Every entrepreneur starts out with what she considers a dynamite idea for a new business. She asks family and friends what they think of the concept and everyone responds with "You go girl!" Her enthusiasm inspires others to support her dream and often invest in the plan and during the startup phase everything and everyone is falling into place. It's as if all the planets have aligned at exactly the right time and the business launches successfully. Customers are buying and the entrepreneur has proven the need for the business.
But just as the above image depicts it only takes a moment for the well designed plan to get you tangled into an ugly mess.
Why, you ask do I suggest that this scenario often hurts women entrepreneurs more than men entrepreneurs? Because, unfortunately, our society allows men to fail over and over again while it expects women only to succeed.
The stories of male entrepreneurs such as Donald Trump, Ray Kroc (McDonald's), Walt Disney and others who failed over and over again before finally succeeding in business are legendary. It is hard to find tales of women entrepeneurs who were unsuccessful and then attempted business again. This is often what experts list as one of the differences between male and female entrepreneurs.
There is no question that there are lessons learned with failure. As a matter of fact, I don't believe in ever using the word failure as, in my experience, every failure is truly an opportunity to do something differently. Often it is this small difference that turns the business around.
Women must believe that they have the ability to change and give themselves permission not to be perfect. Perfection breeds strangulation and business must be fluid to grow and prosper.
Yes, women are starting more businesses than men and succeeding at a similar rate. But growing a small business takes risk and determination that accepts failure as part of the learning experience. Very few entrepreneurs, male or female, build a business without accepting that from time to time they will feel as if they have been bound with rope not able to move. It's whether or not you find the loose end and break free that determines your future in business.
The sooner more stories are shared by women entrepreneurs who have failed in business and then gotten back up to win, the sooner more women will accept this as just a stage of growing a successful business.
The sky's the limit!