Starting a business is not for 'the faint of heart' as the expression goes. The expression generally refers to women who are too excitable and may not be able to handle the unpleasantness of challenge. Of course, women, like men, desire a challenge and risk, and seek out entrepreneurship because they believe they have an idea/product/or service that will change the world. They don't see fear as the obstacle, but a challenge to 'go where no man has gone before.' The belief one has to have an impact on the world is powerful, but every entrepreneur eventually learns that every business has moments of the good, the bad and the ugly.

I've learned this through my own experience as well as by working with hundreds of entrepreneurs over the years. No matter how good business is something happens that creates havoc even for the most seasoned entrepreneurs.

Here are some examples.

I was working with two women partners who had a growing business with revenues of more than $21M. The partnership was going well and the business was thriving. Then one woman got breast cancer. It was unexpected, of course, and the other partner was happy to take over all the roles the partner with breast cancer was responsible for while she was taking time off to fight and heal from her disease. A year and a few months later, just as she was ready to come back to work, her husband died. Clearly, more time was needed to deal with the untimeliness with his death and the affect it had on her family who had just weathered the storm of her illness. However, the partner in this company realized she would need to solider on alone for another three months or more. Of course, the revenue split was not changed during this time even though one partner was shouldering all the responsibility.

To an outsider, this partnership arrangement clearly seems unfair. However, the partners involved when incorporating the company, believed that an equal split was fair. Neither partner would have guessed that life's challenges would end up burdening one partner more than the other. This is an example of how personal challenges can inspire the bad and the ugly for an otherwise good business.

Another example is a woman business owner client operating a type of printing company. Her business was steadily growing during her first three years of business. She was able to hire top talent away from her competitors and eventually even a sales manager to take over corporate sales. For five years the business was good and growing. As often happens to businesses that are doing well, a large corporate client came knocking on the door and wanted to utilize her services as she was certified as a WBE (Women's Business Enterprise). The RFP (Request For Proposal) was worked on, delivered and accepted by the corporate giant. My client needed to ramp up quickly by doubling the number of her employees and bringing on new vendors to meet the challenge of the new business. Her revenues more than tripled over the next few years and the business was seen as a major player in its industry. Business was good and beautiful until the contract ran out the second time around and the third RFP for the business was suddenly rejected. The business was given to a smaller MBE (Minority Business Enterprise) competitor. The bad and the ugly set in fast. Dozens of employees needed to be laid off and vendors who were now offering better prices for all of her business were unwilling to offer the same deals for more than 2/3 less of her business.

The fact is the good in any business can quickly change to bad and the result is ugly.

However, as Winston Churchill is quoted to have said, "If you're going through hell keep going".

I'm sure your question is, "but Vicki, how do I keep going when things really get bad?"

My advice is something I learned from being in my own business. I started keeping a journal the moment I decided to start a business. I wrote daily, ONLY ABOUT THE BUSINESS, about everything that happened - the good, the bad and the ugly. At the beginning, most everything I wrote was good. But as the business grew more and more decisions had to be made and more employees, customers, and vendors created greater complications. Problems and headaches began to crop up daily and I wrote every one of them in my journal. Weeks turned into months, months turned into years and my journal continued to grow with stories of my business. Now and then, when I would find myself dealing with something in my business that was really bad and ugly, I would look back in my journal and read how I had overcome similar issues in the past. Time and time again I realized I had been in hell and worked my way through it.

If I can do it so can you.

Start writing daily in a journal NOW. It will remind you that you have what it takes to be successful even when your head doubts it. You'll also learn NOT to make the same mistake more than once and be better prepared for what in your journal is the obvious.

Women entrepreneurs, like all entrepreneurs, will always have to deal with the good, the bad and the ugly in business. But, knowing that things can always get better and that change is possible and even predictable will get you through.