ExpatWomen:Sue, tell us about your personal journey and how this influenced you to write the book, Secrets of Successful Women Entrepreneurs?
Sue: As have had an interesting journey in life so far, having had a corporate career in training and development, worked with the UN in the former Yugoslavia during the war, and then participated in four polar expeditions. I never imagined becoming a polar explorer was possible, and then having achieved this and became the first British woman to walk to the Magnetic North Pole, I decided to become a motivational speaker so that my story might inspire other people to achieve their own goals. So I started up Mission Possible which was ten years ago with no previous experience of running a business.
Role models are therefore important to me and I believe that they are vital in inspiring people to start up in business. Having searched around the bookshops for stories of successful women in business I could only find Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop and one or two others who were written about and there were loads of books about successful men in business. I knew that many women were running great businesses so I set out to find ten of them that I would interview for a book which would serve to inspire women to start up in business. I wrote to the ten on my list and they all agreed to be interviewed for the book which was wonderful. I then reflected on my own experiences in life so far, as I had achieved quite a few successes (represented Scotland in athletics, six expeditions, completed a MSc. and MBA, and had already authored a book – Kickstart your Motivation) and identified that there were Seven Steps that I had taken to enable me to be successful in all these areas. So I interviewed the women based on these seven steps to find out if they also had taken similar journeys or not. This also brought consistency to the questions and made the book easier to read as people could compare the approaches taken.
ExpatWomen:All the women in your book have created successful businesses (bra manufacturer, pub owner, job placement agency owner, shoe designer, dental insurer, to name a few). How did you choose the women to be included in your book?
Sue: I wanted to find women that would represent a cross section of women entrepreneurs from different social, geographical and cultural backgrounds who were at different stages of growth, in different sectors and who had been externally recognised by winning a business award or something similar. Some of them I knew already, others I had heard of and I also did a lot of internet research to find them.
ExpatWomen:Tell us about your Seven Steps to Success?
Sue: My Seven Steps to Success™ are based on my own personal achievements over the years and the common factors that have contributed to all these successes.
Step 1 – The Defining Moment There is always a moment when all the factors just come together and you decide to take action. It's important to remember this because when the going gets tough you will ask yourself: why am I doing this? Remembering this moment will give you the answer and a reason to keep going!
Step 2 – Understand your environment People need to understand if it's the right time to take action to pursue their dream. This relates to both the business environment, and their personal situation. Is it a competitive market, is it a growing sector and also if you have time, money, desire, family support etc. to help you. Many people start doing things without considering the bigger picture and this is important to think about.
Step 3 - Create your own compelling vision A vision is a statement of what success will be like for you at a specified time in the future. You describe it is words, or pictures to imagine that you are actually achieving that success now. It then helps you to keep focused on where you want to be. I imagined myself at the North Pole, seeing smiling faces, hearing cheers and feeling cold! It helped me to keep going imagining that success at the end.
Step 4 - Prepare for success Failure to prepare is preparing to fail. If you are starting a business, you need to identify your customers, find finance to get started, think about what might go wrong, and create a marketing plan and many more things. Speaking to people who have done something similar before is always useful or reading their experiences is useful, that's why role models are helpful in this preparation phase because you can learn from their mistakes without going through them yourself.
Step 5 – Start the journey This is when the greatest learning takes place, as soon as you take one action, you will learn something and it also encourages you to take the next small step. Many people are reluctant to start their dream project because they fear failure. My favourite question to ask them to think about is "what is the worst that can happen?" If they can live with the answer, then just do it!
Step 6 - Maintain fitness and focus When the going gets tough, how do you keep going? Mental toughness is vital and this step encourages you to keep both physically and mentally fit and not to lose focus.
Step 7 - Reach your goal – what next? When you reach your goal, it can be a great high. If there is nothing to follow it, all that sense of achievement can be lost. This happened to me after the first polar expedition, and I have now learnt to set yourself another short term goal to achieve immediately afterwards to keep up your level of confidence. Also it's useful to reflect on your journey and think about what you have learned.
ExpatWomen:Sue, is there anything similar about these women entrepreneurs?
Sue: Most of the women started up their companies based on a different set of values and principles to the traditional entrepreneurial values of power, financial success and status. They tended to be more focused on interaction with people and helping others. They still achieved financial success but took a different route to get to the same outcome. All of the women possess qualities of self-belief, focus, tenacity, decisiveness and competitiveness. They also had a strong desire to control their own destiny and the way they run their companies strongly reflects their own personal values. However two big challenges faced most of them – finding finance and managing some type of balance between their work and their personal life. As leaders they behave in a manner that promotes genuine concern for others, team-working and openness which fitted in well with their personal values of respect, integrity, ethics, honesty and a passion for excellence.
ExpatWomen:How can these women's stories inspire others to start their own businesses?
Sue: The women all opened up and shared both the highs and the lows of their journey in business. They talk about their difficulties with juggling work and their families and finding money to get started, and how they learned by their mistakes. It shows them as real people, with just the same doubts and worries and you or I so they encourage the reader to identify with them. You then think, well if they can do it so can I!
ExpatWomen:Sue, what are your 5 tips for women who wish to set up their own business?
Sue:
1. Be passionate about your idea because it's a long journey and it is likely to be difficult at times, so you need to love what you do.
2. Make sure your business has sufficient finance so that you can develop it as you want to. So many women owned businesses are under capitalized, and therefore grow more slowly as a result.
3. Believe in yourself and your capabilities. If in doubt, write a list of all the skills and talents that you have achieved in your life so far, and it will add up to quite a list. Then if you are having a bad day get it out and remind yourself that you can achieve a lot.
4. Run your business as you want to, not how you think it should be. There is no model that is the only model for success, so you can create your own rules. That's why these women in the book have been successful because they have not stuck to the traditional rules of business.
5. Take enough time out for yourself and your family to enjoy the fruits of your labours.
Sue: Mission Possible provides inspiration and information for women in business and our philosophy is based on role models. Women can achieve more than they thought possible when they have been inspired by others' achievements, and when they are shown the first few steps to take on their journey. Our role model approach is something that all women can buy into no matter what point in life they start from. Women become members of Mission Possible because they can reduce the risk of business failure, network with other like-minded people and become part of a nationwide network offering each other support. Our plan is to develop it across other areas so that we have local contacts who can keep everyone up to date with what's happening in that area related to women in business.
ExpatWomen:Any plans to write another book or this or any other topic?
Sue: I am currently researching my next book on women breadwinners to understand how they manage in a relationship when they are the main money earner. Its fascinating speaking to women in this situation, so if you are reading this and want to contribute to the book, then please get in touch via our website.
ExpatWomen:Thank you very much Sue. We wish you all the best helping women make the leap from where they are now to where they want to be.
