It is impossible to overestimate the importance of a team approach. First, both the complexity and the velocity of business today, which, for any business on the Internet, is, at once, technical, global and 24/7, carried out in a couple of dozen different time zones, have eclipsed one person's ability to control it all. A leader must rely on his team. He must also seek answers, feedback, collaboration and leadership in others, to be infused into his own leadership.

Just as people promote in their own image, women like to hob nob, do business, chat, exchange business insights and tips, sip a white wine, or enjoy a nice dinner with other women on their professional level. Once you've gotten to know someone socially, it's much easier to approach them professionally, a fact the "good old boys" network has long known and used to its advantage. There's no reason you shouldn't do the same.

Moving from Detail to Delegation, Increased Visibility and Strategic Alliances

When a woman business owner, begins to achieve some degree of success, she sometimes has to work consciously on modifying many of her habits and attitudes. Perhaps the most important attitude which must change, as Deborah J. Swiss points out in "Women Breaking Through", is "the caretaker-of-the-details trap".

Most women who've risen to be successful business owners have gotten where they are because they are good at what they do. They usually have had to be extraordinarily painstaking in their attention to detail. When an employee or staff member neglected to do something, they often rushed in and did it themselves, thereby protecting their credibility and assuring their continued upward mobility. This, perhaps strongly ingrained, habit must come to an end and be replaced by an ability to delegate. Along with this new focus on "big picture" issues and the delegation of execution is the need for increased visibility and strategic alliances in order to move up to the next level.

Increasing Your Visibility

The first step for many women, after giving up some of the detail work, is to get out there and get known in your industry and your community. Start to take on speaking engagements, write articles, mentor others, join industry groups.

Make Yourself A Key Player in A Powerful Network

Tap into an existing network which already has power. NAWBO, the National Association of Women Business Owners, for example, is one such network. Once you are introduced into the organization and work to meet key players, they can introduce you to others, sponsor you, mentor you, guide you and usher you in to meet the people who can write big checks or make big loans.

Just as people promote in their own image, women like to hob nob, do business, chat, exchange business insights and tips, sip a white wine, or enjoy a nice dinner with other women on their professional level. Once you've gotten to know someone socially, it's much easier to approach them professionally, a fact the "good old boys" network has long known and used to its advantage. There's no reason you shouldn't do the same; it's really a win-win proposition for everyone, increasing the ease, speed and effectiveness of business all the way around.

In time, you should not only get to know the key players but position yourself to become a key player as well. There's only one way to do this: volunteer and give your talents. You will be rewarded not only with respect and gratitude but also, in time, power.

Women's Networks Are Sought After By Other Power Players and Networks

You are not the only one interested in becoming involved with these women's networks. Bankers, brokers, financial planners, politicians, travel companies and others, all want to be on friendly terms with powerful women's organizations. If you are affiliated with such an organization, these people will be more likely to take an interest in you, or, at least, give you a fair hearing. Your entry to see them will be, more or less, a given.

Women's New Financial Networks

Because networks are recognized to be so powerful, and because lack of capital is often what holds women business owners back, women are starting their own networks, their own venture capital firms or angel groups.

Considering that women received only 1 or 2 percent of the billions of dollars of venture capital invested last year, it is high time women started their own financial networks. And, despite this disparity in funding, women-owned firms are the fastest growing sector of the U.S. economy, with seven-year revenue growth of 132 percent and $3.3 trillion in purchasing power. So women have overcome great obstacles, including lack of access to capital and lack of entry to certain money and power networks, and become successful in spite of them.

Women Are Valuable Players In Any Network

As business becomes more diverse and global, women's skills emphasizing connection, and interdependence over status and independence, their heightened sensitivity to cultural difference and willingness to communicate and look at the entire context before acting, make women increasingly valuable players in any network. This is a fact all women business owners need to leverage to their advantage.