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The number of women-owned businesses in the US jumped an incredible 45% between 2007 and 2016. Why? We’re good at it.

A 2015 Centre for Entrepreneurs study of 500 UK executives and entrepreneurs found some surprising results with respect to gender’s impact on success and attitudes around running a business.

The women in the study showed more ambition and were better calculated risk-takers than their male counterparts. Most interestingly, were the findings on over-confidence: “62% of male entrepreneurs say their businesses are prospering compared to 42% of women, despite the fact that the female-run business in our sample report higher profit before tax.”

We reached out to a few of these inspiring female entrepreneurs. We asked them about their successes, the books on their shelves, and the women who inspire them.

What are you scared of?

If you ask most people, they might say public speaking. In fact, nearly ¾ of people are terrified of getting up in front of a crowd and talking.

As your business picks up, you’ll probably have to start facing your fears of public speaking more and more often. You can send as many cold emails and calls as you want, but big deals get done in person. From investor meetings to team presentations, business owners need to project confidence while convincing people to think their way on a regular basis.

I asked 13 professional public speakers for their advice. Here's what they had to say.

As the app where you probably spend most of your time on your computer, your browser is useful for much more than just "browsing" the internet.

There’s a lot of features you can unlock by customizing your browser with extensions to better suit your needs—especially if you're a busy entrepreneur.

Here are 10 free Chrome extensions that every business owner should check out.

What's the profile of an entrepreneur? What’s the required skill set? A pinch of fearlessness, a lot of drive, the ability to self-start, a knack for business? It’s a mixed bag, partially learned and somewhat innate. And these many-hat-wearing folks, for the most part, gleaned their knowledge through an eclectic history of experiences, and things picked up from past jobs.

Can your day job help you kick start your dream job, too? 

I spoke to ten Shopify merchants who started their careers as zookeepers and models and bankers. Their resumes, on the surface, may not seem relevant, but these entrepreneurs draw from their past work experiences every day.

Everyone puts things off once in a while. But if you're a chronic procrastinator, this bad habit can regularly stand in the way of you and success in whatever you pursue. And for entrepreneurs who struggle with time management, the discipline to follow through on a plan can mean the difference between success and failure.

IFTTT (If This, Then That) is a free online tool that automates actions between websites, apps, smartphones, gadgets and more. IFTTT has a lot of novel uses for the average user, but it can be a major marketing ally for small business owners.

Here’s our list of 9 clever and creative ways to use IFTTT to automate tasks for your small business.

What if I told you that you can put yourself in a better position to succeed by simply sharing your time, either once a week or once a month, with other like-minded and motivated individuals?

Jim Rohn, author and motivational speaker, tells us that we are the average of the five people we spend the most time with. Are the people you spend the most time with helping you with your personal development and business’ growth? This is where participating in and being a part of a mastermind group can improve that. 

In this article, I'm going to go over what a mastermind group is, how it can benefit you and your business, and how to form one, step-by-step.

It's killing you.

The phrase “Do something you love, and you’ll never work another day in your life,” although poetic and inspiring, isn’t always accurate for entrepreneurs. Studies show that the long days with little downtime ultimately end up taking a toll on your health, relationships, and productivity. 

If you work on your own business full time, work-life balance is extremely important. If you work 9-5 and run your own business on the side, work-life balance is critical.

I know first hand how difficult it is to work a day job and still manage to be a “sidepreneur”. There is a significant lack of time to run an ecommerce business while working a 9 to 5, and you still need to commit yourself first to your employer.

I’m here to tell you that the good news is that it’s very much possible to grow and create a successful ecommerce business on the side. Many others before you have done it and I’m going to show you how you can, too.

It happens all the time. When building a new online business, many entrepreneurs become scattered and distracted in both strategy and execution, trying to move in too many directions at the same time. This lack of focus ends up causing a lack of real movement for the business in any one particular direction, and can ultimately lead to failure.

Most of us fear failure more than we fear almost anything else in the world.

Failure is painful; we all know that. But failure is also useful. Failing is the best way for people to grow, because failing is the only way we really learn. It lets us know when we should change course, and gives us experience to do something the next time around.

That’s the theme of a recent book by Megan McArdle, a former staff journalist at The Economist and The Atlantic who currently writes for Bloomberg View. The book is called The Up Side of Down: Why Failing Well Is the Key to Success.

The book is an essential reminder to embrace failure as a way to learn and re-invent. That’s a useful lesson for everyone, especially entrepreneurs, to grasp. The book is filled with reporting and research. There are lots of interesting anecdotes, and we decided to share six of the most valuable ones for entrepreneurs.

Get ready for some fun stories to learn from.