Women Business Owners Need Me!

Small business owners often resist writing a business plan. In fact, most of the people taking my small business assessment (go to www.WiseWomanCircle.com to learn more), say that they don't have a business plan. They usually don't have a marketing plan either.

Women business owners, in particular, feel that they don't have the time to "waste" on strategizing and thinking about their business. They are too busy doing too many things. When they do have a moment, they spend it on their second job: wife/mother/homemaker/chef/...

That is one of the unspoken issues that women business owners face. They rarely sit to think because the moment they sit down and think their eye starts roving to the things that need to be done in the house. Their mind starts making mental lists about meals, laundry and which child needs to be where when. Have you ever noticed that none of the samples in organizing books show time for grocery shopping, laundry or shopping for school supplies?

Even if a woman has a helping spouse, and their are many out there, it's her mind that has all this mental churn going. Men are much more able to sit and focus on one thing at a time. There's nothing wrong with either. It's just different.

So, if you don't have a business plan or marketing plan, I suggest that you gather the material that you need to make one, and rent an office space or hotel room for a day. Perhaps a colleague has a spare room in her office so you can get away from your own office. Then you can trade the favor.

What material do you need?

1. Current profit and loss statements (talk to your bookkeeper to get them).
2. List of products and services you offer
3. One or two favorite business books that can stimulate your thinking
4. A sample business plan from someone else (check the web)
5. Lots of paper

Schedule a day to do the project. It's important. Your business prospects and success will drastically improve when you have a business plan in place.

When I begin working with a business owner, we sit down to an analysis of their business -- what's working, what's not, what hasn't even been considered. Based on that analysis, we may begin working together, I may refer her to another business professional, or we may decide to do both.

This analysis, as well as my business offerings and classes are hung on a framework. As I add to this lens, and compose others, I'll be referencing this framework.

The famework consists of several levels, each building and interrelating with the last.

To begin with, we stand on the shoulders of other women who have gone before us. Women who got the vote, as well as working so that we could have a credit card in our own name. (Although that has proved to be a mixed blessing!)

From this, we develop our own passion for our business. If we don't have a passion for our business, or it's built on someone else's values or merely a perceived business need, our business will be less successful than it could be.

A business owner needs to take care of her own needs and fitness. Without doing this, she is a less-than-effective business leader. Sometimes business issues really are just personal issues in disguise and need to be dealt with at the personal level.

Next is the portion of business we are most familiar with -- organizational fitness. It's where we need to build business systems and procedures.

The next portion of the business framework is the relationship level. We need to have good, productive relationships with our customers, employees, stakeholders (including ourselves), business community and government.

When these levels are firmly in place, we develop business success! And then we can think about leaving our own legacy.

So that's it! If you are a smart business owner, take a look at the following to see if you have it covered:

1. Passion for the business you are in right now.
2. Personal fitness
3. Organizational fitness
4. Good relationships with customers, employees, stakeholders, other business owners and the government.
5. A definition for business success so you will know it when you get it!

One of the foundations of the Wise Woman Framework is passion. When I talk to potential clients about their business, one of the things I listen for is passion for business.

Most small business owners will tell you that they are passionate about their business. They love what they do, whether it's bookkeeping or massage. And that's the issue.

When you become a business owner, you need to become passionate about BUSINESS. And it's the most difficult transition for the new business owner to make. Most people start businesses because they are passionate about what they DO -- the bookkeeping or massage. But they don't like business, don't like the selling, marketing, financial administration. In fact, I've had people tell me that they don't want to be business owners!

I have to wonder why they are...

How do you know if you are passionate about business?

What's on your bookshelf? How many business books do you read a month? How many business subscriptions do you have?

How many business seminars do you attend? Are you taking classes in business subjects as well as learning the latest version of QuickBooks?

Do you have business advisors? Do you listen to them and then make up your own mind?

Do you spend money on your business? How much do you reinvest in new equipment, training for your employees, marketing and sales?

Do you understand your financials?

Do you network with other business owners for things other than getting new business?

Does the thought of business just make you want to bury your head under the pillow?

If you are not passionate about business, you need to be able to find the passion. Passion drives business. Yes, you have to have the other pieces in place, but if you don't like business, it's really really tough to succeed in business.

What do you think? Let me (and the world) know your feelings about business!

I was catching up with one of my business colleagues yesterday. We both are members of a networking group called, e-women network, which has monthly meetings. The group exists to help businesswomen connect with each other and learn new business techniques and tips. Frequently, there are display tables featuring everything from make-up to serious business products. We've both noticed the same phenomenon. The same women who won't spend $9.95 on a business book, saying they can't afford it, gleefully spend $39.95 on a purse.

Now, I like pretty things and a spa treatment as well as the next woman, but I have to wonder. Is there a reason that women can't make the million-dollar business mark? Are they too focused on using their business to make "pin money" (an old-fashioned term that meant a little extra money in the household for things that weren't necessities)? Or are they serious about building a business?

If you are a woman business owner, money is an important measure of your success. It's the scale of how you are doing. And you need to pay attention to it.

In his book, Good to Great, Jim Collins talks about great businesses and their leaders. One of the characteristics that he noted was that the leadership of the great organizations put their budgetary goals down and DIDN'T CHANGE THEM. They changed their strategy, or increased their effort or removed obstacles, but they always kept the goal the same.

Many women business owners don't take the time to set up a budget for the year, and don't track their expenses until it's tax time or they begin to run out of money.

Yet these are business basics. It's money coming in and money going out and the money coming in had better be greater than the money going out.

Most men business owners have figured it out. In order to take their place as business leaders around the globe, women have to figure it out as well.

Begin by committing to running your business as a business. Make sure that your business and personal accounts are separate and you aren't buying purses with your business account. Save that money for the education and marketing dollars you need to grow your business.

Here's to your success in 2008!