Articles

News articles and links to external sites. Click the links below to view corresponding article.

 

How To Get Your Business Off The Ground And Fly High!

Starting out in business is a risky option; the failure rate is high. But an increasing number of women are becoming entrepreneurs. Out of the 400,000 businesses starting each year in the UK an estimated 100,000 are set up by women. But there is evidence that it’s not because they want to be the female equivalent of Alan Sugar. For many women the key motivation is not profit; they want to take back control of their lives and achieve their potential on their own terms. Learning from other people’s experience can help achieve business success with less turbulence.

Alterpreneurs and Mumtrepreneurs

These unwieldy names reflect the typical profile of many female entrepreneurs. A recent study by Yellow Pages reports that 'mums' who've set up 'home based businesses' now have a combined turnover of £4.4 billion in the UK. In 2005, MoreThan published research which revealed that the majority of SME entrepreneurs are making a lifestyle choice rather than purely pursuing profit. These so-called Alterpreneurs say they have created a business venture that affords them the lifestyle they want. They work to live, not live to work; they want freedom from the treadmill; they want less stress not more money. Their main motivations are to be their own boss, take control of their own lives and be happier. Only 3% want to be the next Richard Branson. Many women in business recognize themselves in this scenario. It is often a relief for them to know they are not alone in their definition of commercial success.

How to Fail

Statistics vary but small business start-ups have shown a failure rate between 50% and 85% within three years. There are four key reasons - poor business planning, lack of sales and marketing expertise, under-capitalisation and poor cash flow. Fools do rush in with the “NEXT BIG IDEA” and that’s why 90% of new products fail. You won’t get off the ground without a bullet proof business plan.

How to Succeed

A detailed business plan, based on thorough research, is the launch pad. Everything eases into place when you start plotting your goals. You can forecast sales, calculate costs and define the resources you will need.  Many of us are running away from the corporate treadmill, the stress, the glass ceiling but you can’t go shopping with a list of what you don’t want. Make sure you are aiming at goals ahead of you and not behind you.

You also need a vision – what will life look like when you achieve your business goals? Is it the lifestyle that you seek? Do your partner and children have the same vision? They might be part of another factor in your success – support. You can’t do everything so recognise your strengths and weaknesses, and get help. You may need some extra hands and brains in the business structure so choose your partners carefully to fill the resource gaps - an accountant, a project manager or a sales person. Most women find that isolation becomes an issue especially if you work from home. So find a mentor or coach, a success club or virtual support team, a PA or a cleaner.

Sales and Marketing is essential to success and requires focus and skills. We see on average 3500 marketing messages everyday and we recall less than one per cent. We spend a mere five seconds looking at a website homepage before deciding to click in or away. Successful marketing means grabbing the attention of your prospects and hooking them in. Successful selling is converting them into customers. Customers need to be your focus; your business won’t fly high without them.

Bottle and Throttle

Many women start businesses at the kitchen table or in the spare bedroom. Several have become successful entrepreneurs despite or maybe because of such humble beginnings. But your business vision does need to focus beyond the garage or the garden shed to take off.

Speaking as an aviatrix, when you learn to fly an aeroplane taking off is actually incredibly easy. If you have full throttle and enough runway, you will take off. Once you pick up enough speed the airflow over the wing will create enough lift to float you off the ground. All you have to do is choose the right direction and keep the nose straight. But, if you only have half throttle you can trundle along forever and you will never get your wheels up, but you will run out of runway. So yes business is risky; it takes bottle and throttle to launch your business and head for 38,000ft. But if it gets you to where you want to be in life then crank that prop, strap yourself in, grab that joystick, point it in the right direction and enjoy the flight. Chocks away!

Aviatrixie

Mary Munley is Aviatrixie MBA IDM PPL

Aerodynamic Marketing – for women with Altitude

Back to top

Beyond Chocolate - Mary the Mover

I’ve always been a compulsive mover – houses, jobs, men but most of all my body.  I was the fastest runner at my (mixed) primary school; I played every sport possible at grammar school and I learned basketball and squash at University. I played in first teams, county teams, regional teams and even entered England trials. Sport was my passion until I swapped my trainers for high heels and put my foot on the bottom rung of the corporate career ladder.

My career progress was not meteoric so it took time for me to realise the higher I climbed the slower I moved. Corporate altitude sickness had set in. I failed to make tennis training regularly because I was working late; I couldn’t commit to the basketball team because I was away on business so often. Gradually my weekly exercise quota slimmed down to a 40-minute lunchtime squash game. I was running so fast on the corporate hamster wheel I had no energy left at weekends to play sport. I hadn’t even noticed that exercise had become a stress reliever rather than sociable fun and fitness.

It took years and a health crisis for me to realise I was stagnating physically. In 2002, I developed agonising pain in my hips, which kept me awake at night. The experts diagnosed arthritis but X-rays and scans failed to verify this. I crawled round a succession of physiotherapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, Bowen therapists, Electromagnetic therapists, and Reiki healers leaving myself frustrated and them puzzled. I was shocked to realise that at the age of 45 I was moving pretty much like my mother who was 85 (and has had two hip replacements).

I decided to take back control of my health and my body. I ditched the experts, listened to my body and scoured the internet for answers to my problem. My hips were only painful at night when horizontal or after sitting for long periods at my desk or in the car. Walking Bono my dog caused no pain at all.  My body was telling me to shift my arse and get moving again, I decided.

My internet research revealed that “impact exercise” improves bone strength - I joined a martial arts club, and hip flexibility improves with dancing - I joined an Arabian dance class. My love of sociable team sport, played in the big outdoors with like-minded Sporty Spices, was rekindled by taking up cricket. Over a period of six months, the pain in my hips faded away. It happened so gradually I hardly noticed. Two years later, I am a purple belt in Choi Kwang Do and aim to be a black belt by the end of the year. 2007 will also see me captain the ladies’ cricket team in our first competitive league season. And when I get back from walking the dog, it’s not me who crashes out in the lounge for a three-hour kip.

I can’t really explain the cure because I didn’t understand the problem but I am totally convinced that movement is essential to health and well being. So ignore the “experts”, listen to your body, and find a sociable exercise activity that suits you. Above all, enjoy it.

Mary Munley

Who Am I?

Cambridge NCI CC Ladies Captain, The Flying Marketer, Belly Dance Diva, Bono’s mum, purple belt Choi Kwang Do.

www.nciladiescricket.blogspot.com
www.theflyingmarketer.co.uk
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Choi_Kwang-Do

Back to top