As I look back over several decades of owning and running a business, I’ve come to realize the enormous differences between being a business owner in my 20s, my 30s and now my 40s. I thought I’d share some of the differences here and would love to hear your thoughts about being a business owner at different stages of your life.

Me as a Business Owner in My 20s

I started my first business in my late 20s, an Internet company in the mid-90s which made me the first female and for a while the youngest female to start a full-service Internet company (Web hosting, Web development, online content development, online marketing, Web publishing, online/offline sponsorship opportunities). How can I describe what it was like to start and run a company in my 20s? Let me spell it out for you as bluntly as I can:

• I had no idea what I was doing.
• I was insecure.
• I was idealistic and too trusting of the wrong people.
• I was too emotional about business.
• I was impatient and insensitive to how my actions affected others.

Everything I did in my 20s and early 30s for and with my business came from the heart and the gut which somehow worked and hit this zeitgeist that catapulted me into a spotlight that was both bright and glaring at the same time. My insecurities led me to trusting the wrong people and giving in to them. I was a terrible boss, so freaked out by the huge responsibilities on my shoulders that I hoarded a lot of work, redid work that others did rather than empowering and mentoring them, and isolated myself from others because I was so lost and unhappy.

Me as a Business Owner in My 30s

After a two-year stint working in a government PR and marketing job, I went back out on my own with an online consultancy. Running this business by myself and with just me as sole proprietor was like night and day to my first business.

• I was more familiar with the joys and perils of running a business so handled them more professionally.
• I was more savvy about business in general and took things slowly and deliberately.
• I had proved I could manage others well in my previous job but made a conscious choice not to do so based on my preference.
• I was able to look at my business as a business and not get too emotionally tied to it so I could make sound business decisions.

Having my own home-based business really suited me. Working alone, on my own, was what I needed at that time. I continued to hone my skills, expand my clientele, and began to actually make a good living, something that entirely eluded me in my 20s.

Me as a Business Owner in My 40s

At the end of last year, I realized that my business had the potential of being bigger than just me. I had gravitated from straight online marketing to social media marketing and felt the energy and excitement that I had felt in the 90s with my first Internet company. I brought in an incredibly talented business partner with the goal of turning my little one-person consultancy into a full-fledged business.

In my 40s, I am simply a better person, and this informs my business decisions. I realized that I could craft a business that suited the way I wanted to live my life rather than have my business rule me. And I could offer this type of opportunity to others who were seeking the same kind of reversal of the usual “live to work” and instead embrace the process of “work to live.”

In my 40s, I am

• more patient with myself and others.
• more focused on living a good life and being a good person rather than being a good worker.
• more able to delegate duties with trust and empower others to do their best.
• more selective about who I trust and more able to surround myself with good, smart people.
• more secure in admitting what I don’t know and then finding people who can take over those responsibilties.
• more excited about being wildly successful in business as a means to an end.

My “end” is the desire to travel the world with my family and always discover, always learn new things.

So many changes. And I like where this life - and my work - is going.

How have you changed over the years in terms of running a business or doing your work?

Here’s something that should be on your radar…

Ernst & Young LLP is calling for nominations for its Entrepreneurial Winning Women competition, a program designed to accelerate the growth of high-potential businesses founded by women entrepreneurs.

Now in its second year, this program will provide 10 female entrepreneurs with personalized one-on-one business insights and insider access to strategic networks of established entrepreneurs, executives, advisors and investors.
Nominations and applications to the program can be submitted online at: www.ey.com/us/winningwomen

To apply for the program, applicants must fit the following criteria:

• Woman business owner who is the founder or founding partner of a US company
• Company must have reported at least one full fiscal year of $1 million in sales within the last 2 years
• Venture must be less than 5 years old
• Must be able to attend orientation/preparation session in New York City in October, and the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum, which takes place on November 11-15, in Palm Springs, CA.

The deadline to receive applications for Entrepreneurial Winning Women is September 4, 2009. All applications for the program will be reviewed by a panel of independent judges and the 10 winning entrepreneurs will be announced the week of October 19.

Each winner will receive an all expense paid trip to the Ernst & Young Strategic Growth Forum 2009, which takes place November 11 -15 in Palm Springs, Calif. The Strategic Growth Forum, dubbed by Forbes.com as one of the “Seven Get-Ahead Executive Retreats,” is a prestigious gathering of high-growth, market-leading companies.

The Forum presents a one-of-a-kind platform for Ernst & Young Entrepreneurial Winning Women to introduce their companies and develop their corporate and personal brand within a community of established entrepreneurs, executives, and advisors. For more information on the Forum visit: www.ey.com/us/strategicgrowthforum.

I’ve blogged before about the babysitter and daycare situation in the rural community in Alaska where I live. There is no organized daycare, trusted babysitters are few and far between, and I’m back to square one, looking for a new sitter as the one who said she could work for us through the winter decided to move out of town.

While we have a pretty good lead from our previous childcare provider who we trusted implicitly (she is also moving out of town), there is a window of at least a week where I’m without any viable options. If you work from home, then you have a sense of what I must be feeling. And frankly, I thought I’d be freaking out more than I am. But somehow, I have found this zen space, and I’m just going with the flow, as challenging as it is.

Yes, she was incredibly good yesterday for the entire time I was listening in on an hour and a half conference call prepping for an important client presentation.

But yes, she also began speaking to me when - and only when - I was asked to give input on the call and began speaking into the phone. It seemed to be the signal to her to start talking to me, nonstop, getting louder and louder as I tried to move into another room and ended up practically squashed behind the refrigerator in the kitchen to muffle her “Mommy! Mommy! Mommy!”

My business partner said that she heard my daughter in the background. All I could do was apologize, but I couldn’t promise it wouldn’t happen later this week on the actual client call and major presentation. How can I? The only way I could would be locking said talkative daughter in her room, and going to the other side of the house so as not to hear her screams.

Tempting. But that is so un-zen.

So in my total zenness of being, I somehow calmly let my husband know of my predicament. Calmly, so as not to stir up any stress between us. And he called a little while ago to say he thinks he can come home for lunch to help with our daughter while I’m on my call.

That man deserves some sex tonight! He is currently on the top of my Hero list. Of course, if things get crazy at work for him, he might not make it over to the house, but the fact that he offered gives me hope that he is finally understanding how important my company is despite the fact that I run it from home. Score!

If the possible childcare arrangement doesn’t pan out, I am not sure how long my attitude will remain zen-like. We’re waiting to see if she gets into Head Start for the Fall (our community is considered rural and under-resourced so usually all the children in the area can go to Head Start). She’s currently on the waiting list. That will be about 3 hours a day. At least it’s something.

In the meanwhile, I’m getting very creative with art projects and outdoor activities while the weather still permits. Today was paint the toilet paper rolls, glue pasta and leaves on paper, and hopscotch and count up to the number 50. Tomorrow, I’m thinking papier-mache.

What are some of your indoor and outdoor creative activity ideas you use to keep the kids busy while you’re trying to work at home? I’m all ears!

Guest blogger Gina Blitstein continues her exploration of nourishment and food.

Food is a complicated issue. While much of the world starves, we in our first world of plenty seem to be constantly controlling and limiting our intake of food to control our weight and alter our mood. Think about how crazy that sounds to our adult minds. Then consider how that information could affect a child’s concept of food. It should come as no surprise that children miss nothing that we do or don’t do; say or don’t say. We wield enormous influence over children’s attitudes about everything and that is especially true of the subject of food.

That’s true because, as I mentioned, food is a complicated issue. We gorge on it, restrict it, delight in it, demonize it. Food not only nourishes our body but it touches us emotionally. There is little else in life that is as important to us both physically and emotionally as the food we eat.

Yet I believe that we do ourselves and especially our children an injustice every single day where food is concerned. Somewhere along the line in our hectic lives, eating has become a hurried gorge-a-thon rather than a celebration of food and the people we love. I especially find fault with the all-too-prevalent child-themed restaurants where children are entertained and bombarded with stimuli and yet are expected to eat. We need to show how much we cherish them not by indulging their every advertising-fueled fast food whim but by helping them recognize the true power of food.

I’d like to share some wisdom I’ve acquired over the past twenty years as a childcare provider about instilling healthy attitudes about food and eating. As the adults in their lives it is our job to teach children that playing is playing and eating is eating. Both are enjoyable yet totally different activities and are not to be done simultaneously. Make sure that children are allowed the time to shift focus from play time to meal time because if they don’t learn that eating is important in and of itself, they will never give food and nutrition the importance it should have in their lives.

Preschoolers in my daycare learn the right thing to do for your body is to eat good food, sit still, chew carefully, and fill up their stomachs so they can grow and be healthy and strong. It is a lesson in self-care and self-respect. It is never too early to start taking responsibility for your own body, and eating is a tangible way to begin teaching that important lesson.

Food should nourish both the body and the soul.

Is that an impossible dream? Can we really reclaim mealtime as a time to care for ourselves and our families? I do believe we can but it will take some attitude adjustment and action. Here’s what I propose:

• * Limit meals eaten away from home as much as possible - especially fast food.
• * Include children in planning of meals so they learn that food is an important issue worth our consideration.
• Include children in shopping for food so they can learn about different types of food and what it looks like before it is processed into a ‘nugget.’
• Encourage children to help in the kitchen - in age appropriate ways, of course - so they can experience the preparation of food.
• Teach children that eating is an important and enjoyable activity - it is a chance to enjoy flavors and aromas and to fill their empty stomachs.
• Remind children that every food you eat doesn’t have to be your ‘favorite’ and that variety is important.
• Make meals a pleasant social time for togetherness and sharing.

Remember to offer a wide selection of food to children. Exposing children to only those foods with which they may be familiar limits the types of foods they will learn to love. Children’s taste buds are growing and developing right along with the rest of them, so it is vital that they experience a wide array of tastes and textures from an early age.

I believe that food is a powerful influence throughout our lives. We all have pleasant and indelible memories associated with food. Let’s vow to make some lifelong food memories with our kids so that the issue of food won’t be complicated for them.

What are we telling kids about our food values with our words and actions?