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By uniting, these artisans give each other a chance to make a living.

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The first time Hema Balakrishnan started working with clay in a course taken with her kids — she knew it would lead her somewhere.

But where? Making a livelihood as a terra cotta artisan — transforming riverbed clay into colorful jewelry — was next to impossible. Freelance jewelers in her community would sometimes have to wait 40 days to be paid for their products.

All images via Facebook's #SheMeansBusiness campaign, used with permission.

That's more than a month before seeing cash flow.

Hema reached out to other artisans and found they all were experiencing the same problem.

She also knew there had to be a better way. A stronger business solution.

So she did it herself.

On her own, Hema connected with 11 separate terra cotta artisan groups — 200 terra cotta artisans total — and coordinated these groups to make feasible career options for the artisans.

The business is thriving.

As she was starting out, things weren't exactly all cheers and support.

"My in-laws were not in favor of me going to work," she told 99% TV Telugu,"so it was a sort of forced staying at home, which made me interested in pursuing lot of courses. So that's what made me interested in pursuing the clay course with my children."

But she didn't give up. This business was her calling.

As Hema told 99% TV Telugu, "Perhaps they thought this was a hobby or something that I would sit from home and do. This is something beyond a personal gain for me. This is something I want to do from the core of my being. It's an inner calling for me."

Many of the women who do the meticulous work of creating terra cotta jewelry are in the field for the love of the craft but also to support their families. Families don't have 40 days to wait for payment. So Hema got involved in all aspects of production of the jewelry to create a system where a livelihood for women artisans was possible. She knew that by pursuing her business, Color D Earth, she would not just be helping herself grow, she'd be empowering others.

"When this business is giving livelihood to so many terra cotta artisans, it gives me great happiness."

Using Facebook to not just sell products, but to promote the social good of her business, Hema has seen her customer base grow. As she told the Facebook #SheMeansBusiness initiative, "The story mattered, and the best way to communicate that story, aside from just speaking about it, was to use the internet."

And she's not stopping there.

After reflecting on all that she has learned in growing Color D Earth, Hema knew she wanted to pay it forward. Now, in addition to running this business, she offers mentorship workshops and coaching to women looking to start their own enterprises.

From a love of clay, she's created a business infrastructure that gives that love back to her community.

And it all started with her following her instincts, listening to her gut, and sticking to it.

Where her country only saw disabilities, she saw real people who have a lot to give. Here are the lessons she's learned along the way.

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Angkie Yudistia started a business to give the 37 million people in Indonesia who have a disability a chance at the training and skills they deserve.

Image via Facebook, used with permission.

She would know about that. She herself is hard of hearing.

She was familiar with the lives of folks with disabilities — a life that was, in fact, her life. But still, Thisable, an independent foundation that empowers people living with a disability to be financially independent, was going to be her first business venture ever. She even quit her job to pursue it.

And she learned a lot along the way. It wasn't easy for Angkie to start her business, but she did it anyway. And by learning from her, we might all be one step closer to making our own firsts happen!

Here are some lessons in starting a socially conscious business from someone who knows: Angkie!

1. You'll have to take a financial and personal risk.

That's just how it is.

2. You may have to give up a stable job — and your regular income.

Angkie was a well-paid marketing communication officer, but she knew she had to give that up to do what she dreamed of doing.

3. You might have a lack of business experience, but do your best.

Know that each mistake is a learning opportunity. Angkie says, "Being an entrepreneur is hugely rewarding, but there can be moments when things aren’t going perfectly and it can affect your morale."

4. Your parents might not come around at first.

Recently featured in an article through Facebook, Angkie says her parents really got on board when they saw how their daughter had actually turned her calling into a business.

5. Take time for yourself AND be a great entrepreneur.

As Angkie told Facebook, she'll even bring her husband and daughter to overseas meetings with her — just to make sure she spends as many weekends with them as possible.

6. Have someone to support you and help you keep your life in balance.

Her husband really supports her finding balance. She said he's "happy to pitch in around the house" which helps her keep work and life on an even keel.

7. Use social media.

It's clear from Angkie's Facebook page that she has many stories to tell. But her Instagram presence has helped her build her personal brand so much that it led to a publishing deal to tell the story of her personal journey from marketing executive to a budding, blossoming entrepreneur.

8. Sometimes business as usual isn't enough. Especially if you want to change what's usual.

Thisable Enterprise is more than just an organization that provides training to people with disabilities (though that would be plenty). To truly change the way Asia — and Indonesia specifically — views disability, Thisable had to get in the trenches. With Angkie at the helm, Thisable is lobbying governments and private and public companies.

9. Mentorship matters.

Thisable, and Angkie in particular, emphasize providing mentorship to participants.

10. Working together helps us all.

Angkie works with corporate social responsibility programs at various businesses in order to drum up employment opportunities for the community she has formed of people with disabilities.

11. Giving people power over their own destiny isn't just good for the world, it's good for the economy.

By giving the 37 million people with a disability in Indonesia a stronger start, Angkie is giving her homeland vast new natural resources — people and talent. Imagine the potential of so many new, skilled, happy, and supported people.

Thisable has only just begun its mission to redefine disability. But it's safe to say that Angkie has learned a great deal by taking the plunge and starting her own thing.

Here's to female entrepreneurs who are making the world a better place, running a business, and proving to the world that they deserve a position of power.

From Your Site Articles

Let's even the playing field a bit and celebrate the ladies of business.

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For a lot of history, business has been the sphere of the bros.

Much to-do has been made of the fact that many panels, business boards, advisory committees, venture capitalists, CEOs ... the list goes on ... are dudes.

And with good reason!

This is a board for a philanthropy organization in 1918. Two ladies! Frustratingly, at the top of many businesses, it's looking like even 2018's will still look a lot like 1918. Image via Center for Jewish History/Flickr.

Among 500 top-ranked companies in 2015, only about 14% of the highest leadership positions were held by women, and just 4% of the businesses' CEOs were female.

Because the odds are not so hot that you'll learn about a fantastic, inspirational lady boss today, we're gonna fix that!

Here's a sampling of some of our favorite female entrepreneurs and lady bosses.

1. Sara Blakely

Image via Gillian Zoe Segal/Wikimedia Commons.

While trying to get a little-bitty undergarment company called Spanx off the ground, Blakely was rejected a LOT. Good thing she persevered, both for the sanity of us ladies in formalwear and for her net worth: She is now a billionaire. Female-centric products might not always meet open financial arms at first, but that doesn't mean they're not "every celebrity on the red carpet wears them" viable.

2. Diane von Fürstenburg

Image via David Shankbone/Wikimedia Commons.

Aside from just seeming really cool, von Fürstenburg's wrap dresses changed the clothing game. In a time when most ladies' clothing was burdened with zippers, buttons, seams, bows, and ruffles, von Fürstenburg created a jersey wrap dress. It might not seem like a huge deal, but think of the simplicity of the men's suit and how this wrap dress affords ladies the same level of workplace dress sophistication coupled with ease. It makes that wrap dress feel pretty dang liberating.

"What I think I sell with my clothes is confidence, so hopefully all my dresses, my accessories, are friends to the women. When you open the closet, and your eyes are swollen, and you don't like the way you look, you go to your friends." — von Fürstenburg to the Wall Street Journal

3. Madam C.J. Walker

Image via Scurlock Studio/Smithsonian Institution/Wikimedia Commons.

The first child after the Emancipation Proclamation to be born in her family — many of whom had begun their lives as slaves in pre-Civil War America — this woman rose to business heights at the helm of her hair-care line and manufacturing company, Madame C.J. Walker Manufacturing Company. She was unafraid to promote herself and even rebranded herself, changing her name from the delightfully American Sarah Breedlove to intriguingly French-sounding Madam C.J. Walker to give her hair-care products a more sophisticated vibe, thus making a more marketable brand. Her instincts were right; she was the first black and female self-made millionaire in America.

4. Lizzie Magie

Image via U.S. National Archives/Wikimedia Commons.

In 1935, Magie sold her patent for her game, The Landlord's Game, to Parker Brothers, and in 1939, the Monopoly board game was the result. Her role in this game's creation only recently surfaced. Ironically enough, Magie cared the most about economic fairness for women and for workers, and out of that passion she created — and patented — The Landlord's Game to teach people the perils of a monopolistic society.

5. Ayah Bdeir

Image via Ayah Bdeir/Flickr.

Bdeir is the founder of LittleBits, modular electronics that snap together with magnets. Think: electronic Legos that move. She's also a major supporter of the open hardware movement, an initiative mainly focused on keeping technological knowledge open to everyone. Bdeir created a product that teaches tech and supports a movement that keeps knowledge flowin' (and LittleBits has more than 65,000 followers on Facebook, so it's clearly doing something right). Cool!

"We are hoping ... littleBits will make electronics sexy, and when you see how empowering it is, then you will want to learn more, as opposed to thinking it’s too hard and boring," she told the online magazine We Make Money Not Art.

6. Nely Galan

Image via Richard Sandoval/Wikimedia Commons.

Galan, a first-generation immigrant, always worked in TV, and for many years, she struggled to get by. She kept up her hustle, consulting for networks, managing a TV station, and starting her own production company . And her perseverance and patience (and no doubt, ingenuity) paid off. When she was appointed president of Telemundo, she became the first Latina president of a U.S. television network. She's now the founder of the Adelante Movement, an organization committed to empowering Latinas in every way imaginable. Talk about paying it forward!

7. Robin Chase

Image via Paul Downey/Wikimedia Commons.

Chase is a cofounder and former CEO of the ride-sharing company Zipcar. Through her wildly successful startup venture that disrupted transportation as we once knew it, she's helping create a world with fewer cars, less pollution, and a greater sense of shared responsibility.

"Zipcar believes that you really can do well by doing good. ... Most people who own cars do not really need a car full time, especially if they take public transportation to commute to work. Zipcar allows people to live car less without being car free." — Chase to FastCompany.

As you can see, many of these lady entrepreneurs and bosses have created products and businesses that aren't just successful (because that's a duh), they've created ecosystems of commerce that take advantage of their potential for impact.

They raise voices, fill needs, empower, and represent.

Soon there will be a day when all businesspeople, both ladies and dudes, will not be singled out for their gender. And that will be an awesome day.

But until the playing field is a little more even, we'll be over here cheering for the smaller but mightier team of ladies in business.

From Your Site Articles

We see lots of images of beautiful bouquets online, but these have a gorgeous story behind them, too.

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By simply following her bliss, Annie Cheong found an entirely new calling in life.

All images via Hello Flowers, used with permission.

Annie always enjoyed taking floral arranging classes as a hobby away from her job in social work.

But one day it hit her: What if she combined the two?

She was passionate about both, and knowing a fellow social worker who trained low-income women in floral arrangement gave her the final push to see what would happen if she tried. She decided she was going to pursue a career that combined the good-for-the-world vibes of social work with her passion for flowers. So she started her own flower-arranging business.

Annie founded Hello Flowers, which partners with social service agencies and volunteer groups to provide on-the-job training and ad-hoc employment to people who need it.

The results have been amazing.

Scrolling through images of weddings, you'd have no idea this came from a company that's helping and empowering their employees in such a cool way. But each of these bouquets has an amazing story of helping people in need find a flexible way to get back to work.

From a seemingly small pursuit, Annie's personal passion for flower arranging was about to become a business. Not just any business, but a business with a purpose. A business that made money (of course!) but that also made its community just a little bit better.

The Hello Flowers Facebook page shows just how huge an impact she's had on others — both in her business and for the social good of her community.

Hello Flowers has been tagged and featured on multiple wedding posts. It's so amazing to see these gorgeous wedding bouquets and know that HelloFlowers' bouquets have such an amazing backstory.

Additionally, they're not shy about how much community outreach matters to them. This past Mother's Day, their proceeds went toward just that.

"By giving your best in everything that you have committed to at any point of time, then you should have no regrets," Annie told Asian Entrepreneur.

It's safe to say Annie's not only giving her best, but she's bringing out the best in others.

From Your Site Articles

Women business leaders aren't taken seriously, study finds - Upworthy ›

Plenty of obstacles get in the way of new businesses. She overcame them all.

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30 years ago, Jane Goh did something bold and relatively rare: She started a new business while raising her young family. It was a risk she had to take.

It was 1987, and business in Singapore and Malaysia was booming. It didn't matter what they were selling; these new upstart businesses all needed promotional materials — and Goh knew it. Even though she'd just started raising her young family, this opportunity wouldn't wait. She founded the RJ Paper company.

For the past 30 years, the company has served Singapore and Malaysia’s creative class, providing them with tools to promote their own businesses and create their own projects. This includes everything from print materials to packaging to custom manufacturing.

50 Colours have arrived.. 🌈 #colorplan
A photo posted by RJ Paper SG (@rjpapersg) on Apr 28, 2016 at 6:10pm PDT

In the past few years, she’s pushed her company toward sustainable paper offerings, choosing to work exclusively with paper mills and suppliers approved by the Forest Stewardship Council, an international certification recognizing responsible management of the world's forests.

Goh's forward-thinking leadership, coupled with her eager mentorship of local Singaporean artists and creatives, are two of three ways she set herself apart from other entrepreneurs.

The third, and most important to her, is her family.

Goh says her children and seven grandchildren are the greatest achievement of her life. By placing work and family at the center of everything she does, Goh is able to balance both. Two generations of her family have grown up with the company, and one of her daughters works alongside her every day.

Being an entrepreneur is a tremendous risk — there are long hours, huge financial burdens, and heaps of uncertainty. But for female entrepreneurs, the risks are even greater.

The International Finance Corporation's 2011 report on female entrepreneurship in the developing world studied the social, economic, and financial factors that limit the success of women in business. It revealed that about one-third of all small and very small companies are owned by women.

A gift from the Temasek Poly Design Show 2016. Thank you for all the continued support. #designshow #design #temasekpoly #interstingpeoplecreateinterestingwork
A photo posted by RJ Paper SG (@rjpapersg) on Apr 13, 2016 at 7:02pm PDT

This isn’t a surprising figure. Women-owned business in developing countries often remain small, or are restricted to the home, as their owners attend to other priorities like managing their household or raising children.

The study also found that educational opportunities are still geared more toward male students, making it harder for women to learn the necessary skills to run a successful company. Even when women overcome those challenges, the study revealed that getting funding remains a huge barrier. Should they be able to get a loan at all, female entrepreneurs are much more likely to receive less money, face higher interest rates, and have to pay it back much sooner.

All of these are potential deal breakers for a new business. The confidence to push past them makes Goh’s story even more remarkable.

Every single one of the issues confronting female entrepreneurs today was even more prevalent 30 years ago. To face them with a clear mind and an open heart and to come out three decades later with a successful business and a thriving family is an incredible achievement.

For her part, Goh says she never wavered in her belief that everything would work out. She gives the following advice: "Work hard and have persistence. That is more than half the battle won."