What is Entrepreneurship?
According to Wikipedia, entrepreneurship comes from a French word meaning “one who undertakes an endeavor.” And what an endeavor it is!
Starting a business, growing a business and even ending a business will bring all the aspects of your personality and character to light — the good and the bad. Entrepreneurship means developing a new persona for yourself as you build a business and experience the problems and opportunities that go with it. If you are the entrepreneur, it means you are in charge.
Starting a Business
When women start businesses, it may take a while to figure out that they are no longer employees. That is the first stage of growth for most women entrepreneurs. They need to determine what the best use of their time BEFORE they dive into the work. Mission statements, business plans, and any other type of planning are good tools to force the new entrepreneur to become aware of the bigger picture. Because women, in general, are very detail-oriented, we need to remind ourselves that it’s important to lift up our heads and look around periodically.
Hiring Employees
The second stage usually occurs when the woman entrepreneur hires her first employee or contractor. A woman with children will bring all her “mom” instincts with her to work, women without children may make the employees her children. All will try to make employees friends. The realization that these methods don’t work comes when we have to discipline or fire our first employee. That’s when we truly understand that we are the “boss” and not everyone is going to like us.
It’s a delicate balance because, for most of us, we truly care about our employees and want the best for them. We are sensitive to their out-of-work issues –child care, single parenthood, elder care. So we need to find a way that honors the whole of our lives and still allows are business to run in the best way possible.
Gaining Perspective
The third stage occurs when a woman moves into a place of leadership. This is not only business leadership, but community leadership as well. A woman sees how her business is part of the whole of business, government and life. We impact each other as women business owners, and collectively, we can have great impact on the world around us, although I don’t believe we’ve reached that stage yet because our total income is a fraction of what the same number of male-owned businesses create.
As more an more women step into this third stage of entrepreneurship, I believe we’ll find collective business prosperity, increased flexibility and more joyful days.
What do you think?
