Women on top: 5 tips on empowering female entrepreneurs

Running your own small business is often a herculean task. There is pressure to find customers and turn a profit, build your brand, manage your online website and social presence, and motivate your employees. And that’s before you consider that many female entrepreneurs aren’t just running a business, but often a home and supporting a family too, writes Tamara Oppen, Vice President Developed English Markets for GoDaddy.

However, just because you aren’t in a corporate job doesn’t mean you should leave professional development to the side.

Reframing some of your thinking or trying a new productivity hack can be a potential game-changer for your personal performance.

5 ways to empower your professional development

Here are five strategies to help you become your own professional development coach this year:

1. Rethink your imposter syndrome

Imposter syndrome gets a bad rap but stopping to consider what else those nagging, anxious feelings might be trying to tell you can be instructive. Going into a role or situation where you don’t have all the answers and are aware you don’t ‘know it all’ can allow you to engage with your team more fully or with outside experts.

Today, many business leaders acknowledge they need to surround themselves with people, or a network of talented people, that they can learn from and tap into their expertise. This is particularly important with the world moving rapidly and change becoming a constant in business.

2. Accept work-life balance is a myth

The struggle for greater work-life balance is nothing new, particularly for working parents. But the issue was thrown into stark relief during the COVID-19 pandemic when many people were forced to work from home.

A 2020 study from the Australian Institute of Family Studies found 46% of working women with families said their work-life balance was “quite or very difficult.”

The quest to balance your home and work lives is so often unsatisfying because achieving balance is so difficult. Reframing the problem to be mindful of how you are spending your time at home and work can help.

Does your perception of your balance change if you strive for more quality time rather than quantity with your partner, friends or children? Realising that periods of greater imbalance come in ebbs and flows can also help your perspective.

happy confident business woman in office

3. Protect your mental health

The COVID-19 pandemic also brought mental health close to the surface for many business leaders and the community.

A first step in helping to better protect your mental health is ensuring you are aware of your own state of mind. In her book, Mentally At Work, Genevieve Hawkins explains how real connection to yourself and others enhances productivity at work and in relationships.

Often, the activities that best support our mental health – like exercise and self-care – are the first things to go when we get busy, when in fact, cutting them out risks only exacerbating feelings of stress.

Find mental health resources for small business on Kochie’s Business Builders.

4. Don’t fear failure

Reframing failure to see it as part of learning can help take the fear out of trying something new. Failure is often a by-product of challenging yourself and a key part of the learning process for individuals and businesses.

It’s common for many entrepreneurs to fear they won’t be able to master new technology, like website building, when the reality is that many products available today can help simplify the process.

Even if you don’t succeed as well as you had hoped, trying may also lead you to understand more about your customers and how you can build a better business.

5. Interrogate how you are spending your time

If you get to Friday and wonder where the week went and what happened to your to-do list, it might be time for a productivity audit.

Productivity experts recommend looking at your diary at the end of the week and reflecting on where you spent your time. Did the bulk of your time focus on your core business priorities? Or did something less important end up dominating your days? Stopping to check if your time is focused on the things that matter can revolutionise your productivity. The same tactic can be used to check how you spend your time outside of work.

Professional development as a small business owner doesn’t have to mean a new degree or a course.

Striving for continuous improvement each day with a simple strategy to change your thinking or boost your productivity can help you become a better small business leader tomorrow.

This article is republished from Kochie’s Business Builders under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.