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Why 75% of Women Struggle to Succeed in Business

Written by: Lorraine Pirihi

Article Overview: When you look at the list of what women 'do' in their businesses it looks something like this.. 1. General administration 2. Email 3. Website maintenance 4. Phone calls 5. Marketing 6. Social Networking 7. Client work 8. Bookkeeping 9. Running errands plus much much more. Of course this 'to do' list is similar to what men 'do' in business, however the woman in business is also responsible for the personal side of life. Having children and partners plus take care of the household can consume your day without even going anywhere near their business! The biggest barrier to their success is they often try to 'do' everything themselves, which is impossible. While they are 'doing' the day-day basics, there's no time to work 'on' the business. There's no time to look after their no. 1 asset... themselves.

Why 75% of Women Struggle to Succeed in Business

When you look at the list of what women 'do' in their businesses it looks something like this: 1. General administration

2. Email

3. Website maintenance

4. Phone calls

5. Marketing

6. Social Networking

7. Client work

8. Bookkeeping

9. Running errands

plus much much more.

Of course this 'to do' list is similar to what men 'do' in business, however the woman in business is also responsible for the personal side of life. Having children and partners plus take care of the household can consume your day without even going anywhere near their business!

The biggest barrier to their success is they often try to 'do' everything themselves, which is impossible. While they are 'doing' the day-day basics, there's no time to work 'on' the business. There's no time to look after their no. 1 asset... themselves.

That's why getting help is essential. If you're a woman in business, you need to look at letting go and asking for help. 'Superwoman' is a myth.

I recall one lady who had three pre-school children who was spending every possible minute working on her business. Well she really wasn't working 'on' it, she was working 'in it'. Mary did everything including packaging orders, bookkeeping, delivery of orders and all the paperwork. She wanted to make more money but she was very reluctant to let go of anything.

She also had the mentality that she couldn't 'spend' money on the business, until she made some first. If Mary outsourced the menial tasks, she would have easily freed up her time and tripled her current income, and been much more happier. The business was a heavy noose around her neck. She was a perfectionist and felt that if she didn't play the part of Superwoman, she would have failed.

Freeing up your time is crucial, however what do you do with that free time? You see most women in business (and also a lot of men) are unsure of what to do next and that's why they keep themselves busy buried in paperwork and general daily busyness.

Identifying what type of help you need is also vital. I recently came across a woman who was struggling to keep her holistic health centre viable. She thought by investing in a special machine for an additional $25,000 which can diagnose various ailments she'd make more money. A new machine wasn't the solution.

The truth was she had no idea how to run her business. She needed a business coach. And it wasn't all about marketing that she needed. Her self-esteem and personal image needed to be addressed for her to be seen as credible.

Lisa thought it would be a 'good idea' to start a small retail store. That way she and her friend could be in business together. So thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours of blood, sweat and tears later she was left with:

a. Her friendship destroyed.

b. A nervous breakdown

c. Her marriage broken up

d. $75,000 of additional debt

e. No chance of having the baby she so desperately wanted

The pretty brochures, advertising costs and flashy website didn't bring in the business. And unfortunately a lot of women in business 'fluff' around and spend time and money in the wrong areas.

So if you want to stop struggling, find out what successful women in business do. Every successful business woman I know continuously gets help through coaching, attending seminars, reading, finding mentors etc. They are on a constant personal and professional development journey.

They also outsource their weaknesses and use their strengths. There is always help available and depending on your needs you can access the help you need very inexpensively. If the assistance you require can be done without being in your office or premises, then here is a very affordable option Click here to find out more.

The Final Word

So what can you do to change your situation? It's the beginning of a new financial year and if you want to achieve different results in your business, you need to do something else.

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  The Journey to Success - Persistence
  Women's Millionaire Club by Maureen G Mulvaney, MGM
  Are Men Smarter Than Women
  Franchise Businesses Appeal to Women Entrepreneurs

Article Tags: bookkeeping, email, free time, general administration, having children, household, marketing, menial tasks, mentality, money, myth, noose, outsourced, paperwork, perfectionist, personal side, pre school, social networking, superwoman, women in business



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A ton of Great Women - You might want to profile Teresa Cascioli of LakePort Brewery. She has an amazing story! I met her at at the celebratory luncheon for the Profit/Chatelaine Top 100 Women Business Owners. The Top 100 list is also a great resource for inspirational stories of Women Entrepreneurs.
New Study - Women prepare better business plans - I found an article in Business Week and I found this quite interesting. [quote:ka7lg35i]Who Prepares Better Business Plans, Men or Women? A new study based on four years of data from men and women in a training program for microenterprises finds that they come out the same in quality scores. "However, women scored significantly better on the presentation of their plan to judges," conclude the study's authors, Ronald G. Cook, Paul Belliveau, and Christine Lentz of Rider University, in a paper presented at a recent meeting of the Small Business Institute. [/quote:ka7lg35i] What do you guys think?
My entry - 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read - this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody. 2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto. 3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
Re: History of Women in Business in the United States - Yes. Women have increasingly made positive economic contributions to society and their position is being recognized more and more as seen on the Forbes List of Executive Women. In general, women can be a bit more practical in their approach as entrepreneurs too.
Re: Are entrepreneur women more organized than men? - Women are generally more organised than men. They have good instincts more than men. Women are generally aggressive when it come to business. You don't want to mess up with them.


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