Women Entrepreneurs: Grow Your Business Without Spending a Dime

As a women entrepreneur or small business owner, growing your business is one of the biggest challenges you’ll face. Because of women’s unique make-up, we tend to ignore assets or opportunities that might help offset challenges as well as defray costs. For example, as women business owners, we are less likely to leverage networking groups, less likely to embrace our creative or intuitive side, and more perfectionist-focused.1

Below, find out how you can go to the next level by simply shifting the way you think about and run your business. These are easy-to-adopt changes that don’t require spending a dime. Rather, they focus on simple actions that can eliminate anxiety and overwhelm and free up your most valuable resources--your time, energy and money.

Ask For Help to Get More Done

Women are particularly reluctant to ask for advice or help or even accept it when it’s offered unsolicited. You dont want to impose on others, appear weak, inexperienced, or ignorant. Yet, most people who love, respect, care for or admire you would be more than happy to support you in achieving your goals.

Asking for advice or support is one of the sincerest forms of flattery. People want to help. Allow them to give you that gift. No matter how great you are at juggling all the demands of your business now, there will come a time when asking for help can either make or break you. Get in the habit of asking for help now. If the mere act of asking is challenging for you, start with small requests such as asking a friend to proof read the article you’ve written or asking your spouse to take the kids to a movie so you have time to do some writing, attend a networking event, or simply relax and refuel.

Let Go and Create Space

Your time, money and energy are your greatest resources in growing your business. Optimizing them depends on how much you’re willing to let go. Some reasons we don’t let go are due to procrastination, perfectionism, enjoying the task or not trusting others. If you’re serious about growing your business, you need to let go to grow. Consider:

 Letting go of the need to have all the answers first before trying something new
 Letting go of what’s not working be it a product, service or business relationship
 Letting go of pleasing everyone all the time
 Letting go of having to do everything yourself

The act of letting go frees up spiritual, emotional and mental space that allows room for the new to come in. That means new ideas, new resources, new business, new partners, and new opportunities to create more, to be bigger and better. Letting go means you’re willing to dump old habits or ways of thinking and you’re open to new possibilities that the universe presents you. Don’t be so invested in your business that you wont let go of what’s not working.

Do Only What You Do Best

By finding the common thread among the following questions, you can create a business that inspires you and elicits inspiration from your clients. You’ll sustain a higher level of energy in the day-to-day of your business and you’ll exude more confidence and enthusiasm. By doing only what you do best—instead of doing everything—you’ll deliver a better quality product. Ask yourself:

What Do I Do Best? To find out, ask yourself 1.) What skills do I repeatedly use? 2.) What environments do I enjoy being in most? 3.) What tasks or projects give me the most satisfaction?

What Do I Love Doing? Look at all areas of your life and identify three activities that give you the most joy and fulfillment. Activities where you become oblivious to time, engrossed in the moment, and are in a true state of flow.

What Are My Gifts? What skills do your co-workers, spouse, friends or family compliment you on regularly? These are “gifts� that come intuitively and naturally to you. What are your top three gifts?

Where Do I Spend Most of My Time? Like water flowing down a mountain you, too, will wind up focusing on the path of least resistance in your business. Look at the services or products that give you the greatest joy, those on which you work authentically and most powerfully are your key.

Do only what you do best, love to do and are inspired to do. If you experience a lot of resistance, procrastination or are having physical reactions (such as high anxiety) over a product or service in your business, consider letting it go. Your heart or your head just may not be into it.
Own Your Value, Raise Your Prices
Women are notorious for giving products or services away. It is simply in our nature to be nurturing and generous. Yet those characteristics can also mean the ultimate demise of our business if we don’t start valuing and charging clients for the services we provide. To feel more confident about charging your clients higher rates, take time to answer some important questions:

 How do I value myself personally and professionally?
 How have my lifes experiences contributed to what I offer my client?
 What professional, volunteer or educational experiences substantiate my offer?
 Am I confident in what I say I can deliver to my client?
 What do clients say is the greatest value they’ve received from my services?

Once you gain clarity on these questions, you’ll have a greater appreciation of how your personal and professional experiences have completely prepared you for what you are doing now. Client feedback will tell you exactly how much value they put on your services. You will feel more confident in what you have to offer clients and justified in charging higher rates for it.
Stretch Regularly
Stretch by setting transformative goals that push you out of the comfort zone. By doing emotional stretching on a regular basis you gain more self confidence and take on ever bigger challenges that provide opportunities for greater visibility. Clients like working with people who are courageous, exciting and visionary. Your energy, willingness to try new things, and “can do� attitude is a magnet for gaining new clients. Here’s how you can start stretching today.

Do Something That Scares the Hell Out of You. Repeat. What are you afraid of doing that you know will help grow your business? Commit to tackling it today. Once you’ve conquered that goal, go after another goal that scares you.

Set the Goal, Make the Plan, then Forget About the Outcome. You may not have all the answers on how to do something in your business, but unless you start to move in that direction, nothing is going to happen (Newtons first law). Stop ruminating over how youre going to do something and just get started. The answers will come.

Feel the Burn. Business is like exercise, if you’re not feeling any discomfort, youre not pushing yourself. Mohammad Ali said I run until it hurts - that is when I start to train.� Pushing through discomfort gives you the confidence to take on bigger challenges in your business, and your life.

Set Yourself Up. Make a public commitment to doing something big that will move your business forward, even if you dont feel like youre ready for it. One of the reasons Weight Watchers is so successful is because of the public commitments its members make to losing weight.

Act As If. If you act like you’re a winner or you’re “worth it� others will be more attracted to what you have to say, do or offer. So act as if you can. Act as if you are. Act as if you already have...and you will.

By following these five simple steps: Ask, Let Go, Do What You Do Best, Own Your Value, and Stretch, you’ll be well on your way to growing your business without spending a dime.

Footnote
1 Women Entrepreneurs Study, 2000 Cheskin Research, SCU-CIE, CNF
http://www.debmcdonald.com/womenentrepreneurs.pdf

Copyright © 2008 Margaret J. Prusan

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