Thursday, October 15, 2009

Ivanka Trump's Business Advice for Women

Ivanka Trump, daughter of famed entrepreneur Donald Trump, was on Good Morning America today and offered useful business advice to women across the country. ABCnews.com did a write up of her advice and posted the video of her interview on their site. Check out a few of her tips below, or head over to ABCnews.com to watch the informative video.

Trump, 27, the author of "The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and Life," sat down with ABC News' Cynthia McFadden and a roundtable of four businesswomen spanning three decades of experience.

The participants were Larisa Terkeltaub, a 26-year-old first-year business student at New York University's Stern School of Business; Joanna Billings, 25, a structural engineer; Gai Spann, a 41-year-old travel agency owner; and Tracey Andrews, a natural specialty foods saleswoman in her 30s.

From how to make it as an assertive woman in business to how to gain financial backing in a tough economic climate to how to get the message out, the women talked candidly about what has changed since their parents' generation and how all can have their own "trump card," even if their father isn't Donald Trump.

The first topic up for discussion was business experience. Terkeltaub asked Trump what experience is necessary to become a successful entrepreneur.

While Trump first acknowledged that experience is obviously still very important, and "you can't fake it," she then explained that the best thing the inexperienced can do to help themselves is to ask intelligent questions of those around them.

Even though Trump concedes "there's a fear that it exposes that inexperience," in reality asking advice and learning from coworkers prevents young people from making more serious mistakes.