Tackling the Gender Gap with Coaching for Female Entrepreneurs
As a female professional, when you enter entrepreneurship, it doesn’t take much to notice how these business settings or professional spaces were not built with you in mind.
Despite many, societal biases towards women continue to fuel the disparities between men and women in the business world.
Even though most industries are making progress in being more inclusive of women entrepreneurs, it’s still difficult to get ahead of a system that seems to be working against you.
Why the Revenue Gaps?
Although there is mounting evidence that women's startups have a higher likelihood of success, they have a far less likelihood of surviving past the first year.
Furthermore, according to the Harvard Business Review, in 2019, only $935,000 (on average) was invested into women-led companies while a whopping $2.12 million (on average) invested into companies run by men.
And here’s the kicker: although women entrepreneurs received significantly less funding, their businesses still generated much higher revenue than the men.
There are numerous reasons why there is such a lack of funding and why there is still such a large gender gap between male and female entrepreneurs—in the United States (only 1 in 5 businesses are run by women).
The professional and business world continues to be male-dominated due to the persisting social barriers and mounting economic obstacles women entrepreneurs still have to break through to get anywhere.
Women Lack Support Networks
The first main obstacle to understanding the concept of social capital is the lack of social capital afforded to women.
Importance of Social Capital
We all know the saying: “in business, it’s not about what you know; it’s about who you know.”
Business scholars at Harvard define social capital as the “relationships that make organizations work effectively.”
Research done by the Harvard Business Review found that your social capital, whomever you have within your network, is a crucial piece of the puzzle for any business's success.
In fact, they found that women-led businesses receive a positive impact when they have at least one other entrepreneur in their network: their businesses were positively impacted in the long-run, they had better marketing strategy, and their funding opportunities increased.
Your network may be made up of people you graduated with, mentors, a business coach, colleagues, business partners, etc.; people that will help you, guide you, introduce you to other people, and offer a new perspective.
The strength of these relationships is a monumental factor in an entrepreneur’s—especially a woman’s—success and fulfillment.
Social Capital Leads to Financial Capital
Humans are tribal animals; we align ourselves with groups of other people to connect and identify with.
Lions hang out with other lions, people from the same hometown may naturally approach each other in the workspace, or certain qualities and values that resonate with your own will inevitably draw you to form a bond with another person.
But the most common tribal attitude in the social and professional sphere that seems to transpire throughout time and space is that more often than not, women will approach women, and men will gravitate towards men.
It’s that simple, and at the core, there isn’t anything wrong with this. However, it negatively impacts when the business world is mostly run by men and only scattered with a few women.
Here are the hard facts that explain the disparity between men and women in the business world:
Men run 94% of venture capital firms, and by nature, men are more inclined to fund other men.
While only 6% of venture capital firms are run by women, and by nature, these firms give out most of their money to women-led businesses.
At the end of the day, the disproportionate number of men and women in the business world means that most wealth and other resources are allocated to men because men hand out the money and do most of the hiring.
The Networking Barriers
Furthermore, the lack of females in the business community really reduces women's social capital options to create a trusted network.
When walking into business functions or entrepreneur seminars, there are usually only a handful of women instead of a room full of men.
And while it’s obviously amazing to create bonds and relationships with other entrepreneurs who happen to be men; we want to make the point that it’s much easier to make meaningful connections with someone you feel comfortable with and associate with more easily (for the most part this is true for people of the same sex).
It’s easy for a woman entrepreneur to feel out of their element in these settings, and it's one of the challenges when trying to create support networks within your community.
3 Ways to Narrow the Business Gender Gap
1. Overcome Networking Challenges
Although we just stated many reasons why it’s harder for a woman entrepreneur to have access to significant social capital—we didn’t say it was impossible.
Make it a priority to create a network of support. Find the confidence and courage within yourself to walk up to anyone in a networking function to create business connections—it might be a hit or miss, but you will gain much more from at least trying.
Go to your chamber of commerce and become involved within its functions and events; this is a great way to find other business owners in your same area and may have similar goals and aspirations.
Connect with classmates from college who might be in the same boat as you, or use social media to connect with people from around the globe who are like-minded and encourage your growth.
In situations where you are surrounded by men, especially men in higher positions than you, it might be tempting to take on a much more “male” or masculine persona that might not be genuine to who you are.
We are not here to make generalizations; many women have more intrinsic “masculine” attitudes that help them a great deal in their business. But generally, when you try to be something you are not, you run the risk of flopping and ultimately failing to connect genuinely with others.
A woman entrepreneur doesn't have to be masculine to fit in among men. To create a network that aligns with your vision, remember to be true to your values, qualities, and skills; stand firmly in your shoes, and the rest will follow.
2. Be the Representation You Want to See in the World
As we’ve repeated throughout this article: women entrepreneurs are greatly outnumbered by men in the business world—especially in leadership positions.
When you don’t see someone who looks like you in entrepreneurship or leadership positions, it isn’t easy to know if you could ever take on that role and achieve your dreams.
Without representation, a woman entrepreneur must climb the career ladder independently, without much information on creating a plan or strategies to work towards success.
This is a curse but also a blessing for female entrepreneurs in this day and age. It’s up to them to be the representation they never had.
This is to pave the way for them to become more successful in their own right and to lead the way for more females who want to become entrepreneurs.
3. Get the Help You Need from a Business Coach
If the past two steps seem a bit out of your comfort zone, or if you don’t have a lot of extra time to invest in generating social capital, hiring a business coach to help guide your transformation might be the best option for you.
Whether you need help in building the confidence to network successfully or the ability to establish your voice and business presence, coaching for women entrepreneurs will be much more than your unfailing safety-net but the hand that guides you through the challenges and obstacles we have discussed around female entrepreneurship.
How a Business Coach Can Help Women Entrepreneurs:
1. Mindset work
A business coach will sit down with you, listen to your preconceived thoughts on success, and listen to your insights on what success means for YOU.
A business coach for female entrepreneurs will teach how to defy preconceived notions of success.
Succeeding isn’t only what you think it looks like for men’s businesses. It doesn't necessarily have to be about wealth, income, or material things.
The idea of fulfillment is a mindset that should be created on your own terms.
Coaching will help you create your own standards and practice accountability for following through on what you truly aspire to and believe in.
2. Defy Imposter Syndrome
Business coaching will never let you entertain the idea that you haven’t earned to be where you are.
Whether you received outside help or not, no matter your education, your work style, or skills, every step forward in your journey was a step taken by you—not anyone else—to be in the place you are.
Coaching will help you realize your vision for your business, helping you let go of the mindset of fear and feeling undeserving.
A business coach will constantly remind you that you deserve everything you have and everything you hope for because you will always work hard for your place.
3. Speak UP
One of the challenges of being a woman in the business world is constantly being glossed over and talked over. It is sometimes easier to lower your voice and let others talk over you; however, doing this will only work against you, and your insights and vision will never be crystallized outside of your head.
A business coach can help you harness your voice's power with training on speaking with command, how to stand your ground, and how to demand respect when you are speaking.
Business coaching will give you feedback on how you currently communicate and help change your mindset that calling things out and using a firm tone does not mean you’re a bitch.
4. You CAN have it all
Mom entrepreneurs everywhere are living proof that any woman can have a family if they wish to do so while still successfully running their business and achieving their dreams.
The ability to have children and take on the role of mother is not a burden if you don’t want it to be.
On average, women assume more household responsibilities than men and assume most of the emotional labor involved in a family and/or relationship.
We can’t just press a button and have these extra challenges disappear, but coaching can help you create a plan and give you tools to juggle your work life and your home life responsibly.
Become the Best Business Owner you Can Be
Although everyone could use the help of a business coach, fempreneurs are a group that consistently doesn’t get the support they need.
They have the courage and ability to run things independently, but coaching for women entrepreneurs is an invaluable asset to their operation.
There’s still much progress to be made to level the business field. But women with the correct guidance and support are on the cusp of achieving symmetry with their male counterparts.
As a female entrepreneur, do you think any of these business coaching tips could help your business succeed?
How do you think the coaching business could be an asset to your entrepreneurship?
