½ lb butter, ½ cup sugar, ½ cup brown sugar, 1 tsp vanilla extract, flour, salt, oatmeal, butterscotch chips, chocolate chips. Separate and bake at 375 degrees for 25 minutes.
That’s the recipe for freckled oat cookies, and a delicious artifact of my life as an accidental entrepreneur.
I started baking for fun, as a way to feed my hungry co-workers and celebrate the holidays. That hobby slowly took over my small, post-college apartment, where my two roommates graciously let me spill flour, start mild fires, and turn my love for baked goods into an online business.
Like many women entrepreneurs, I turned to friends and family for support and to the Internet for customers. I sent emails to my friends, posted the menu on my Facebook page, and shared my goals with my social network.
2007 taught me a lot about the joys of participating in global commerce — and the frustrations, like faulty shipping or the occasional mishap in which more than 500 pralines were mobbed by ants on their way to a wedding, forcing me to start the order all over again.
However brief, my year as a woman entrepreneur gave me important insight into the struggles our small business owners face, and sparked my desire to help make it a bit easier for them to expand, hire, and go global.
That’s why I’m part of a team working on securing the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) — President Obama’s high-standard trade agreement that puts a premium on protecting the American worker. It’s also the first time there are chapters dedicated to the small business and e-commerce economy.
Our trade policy is actually vital to empowering women entrepreneurs and workers, both here at home and abroad.
Here are four reasons why:
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