Successful women entrepreneurs in India have directly employed 22-27 million people! Isn’t that awesome? And as more women are starting their own businesses, we are seeing amazing developments across the globe.
But is it easy being a successful woman entrepreneur?
Well, we went through hundreds of reports and articles to find out what all successful women entrepreneurs had in common.
15 skills stood out! What are they? Let’s find out.
Contents
- 1 Skills of all successful women entrepreneurs
- 2 Networking
- 3 Confidence
- 4 Marketing and branding
- 5 Ambition
- 6 Persuasiveness
- 7 Financial Literacy
- 8 Research
- 9 Being comfortable with uncomfortable situations
- 10 Negotiation skills
- 11 Interpersonal skills
- 12 Analytics
- 13 Efficiency
- 14 Knowing your limits
- 15 Empathy
- 16 Embracing technology
Skills of all successful women entrepreneurs
- Networking
- Branding and marketing
- Confidence
- Ambition
- Persuasiveness
- Financial literacy
- Research
- Being comfortable with uncomfortable situations
- Embrace technology
- Negotiation skills
- Interpersonal skills
- Analytics
- Efficient
- Awareness of self-limitations
- Empathy
This is the perfect opportunity for all you aspiring entrepreneurs to learn from them. Let’s go over each of these skills and discuss why they matter.
Networking
Not having a lack of access to market linkages is one of the leading reasons that has been pulling women in business back.
Many business women lose out on amazing opportunities because they just weren’t networking enough.
It is important for women who want to start a new business to talk to other business individuals. Networking can also help them connect to professionals like lawyers, financial experts, government authorities etc.
Confidence
A simple act of bravery can change your life.
Ask for that funding! Tell your family! Pitch your business idea to investors! Talk to other entrepreneurs!
Without confidence, women will falter at every step of their business operations. Starting a new business requires courage, bravery and unshakeable faith in your business idea.
Marketing and branding
A business is more than just buying and selling online. If people do not know about your product, how would they buy it?
Consumer expectations are changing, and with that, the idea of a business also has to change. Consumers today want to buy products from someone they trust. Businesses that have brand value can successfully show their intent and their purpose.
Women need to know the basics of building a brand and marketing it if they want to survive in the entrepreneurial world.
In our masterclass with Adyogi, we discussed the basics of digital marketing for all eCommerce businesses. In case you missed it, you can watch the whole webinar here-
Ambition
It is true that women’s ambition has usually been frowned upon. But today, for women entrepreneurs to take the business world by its horns, they need to show superior levels of ambitiousness.
Be very vocal about your achievements and don’t shy away from using them to get ahead in the business world! Be a woman entrepreneur that can lift her head up and say “I am proud of my business today.”
Persuasiveness
It’s easy to have an idea, but how do you convince others that it’s a good idea? You need persuasion skills. You need to believe in your business idea and you need to make sure you can explain to others it too.
Your persuasion skills can be the key difference between a very successful woman entrepreneur and an aspiring one.
In this world, women already have to work twice as hard to be taken seriously. Good persuasion skills can speed up that process.
Financial Literacy
A very important topic for ALL women out there. Women are often left out of important financial decisions or are not given access to financial resources. Many women often complain of having been taken advantage of because they don’t know the basics of accounting.
There are countless courses online that can equip you with the basic financial skills you need to run your business. Financial literacy will also allow you to do important things like
- Invest
- Budget
- Have an emergency fund
- Expand your business operations
- Know if your funds are being siphoned off
Research
Do your research. If you have an idea, first check market cues. See if your budget allows you to set up the required operations. Look at the kind of marketing that your business will need.
Don’t be afraid to ask people. Look up experts in the field and get your doubts cleared. Find a mentor, ask them for guidance.
Plan your business and have a rough idea about your supply chain. Successful women entrepreneurs are never going to jump into a business without having done their research thoroughly.
But, don’t go overboard either. You might get cold feet and your research might extend for weeks instead of days. Set a deadline for yourself. Once you are fairly confident that your business has the potential to become big, go for it!
Here’s a free course on the basics of marketing on mojoVersity, India’s first digital upskilling platform for small business owners.
Take a sneak peek –
Being comfortable with uncomfortable situations
A woman entrepreneur needs to know how to handle uncomfortable situations. If you are running a business, there will often be conflicts or difficult conversations that you need to have.
Imagine that you need to fire somebody, or your supplier has given you spoilt material, or there is a rude customer! What do you do?
Both these situations require communication skills and the ability to resolve the conflict without escalations.
But, you cannot be afraid. Running a business will never be smooth sailing.
Confrontations also give you the space to grow and learn.
Related read: Handle with care: How to take care of customers during a tough time
Negotiation skills
For women entrepreneurs, a skill that can have a severe impact on their long term financial health is their ability to negotiate. Women are often told how much they “deserve”, which brings down their confidence while negotiating.
It’s high time women start negotiating and standing up for themselves whether it be in partner negotiations or negotiations with clients.
Interpersonal skills
This might be obvious for all businesspeople. But for women who are breaking the glass ceiling? It becomes extra challenging.
The ability of women to remember names and people, to treat them with empathy, to communicate on an emotional level, all these things that used to be considered weaknesses, are now being seen as strengths.
Being able to speak without sounding condescending, extending friendly and warm relationships are all skills that can help a woman build a business that has a strong foundation of supportive relationships.
Analytics
Women entrepreneurs need to also know how their business is doing. If they are at the helm, they should also be able to guide it.
You can only take the business forward if you know what’s working and what’s not.
This is where analytics is a crucial element of every business. You should be able to track important metrics that tell you about the performance of the business.
For example, if you sell handmade products online in India, maybe your metrics should be,
- How many website visitors did I have
- Which product has the lowest sales
- How many people signed up
- Revenue growth chart
- How many customers bought a product last moth
Google Analytics is a free platform that you can use to track how well your eCommerce business is performing. There are multiple courses on Google itself that can teach you how to track and collect data and also analyse that data.
You can link your online store on Instamojo to Google analytics to get an easy-to-navigate dashboard that has all your traffic data in one place!
Efficiency
Efficiency is the top most sought after skill in a working woman. Ask yourself important questions like –
- Am I getting enough time for myself?
- Did I meet the deadlines?
- Do I meet goals regularly?
- How is my emotional and mental well-being?
- Are all tasks delegated appropriately?
- Can I de-clutter my calendar?
These questions will help you reflect on your day to day activities. For women who are expected to balance both their jobs and their homes, efficiency is key.
- Proper delegation of tasks
- Managing collaborations
- Prioritising tasks
- Having clear goals
- Having a work-life balance,
- Knowing which meetings to kill
– are all the signs of a successful woman entrepreneur.
Knowing your limits
We have all heard of the phrase “Never count your chickens before they hatch”.
It is important for business leaders to know the capabilities of their team and themselves. Being ambitious should never become being careless. Proper research along with data evaluation should tell you what your limits are.
Seeing your progress is always more encouraging when the goals are realistic. Lofty goals can set you up for failure and disappointment.
Related read: Free eBook: How to set up an independent online business
Empathy
A study showed that woman leaders demonstrate higher potential for leadership because they can show empathy. Being able to relate to what the other person is saying, being able to understand their circumstances is often underestimated in the business world.
But empathy is a quality that can prove to be priceless when managing intergenerational teams, negotiating or hearing customer complaints.
Embracing technology
The world is online now. the pandemic especially has resulted in an explosion of eCommerce activity. In 2021, 46 startups became unicorns, of which 13 were women-owned!
(💡: Unicorns are startups that are valued at over $1 billion)
For women entrepreneurs to succeed, they need to take their business online. Not only that they also need to be tech-savvy enough to improve the efficiency of their work.
Technology allows you to automate most tasks that would be a waste of human resources. You don’t need to manually enter all data into a spreadsheet, you don’t need to send out individual emails! There are enough tools for you on the internet!
Related read: 13 Best Digital Marketing Tools for Small Businesses
Women in businesses can change the world. There is still a long way to go to actually see equality in the business world, but things are nevertheless changing. And changing for the better! In fact, for the absolute best!
Wondering how? We collaborated with the Women’s empowerment platform – Vitamin Stree to show you!
Are you thinking about selling online from your own eCommerce website? Sign up for a free online store on Instamojo in under 5 minutes!
