Before you get too excited about this blog and assume that, like the book of almost the same name, it will titillate your sensibility - this is not a blog about sex.
The meaning of Fifty Shades of Grey is actually a play on words. The heroine of the book, Anatasia Steele, dubs her pursuer, Christian Grey, "50 shades" due to the complexity of his personality. The phrase 'shades of gray' refers to the idea that most people think in black or white, one way or the other, rather than in degrees of gray.
Ah, now we are getting to the purpose of this blog. 
Many women in business are consumed by their conflicted feelings - constantly struggling with the gray areas in their life and business.
Why is this so true for women in business and not men? Because our society is still coming to grips with the role of women.
Here are some examples:
Women bosses - too facile or too stringent. Women decisionmakers - too emotional or too insensitive. Women board members - too quiet or too opinionated. Women in sales - too easy going or too aggressive. Women entrepreneurs - too risk adverse or too reckless.
Many of the women business owners I work with have difficulty in finding their moral compass in their business and in their life. It is never easy to make a decision that is not supported by friends, family and society and there isn't a day that goes by that someone in a woman's life doesn't tell her why she isn't headed in the right direction.
Men, on the other hand, tend to get a bye - even if they are headed down the wrong road. Why? Because they are men. Men make mistakes and are expected to pick themselves up and go out and make more mistakes. One only has to look to the financial community and the political world to see how we have a different standard for men and women.
But I've gotten off point!
Every small business owner must separate themselves from their business. What is right for you might not be right for the business and vice versa. Entrepreneur or not, we are all complex personalities but that is no excuse for complicating the business.
The most successful businesses have structure. They have been built and grown through careful planning. When opportunities arise the decision to take action is weighed cautiously so that the results benefit the long term goals for the business. The business model is safeguarded rather than dickered with when it has been proved to work.
Successful businesses do not operate with 50 shades of gray nor do successful women in business.
Raise your hand if you are a woman and have ever:
been told you can't have a career and a family.
been asked to explain why you want to start your own business.
been asked if you want your husband to weigh in or sign or be present.
been told that you can't grow your business beyond $1M because women don't think big enough.
been discouraged from sharing your dreams of entrepreneurship.
Let other women in business inspire you and motivate you to be whatever it is you want to be. Take a look at this link of 11 brilliant business women who were way ahead of there time. They lived in a time even more conflicted with women's roles and they capably moved out of their comfort zone, brushed off their "50 shades" and demonstrated they could be leaders.
In summary, don't allow our society's conflicted perspective on women in business deter you from being the woman leader our country is desperately in need of. Each time one more woman succeeds at fulfilling her dreams it makes it that much easier for the next woman.