. Email
sistersinbusiness@comcast.net.
I
have been giving thought to doing a special feature on the pioneers, or legacies of sisters in business from our own
families. Those women who have helped shape the
freedoms and opportunities we now have, and equipped
us to be the sisters in business we are today.
It would be, in the words of Nicole C. Mullen, a way
for us to "take a bow for
the ones that came before" us.
In
the 60's-70's the phrase "Black, Bold, and
Beautiful" signified in the Black African-American
community, to
some extent, the pride, affirmation, and empowerment
of its
unique
culture and beauty. As
African-American women moved more into the
mainstream of society, they brought with them their
special and unique culture and
beauty, along with their intelligence, wisdom, and
skills. All of which have helped shape what is
our great society of diversity today. Black,
beautiful, and brainy. I'm reminded of the Queen of Sheba,
globally known as a beautiful, prominent, and wise Ethiopian Queen,
who the Bible also says visited King
Solomon in all his greatness and wisdom. Enter Black African-American
beauty queen Miss USA, Crystle
Stewart. She gets our attention. For she
is not only a Black African-American woman who is beautiful, but she is
also benevolent, brilliant, and in business! Read more
about her below.
26-Year-Old Texan Crowned Miss USA
By Kathleen Hennessey, AP
(See
her win on You Tube at
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jzpNUzT8xA.)
LAS
VEGAS — A 26-year-old entrepreneur from Texas was
named Miss USA on Friday, besting 50 other beauty
queens for the coveted crown.
Crystle Stewart, of
Missouri City, Texas, runs a party-planning and
motivational speaking company, as well as modeling
professionally. She says she wants to dedicate her
life to international philanthropy.
"I want to talk to
people about how to set a goal and achieve it," she
told The Associated Press after the show. "Because I
just achieved my goal."
Stewart edged out first
runner-up Leah Laviano of Mississippi and Tiffany
Andrade of New Jersey.
Miss USA 2007 Rachel
Smith relinquished the crown — and the posh New York
apartment that comes with it — in a show aired live
by NBC with hosts Donny and Marie Osmond from the
Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas
Strip. The network co-owns the parent Miss Universe
Organization with Donald Trump.
Smith, a former Miss
Tennessee USA, said she was headed to Hollywood.
Stewart was headed for
the publicity circuit. She said she was eager to
travel and spread her message of self-improvement to
young women. She noted she was one of only a handful
of black woman crowned Miss USA in the pageant's
57-year history.
"I think the United
States is coming together," she said, citing the
historic presidential candidacies of Barack Obama
and Hillary Clinton. She declined to name her
preference.
"I don't know, we'll
see. Fundamentally, I'm a Democrat," she said.
Contestants from all 50
states and the District of Columbia have been in Las
Vegas for nearly three weeks, rehearsing and hyping
the 57th annual pageant. After stints in Baltimore
and Los Angeles, organizers billed the new venue as
a city beloved by the event's international
audience.
The pageant tried to
showed off its edge, featuring a grinding live rock
performance by the band Finger Eleven, music from
Rihanna, and contestants in barely there black
bikinis and faux-fur coats.
Donny and Marie kept up
a steady stream of sibling banter even while swiftly
whittling the field.
Donny Osmond told the
losers to "put on a poker face" as he sent them
home.
"Or use Botox; then it
won't move," Marie quipped.
Stewart will compete in
the Miss Universe pageant in Vietnam in July. She
also becomes a spokeswoman for breast and ovarian
cancer awareness and other causes, while traveling
to promote the organization.
Miss USA contestants are
scored in three categories: swimsuit, evening gown
and interview. Miss Alaska USA, Courtney Erin
Carroll, was chosen "Miss Photogenic USA" based on
voting at the organization's Web site. The other
contestants named Miss Ohio USA, Monica Day, "Miss
Congeniality." Unlike the rival Miss America, Miss
USA contestants are not asked to perform a talent.
Smith's year on the
throne has been marked by fewer racy headlines than
her 2006 predecessor, Tara Conner. Conner's underage
drinking landed her in rehab and sparked a media
circus documenting her fall from grace.
Smith's low point was a
fall onstage during the evening gown competition of
the Miss Universe pageant in Mexico City. She was
booed by the crowd and Miss Japan won the title.
A bigger blunder this
year belonged to Miss California USA organizers. The
judges crowned the wrong queen in their November
contest and reversed it days later, saying Raquel
Beezley, of Barstow, was the victim of a vote
tabulation error. Dethroned Miss Los Angeles,
Christina Silva, a Hispanic woman, has filed a
lawsuit alleging racial bias.
Asked to comment on the
lawsuit, Stewart was whisked away by organizers. The
Miss Universe Organization would not comment on the
matter.
The panel of judges for
Friday's pageant included Heather Mills, model and
former wife of Paul McCartney; comedian Rob
Schneider; Olympic gold-medal swimmer Amanda Beard;
and Christian Siriano, winner of Bravo's fashion
reality series, "Project Runway."
On the Net:
Miss USA 2008:
http://www.missusa.com
Speaking of Obama, what about his fabulous wife? Boy,
how we need more examples of class, grace, and
wisdom in our society like her today...particularly
for our daughters to see. Michelle Obama is
another beautiful and brilliant woman. She is
poised, practical, and has her priorities in order
as she esteems family first, while soundly
participating in politics and dealing with the
prospect of becoming the next First Lady, and might
I add, the 1st Black African-American First Lady in
the White House. She is being likened to
Jackie Kennedy, another great First Lady who also
was a rock for her family. Read about Barack's
Rock in the article below.
Barack’s Rock
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Michelle
Obama |
by Richard Wolffe
She's the one who keeps
him real, the one who makes sure running for leader
of the free world doesn't go to his head. Michelle's
story.
Michelle Obama was never
much interested in calling attention to herself. As
an undergrad at Princeton in the 1980s, she was
interested in social change, but didn't run for
student government. Instead, she spent her free time
running a literacy program for kids from the local
neighborhoods. At Harvard Law, she took part in
demonstrations demanding more minority students and
professors. Yet unlike another more prominent
Harvard Law student who would later take up the
cause, she was not one to hold forth with high-flown
oratory about the need for diversity. "When [Barack
Obama] spoke, people got quiet and listened,"
recalls Prof. Randall Kennedy. "Michelle had a more
modest, quieter, lower profile." Barack won election
as president of the Law Review. Michelle put her
energy into a less glamorous pursuit: recruiting
black undergrads to Harvard Law from other schools.
For her, politics wasn't so much about being
inspirational as it was being practical—about
getting something specific done, says Charles
Ogletree, one of her professors. "She was not trying
to get ahead."
She no longer has the luxury of keeping a low profile. Now a very public
figure, Michelle has accepted the role of aspiring
First Lady...
Click here to read more.
NEWSWEEK
URL:
http://www.newsweek.com/id/112849
© 2008
Are
You A 
