Women business owners are our only clients, so naturally we celebrate and support female entrepreneurship. Operating in this market gives us the good fortune to learn about some of the deeper themes in the lives of women business owners. It gives us insights into what really matters to women, and to what contributes not only to their success, but more importantly to their happiness and gratification in their professional lives.

So what are some of the common denominators among women who on the surface appear very different and diverse?

Female entrepreneurs got comfortable enough with the idea of risk to take action. Notice I did not just say comfortable I said, comfortable enough. By being a risk-taker, I dont mean adopting a ready, fire, aim mentality. I also dont mean ready, aim, do more research, aim again, talk it over with friends, aim again, do another market analysis, prepare to fire, ask more questions, aim again and never fire. Successful women entrepreneurs do not suffer from what we might call analysis paralysis. And they would see this as a blessing. Most entrepreneurs would tell you that its a good thing they didnt know what their future would look like and how many challenges they would face, or they would never have begun! To be an entrepreneur means having the courage which is best summed up by John Wayne when he said, Courage is being scared to death and saddlin up anyway.

Many, perhaps most, women business owners simply started they didnt found a company with a formal business plan and an SBA loan so much as they hung out a shingle and began doing what they knew they did well. They recognized they were good at what they did and thought, I know as much (or more!) as the owner of this company does about how to run a good business. Why am I working for him (her)? Or they were uncomfortable with something in their work environment (perhaps the values, the management style, the vision) and decided it was time to fly. Most women found something they loved to do and turned it into a business. They didnt buy a business based on market analysis or how much income they could generate. It wasnt a process based solely on logic, but more on love. Recently, more women have become entrepreneurs by accident, not by choice, when corporate downsizing eliminated their position. They became a consultant or bought a franchise or started a company. Women who began entrepreneurship through unemployment shared the attitude that they were the lucky recipients of a severance package that will help them start their own business, not victims of the corporate machine.

While women entrepreneurs are a diverse group, they do share some important character traits. In general, we see women owners inclined to take initiative, to act; they are blessed with a high energy level. They are persevering, not daunted by problems, but facing them squarely they find a way through, around, or over to a solution.

Women business owners honor the importance of making their work a reflection of who they are and what is important to them. They know who they are, what their values are, what brings them satisfaction and what gives their days meaning. This often has less to do with the content of their work than with the process. For example, one of our members owns a wholesale meat company. This doesnt mean that she has a lifelong love of cattle, (or worse, of cattle carcasses), but it does mean that she works in a business that is a perfect fit for her skills and talents. She loves the process of creating the vision, the systems, the structure and the teamwork to carry out the plan. She loves the process of improvement, the process of making something better.

And last, but perhaps most important, the most successful female entrepreneurs we see are those who have a grounded sense of self-confidence. They are not arrogant by any means. In fact they are usually quite humble. But somewhere along the way they learned the importance of removing any self-imposed limitations or psychological glass ceilings. I know several successful women business owners who never graduated from college. If they let that get in their way, if they somehow saw themselves as less able, less capable than other women, they would never have built the successful businesses they have today.

Are you hearing that entrepreneurial voice? If so, I hope youll see yourself as competent and capable enough of accepting the full manifestation of the success you desire, see yourself as deserving. You dont need to know all there is to know, but please do hold in your mind your specific image of what success looks like for you. I wish you much success!

FIVE FACTS ABOUT WOMEN BUSINESS OWNERS

From the Center of Women's Business Research

Nationwide, as of 2004, nearly half (48%) of all privately-held U.S. firms are 50% or more women-owned

Between 1997 and 2004, the estimated growth rate in the number of women-owned firms nationwide was nearly twice that of all firms (17% vs. 9%), employment expanded at twice the rate of all firms

In the U.S., women-owned firms employ 19.1 million people and generate $2.5 trillion in sales.

2004 Darcie Harris