Women, Business and Confidence

Recently there has been quite a bit chatter in the news regarding women, business and women's inability to move ahead. A report recently on MSNBC cited the following two key elements for the reason:  "Glass Walls" and confidence (specifically, a lack of confidence).

When I was watching these news broadcasts, the lack of confidence resonated with me, as I believe we've all had our confidence shaken and challenged more than once as well. Similarly, I connected with the reference to the Glass Walls. I never personally believed in the Glass Ceiling excuse, but I do see the truth within these newly identified walls.

What confines us behind these walls are the following three parts, as set out in the news broadcast:

• Doing everything
• Lack of network support
• Thinking small

But I would like to add a fourth part: emotional trust.

The first three are obvious in their definitions, but the fourth—emotional trust—may not be so obvious since it also contains a few elements of its own. Being part of the human race means we're emotional beings; we use our emotions to learn, experience and grow. As women we embrace our emotions on an even greater and deeper level, resulting in our having a larger emotional investment in all that we do. When our emotional investment causes us pain or we experience negative backlash, our emotional trust is challenged and we become more cautious regarding where we place this trust in the future.

All our decisions are based on where we stand emotionally with regard to...

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Skills of a Successful Entrepreneur

So you want to go into business for yourself, do you? Well, there are a few skills every successful entrepreneur needs to either have himself or the resources (both monetary and human) available to him. We are not all born to entrepreneurship; and even if we grow up in an entrepreneurial family setting, we still need to have a certain amount of drive and basic skills to achieve success.

It is a given that successful entrepreneurs need to begin their journey of being in business for themselves with a certain degree of courage combined with the ability to plan before entering into the business world—let alone meet or exceed the challenges they will face. The following are eight basic skills you need to achieve success as an entrepreneur.

#1: Value

The first and the foremost skill before embarking into business for yourself is to ensure you will be providing value: value to customers, the industry, vendors as well as to yourself. Once you enter the business world, you will face tremendous challenges and a new competitor at every turn. It is important to try to discover new ideas of promotions and do what others are not providing to your target market. It will be important to work hard to maintain your value on a scale that is equal to or greater than your competitors.

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Starting Your Own Business?

The idea of doing their own thing has seduced many men and women into chucking their jobs and trying their luck at entrepreneurship. Unfortunately, not all people have been able to succeed at running their own businesses. The problem more often than not lies in the fact that most people plunge into the deep waters of entrepreneurship unprepared. Ideally, before you start your own business you need to ask yourself the following questions. The easy step is asking; providing a truthful, honest answer is the difficult part.

Do you have enough capital and cash? Money attracts money. If you do not have enough capital and liquidity, it won’t be easy for you to sustain your business. Therefore, before you decide to start your own business you must be clear about your funding options. Do you want to borrow? Can you borrow money, and if so, from where? What are you willing to give in return for the investment? If the funds are not from a bank, then private investors are looking for ownership and a return on their investment.

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Entrepreneurship Myths

Illusions of Entrepreneurship Make Success Elusive

Entrepreneurship is an alluring word, as it comes with the promise of independence and wealth. Everyone starts her own business with dreams of success; the problem occurs when these dreams are based on illusions or myths instead of facts. We’ve all been there – had a wonderful business idea and thought, “Wow! I could really make it happen.” Then reality begins to set in and we wonder how we ever got so excited.

Our attitudes about entrepreneurship depend on the messages we receive through our peers and family, the role models we choose for ourselves, and the way we interpret success. However, the messages may not always be positive, and we might not always be able to make smart or well-informed role model choices. Our interpretation of success may sometimes be based on half-baked information; our attitude to entrepreneurship, therefore, may not always be conducive to success unless we clear our illusions before starting a new business.

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