Women's Business Blog

The old adage "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime" may not sound like a quote entrepreneurs should pay attention to, but it should.

I have been asked often if I believe women are more moral or honest than men --- my answer is, and has always been, women may be the majority, but we are still treated as second class citizens, and because of our upbringing (being trained to nuture), we are more likely to ascribe to the golden rule.

"America is in a recession," you say. So how can you grow your small business?

Since the day you were born someone -- your mom, your dad, your teacher, your boyfriend, your husband, your child, your boss, your friend, your coach, and Oprah has been telling you what you should do. Is it any wonder that you haven't had a chance to listen to or develop your own voice?

When times get tough every woman entrepreneur has to dig down deep and untangle the complexities of the business. Why not start off with a simple plan that is easy to execute and even easier to delegate.

There are many differences between male and female entrepreneurs, but the contrast that is most distinctive is the need to ask a lot of questions.

An entrepreneur is a person who starts a new business or revives an existing one in order to capitalize on new ideas or niches. An entrepreneur thinks out of the box and with different parts of the brain. They are crazy enough to believe they can change the world and generally are the ones who do. Successful entrepreneurs, particularly, use their creativity and charisma in ways that other small business people don't. In my experience, successful entrepreneurs demonstrate four similar traits.

So you have an idea for a business and you believe you have what it takes to be CEO. Most of your role models are men and in watching how they perform you instinctively know that you will bring different qualifications to the job. The question is do you have the right qualifications for the position you have chosen for yourself?

Here are 5 qualities necessary to assess yourself for the position of CEO:

One of the biggest mistakes women entrepreneurs make is to operate the business as if they are the business!

You have a business idea that you believe will rock the world. You have worked your entire life for other people and you are ready to start your own business. You have the experience in the business you want to create and feel comfortable in every aspect of the operations necessary to succeed. You have savings that can be used for startup costs and  a business plan that demonstrates how revenues can be generated within the first six months so that you can bootstrap your operations. You feel confident that you have what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur----- all of a sudden, out of nowhere, you begin to think you need a partner....because? You think: