Women's Business Blog

3 Things That Keep Women Entrepreneurs Awake At Night

  

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Ask any woman entrepreneur what keeps her up at night and she will tell you that there are three major reasons that she is wide awake at 2 a.m. and still watching the clock at 4 a.m.

(1) People

All small business owners deal with employees, customers and vendors. And, it is the people problems and the emotions that go with them that can drive women entrepreneurs over the edge. Because women tend to be more willing to take on the emotions and feelings of other people in the workplace, they are more likely to pacify the perpetrator at work and then bring home the unrest internally and deal with it in the middle of the night. Unfortunately, this behavior victimizes the women entrepreneur.

SOLUTION: Create boundaries for yourself at work and minimize your people problems. Create a system of communication with employees so that their problems aren't your problems. Deal with all vendors as professionally as possible. Customer problems are your responsibility and when you deal with them directly and swiftly they are less likely to reappear in the middle of the night.

(2) Money

You don't have to be a small business owner to have money problems. Too often businesswomen don't stay on top of their income and expenses and have cash flow problems. Cash is king in business. Inventory is not cash and when you allow others to owe you for any length of time you have become a bank - you have lost sight of your business.

Solution: If your business requires inventory then be sure you don't buy more than you can sell. There is no such thing as a good deal if you can't sell it fast enough. Most important is to understand that your time is worth something. You have a limited amount of time and you must spend it generating income. Worrying about money will not make more of it. Take control of your finances from the beginning and you'll never have sleepless nights thinking about where your next dollar will come from.

(3) Sales

Every business is about sales. Without selling there is no business. As the entrepreneur you must be selling yourself and your business every minute of every day. You are only as good as your next sale. The sale that got away is often the wake up call at 2 a.m. that keeps you rewinding the tape of your lack of performance.

Solution: There is no failure in business only an opportunity for a lesson learned. When you lose a sale ask the customer to help you understand why the deal wasn't completed. You won't regret any opportunity than turns into a chance to learn how to succeed the next time around.

As entrepreneurs, we will always have something that will call to us in the middle of the night and gnaw at us until the morning light. Prepare yourself the best you can for the inevitable. But as Scarlett O'Hara famously said in Gone With The Wind ...Tomorrow is another day.

Let me hear from you if you have more than 3 reasons that keep you up at night...vicki@vickidonlan.com