ON FEMALE ENTREPRENEURSHIP || The Importance of Finding Your Peer Support Network
Entrepreneurship can indeed be lonely. If you lack a peer support network, it’s even more so.
I learned this the hard way as I scaled my business from five to six figures and realized that when I was caught in a challenging work scenario, I had few people I could consult.
How do you build a staff retention strategy?
How do you motivate every member of your team while also motivating yourself to keep burning the midnight oil to get the work done?
What’s a benchmark growth rate I should work towards?
What’s good performance vs great performance?!
How fast should you expand, or should you expand at all?
What do you do when you have grand plans but insufficient funds to execute them? (Peers would share all the creative ways they’ve financed and negotiated their deals, but I only knew how to do it with cash)
How do you find the right mentors? How much do you pay a board member? How do you ask someone to commit their time and energy to your business when you have little to reciprocate?
These questions are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to questions you’ll encounter throughout your entrepreneurial journey. Some have cofounders to lean on, but what if you’ve chosen to go solo? With or without partners, let’s admit that when we first make the leap to build something from scratch, it’d be good to bounce ideas off of people who’ve done it before or are facing the same issues.
Before you start coming up with excuses as to why you think you can and should do it alone, allow me to bust some myths:
I can’t learn from someone who’s not operating in the same industry. How much you can learn from people in other fields would surprise you. We all still have to hire people; we all have to mind our cash flows and burn rate; we’re all trying to come up with processes and procedures that’ll allow us to step back from the day-to-day and work on the business.
People who aren’t generating the same revenue as me can’t relate. Sure, when you’re in a different revenue band (say $1M, $5M or $10M), you face some other issues, but the amazing thing about entrepreneurship (if you find the right circle) is that those ahead of you on the growth curve can impart their wisdom to tell you what’s ahead. And you can pay it forward to help others on their way up to your revenue band. I loved what one entrepreneur, Tamara Keefe of Clementines Ice Cream, shared, “a rising tide floats all boats.” If we create a better environment for female entrepreneurs together, we can all win.
Everyone’s out to help themselves. Let’s face it: most of us may have experienced some bad apples out there with a zero-sum mentality where they feel that giving you some of the pie means they get less; again, you need to test out different entrepreneur groups and circles. The right ones bring fantastic energy and have a win-win mindset. There are synergies across industries, and those within the same one believe they can build a bigger pie for everyone.
Having taken a step in the right direction to participate in entrepreneurship peer groups has given me tremendous value even in the briefest period spent in the company of those who’ve demonstrated a can-do attitude and achieved admirable goals in their businesses.
Put in the work to find your people. You may have to try several groups before landing on the right one, and when you do, it’s magic.
