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6 Tips for Female Entrepreneurs Part 1

Women Entrepreneurs

6 Tips for Female Entrepreneurs Part 1

Written by Jay Shapiro for Gaebler Ventures

Women are often put off of starting their own business. Why? Some of the most common obstacles are personal commitments and, oddly, nervousness about the legal aspects. These 6 tips will help set the female entrepreneur on the right path for start up.

For women entrepreneurs of all kinds the pre-start stage usually involves a plethora of questions concerning what it takes to build a successful business.

Are the questions and answers the same for men and women? In essence, yes, although women may have different considerations to make regarding personal commitments with family, etc. That's not to put a sexist slant on things but proportionally it is still women who attend the needs of family in greater numbers than men.

Be the proprietor male or female, every business should be based on solid ideas, geared towards a profitable niche or market gap and have reliable systems and effective marketing in place. In terms of legalities, bureaucracy is the same for women and men.

More than a handful of female business owners confess that the path to success often has a very particular set of bends. In surveys women business owners reveal that female business issues usually involve the following:

Keeping a good and healthy work/life balance
Starting up or growth financing and promotions and marketing.

The tips herein are aimed at highlighting and helping with some of the problems that are frequently faced by the entrepreneur sisterhood.

1. Start up a business that ties in with the demands of your personal life. Bear in mind that there aren't fixed rules regarding what a 'proper' business is or looks like. Some women's idea of success will indeed mean an international concern with a large group of employees and millions of dollars worth of revenue generation per annum. For other ladies a modest sized artisan company or consultancy is the ticket - so long as it can realistically provide an income and allow for personal freedoms. In some cases the aim is to have a balance of respectable income and personal liberty. It's all in the planning really - decide what your priorities are and then you can begin to envision how things will play out in terms of your business and the way it operates.

2. Don't let the bureaucratic side of things faze you. Many female would-be entrepreneurs (and men, just for the record) get perplexed by the apparent complications of the legal aspects of starting a business. For this reason a fair amount of them get stuck in limbo and don't take their ideas any further than the ideas stage because of this. This is nothing more than a hang-up and should be viewed as such. By educating yourself a little about the whys and wherefores you'll find yourself better equipped to understand where you sit. In reality, dealing with the initial bureaucratic concerns needn't be a huge deal, and it is necessary if you are to operate you business in a bone fide manner.

Here's a breakdown:

In most cases you only need to register your business with a single government office to set up as a sole proprietor or a partnership. Business owners who need protection from personal liability relating to any business debts will need to carry out the relevant registrations, but this is usually pretty straightforward. Sometimes personal liability is known as 'limited liability'. That's where the acronym LLC comes in (Limited Liability Company).

Jay Shapiro is a freelance writer based in the UK. Jay has a particular interest in the emotive aspects of the entrepreneur's character. "Alongside the nuts and bolts of business, the character of the person is often the ingredient responsible for success."