I had an email conversation with Nina, our lawyer blogger, this week that was truly eye opening. We were discussing our businesses, success, and woman entrepreneurs when she shared something with me. As it turns out, women don’t seek out angel investors as often as their male counterparts.
Anyone who has run a business for more than three seconds knows that underfunding is one of the #1 reasons that businesses go under. Why then would women not seek capital as from willing investors at the rate of men?
I was at a networking meeting last week. A woman mentioned to me in passing how much she charged for her consulting services: $150/hour. She was a bright, articulate, talented woman and a leader in her field. I asked her why she was charging so far below market and she just smiled.
There is a lot of talk in the woman business world about the trials of competing in a “man’s environment”, and I think it is all crap.
The greatest problems facing entrepreneurs today are the ones they create themselves. A lack of vision, a lack of creativity, a lack of focus, a lack of integrity…those are what cause businesses to fail. If anything, I feel as if being a woman business owner is a huge advantage. The SBA makes grants specifically available to me, many large corporations set aside specific numbers of contracts to award woman business owners every year, when I succeed I’m given a high five for “beating the odds”. I’m lucky.
This month I switched gears from my current ventures (which I’m leasing out) to my writing career. In a matter of one week of diligently concentrating on my intentions (and faithful networking), I was offered a great writing contract in L.A.
Every piece of energy wasted complaining about circumstances , real or imagined, is a missed opportunity to move one step closer to your goal. When I find myself seated at a pity party for one, I just say three really simple words: Get over it.
Everyone, I mean everyone has an example of being treated unfairly in business. I’m grateful when sharks expose their true intentions by acting ruthlessly. It gives me clarity so that I’ll know not to do business with them in the future. If they are with a company I need or really want to work with, I’ll just go above their head and find someone else to deal with.
When I examine individuals who have truly done very well over time in business, they always have two things.
1) Competency within their industry and about general business practices (ability to read financial statements, hire great people, etc.)
and-
2) A strong sense of personal responsibility/ An internal locus of control
What happened to the whole “hear me roar” mantra?
PS. This week I’m reading Prophecy by Robert Kiyosaki and Sharon Lechter. It’s an amazing book and far more important than the series finale of The Sopranos or Paris Hilton’s next move.
This entry was posted on Thursday, June 14th, 2007 at 1:29 pm and is filed under Business Decisions. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.Leave a Reply
