Spike and Tonya Lewis Lee at this years Toronto Film Festival. Image: Dominic Chan/ WENN.com

She can bring home the bacon, fry it up in a pan, and never, never let her husband forget he’s a man.  This might have been from a 1982 TV commercial, but it still rings true for today’s entrepreneurial woman. The difference now, however, is that many successful women have supportive spouses. This is the case for these high-profile businesswomen.

The Key Is Teamwork
Ola Jackson,  founder and CEO of  OWN: Onyx Woman Network, like any successful businesswoman, realizes that a  company runs smoothly when everyone is working together. She also knows that marriages, too, depend on cooperation.

“You must be respectful of the fact that you and your husband are a team even if he is not directly involved in your business. You have to realize that if the business fails, your husband hopefully will be behind you. You also have to realize that if the business is successful your husband will be beside you,” says Jackson, who is developing the Onyx Woman radio show, creating more online television programming that will showcase women of color, and publishing the Onyx Woman magazine.  She is also writing Homegirl, CEO, to be published next year.

“My husband is my number one fan. He thinks very highly of my capabilities and is very motivating,” adds Jackson, who has been married to Daryl Jackson, a disabilities advocate, for 27 years — after 7 years of dating.  “I had a crush on my husband when I first saw him when I was 12 years old. We didn’t meet officially until high school,” she recalls.

Mutual Respect Is A Must
“Being an ambitious, hardworking woman, married to an ambitious, hardworking man means that we both understand when the other is focused on work and can respect that,” says former corporate attorney turned  best-selling author and producer Tonya Lewis Lee, wife of film director Spike Lee.  They celebrated 18 years of marriage on October 2nd.

“Spike has always been very supportive of anything I’ve wanted to do,” she adds. Lee just launched a film production company, ToniK Productions.  One of the first properties she and partner Nikki Silver are developing is the young adult novel Monster by Walter Dean Myers. Lee also runs an online women’s health community, HealthyYouNow.com.

Honesty Rules
Former record company executive Vivian Scott Chew struck out on her own in 1998 to found TimeZone International, an international marketing and promotion company that specializes in marketing urban music overseas. Her husband, Ray Chew, is a musician, arranger and has been the music  director for American Idol since 2010.

“Ray and I are really honest with each other. Sometimes our honesty may hurt, but we’ve found that we can get over the initial disagreement with rationality and openness, and maintain an even stronger relationship bond. Agreeing to disagree really works for us,” Chew says. “My husband is my partner, in all respects; we share our lives, we share our accomplishments, successes and failures. He was the first one to believe in me as an entrepreneur and 15 years later, is still my biggest fan.”

Chew and her husband are also partnering to create a 501C3 foundation, Power to Inspire, whose mission will be to act as a catalyst to insure that there are skilled, trained, knowledgeable musicians and music business executives in the future.

By Makula Dunbar

In the business world, there are countless avenues that inquiring minds can travel down to both create establishments/hustles within and capitalize on. A plethora of industries including: public relations, marketing, advertising, retail and entertainment have proven to boast racial and gender diversity — many featured here on Madame Noire.

However, an industry that is in the least traveled by African-American businesswomen just happens to be one that the black community frequents most; nightlife. Though the owners, party throwers, managers and DJs in the 23 billion dollar industry are scattered, there are a few here and there making headway. Meet three African-American women working to narrow the gap; making it in the nightlife business.

The Life of the Party: Branding, building and overall business

It’s 1:00 p.m. in Los Angeles. DJ Asha is just waking up. On a pleasant Friday afternoon, it’s not easy to gather that she’s an unconventional early bird. Though for anyone whose job keeps them up until 7:00 a.m., it’s difficult to call if even 4:00 p.m. is a decent waking hour.

“I was DJing last night so I got in pretty late,” she said sounding far from drowsy. It’s kind of expected as she’s had her fair share of practice hyping up crowds.

“When you’re DJing you have the music in your headphones and the monitor speakers right next to you. There’s all this loud music in your face, people coming up to you taking pictures, conversations and stuff,” Asha explained. “You get home and your head is still going over the great mix that you played. By 2:00 a.m. or 3:00 in the morning you’re fairly hungry, so I may end up getting some food after the club or watching a movie. My brain is still buzzing so it takes a minute to unwind.”

Three years ago Asha packed up to pursue party-throwing full-time on the West coast leaving two radio gigs in her home country London. What started out as moral support for a nervous roommate learning to DJ evolved into a non-stop party once Asha decided to learn the turntable ropes as well. After graduating with a degree in biotechnology she began playing at clubs in locales like Dubai Bulgaria, Russia, Greece, Lithuania and Italy. It was in Ibiza, Spain that she ran into hip-hop’s self-proclaimed party king P. Diddy. Through party promoters in London, Asha earned an opportunity to play at one of Diddy’s parties. After hearing a set in Spain, he sent out a personal request.

“In Ibiza all they do is party. They go from one big club to the next from 6 p.m. to sometimes lunchtime. It’s pretty expensive and people save up all year; it’s a big deal. If you’re a DJ playing in Ibiza, it’s like playing at the World Cup,” she said.

For the most part, Asha says club owners love international DJs — especially ones from London who have an eclectic knowledge and taste in various music genres.

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Feeling down about your career progress? Perhaps you need a renewed mindset. Who better to take advice from than Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneurial Winning Women. Inc.com reports that the women participants in this group have all already achieved $1 million in revenue and know that their potential will take them even higher. Independent research on the group proves that companies who participate in this group grow about 50 percent on average each year, and have a job growth rate of over 25 percent. Hear four of the participating women CEOs and company founders give their tips for making it big in the business world.

The first tip is all mental—it is imperative that you change your mindset. You’ve got to be confident and to think big and bold. Always, aim high and think big. You can do it!

Next, it’s important that you forget the word “job.” You aren’t doing a job, you’re running a business, so act like it.

“I don’t have a job. I’m not a recruiter or a sales person. I manage policy,” Gayle Brandel, CEO of Professionals for Nonprofits said to Inc.com. She discloses that before you realize that you don’t have a job, you simply have a job you own. You are not yet an entrepreneur. Starting a business so that you can be your own boss is great, but it is not the mindset of a high powered CEO.

“Those entrepreneurs who want to grow large have to step back, and they have to bring on employees,” she said.

Always continue to push beyond your comfort zone. If you stay satisfied with your current growth level, you’ll never know how high you could have gone. As Deborah Sweeney, the CEO of MyCorporation, a document filing service company said, “Engaged leaders who think big and are passionate about business growth are far more likely to see growth and success than those who are merely content.”

As with the previous tip, continue to aspire for higher and bigger dreams. That’s what Dareth Colburn, the founder of online wedding accessories store USABride did. At first, she never thought she’d make it to the $1 million mark. But she did, and she then changed her goal to $3 million and next to $5. When you realize you can achieve big goals, dream even bigger and you’ll find your success will be that much greater.

The last piece of advice the ladies offer is to leave the fear behind you. Without risk it’s not possible to have gain.

“Entrepreneurs who made it really big also lost really big,” Gloria Larkin, president of TargetGov, said to Inc.com. Her company assists in government agency sales. Larkin quotes Woody Allen to explain why risks and loss is necessary. “If you’re not failing every now and again, it’s a sign you’re not doing anything very innovative.”

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It may be her birthday, but Diane Garnick aims to be the one giving the gifts this year. For her birthday, she celebrates by opening up a new firm that seeks to give women the gift of employment. Garnick, the former investment strategist of Invesco Ltd., is striving to improve the Wall Street job pool for women through her new company Clear Alternatives LLC.

According to Bloomberg, this New York based group is an asset management firm, comprised of a staff of three other women. Clear Alternatives plans to be a registered investment adviser that manages pension and endowment funds as well as other assets.

The 45-year-old birthday girl has high goals for her company–by the end of the year she plans to lead a staff of 12 and raise at least $500 million in assets under management. Although in its early stages, Clear Alternatives has already lined up pledges from potential investors.

“One of the biggest challenges is for women to find an organization that’s willing to accept them back after they leave the work force to raise children without taking a cut in compensation and responsibility,” Garnick told Bloomberg. “Our objective is to solve that problem.”

Garnick knows firsthand about the struggles of being a mother and an ambitious working professional. She has two daughters and still managed to work as a derivatives strategist at Merrill Lynch & Co as well as an investment strategist at State Street Corp. She joined Invesco in 2007 and earned her Master of Business Administration last year from the University of Chicago.

TAP correspondent Eno Alfred takes it to the streets of Manhattan and asks: who is your business role model?