2010 OKC Biz Q&A

You have worked exclusively with women business owners for many years.  Do you think there are differences between male and female business owners? 

For the most part they face the same challenges, like wearing many different hats.  I do see though that sometimes women start businesses with a smaller vision.   Women are stretched so thin between personal and professional lives, they often start businesses looking for flexibility and independence and create a “lifestyle” business model.   Some men do the same thing, but many men start a business with more of an “enterprise” concept, thinking bigger.  With a lifestyle model, their desire for flexibility and independence can backfire because the business is so dependent on the owner that their growth is limited by the number of hours In the day.  When they begin to think strategically about how the business can grow without being so dependent on them, they can get out of the trap of limited growth and having so many demands on them.   It’s a bit counterintuitive, but getting bigger eventually means more freedom.

 

So how does a female entrepreneur get out of that stage?

It starts with changing how you think about your role in the company.  I encourage them to think of themselves as an orchestra conductor.  You want to get out of the role of being first chair violin, plus playing the trumpet and percussion too!  You want to move into the conductor role, where your real job is to bring out the best music of all the musicians.

 

What’s the most common mistake women business owners make?

Not understanding your numbers can sink you.   You have to understand not just the income/expense equation, you have to understand cash flow too.  Ask any EWF member and they will tell you I hound them to understand  their “key indicators,” which are numbers that may not show up on their P & L, like their lead to sales ratio, their profit per square foot (if they are in retail) or the number of website hits it takes to make one sale.  It’s different for each business, depending on your industry.

 

What do you think is the most difficult challenge women business owners face? 

It’s not just a cliche, it really is lonely at the top.  Imagine  of the range of skills and knowledge it takes to run a business.  In addition to being an expert in your own industry, you have to be good in so many areas:  leadership and management skills, marketing, sales, financial issues, government regulations, tax issues,  technology…it’s a pretty long list.  And often the people you are closest to do not have an understanding of these issues.  You can’t discuss certain things with your employees, so you can end up feeling pretty isolated and having to make a lot of decisions by yourself.

 

Your website says your facilitate “peer advisory groups.”  Is that a networking group? 

No, peer advisory groups are strategy groups.  They definitely help with that issue of feeling isolated.  Networking and making connections happens, but that’s icing on the cake.  A peer group has a limited number of members, no more than twelve, and they have to be in non-competing industries.  Confidentiality is the cornerstone, so this is where business owners talk about their most important challenges and decisions.  Instead of being fed canned curriculum, the members discuss their business opportunities, problems and challenges with their group and get feedback from all members.   You have a team of trusted advisors.   It really works too.  The author Keith McFarland studied over 7,000 growth companies when he researched his book.  He discovered that one of the common denominators among the most successful companies was the owner or CEO belonged to a peer advisory group.

 

What issue do you think does not get enough attention when it comes to being a successful business owner?

The quality of discipline is often not addressed.  You can find tons of educational opportunities about leadership.  They cover lots of great qualities, like integrity, communication skills,  risk-taking, but very few talk about discipline.  There are also plenty of books, seminars,  and workshops about marketing, human resources, tax issues, using new technology.  But I think discipline in and of itself is underestimated.  No matter how much you know about marketing, sales, fiscal management, operations, and all the other areas of expertise you need to know to run a business, it won’t do you much good if you are undisciplined and don’t have consistency.

 

What do you find most rewarding about your work?

I admire the courage and heart of female entrepreneurs.  Women lead complicated and very busy lives now, especially female entrepreneurs.   I love helping them grow and seeing their confidence increase and seeing the “Aha” moments, when the light bulb goes off, or when all the learning comes together.  I think there are those who assume all business owners are “greedy capitalists” but my experience with women business owners is just the opposite   They are generous — sometimes to a fault — and work very hard to create workplaces that are fair, compassionate and family friendly.   They go to work every day, do their very best to take care of their employees as well as their own families, and don’t expect recognition or the limelight.