Is the women entrepreneur simply the opposite of the male entrepreneur or is there more to her? I would argue that in today’s society where we have been given equal platforms to participate in the economy in more meaningful ways, that the women entrepreneur has the power to do more. And to illustrate this, I want to share with you my experiences of women entrepreneurs and in particular one woman entrepreneur. So at the beginning of 2009, I made the resolution to become fitter and healthier (besides needing to prove my family and friends wrong, I genuinely felt lethargic) and so began my looking for a personal trainer. I found her and so my journey to a better me began. But soon afterwards, I realised that these were no ordinary personal training sessions; we soon started sharing ideas around business but more importantly, I began to gain such valuable insights into women-owned enterprises that challenged my existing knowledge. You see, in talking and sharing, I started to understand her enterprise ecosystem and I wanted to share three lessons I have learned so far.
The first lesson is what I call redefining tools: One of the most significant lessons is how my personal trainer has redefined certain tools to help her remain authentic to what her business is and who she in that business. In particular, the one tool she has redefined is networking. We are often taught about the power of networking but not all of us are comfortable in how it sometimes operates and my trainer is similar, she always said that she is not the type to be in your face. But what she has done is to use her personal relationships with each of her clients in very strategic ways – from bouncing marketing ideas, legal decisions, growth ideas. So she has in a sense developed a useful and relevant database of people that she can call on. So while she did not have to go to networking sessions, she has essentially made networking work for her in a way that helps her to strengthen her business without losing its authenticity. So how does this lesson add value to me and you? One has several business tools at their disposal but one has the power to redefine them to allow one to remain authentic to the values of their business and not be afraid of trying something because it is not listed in some book. After all, creativity and innovation are said to be some of the tenants of entrepreneurship and more importantly, allow one to challenge the status quo.
The second lesson I have experienced is in how my personal trainer recognised an opportunity to grow her business but in making that decision, she was determined to choose a model that she was comfortable with. She opted for a developmental model which entailed her developing another person – a regular client to be exact – to offer services as opposed to hiring someone from the outside. My thoughts were why spend time developing someone, get someone who has already spent their own money to be trained and can start immediately. But now as I reflect on our conversations, the decision to grow involves more than people, money, venues, it is also about ensuring that your value systems and business growth model are aligned. More importantly, the key lesson is that for her, it was about ensuring that each of her clients would be comfortable with the person and that made it easier to introduce change without her clients feeling as though she no longer had time for them. So how does this lesson add value to you and I? As an entrepreneur or business owner, change is likely to be an ongoing part of your business than for most other people, but it is in how you incorporate change to allow alignment between values and need to grow. It is about interrogating what is core to you and your clients and finding a creative balance to introduce change.
The final lesson that I would like to share with you is how our conversations have shown me how accountability really plays itself out in her ecosystem. When I reflect on stories and examples, I can see that her business requires multiple levels of accountability. It requires accountability to herself, spiritual and religious beliefs, clients, suppliers, friends and family for example. This illustrates an interplay between various aspects of her business ecosystem because as her business continues to grow and develop, these accountabilities require her to test if she is remaining true to herself and if her business is adding value.
So from my interactions with my trainer, one thing that continues to be re-affirmed for me is that being an entrepreneur or small business owner is not an individual journey. Rather, it is a journey where you constantly engage with different types of people and collectively, you can learn from these experiences and take what is useful for you and fit for your purpose. More importantly, what I've taken from my personal training sessions is that there are several ways of navigating the entrepreneurial waters, however, I can ask others how they have done it to help me chart my own course.
