Tips For Women Starting Small Businesses

Photo Credit: Pexels

You can be one of many women making a huge impact in the small business world. As you learn all you can about entrepreneurship and believe in yourself and your ability to accomplish great things, you can be successful in your new business venture. If you want to start a small business, following these 12 tips can give you a great launching point for success. 

Develop a Professional Image 

Every small business owner wants to be taken seriously, and it starts with a professional image. Headshots are a great start to that. If you find yourself fighting to gain proper recognition as a female in a male-dominated industry, understanding what goes into female professional headshots will help you stand out. 

Other aspects of developing a good image include dressing the part, building up your online presence, gaining positive esteem through word of mouth, having a well-designed storefront (if applicable), and being known as an expert in your craft. These things take time, and as you put forth the effort, you’ll soon see positive results. 

Have a Learning Mentality

Go into the process with an understanding that you don’t know everything. Have a mindset of continually learning and growing. If you’re open to learning new things, that’ll only benefit your business and give you extra room to help it grow. 

Build a Support Group

Starting a small business comes with a lot of excitement and stress. Surround yourself with people who support your efforts. 

A support group can be family and friends you can vent to when it’s hard and who rejoice in your successes. It may also be other small business owner acquaintances that you build relationships with so you can support one another in the ups and downs of the experience. 

Learn from Other Successful Women

Learn all you can about other women’s successful small businesses. Get inspired by them. Learn what it took to get started and how they overcame obstacles. If you can, network with these women. One may even be willing to be your mentor and teach you things you can’t learn in school or from books. 

Have Startup Savings

Starting a small business requires an investment. You need to start saving now so you can cover your startup costs. If you’re still working, save from each paycheck until you have an excellent fund built up to use for startups and in case of emergencies along the way. 

Network Like Crazy

Connect with everyone you can think of to build a network that will help your business’s startup and success, especially other businesswomen. Utilize online platforms to help in your networking, using your headshot to maintain a steady image and clear communication to show you’re invested. 

Women love to help other women, so even if people aren’t in the same industry as you, networking with others who understand small business and what it takes to make it work will be beneficial. 

It’s Ok to Pivot

As you start your small business journey, you may be in love with your initial ideas and vision for the company but find that not everything goes as planned. It’s ok to pivot and change your goals and vision as needed. Be flexible and learn from those moments when changes need to happen. Just because you love one idea doesn’t mean you won’t come to love a different one the same way. Flexibility as you grow will lead to greater success. 

Written in partnership with APG

The post Tips For Women Starting Small Businesses appeared first on Haute Living.