Barriers to Advancement Facing Women in Business

Copyright 2006 Red Ladder, Inc.

Women continue to enter the workforce in record numbers. In fact, almost 47% of the workforce is comprised of women. Yet, despite this fact, very few women hold the top slots.

Take one stroll past the executive suite in your organization and there will probably be a noticeable lack of women to be found, particularly if you exclude the support staff. Perhaps you never took the time to consider this or to even ask the question, but given the number of women in the workforce, does it seem rather odd that there aren't more women ensconced in the executive suites in business? I think so.

I've talked with many women leaders to try to identify the barriers that preclude more women from reaching the corner office. Here's what I've learned.

First, life-balance and family tradeoffs continue to plague women who want to build successful careers. As has long been the case, the bulk of family and household responsibilities still fall on women's shoulders. How each woman, her family, and her place of employment choose to manage and negotiate around this issue will clearly have an impact on a woman's ability to take advantage of those business opportunities that lead to long-term personal and professional success.

Another surprising deterrent is the perception that women lack key business credentials. As a woman with an MBA and MA under her belt, this one makes me chafe a little. However, having the right business credentials means more than having the right degree. Rather, it means being able to demonstrate in measurable ways a clear understanding of those business practices and the financial aspects that are important for an organizations success. This is what is commonly referred to as business acumen. Women don't lack key business credentials, they just need to do a better job of getting the credit and recognition for using them.

Finally, women continue to lack representation at senior levels simply because they just don't have visible positions. Many women typically follow career paths that lead them into the more traditional female roles such as marketing or operations. The lack of coveted profit and loss responsibility will often preclude them from consideration when the top jobs do become available.

Corporations need to make the case for developing women leaders within their organizations. They must stop overlooking the fact that women have good instincts about business and that they are good managers, delegators, collaborators, and team players. Since most businesses are built on relationships, these are crucial assets to an organizations long-term success.

While there are other reasons why organizations should focus on developing more women leaders, the primary reason, simply put, is that it just makes good business sense. Those organizations that want to reap the kind of financial returns so critical to their long-term success, should begin seeking out and supporting executive women leaders. Over the long haul, that's something that we can all bank on. Don't you agree?

Change Your Career and Change Your Life By Starting Your Own Business

Even if you're not a born entrepreneur, at some point in your life you've probably toyed with the idea of starting your own business. Perhaps you've even opted out of your mainstream career to strike out on your own. If you have, you're among the legions of men and women who have made the choice to start their own businesses. Unfortunately, many dreams of self-employment turn into nightmares, primarily because many of those who start businesses don't know how to critically assess business opportunities, how to create a business plan, how to read a financial report, or how to design and implement a marketing plan. Truly, the difference between those who succeed and those who fail most often boils down to whether or not the person has acquired the knowledge necessary to launch and operate a business. What most aspiring entrepreneurs don't realize is that the skill set necessary to start a business isn't out of reach. It's simply a matter of finding the right tools and using them to your best advantage. These tools can be found in books, through online college courses, through training, or through the mentorship of a successful businessperson. In a nutshell, these are the steps you need to take in order to change your career and change your life through starting your own business: 1. Identify and build on your strengths. If you are a creative person who thrives on the unexpected, starting a bookkeeping business that requires endless hours of number crunching is a recipe for disaster. You need to assess your talents and interests, and then discover how you can use them to create a niche and demand for your product or service. 2. Create a business plan. A business plan is both your vision for your business and your roadmap to achieve your goals. It must include defining your product or service, identifying your competitors and differentiating yourself from them, and pinpointing funding and financial opportunities. 3. Lay the groundwork. Businesses aren't built in a day, and you have to go through the mundane tasks of setting up bank accounts, securing business licenses, and jumping through the necessary regulatory hoops. 4. Create a marketing plan. Whether or not your business includes e-commerce, you can be sure that the Internet will play a major role in marketing your new business. But there are many other ways of garnering low cost or free advertising and marketing, and you need to make it your business to learn about them. You must also identify your target market and come up with a strategy to bring your product or service to that market. 5. Pay attention to the details. Many businesses fail because of a lack of attention to details - whether that means sloppy accounting practices, poor inventory control, or missing the deadline for a funding source. Launching a business is a balancing act, and you and your team must walk the high wire with aplomb. 6. Acknowledge and dismiss fear. Fear is what often holds us back from achieving our dreams. There's no doubt that leaving your career to start your own business is a downright frightening proposition. But with the right tools, you can acknowledge your fears for what they are, and then boldly move forward on your new career path of self-employment.

3 Women Starting A Small Business

Starting a small business ranks close to having a child in the “major life event” category. This can be one of the most stressful times, but if done right, it can also be one of the most rewarding things in your life. Some might think that to start your own business, you have to know everything. One thing that you can have something help you with is marketing and advertising. This is a very complicated part of any business and if the average business owner thinks they know everything they need to know about this, they are kidding themselves. When someone has a heart problem, they go to a specialist. This is how you should treat your small business marketing. Using an Ad Agency could be one of the smartest things you could do to help ensure your business doesn’t fail. It is well known that 80% of all businesses fail within the first 5 years. How many of those millions of heartbroken owners could have been part of the 20% only if they would have not been a “know it all” and asked the experts for help in areas they didn’t have an idea in. Throughout the years of running an Ad Agency, we have never had a client spend more money with us than if they would have done it alone. In a majority of cases, they actually have saved thousands of dollars with us. This is for a few reasons. One is the enormous buying power good Ad Agencies have. We can buy in bulk and pass the savings to all of our clients. Ad Agencies also have more negotiating power. Going into a buying process with 5-10 clients at one time can give us a huge advantage in negotiating power. One thing that new and existing business owners fail to do is create an actual advertising marketing plan for the year. This can be done at any time during the year and not just January first. Create a plan for the next 12 months based on your target audience and your budget. We never come to a client and tell them how much they should spend for the year. We take your budget and create a plan for you, at a price you can afford. We handle over $38 million in advertising dollars every year, but we service the $5000 startup or the $100k budgets. Any and all are welcome to participate in our programs.