Thursday, October 23, 1997

How women can succeed in business

By PAUL TULENKO

Scripps Howard News Service

"To cross that glass ceiling barrier to success (in their own businesses), women need to adopt a more aggressive, open-minded attitude" says Cathleen Faerber of the Wellesley Group in Lake Zurich, Ill., an executive search firm.

When approaching a new business opportunity, men typically say, "What's in it for me?" while women typically say, "Gee, I think I can do that." This difference usually means firms headed by men outstrip firms headed by women. It's not a glass ceiling that keeps women-owned businesses down, it's a glass attitude. Here are some tips that might help:

-- Find a mentor: Find someone whom you admire with the aggressive traits you need, male or female. Join the organizations they join, support the activities they support, and get to know that person on a first-name basis. Ask their advice, and then use it! Examine the traits your mentor displays, then work on developing a similar style.

-- Promote womeninbiz

high visibility: Join professional organizations and become active as quickly as possible. Rotary, Entrepreneur, Kiwanis are viable opportunities for you as they are hands-on organizations. Stay away from organizations, including your local Chamber of Commerce, where you're not likely to find like-minded people. (Typically, chambers of commerce are made up of large retail establishments and they send their lowest paid executives as representatives.)

-- Develop a plan: Winging-it just won't work. If you want to achieve success in business, you need a plan. And then you need to work your plan. I know you've heard this before ... so why haven't you done it? A plan is a tool for success. Ignoring this factor will mean either failure or a relegation to second status, neither of which should be acceptable.

Decide where you want your business to be in six months, one year, two years and five years. Spend the time it takes to make these pictures complete. Next make a list of the things that must happen to make your dreams and goals come true. Again, do it right. List the number of new customers or clients, the increased cash flow and all the other factors that must occur in order for your goal or dream to happen.

Finally, make a list of exactly what you must do on a daily basis to make the things happen. How many new contacts must you make? How many widgets must you produce? What should be the value of each client you add? Put your list on the wall, and look at it every single day. Every time you receive a phone call, every time you open a letter, every time you meet someone new, say to yourself: "How will this help me achieve my goal." If it misses the mark, forget it, even if you want to do the job. It doesn't fit, so spend your time and energy finding something that will fit.

Don't waste time on make-work feeling it is all you can do. Get busy and make things happen.

Women are much more likely to settle for a lesser win. Okay, so you may have to take on some jobs you don't want just to meet the payments. Do it and the second something better comes in, switch! Don't ignore your obligation to the first people, but don't spend your truly valuable time on them either. Men aggressively go after the carrot. Do men lose out on security when they do these things? Of course they do, but those who settle, stagnate. If winning is your object, you cannot stagnate.

When a new opportunity comes along, test it against the goals, objectives and tasks you've developed. If it's better than what you're doing, change!