On one hand, women who own a small business are optimistic about their plans for the future and investment in their business through marketing and product development.
On the other hand, women small business owners face certain difficulties like having to balance between business and family life, limited access to a support network, and having to deal with the fear of failure. While it’s possible to take advantage of certain options like women loans for small businesses, female leaders still have to face a great number of obstacles on their way to success.
What can we do to change this in the future? How can we make it a wonderful time to be a female business owner?
Balancing Family Life and Business
Being women, there is no doubt we have to tear between life responsibilities and work. The majority of business owners regardless of their gender try to achieve this goal and balance their life-work duties.
However, women are those who need to take care of their family as well, so they need to run their business and their family simultaneously. More than that, traditional gender expectations still dominate in this area.
Learn How to Delegate
The first and foremost contributor to this challenge and struggle for balance is how women approach their priorities. For instance, being a female entrepreneur with children you have to juggle your family duties together with your company’s growth strategies. The amount you have to handle is intensified when you sum up your daily company responsibilities and waking up the kids in the morning, getting them dressed, fed and out to school without even having the time to drink a cup of coffee. Women often feel induced to take care of others first – both at work and at home. They will find the time for important calls, extra projects, and employees, but will never make a pause for themselves.
Also, it’s significant to learn how to delegate in order to be able to develop your personality and professionalism. How can you do that? First of all, stop thinking that there is only one way to complete a task – and that is your way. You need to overcome this delegation challenge. Train your employees how you would like the work to be done, but also remember to train yourself to start thinking in a different way.
There are often several possible ways and options to perform the same work and recognizing this can be very satisfying and freeing. While your business grows and expands, learn how to shrink your “doing hat” and develop your “training hat”. You need to train your staff and learn how to trust their work eventually.
Take some time to plan and organize your work. People often underestimate the time necessary for doing some duty. Your to-do list may be endless, but it doesn’t mean you don’t have to find some time for your family and yourself. Women shouldn’t feel guilty about that as taking some time off will lead to better concentration at work and better performance.
Staff Engagement
The report conducted by the State of Women-Owned Business Executive stated that the female-owned companies contribute to the growth trend in employment the most. The employees who just wanted to work hard for the income are slowly disappearing.
More and more workers want to be engaged in the working process, work for the firm with purpose and help it expand. So, women are now the leaders in setting up the businesses that have a target. How should you motivate your workers? Don’t be afraid to ask them about their ideas. Gather group meetings every week or month to learn what your colleagues think about your business directions. You will be surprised with how many wonderful ideas can come from your workers.
