By: Kelly Fidel ENTREPRENEUR LEADERSHIP NETWORK CONTRIBUTOR
CEO of No Glass Ceiling, Inc
August 13, 2020 7 min read
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
When Dane Stangler, Vice President of the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation (Kauffman Foundation) said, “Entrepreneurship drives economic growth, propels job creation and creates opportunities for upward economic mobility,” he wasn’t just talking about the best of times. This statement is not entirely correct since there are plenty of other things to consider, such as the difficulties facing entrepreneurs and their journey.
Being an entrepreneur is a wild ride and one of the most incredible experiences, despite the roller-coaster ups and downs and unknown turns around the corner.
Free On-Demand Webinar: Making History as the NBA’s First Black Female CEO
As a woman-owned business, the new decade kicked off with hope and renewed energy, but if you’ve struggled to grow or scale your business, it’s time to look at the root cause. Let’s explore why women are a force to be reckoned with and what is working now for entrepreneurs to achieve the greatest success during the new decade that is long overdue for many women who run businesses. It is time to ensure that you are setting your business up for the best chance of success!
The kind of work that translates to success
All too often, women entrepreneurs worked hard; they might be doing the right things in the wrong order. And what used to work in the marketplace doesn’t work anymore because it’s the same old thing. Have you noticed, some entrepreneurs achieve far greater success than other women business owners?
Great people have worked smart and simplified their growth, running a business that has achieved success with profit, dream clients and a lifestyle with total freedom.
Unfortunately, other entrepreneurs are still trading time for money and spinning their wheels — frustrated, wondering why they aren’t further ahead by now — stuck in the weeds of day to day tasks that seem never-ending. Generally, the only difference between highly successful entrepreneurs and those that continuously struggle and second-guess themselves is simply the business model they’ve chosen.
One selected the old-school or traditional way to do business. The harder road to growth, not knowing how to scale in the right direction. In contrast, the powerhouse woman entrepreneur takes the road less traveled. The path people never take. And that’s where the results can accelerate.
Related: Oprah Sending 500 Copies of Isabel Wilkerson’s Book ‘Caste’ to Hundreds of CEOs and Leaders
Most entrepreneurs don’t know they’re missing out on the $325 billion growth industry with a vast untapped opportunity sitting right in plain view. Everyone has a Zone of Genius, that unique expertise each person has. It is that thing that comes so naturally and provides instant value to the marketplace, and other people say, “Whoa, how did you do that?”
There are three enormous opportunities for women entrepreneurs who want to grow their business and monetize their unique skill set and expertise through coaching, consulting or professional services.
Here are some entrepreneurial trends and statistics:
- Coaching is a $12.7 billion global industry that’s growing by 3 percent a year. Nearly 50 percent of small businesses say they plan to invest in online training in the future. (Goldman Sachs)
- The e-learning market is expected to reach $325 billion by 2025 up from $160 billion in 2017 (eLearning Industry)
- The global online learning market size was $171 billion in 2019 and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 10.85 percent during 2019 – 2025. (PR Newswire)
- Consulting is a more than $251 billion industry in the U.S. alone and is on pace to keep growing steadily through 2025 (IBIS World)
Regardless of any ups and downs on Wall Street, one thing is clear. The online business market is booming for entrepreneurs, self-employed experts and small businesses. So we can agree there’s no shortage of opportunity.
But the real question is, will all that opportunity translate into more revenue, more security and more impact for entrepreneurs? So here is the excellent news: Women control over $20 trillion in worldwide spending. (Source: Muhtar Kent, Chairman of the Board and CEO, The Coca-Cola Company, October 2010)
And the crazy part is the purchasing power of women in the U.S. ranges from $5 trillion to $15 trillion annually. (Source: Nielsen Consumer, 2013). If you want to monetize all those years of expertise and have the time freedom well deserved, then the time is now. The world of entrepreneurship has changed.
Related: How This Female Founder Never Lost Herself When Starting a Successful Business
The online e-learning industry is just one of many ways everyday business owners turn their hard-earned knowledge and expertise into a highly respected, successful business.
Here are some more benefits around selling information, coaching, consulting or professional services online.
- The net worth of women ages 50 and older is $19 trillion. They own more than three-quarters of the U.S. financial wealth. (MassMutual Financial Group)
- Women make 85 percent of all online buying decisions in the U.S. (Girlpower Marketing)
The power of women in business and this potential opportunity to harness the wave in the e-learning industry is massive and continues to grow. People are looking for your expertise; they can look it up on search engines, but sorting through billions of data is overwhelming.
The best part is that you don’t need to have everything figured out. The focus was not purely for online courses; it also will apply to these five key areas as an option:
- Design and delivery of higher-impact learning experiences
- Creation of learning experiences that blend online elements with face-to-face elements
- Micro-learning opportunities
- Creation of social, informal or peer-to-peer learning experiences
- Providing a personalized learning experience
One of the best ways to leverage time and resources to scale a business is by putting something together that can be sold online. Creating a company that is leveraged and doesn’t rely on the old model of trading time for money.
Women leaders who understand leverage
The golden ticket is in the power of leverage, and the smartest women in business understand the power of leverage with the right business model. The power of doing something one time and having it be sustainable to last for a long time.
Imagine creating courses, training, seminars and presentations that can be sold over and over, automated, without being there like a 24/7 workhorse.
A real powerhouse entrepreneur knows that creating a scalable and sustainable business requires the right model, the right mentor and the right system to sell with smart automation automatically.
Otherwise, it’s like working old-school to continually reproduce the repetitive products and services needed to offer to clients each day. Beware of the false prophet in business leading to total burn out and ultimately failure by grinding away and working harder.
Scaling a smart business doesn’t have to mean working more — but it does require work and a complete system of business training to grow your business and live your dream lifestyle.
Overwhelm and exhaustion are virtually eliminated when moving away from a done-for-you traditional business model into a sustainable, scalable business with total freedom.
And now, businesses generate 10x more profit and can serve far more people than with the old business model. All it takes is a simple shift in the business model.
Now is the time to grow and scale your business with a smart, automated selling model so you can experience simplified business growth made easy!