Ellen and I were privileged to attend Tory Johnson's Spark and Hustle event this past Tuesday in NYC. What a great gathering of entrepreneurial women! We came out of the day-long conference all revved up and motivated. All this week, I'm going to share some of the take-aways from this awesome event. If Spark and Hustle ever comes to a locale near you, make sure you get there!

One of the highlights was the keynote by Barbara Corcoran, entrepreneur extraordinaire and one of the investors on ABC TV's Shark Tank. Here are some of her words of wisdom:

•Very successful people learn how to bounce back quickly from failure.
•Perception creates reality. Portray an image of expertise and people will think you are the expert.
•Expand before you're ready. There's never a "right" time to grow your business...just like there's not a right time to have a baby.
•Shoot the dogs early. Don't in getting rid of employees and partners who are bringing your business down
•Fun is good for business. It's smart to reate an atmosphere and culture of fun within your business.
pat

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Pat Cobe and Ellen Parlapiano are co-authors of Mompreneurs: A Mother's Practical Step-by-Step Guide to Work-at-Home Success (Perigee, 2002) and Mompreneurs Online: Using the Internet to Build Work@Home Success (Perigee, 2001).