More Than WE Know

Women Entrepreneurs and Entrepreneur-wannabe’s that I work with have various motivations for wanting to start their own business.  The most common reason I hear is that they want more flexibility in their schedule. This is especially true for women with children.  The desire to work from home and integrate their children into their work-lives is a strong motivator.

However, I also hear from many women who are concerned that they don’t have the proper skills.  They think that this option is not available to them because they have little or no experience in running a business. 

In my opinion,  raising children is some of the best training for running a business that a person can have. While anyone can take a class in accounting or marketing,  real hands-on leadership experience is much harder to come by.  A woman raising small children is immersed every day in a leadership program which provides valuable training in becoming a successful entrepreneur.

Successful entrepreneurs should be able to:

1) Deal calmly with crises – whether it is a delayed product shipment or a stolen bicycle, unexpected crises are part of life. Moms have the ability to keep everyone calm, focus on the big picture and strategize a solution.

2) Multi-task – Moms are the original multi-taskers, juggling dinner, ironing, feeding the baby and helping with homework. This makes them perfectly suited for simultaneously making outbound calls, responding to email and approving a marketing campaign.

3) Soothe angry customers – Moms have much experience dealing with tantrums, outbursts and tirades. While they can’t send angry customers to their rooms, they can listen empathetically, give them space to calm down and get them focused on solving the problem together.

4) Negotiate – Moms instinctively know which items are negotiable (15 minutes past bedtime, an extra dessert) and which are not (coming home after dark, riding bikes in the street). They know when to give in, and when to stand firm and how to bake a bigger pie so everyone gets a piece.

5) Delegation – Any mom knows that it’s more important that her son makes his bed than that he makes it perfectly. Progress rather than perfection is the key. Whether dealing with her children or her employees, she knows that by giving them both the task and the responsibility, she frees herself up to contribute in ways that only she can.

So, the next time you start to doubt whether you have the relevant experience necessary to run your own business, remind yourself that you already have your MBA – Mom’s Business Administration degree!

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