I owe this week’s So Money Woman of the Week a debt of gratitude and not just because she’s helped me look hot in a clingy cocktail dress. Thanks to Sara Blakely, the highly successful woman entrepreneur and inventor of Spanx, I became a top seller while working in a high end department store. Her product, which I usually refer to as “industrial strength undergarments”, was always my easiest sell. Essentially, the “you want fries with that?” of Women’s Dressware.

Now the head of a multimillion dollar company, Sara Blakely’s path to retail domination began with her 1998 invention of footless pantyhose and a lot of hard work. After having her product manufactured in China, she inked her first deal with Saks thanks to a gutsy self-demonstration of the product. The buyers were sold and soon, so were everyone else. Since then, she’s created a top-selling, Oprah-approved line of products, won the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year Award, and even introduced a lower-priced brand sold exclusively in Target Stores. Quite an impressive feat for the one-time twenty-something law school hopeful with only $5,000 to invest.

That’s why Sara Blakely, I think you’re so money.