Why Your Greatest Opportunity As A Female Entrepreneur Is Now
Introduction
In recent years we’ve seen more and more small businesses explode into the online space.
And the good news is that many of those small businesses are women-led businesses.
There has been enormous growth in female founders becoming hugely successful entrepreneurs.
Where once the opportunity to grow a successful work from home small business seemed an impossible task, times have changed, and these days there is no glass ceiling when it comes to showing up and running a small business online.
You have greater opportunity now than ever before to take your passion and turn it into a hugely successful online business that you can manage around your personal life.
You can grow a brilliant business that has a positive, significant impact on you, your family, and the people you serve. However that level of success will not happen without some of the biggest challenges you’ll ever face.
Creating a successful small business that not only gives you financial independence, but also enables you to run that business around family life can take time. Sadly, I see many female small business owners become frustrated when the results they are so passionate about achieving in their own businesses are slow to come, and they walk away too early on.
You can create life changing, long lasting success as a woman entrepreneur, and a growing number of women are opting out of the rat race, and building successful businesses that they are in charge of, that allows them the freedom and flexibility to be there for family.
The advent of the internet has levelled the playing field for female entrepreneurship to come along and make their mark.
Even at the time of writing this post, when here in the UK we’re in the middle of a poor economic climate, many women business owners are making huge sums of money bringing their passion to the online space.
They are turning their passions into successful small businesses.
The number of women-owned businesses is growing year on year, and that’s something to celebrate!
There’s nothing to stop you from doing the same, and the greatest opportunity you have to start your entrepreneurship journey and build a great business, is NOW.
To help you on your way, I’ve created a short listicle of key factors you should be mindful of when taking your passion, and turning it into a business venture to build into a wildly successful online brand.
Ten Key Factors To Be Mindful Of As A Female Entrepreneur
- The starting point for your small business journey as a woman entrepreneur is to consider whether you’re willing to step into the business world, and to do the hard work and make the sacrifices you will inevitably have to make, to stay the course to become one of those successful women entrepreneurs.
I see a large number of female entrepreneurs bring their passion online with excitement, not giving enough thought to the challenging journey ahead or the time it will take to have significant impact with their businesses – to the level that the business becomes financially viable.
- Your goal is to put your small business in front of the people who can and are ready to buy. That comes with unique challenges that you as a female business owner will have to overcome.
But in the world of business, challenge is par for the course, and many successful female entrepreneurs have reached the pinnacle of success after having journeyed a long way through many challenges to build a great, money making online business.
Getting your small business in front of the right audience comes down to knowing your audience in detail, and understanding where they are hanging out, so that you can be visible there.
This is the most important thing to learn to do, because you can have the best products/services in the world, but if you’re serving those products and services to the wrong audience, or you’re in spaces where your audience is not visible, your small business will struggle.
If you need to understand how to identify who your audience will be, and where those people will be visible, I have a great, in-depth customer avatar training available in my Etsy store. Best news – it’s value is more than £47, but is on sale for under £10.00. You can find that training by clicking here.
- Build a good business model. A key factor with your small business is to make sure you have a good basic business model in place.
That means having a mailing list in set up and working that you’re driving people to regularly (you can learn more about mailing lists and why you need them in this post).
Having a place you sell your products/services (a website, e-commerce store or marketplace platform).
And having some place(s) you’ll be visible to build your brand (social media, pinterest, podcast, blog, vlog etc).
Without each of these core foundations in place for your small business, you may be running a business that has gaps. That gives people the opportunity to fall through those gaps impacting your sales, revenue and growth.
For my deeper free training walking you through how to create a great business model go here.
- Make sure you build out enough online resources to bring in a higher rate of sales. This means not relying on one product, but having multiple streams of income, including passive income (which is a great way to make money whilst you sleep).
Having only one or two streams of income can leave small businesses at risk.
The main reason to build passive incomes streams as a woman entrepreneur, is to provide a level of protection financially to your business, and to be able to create a product once and then sell it on repeat. I call this ‘churn’ money.
It’s a whole lot easier to create and sell a passive income product, than single unit shipped to door products.
Your goal is to give your business the financial support it needs to stay healthy. And the best way to do so is to build enough revenue streams (including passive income ones), to give your small business stability for the longer term.
- Think about innovative ways you can show up and serve your audience. Fitting in with what everyone else is doing is not the way to do this.
I run as far in the opposite direction of trends as I can.
Bringing your own version of unique to your business is what will set you apart, not following what every other business owner is doing.
- Be prepared for the long haul to success. No matter what any fake guru tries to sell you about a magic bullet or a quickest route to success, all viable, hugely successful, stable businesses are built over time.
When you look at hugely successful women-led companies online, and you dig deep enough into their stories, you will find that their journey to the top was a long haul one. Their success did not happen in weeks. Nor months. It took years.
Be prepared for that journey so that it doesn’t come as a shock when the huge results haven’t appeared after a few short months.
I see way too many women business owners walk away from their businesses within the first three years because the big results did not come quickly enough. You have to be prepared to be in this game for the longer term to see the successes you dream of.
- Never ever stop learning how to become better at business. Invest time learning how to become a better woman entrepreneur.
Invest time learning how to be better at business.
Invest time learning (deeply) all the places you’re going to be visible.
Invest deeply learning as much as you can about your customer.
Commit to learning every week. Fill your mind with new ideas and knowledge about small business growth and success. It will serve you well when you do.
- Develop emotional intelligence to help you cope with the demands your small business is going to place on you. I see a growing number of women (some with successful businesses), burn out and suffer with mental health issues, because they do not prioritise their own self care, or develop strong emotional intelligence.
I’ve seen a growing number of women have to walk away from their small businesses completely because they failed to take care of themselves sufficiently during the journey.
You come first. Above all things and above anyone else.
You should be top of the list when it comes to taking care of your health and wellbeing.
If your health fails, you’re of no use to anyone, and certainly no use to your business.
It’s not selfish to put you first. It’s a priority.
- Build a support network around you. Whilst you may be your own boss, leading your own business, possibly doing everything solo, it’s vitally important to have a great support network you can be part of, contribute to, lean on, gain knowledge from.
The women business owners in my community stay there for the support and comradarie they get. It can be essential to help you feel you are not travelling your journey to success alone. You can find out more about my community here.
- Be obsessive about your business. This can have a positive impact on your ability to keep pushing forwards, especially during the times when the results aren’t there.
You really do have to develop a deep obsession about what it is you’re doing in your small business, and your determination to get to success should know no bounds.
Eat, breathe, live your small business (but never at the cost of your health).
When you’re not working in your business, be thinking about your business.
When you’re not thinking about your business, be learning about your business.
Never stop the obsession.
My own small business is front of mind no matter what I’m doing. I don’t see that as a problem.
I’m so passionate about what it is I do that it gives me joy to have my attention on my business, always considering where I am in my small business journey, and what I can do next to grow even more.
Conclusions
The world of business can be tough. It was a male dominated world for many, many years. Not any more. You have as much opportunity to make your small business a fantastic success as anyone else.
It will be your commitment to the tips in the listicle outlined above (and more – they’re not an exhaustive list), that will determine whether you build, grow, nurture, bring to life a business that has the ability to completely change the financial trajectory of your life now, and for the future.
I want you to make the most of the opportunities in the online space that are presenting themselves to you right now.
This world has never been more abundant. Filled with people who can spend money. And with an internet that allows you to get your business in front of millions of people the world over.
There has never been a greater opportunity than now for women-led businesses to achieve great success in the online space.
Do not underestimate the extraordinary abundance there is in this world, and the opportunity that exists for you, right now, to tap in to that abundance and create the business of your dreams.
The only real barrier that stands in the way of your business becoming hugely successful is YOU, how you choose to think about, feel about and work with your business every single day.
Make the most of the opportunity that exists.
Keep your mindset attached to growing your small business every single day. There are many, many people who are looking for the products and services you wish to sell. Your goal is to get you and your business in front of those people.
No matter what the economy is, there will ALWAYS be people who will find a way to purchase the things that they want. Keep your mindset strong and your head in your small business for the long haul.
Go and build the business of your dreams!
Jenny 🙂
I have some great FREE small business guides to help you achieve more as a female entrepreneur – to grow your small business to greater success online. Choose any you would like from the list below!
