“Sometimes you just have to take the leap and build your wings on the way down.” This wisdom came from Kobi Yamada and reminds me of the courage it takes to spread your wings and fly as a woman entrepreneur. After almost a decade in business, combined with turning 50, my reflection button is pushed on this topic. Therefore, as a way of honoring courageous women business owners the Women@Work series will launch this month.

To frame this discussion, the U.S. Center for Women’s Business Research found that:

• Three-quarters of all businesses are majority-owned by women (51% or more) for a total of 7.2 million firms employing 7.3 million people, and generating $1.1 trillion in sales

• Women-owned businesses (50% or more) account for 40% of all privately held firms.

• 1.9 million firms are majority held (51% or more) by women of color in the United States employing 1.2 million people generating $165 billion in revenues.

These are no doubt amazing stats which beg the question, “Where do we go from here?” Malcolm Gladwell would, of course, challenge us to follow the consumer for the next tipping point.

One tipping point idea came from the May 9, 2009 Le Monde edition of the New York Times article, “Ideas for a Small World.” Companies were cited that are tapping into consumer habits and changing the way business is done because of these. Examples included: the desire for smaller grocery stores to cut down on wasted time in long lines , replacing those paper-wasting catalogs with USB pen drives ( thank you Christie’s), and cutting down on packaging to address environmental concerns (e.g. Wal-Mart has been pushing this with their vendors).

How is your business ‘shrinking the world’ by finding that next hot trend? I would love to hear from you.