Real Living President Kaira Sturdivant Rouda Wins Stevie Award’s Best Entrepreneur

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RISMEDIA, Nov. 25, 2008-Kaira Sturdivant Rouda, president of Real Living and author of Real You Incorporated: 8 Essentials for Women Entrepreneurs, was the winner of the 2008 Stevie Awards for Women in Business in the category of Best Entrepreneur.

According to the company, The Stevie® Awards are the world’s leading business awards. Since 2004, the Stevie Awards for Women in Business has honored entrepreneurial and executive business women worldwide. All entries are evaluated by a board of prominent business professionals.

“It is such an honor to receive this prestigious award,” said Rouda. “Our great team at Real Living is the reason we’ve been able to grow this brand and take it across the country.”

Rouda, a small business marketing expert, established the Real Living brand in 2001, and the company has grown more than 300% since its inception. She knew that women were (and are) the driving force in real estate transactions. In fact, women make 91% of the home-purchasing decisions and 85% of all buying decisions. And single women are the second-largest group of home buyers in America, after married couples. This became the basis for the creation of the first national woman-focused brand in real estate. In 2007, the company was named one of the top 50 fastest-growing, women-led companies by Entrepreneur magazine.

This year, more than 1,200 worldwide nominations were submitted for consideration in 50 categories. For a complete list, visit: www.Stevieawards.com/women.

Inspired by the entrepreneurial agents she’s been working with throughout the Real Living network, Rouda’s book, which was published earlier this year-Real You Incorporated: 8 Essentials for Women Entrepreneurs-is about empowering women entrepreneurs and women in business to turn their personal brand into their business brand and bring out their unique competitive advantage. According to the company, it recently received a National Best Book Award. Rouda’s website, www.RealYouIncorporated.com, expands on the topics in the book and features a downloadable, customizable Real You Incorporated chart, a forum for women to share their success stories and realisms, a snark scale and Rouda’s blog, which gives weekly advice on being a woman in business, dealing with set-backs and overcoming day-to-day challenges.

For more information, visit www.RealLiving.com or www.RealYouIncorporated.com.

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