Businesswomen told to redefine comfort zone

More than 100 Utah businesswomen on Wednesday traded gently worn business garb for breakfast and the chance to hear Jennifer Openshaw's take on what's involved in becoming financially successful.

As part of Key Bank's Key4Women Forum, Openshaw talked about reaching outside your comfort zone and turning the things about which you are passionate into opportunity. Openshaw, CBS Marketwatch columnist and author of the book "The Millionaire Zone," based her observations on interviews she conducted with successful businesspeople to see if she could come up with a working formula for success. Along the way, she said she learned that "millionaires don't get there alone." They have lots of help.

Women open businesses at 2.5 times the rate of men, she said, and in Utah they have created 50,000 jobs. Women-owned businesses account for $6 billion in revenue in the Beehive State, and female entrepreneurs control about $8 billion in assets.

Openshaw's own quest for financial independence was driven largely by watching her mother struggle financially as a single parent of three children as Openshaw was growing up, she said. By age 12, she knew she "did not want to be in the same financially precarious way" when she grew up.

Based on her interviews, Openshaw said, she learned that wealthy people are more likely to be pursuing something they love and they've looked for help along the way — even figuring out how to take advantage of business contacts, friends, church acquaintances and more. They are people who turn rejection into opportunity, and they are willing to seek out folks who know things they don't know themselves.

"Redefine your comfort zone," she counseled the audience at the Grand America. "Tap your passions." And "never leave without something, even if it's just information or an introduction," she said.

The business suits the attendees provided will be donated to the Junior League of Salt Lake's Helping Women Closet and the People Helping People program, which trains, educates and outfits women who are entering the work force.

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