Brenda Mahr has a simple slogan: “Fighting crime with employment is my ‘claim to fame.’”

Mahr, 62, has been doing so for 30 years at the nonprofit Employment Connection in St. Louis, which started out helping former inmates find work and has expanded to help adults with limited opportunities find jobs, according to the St. Louis Business Journal.

Her motivation: the $11,000 it costs to incarcerate one person for one year and the fact that 52 percent of released offenders who don’t find work find their way back to prison.

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Most of us read John Donne’s poem “No Man is an Island” (which actually was first written as prose as Meditation 17, part of Devotions upon Emergent Occasions) back in high school. Whether you’re an aspiring or existing business owners this expression is particularly apt.

For our purposes though, allow me to paraphrase and say no successful entrepreneur can be an island. You cannot succeed on your own. All entrepreneurs need help.

So if you’re isolating yourself for whatever reason (and believe me, I’ve heard them all), you need to stop. I’ve advised you before about how your friends can be a big part of helping you succeed. But you need to go beyond the familiar. Join a group or association.

I can hear some of you now. “I don’t have time.” “I’m too shy.” “Why should I?” Why? Because it will help you succeed.

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One solution to the high price of gasoline — last week in Southern California, I paid $4.65 a gallon for regular — is to drive less. But you still have to get where you need to go and if you don’t live in a city with ample public transportation, it’s hard to cut back.

Another option: scooters. According to MediaPost’s Marketing Daily scooter sales are booming. Sales of heavier motorcycles are not doing as well, but Harley-Davidson is trying to fix that by targeting women, as bizwomen first noted in March.

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In 1988 when Kimberlee Hastings joined CJ & Associates, an office supply dealership and interior design firm owned by her parents, she wasn’t sure she’d stick around.

But 20 years “flew by,” Hastings said, and she was appointed president of CJ & Associates in 2004, making it one of the largest woman-owned companies in the state of Wisconsin, according to the Milwaukee Business Journal.

In 2005, Hastings established a government sales division to meet government contract furniture needs. And a year later, she established an interior construction and remodeling division. The two divisions have allowed CJ & Associates to diversify its offerings.

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It’s only mid-July and yesterday I was in New York City, where the humidity was so high, I felt like I was walking in the tropics. I went into Lord & Taylor, a popular New York department store. I walked into the women’s clothing department and the very first thing I saw was a jacket—a fall jacket.

I was sweltering and they were trying to sell me clothes, that even in New York, you wouldn’t wear for 3 months.

But in retail these days, that’s business as usual. And if you’re an online retailer, well, have you heard the expression Christmas in July? In other words, you need to plan your holiday merchandise now, since, according to e-commerce platform provider MarketLive, you need to start your holiday marketing by early October at the latest.

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SCORE, which bills itself as “counselors to America’s small business,” has launched its first national blog, which focuses on women in business.

Four of SCORE’s female leaders will offer insight and advice on issues facing women entrepreneurs across America, according to the Nashville Business Journal.

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I’ve met many successful entrepreneurs over the years, but one of the most successful happens to be one of my favorite people: Rosalind Resnick is the co-founder and former CEO of NetCreations, which she took from a home-based business to a public company with nearly $60 million in revenue.

After she sold NetCreations, Rosalind formed Double R Ventures, which helps take businesses to the next level, and Axxess Business Centers, which helps entrepreneurs develop their business plans and grow strategically.

Rosalind sends out a free weekly e-newsletter that I always find entertaining and informative. This week I found her advice particularly relevant and asked her if I could share it with you. Always eager to share her wisdom, she readily agreed. So here are some of the lessons Rosalind has learned on her successful entrepreneurial journey:

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John McCain and Barack Obama desperately want the votes of 55% of the population. The two have hit the campaign trail this week looking to please female voters.

On Friday, John McCain was planning meetings with female business owners in Minnesota, along with a women-oriented town-hall meeting in Wisconsin, according to the Associated Press, while Barack Obama was planning a similar focus on women, campaigning in New York and Virginia on Thursday with Hillary Clinton.

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As I was about to take off for yet another business trip, I was curious whether there was any new research on jet lag.

I’ve never really had a big jet-lag problem, but now that I’m an entrepreneur and working even longer hours than ever before, I’ve had a bit of a problem.

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On July 9, Charming Shoppes Inc. of Bensalem, Penn., announced that CEO Dorrit Bern was stepping down immediately. Charming Shoppes owns 2, 407 stores under the names Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug and Catherines Plus Sizes.

Bern joined the company in 1995 as president, CEO and vice chair of the board. Only two years later, she was elected chair. Under her leadership, revenue tripled from $1billion to $3 billion at the end of 2006.

This spring, the board decided that an independent board chair was warranted, so Bern stepped aside.

When I learned that Bern was no longer chairman of the board it bothered me. And this latest news about Bern leaving the company altogether had an even greater impact on me.

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