Financial Success Provides a Circle of Opportunity for Women Entrepreneurs
Monday Motivation and Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Working Mothers, Female Business Owners
There once was a woman who dreamed of climbing the corporate ladder as soon as she emerged from college in the early 1980s. Bound and determined to work hard to advance herself, she took a job in the big city of Philadelphia and left her small hometown armed with education, intelligence and tenacity. Six months into her job she realized she couldn’t make a living on the salary she was making and ventured back to her alma mater to take her second job where the cost of living was less expensive and her job more in line with her abilities and desires. The pay was still low but she was determined to make this job work for her benefit.
After two years of loving that job, receiving raises and making her an important part of a small non-profit team, she left for a mid-size city where her new husband lived. She landed a job one step up from the job she left, advancing in pay and duties. She loved her new job. The only time she considered leaving it was when her first son was born and his big brown eyes seared into her motherly soul and she didn’t want to be away from him full time to climb her career ladder but to watch him climb park ladders in the sunshine.
She decided to approach her bosses about creating a job-share position from her full time job so the organization wouldn’t lose out and she could work her duties still and be a part time mother. To do this, she had to give up the organization’s retirement contributions to her retirement fund and cut her salary in half, but she gladly did so thinking of the moments as a mother and not as a retiree. By the time her second son entered the world, that part time salary couldn’t sustain day care rates and she had double the reason to stay at home.
Her entrepreneurial spirit took charge and she created a company, based on her nine year career experience and contacts, to make “her own” money and create flexibility to be with her sons while using her talents and expertise to help customers. A self-made career fit her like a glove and her career blossomed as her sons blossomed into elementary and junior high school boys. Her passion for entrepreneurial life sparked a leadership role inspiring other women to do the same and her second company was born – a girl for sure – since it was built on a feminist message with female clients.
Her second company grew and expanded across the state providing the income she needed to take care of her own car payments, household duties, son’s college savings and company growth. She had hit her career stride and was changing lives, making money while being involved in her son’s school, sports and college lives. Entrepreneurship was the perfect career opportunity for her. As she dropped her first son in Boston at college, she did not cry on the way home because she knew she spent as much time with him as she could while building a career and making money – even saving for a retirement plan.
Entrepreneurship is a viable career option for any woman working today who want to climb her own corporate ladder, create flexibility in her life for both work and family life, and create income to sustain herself, family and retirement.
As time continues to stretch on so do the options she has for making more money – perhaps in different ways – to feel energetic alive, connected and still climbing her own ladder while visiting her sons who are in their own careers in their own big cities.
For women, it all comes down to being focused on making money while building a solid career with flexibility to enjoy motherhood, marriage, vacations and life. For women entrepreneurs, it comes down to knowing our worth in business, asking our price, selling to the right customers and saving for the day when we retire to spend well deserved time with our children and their families. Financial success provides a continuing circle of opportunity for our own life plan.
Women TIES 