How you run your small business is not the same as making a fashion statement! One of the greatest satisfactions of launching your own business is doing it your way...and women entrepreneurs particularly love having control over their time and ideas. BUT - operating a successful business requires basic best practices and skills. 
My favorite section in Glamour Magazine is the To Do's and To Don'ts. The pictures tell the story about how each woman starts off with a perfectly fabulous outfit and then goes off the deep end by adding her own expression. Making the fashion faux pas of wearing red gloves with a pink skirt or mismatching an oversized bag with an underwhelming outfit may show you don't have great fashion sense, but at least they won't jeopardize your small enterprise.
Women entrepreneurs must express their creativity in business in every area of the business EXCEPT operations. In business your "to don'ts" are more important than your "to do's".
When I say this to my business coaching clients, I am always looked at curiously and then asked, "Why?"
Very simply put - the one thing every small business person (male or female) has is a definite amount of is time. If you do not make YOUR TIME your first priority in business - and that means prioritizing your "to do's" by focusing on your "to don'ts."
Ok - I know that this may sound very confusing. Particularly since I know that every woman entrepreneur I work with believes that to have anything done right means they themselves must do it----and, of course, that it must be done! However, did you ever ask yourself whether or not what you are obsessing about (worrying about) has to be done at all?
For example, at this very busy time of year (I can make a case that the time of year really doesn't matter) when a decision of your time comes up please ask yourself - WIIFM?
Yes, what's in it for me. (In this case, the ME is the BUSINESS). Can you imagine suggesting that at the most charitable time of year I, your business coach, would advise you to care more about what's in it for you (the business) than want's in it for someone else? Well, that is exactly what I am doing! I spend countless hours coaching clients to pay attention to their time -- it is your most valuable resource. A resource that no matter how much money the business is generating will not grow.
So your first To Don't is :
(1) Don't spend YOUR time on anything that does not benefit the business. People understand when you are straight forward with them about your time and energy. During business hours it is important to take care of business. Many well-intentioned people will ask you to take your time for a coffee, lunch, drink or meeting. When you ask them the simple question - what's in it for me (or the business) very nicely - you are just asking for an explanation of the agenda for the get together. In my experience, the majority of these nice people have no idea why they have asked you to meet with them. Their only thought was wouldn't it be nice to connect. Well, nice won't grow your business and without an agenda taking your time to meet without a goal in place won't be helping grow the bottom line.
(2) Don't be creative with your accounting. Many small business people have difficulty keeping, what I call, clean books. It can be quickbooks, quicken, other accounting software, or just a simple spreadsheet displaying what income comes in and from where and what expense goes out and to who and why. Entrepreneurs need to understand their own books. Small businesses dealing in product and retail often record their inventory in the spreadsheet itself in order to keep track. If you believe that it doesn't matter how you record your transactions, I promise you when it catches up with you it won't matter any longer -- the business will be too far gone. If you have an accountant or bookkeeper make sure you are all on the same page for the record keeping for the business.
(3) Don't hire because you "liked" the candidate. Every small business owner knows that the biggest problem in their business is people! And the majority of those people are employees! Now, I know you love your employees -- they are like family. (Everyone has a different feeling towards their family, but I digress). Employees are the people you must rely on to start, build and continue to grow your business. You may wonderful, soft and cuddly feelings towards some of them. But, at the end of the day, an employee works for the business NOT you. If the employee does not add value to the business that what is (s)he doing there? A successful small business will one day become your exit strategy - your retirement plan. That will only happen if the employees are the best person for the job. Some of the most intelligent women entrepreneurs I know admit that they have great difficulty in hiring people that they don't like. Like, being the imperative word. Most often we like people because they are similar to ourselves. But an employee who can do what you can do doesn't add value to your business or team. Learn to hire for skills and talent. Learn to ask the right questions about the candidate's ability to do the job and handle the responsibility. If you can't do this adequately, outsource staffing. This "to don't" will take more of your most limited resource "time" than almost anything else you do in your business.
Women entrepreneurs around the world are expressing themselves by launching businesses of their own in every industry imaginable. They bring their unique observation on new business offerings. The "to do's" list is often long and arduous, but with grit it gets accomplished. My hope is that the "to don'ts" list won't be put aside as it truly will make the difference between make it or break it.
