Winning business: a fictitious male partner

Heard an amazing thing yesterday. Gini Dietrich, owner of Arment Dietrich PR, a Chicago-based agency, says over the years she got so many questions about where her husband was that she decided to make one up! And yes, she honestly reports that she's gotten business she wouldn't otherwise have won.

Sad but true that most women business owners still experience varying degrees of bias when it comes to getting business. So, hey, why not invent a fictitious male partner if it means the difference between winning an account and not? I know one company in another state that has the husband of one of the women as titular head--president of the company--though it's clear that she and her female partner and the other employees do the bulk of the work. And of course there might be lots of firms in which the president is a figurehead; what's unique is that this one meets the NAWBO definition of women-owned (women must own at least 51% of the business).

How do you argue with success? But we can dream about a day when women don't have to resort to tricks to win all the business they deserve.