According to the Thumbtack Small Business Friendliness Survey, New Hampshire is the best state for a woman to open a small business. New Hampshire also ranked as the second friendliest state for both male and female entrepreneurs. Texas took the top spot overall and came in second for women-owned businesses. The researchers surveyed 18,000 small business owners across the … [Read more...]
You Cannot Baby Anyone into Being Successful
Sometimes, I speak to people who have dabbled at entrepreneurship and when you ask them why they did not succeed, they start to tell me about all the reasons why someone else is responsible for their failure and I listen in quietly. On the other hand, some days I speak to business owners who are building a team and trying to accelerate the growth of that team and they are … [Read more...]
Entrepreneurship – A Lonely Quest?
Undoubtedly, entrepreneurs are traditionally seen as singular in their role---the founder, the lone-ranger, the decider of all, the solitary leader. That’s a tough place to inhabit and it sounds very lonely! As they say, “It’s tough at the top!” However, in this day and age, there is no excuse to exist in isolation, even if you’re running a one-person entity or small … [Read more...]
Root Causes of Working IN Your Business, Not ON Your Business
One of the most common issues facing my solo-entrepreneur clients is frustration, often followed swiftly by fatigue. Suddenly swamped by so many roles, so many decisions, so many tasks, while trying to conserve expenditure – weariness sets in. What started as a dream business idea, to hone and drive further, has now become a 24/7 job, with no escape route. You realize you’re … [Read more...]
Paperwork Prevents Small Business Growth – 12 Tools to Recoup Time
Did you know that small business owners spend one day per week doing paperwork? In fact, according to research by YourTradeBase, more than one out of two small business owners (51%) believe that paperwork is preventing business growth. Interestingly, women business owners spend the most time on administrative paperwork (32% of women business owners spend more than 10 hours … [Read more...]
Entrepreneurship – Why Gender Is Not an Issue
I am going to be totally frank with you all. I have never entertained the idea that my gender was an issue with regards to how I approached my working life as an entrepreneur---ever. I am using ‘issue’ in the same way I would use ‘matter of contention’ by the way. Similarly, I have never let my nationality, age, height, number of offspring, etc. become an issue in running … [Read more...]
How I Created a Comfortable Work-Life Balance
What do we mean by the phrase, work-life balance? I have found from my years of experience that creating a balance between career obligations and personal responsibilities always seems to be a juggling act. What may seem balanced at one point in life will seem out of kilter at another time. The Early Years In my early years of career development, I was quite willing to … [Read more...]
Entrepreneurs: When Visualizing Leads to Visualizations
I spoke with a client recently about visualizing. I asked how she pictured seeing her business in 12 months time. “Gosh, I don’t have time for daydreaming,” was her response, fixing me with a confused look. This made me slightly concerned considering her desire to develop and grow her business. However, after I carefully outlined this process of enormous potential, she … [Read more...]
Is It Profitable to Follow Your Passion? 4 Questions to Ask Yourself
There are many self-help programs suggesting that you need to follow your passion in order to achieve your dreams. It’s great advice for some, but if you are relying on it to earn a living, then using your passion as a foundation for your career may not be the answer. Here are questions to ask yourself before you decide that following your passion is the best business … [Read more...]
Are You Ready to Turn Your “Side Hustle” into a Business?
Side hustles are generally born out of necessity or passion. They tend to maximize our skills and capacities or release our creativity. Converting a side hustle into a business is often a slippery slope because whether your side hustle is born out of necessity or born out of passion, the realities of formalizing a business can be disheartening. A side hustle that generates … [Read more...]