There’s nothing like a woman’s touch, especially when it comes to running a business. Recent reports from American Express have shown that women-owned businesses are growing 1 ? times faster and adding 11% more jobs than businesses owned by men.
So how exactly are women continuing to grow their businesses at such a remarkable rate? And how will they continue to do so?
1. Collaboration
Instead of seeing other women-owned businesses as solely competition, view them as potential partners. Use other women-owned businesses to combine forces by collaborating and/or subcontracting, especially with women whose expertise are different than yours.
2. Embrace your intuition
?Women are good at perceiving a need in the marketplace and creating a company from scratch to deliver on it,? says Pamela Prince-Eason, President & CEO of the Women?s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC) which certifies over 12,000 Women?s Business Enterprises (WBEs) each year.
Once you have perceived the needs in the marketplace, use your intuition coupled with your business skills to figure out your next move.
3. Network effectively
In an age where everyone is networking, make sure you are doing so effectively. Take advantage of groups, networks and conferences geared, not only towards women, but also towards your industry.
One great organization to check out is the Women?s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC). WBENC brings together WBEs with hundreds of top corporations and government agencies to strike up millions of deals each year. They also hold an annual national conference & business fair with workshops, matchmaking sessions between WBEs and corporations, as well as countless networking opportunities.
So how will women continue to strive in entrepreneurship?
There are many answers to this question, but Prince-Eason believes that in order to continue this growth, ?they need to achieve unprecedented innovation and scale ? including in ?non-traditional? businesses like manufacturing and technology.?
When asked how women can achieve greater success in those ‘non-traditional’ fields, she stated the following: ?Women?s businesses already bring innovation, rigorous attention to quality, and strong customer relationships to the table. Not only do they have to develop the expertise to meet the standards of their customers, but they also have to anticipate what those future customer needs are and position their companies to deliver on them. Looking towards the future, corporations in our network are collaborating closely with WBENC to create a deeper outreach and education in order to impact women and girl?s interests in these areas.?
