Your Travel Guide — Barbara Winter

When Barbara Winter was growing up in a small farming community in southern Minnesota, she was the kid who was always saying to her friends and younger sisters, “Let’s make something and sell it!” This entrepreneurial spirit continued throughout high school despite the lack of encouragement from her family, teachers or school counselors.

Putting all thought of self-employment aside, Barbara became a high school English teacher. That was followed by brief careers as an employment counselor and interior decorator. While feeling frustrated and discouraged, she came across a book called Supergirls: The Autobiography of an Outrageous Business. It became her handbook.

Gathering her courage, she started her first homebased business before there was even a name for this work-at-home phenomenon. Drawing on her growing passion for personal growth and development, she created a pioneering program for women called The Successful Woman. Those early ideas morphed into entrepreneurial seminars, including Making a Living Without a Job and Establish Yourself as an Expert. Those programs became wildly popular with adult education centers around the country.

In 1986, she began publishing Winning Ways, a newsletter now in its 21st year, to share inspiration and information with small business owners. Barbara is also the author of Making a Living Without a Job (Bantam) and Jumpstart Your Entrepreneurial Spirit (Sogno Bella). In addition, her articles have appeared in numerous magazines, newsletters and online.

Besides her unwavering passion for the joyfully jobless life, travel and reading, Barbara’s latest project is discovering the joy of creative grandparenting. Her dream is to become the muse to entrepreneurs throughout the world.

If you want to put yourself on the map, publish your own map.

~ Ashleigh Brilliant

Copyright © 2003-2006, Barbara J. Winter. All rights reserved.