Have you ever asked yourself what it really takes to be a successful female business owner?
Do you ever wonder if you’re truly cut out for it?
You’re not alone. I see women struggle with it every day.
On a recent plane trip, I found myself thinking about this (put me on a plane and that’s when my imagination kicks in). I pulled out my journal (my best travel companion) and quickly jotted down a list.
In five minutes, here’s what came out. To be a successful business owner, you have to:
- Understand your numbers — not sophisticated economics or tax matters (no one understands taxes right now, anyway!). You DO have to understand how your business makes money.
- Understand your key metrics — the activities and numbers you should measure and track consistently over time.
- Understand who your most likely customer is – then know how to design a marketing and PR strategy around that profile.
- Understand exceptional customer service — because customers have too many choices to settle for anything less (unless you’re an airline, then you can treat people as bad as you want).
- Understand how to attract, interview, and hire the right employees for YOUR business, YOUR culture.
- Understand how to create a strategic plan and a ninety-day plan that specifically states who will do what by when.
- Understand how to run a weekly staff meeting and determine your top five weekly priorities.
- Understand how to hold employees accountable and appreciate them at the same time.
- Understand how to evaluate new ideas and risk – then decide whether to act or wait.
- Oh, and let’s not forget technology — how to choose and use database software, to keep ALL your contacts in one place, accessible to every employees who needs that information. How to use all the new social media tools.
That’s my list, literally verbatim, from my scribbled journal notes. It’s long, and almost overwhelming.
I wrote all this down, and my next thought was, “You know, that’s still not enough. You could learn all these things, but it wouldn’t be enough. There’s something else. There’s an X Factor.”
I’ve seen women with all this “business knowledge” who still weren’t reaching their potential, who still were not fulfilled. There’s something more, something harder to define.
What’s that missing X Factor?
It’s you. It’s not just about what’s in your head. It’s about what’s in your heart.
The X Factor is about developing grounded self-confidence.
It’s about knowing what you want, knowing your core values, your North Star. It’s about how you express expectations and set limits. It’s about your resilience, how you bounce back from disappointment or self-doubt.
The X Factor is about embracing your own personal power.
That’s when I decided that we’re going to begin our Alpha Mare Academy with a course to strengthen the person first.
I’d like to invite you to join our Alpha Mare Academy program. Because all the “business knowledge” in the world doesn’t account for your heart, your spirit.
It takes courage to be an entrepreneur. So let’s strengthen YOU first. Then you have a much better chance of implementing what’s in your head.