She Owns It

Celebrating, Connecting, and Supporting Women Entrepreneurs

7 Skills Women Need To Start A Business by @XLConsultingGro

by Leave a Comment

by Elaine Slatter | Featured Contributor

More than ever, women are deciding to strike out on their own and create their own future by starting their own enterprise.  There are only 7 skills women need to start a business, let’s examine what they are.

7  Skills Women Need To Start A Business

  • Are you determined?
  • Are you organized?
  • Do you have a passion?
  • Are you a leader?
  • Are you savvy with your finances?
  • Are you a decision maker?
  • Do you like people?

Determination

Being an entrepreneur is not for the faint of heart because the road can be long with a series of bumps along the way.  The average business does not last five years and staying in for the long haul can be intimidating.   Always taking steps to improve your business or pivot it in a different direction if it isn’t gaining traction are good signs that you have the determination to keep going when the going gets rough.

Do you have the grit to keep going even when roadblocks are put in your way and when only YOU believe in yourself?   Then you have that important ingredient called “determination”.

Organization

Chances are you have a busy life, so organization is key to starting and running a successful business. Organization starts with making sure you have a business plan before you go into business.  The plan, while probably out of date after the first few months in business, will help you find out, on paper, whether your business has a chance of success.   Without a business plan, you will not be able to get outside financing.

If you are organized and have done your homework you will be able to decide on the right business structure and proper business and tax registrations before you start out.   Most businesses start out as sole proprietors and incorporate once their business has gained momentum.  Check with an accountant to see which is the best business set up for you.

We are great believers of “the list”.   Make it last thing at night for your next day’s activities.  Tackle the hardest items when you have the most energy.   Prioritize the list by importance to your business and separate the ‘Must Do’s’ from the “Like to Do”.  Do the same for your personal life.  At the end of each week, look at your “list” and decide which items move on to your calendar for the following week.   Only move the items that you are going to take action on to your action list.  This is organization 101.  Don’t overextend yourself, if you do, you will get nothing done!

Passion

Passion for your business is very important, because passion is what will fuel you to continue when you hit speed bumps.  Look at different ways to re-ignite your passion when your energy for your projects has deserted you. Share your passion with others.  Your supporters will help you along when your passion is wavering and the going gets tough.

Leadership

As you grow your business, others will look at you for leadership.   There is a difference between being a ‘leader’ and being a bossy ‘boss’.    Strong leadership skills will enable you to build the right team for advancing your business and make your business a place where others will want to join you in your journey.   If you don’t have any leadership experience, you can either take a course or find a mentor who has leadership experience who can help guide you in developing leadership skills.

It’s important to find your own leadership style.  How do you do this?  Observe other leaders and learn from their good traits and leave the bad ones behind.  Be authentic, you can’t mimic other leaders you must find your own voice.  You are unique.

Financial Literacy

It’s tempting to skip this part because it isn’t the glamorous side of running a business.   Financial responsibility is important both in our personal and business lives.     When starting out your business, it’s wise to get your finances in order and to have sufficient cash flow for the first year.

An accountant is the first step to getting your books set up properly for your business structure.   There are many easy accounting packages to help you get organized, Fresh Books and Quick Books  by Intuit are two of the popular ones.  For more structured businesses, Sage Accounting is a good choice.

If you hate bookkeeping yourself, consider outsourcing. It isn’t an expensive monthly expenditure and can save you many valuable hours of work that can be spent growing your business.

Just as important as getting your bookkeeping done on a monthly basis, is reviewing your financials as quickly as possible every month, because the story of your business is in these results.     If you review on a regular basis, you will know from the numbers what is going on in your business.    Do you need more sales, or perhaps your expenses are too high?     If you don’t understand your profit and loss statement, get your accountant to explain all the line items.   The more confident you are understanding the financial aspect of your business the better equipped you will be to make financial decisions.

A Decision Maker

One of the biggest barriers to decision making is fear.  Fear of making a mistake, fear of taking a risk, fear not everyone will like your decision.    Our take on this is that every decision you make can be changed one way or another if it turns out to be the wrong decision.

The best way to mitigate the risk of making a wrong decision is to do your homework.    Weigh up all the pros and cons of the issue.   Seek out a second opinion on the course of action you are considering and then go with your own gut.   Some of the hardest decisions are around people. Should you hire a relative, when should you release a non-performing employee?   Taking the emotion out of the decision should help you make the right choice and remember it’s not personal, it’s business.    If you have to release an employee the caveat is to be professional, offer assistance in the transition and ensure the person understands they are a great person but not the right fit for your business.

Like People

Why is this important?    Because people buy from people they like and trust, no matter what your business. You may have all the technical skills in the world but unless people connect with you and your Company, you can easily fail. Building the trust factor takes time, there is not “instant” way to speed this up.  If you are authentic in building your business relationships, the recommendations and trust factor will follow.

Be relentless in your follow up.  Make it a rule to follow up on emails and phone calls within 24 hours.  Do not disappoint your customers by dragging your feet.  Even if the news you are about to deliver isn’t good, think about how you can mitigate the bad news by offering something that will make them forget what has happened.  It’s how you recover that’s important, both for repeat business and for referrals. Your customers want to know that you really care.

Building a network of people who you trust and who trust you will help you grow your business for the long term.    Some of these people may be willing to become your mentor and propel you to the next level.    Don’t be afraid to ask for help.

Summary

If some of these skills are missing, it isn’t too hard to acquire these by practicing them in whatever job you are currently doing.    If you really need help, there are all kinds of ways of to fill in your knowledge gaps.   A simple Google search will uncover all kinds of training on whatever aspect you consider to be your weakness.   Two great places to start are YouTube videos and Udemy.

For more formal training, try taking a MOOC. (Massive Open Online Course).Most of these are completely free and are university level courses. There are a few platforms for taking MOOC’s, one of the popular ones is Coursera.   For example if you want to explore the whole idea of entrepreneurship, try some of these courses from the University of Maryland.

And The Last Word….overcoming FEAR

Perhaps because women are more cautious by nature, there is a certain amount and anxiety and fear of starting a business.       But the truth is if you have mastered the seven skills it takes to start a business, then take that leap. If you have recently opened a business, why not share your thoughts with us?

What You Can Learn From The Most Successful Women Entrepreneurs by @AndyRatolo

by 1 Comment

oprahby Andy Ratolojanahary

Forbes Magazine recently posted a list of the most powerful female entrepreneurs in the world. Through passion, determination, and hard work, these women were able to achieve milestones in their career. Some have enjoyed success for a longer period of time than the others. However, all of their experiences have valuable life and career lessons that we all can learn from.

Oprah Winfrey
Know who you are and leverage your strength.

Oprah was born in Mississippi. Earlier in her childhood; she lived with her grandmother who taught her how to read. At age six, she moved in with her mother and was inflicted emotional and physical abuse from many of her male relatives. Later in her teens, she moved to Nashville to live with her father who has taught her discipline and required her to make book reports. At that time Oprah was already skilled in oratory speech and was given a broadcasting job at a radio in Nashville at age 16. She then worked as a TV anchor in Baltimore and found more success. She has mentioned in one of her interviews that for her being on television was like breathing and was “like the most natural thing” on earth. Because of her skills and interesting personality, people started talking about her, and soon were offered a talk show in Chicago which later became the Oprah Winfrey Show.

J. K. Rowling
If you hit rock bottom, you will have an opportunity to rebuild your life

J. K. Rowlings is best known for being the author of the Harry Potter saga. She is one of the wealthiest people in the UK. Fun fact: Believe it or not, she is even is richer than the queen. However, she has not always been this fortunate. Joanne Rowling had struggle with personal as well as financial problems while she went through a divorce and became a single mom. She worked as bilingual secretary at Amnesty International. The idea of the Harry Potter series came to her on a train ride from Manchester to London which has changed her life forever. Even though she had a job then, she was still struggling financially and did not feel happy. Without giving up, she started her journey of becoming a writer and  making her dream a reality.

Arianna Huffington
Take time to have productive leisure and relaxation

Arianna is the co-founder and editor-in-chief of the Huffington Post website. While born in Greece, she went to Grinton College in the UK and eventually moved to the United States after the end of a romantic relationship.  Arianna had long been interested in politics and wrote few books and articles about this matter. She started The Huffington Post in 2005 with other co founders to create a community where people can talk freely about politics, news and other subjects. The Huffington post is now part of the AOL Company and is visited by millions of people every day. Although there is no doubt that Arianna has had hectic schedule to make her blog this successful. She is actually an advocate of taking time to have a break, to disconnect and be at peace with your own self. In fact, Arianna thinks that sleep along with moments of relaxation will bring more productivity in a day than just focusing on crunching the hours.

Tory Burch
Get thick skinned

Tory Burch is probably the most successful entrepreneur to make it in such a short amount of time. Tory launched her luxury brand supporting her birth name in 2004 and is now a billionaire. Tory drew her inspiration from her parents. When she started designing, she received more negative than positive feedback. However, she did not give in to all the critics and continued pursuing her passion. Because of her drive and passion the Brand Tory Burch can be found in most of the well-known specialty stores like Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus or Bergdorf Goodman, and is a favorite for many women worldwide.

I hope you can take away key points from each of these incredible women, as you plan your road to success in your career. What life lessons from other successful women entrepreneurs would you like to share?

——————————————————————

andy_picAndy Ratolojanahary is a SEO and Community Engagement Intern with The Marketing Zen Group, an online digital marketing firm. She has a passion for the digital marketing industry and is eager to continue to work within that field for many years to come. She is also currently an MBA student at George Mason University just outside Washington, D.C.  When she is not working or studying, she likes to spend long hours at coffee shops writing about the topics of women in business and enjoys meeting new people from different culture backgrounds. Follow her @AndyRatolo