Wednesday Wisdom: 51% Buying Misson

Wednesday Wisdom, Wednesday Morning, Buying Mission for Women Entrepreneurs, Females

According to my online research, it takes between 2 to 8 months of consistent practice to break a habit. Simple habits might take a couple of weeks whereas lifelong habits can take years to fully break. I am sure images pop up in your mind of hard-to-break habits you wrestled with throughout your life.

I often think of Susan B. Anthony and our foremothers when I think about how hard it was to change the minds of people to allow women the right to vote. Although voting wasn’t a habit, it was an established way of life that took centuries to change. Susan didn’t even get to vote in her lifetime, dying at the age of 86, thirteen years before women’s suffrage was passed.

Years ago, speaking at a Rochester event with a high-powered female entrepreneur in the room who was speaking after me, I shared my 3-decade plea for women to buy from, or hire, women first and foremost to change the financial present and future for females. I noticed the woman staring straight at me without blinking wondering what she was thinking.

When she approached the podium after I introduced her, she said, “Thank you, Tracy, for sharing your feminist buying message with us. In all the years I struggled in a male-dominated industry and becoming highly successful now, I never thought of placing my money in the hands of only female vendors or hiring them first.” She said to her assistant out loud, “Make sure we buy from female vendors from here on out.”

It is a moment that never left me because a woman with extraordinary buying power received the message and was going to act on it. I’ve seen other women over the years look blank when I suggest this buying philosophy and I also have seen women act on it and support it as a new habit. Will every woman, everywhere change their buying habits because of my personal mission? No, but that’s okay because change takes a while and hopefully with a domino effect of women sharing the philosophy, it will happen one day.

Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is intentionally meant to motivate you to buy from woman-owned businesses during this high shopping period of the year. Please earmark at least 51% of your purchasing budget to buy online or in-person gifts from woman-owned companies. Help me by living this mission and sharing it with others. Ask me if you need the names of women who have items you are looking for.

Some day when I meet Susan B. Anthony in heaven, I hope to explain to her that I saw a significant change in the way women purchase and hire other women before I died.

Remember – “The World Won’t Change for Women Unless Women Change the World for Women!” by Tracy Chamberlain Higginbotham