Women Entrepreneurs here's what you need to know before you start your own business

An entrepreneurial journey for a woman is full of many decisions and challenges, almost a new one every day. We have to be prepared to continually strive for progressing forward to learn new ways and means of doing things. It is important that we keep our knowledge enriched for it will help us gain the required know-how to become an expert in our domain. With such expertise we would ultimately be able to grow our startup into a full-fledged business. However, it is not necessary that we may know what to do always. While starting out, we must not be afraid to ask for help and seek guidance from our mentors and friends or acquaintances as and when we require. Here are a few things our aspiring woman entrepreneurs must know to lead a business successfully:

1.      Set long-term and short-term goals: Entrepreneurship is a path to continually challenge ourselves to set newer targets and goals and work to achieve them in due time. It is important that we establish relevant specified goals that can be attained in a suitable time frame and measured to keep our focus on actual growth of the business. Women entrepreneurs must set the short-term business goals such that they ultimately help reach the long-term goals in an effective manner. Realizing these goals will serve as an impetus for the long-term results that we aim to achieve. Once we are clear and have set out all our targets, we must share those with our team and give them a unified direction to work in to win with their support.

2.      Prioritize organization and its finances: When starting our business on limited resources, we may initially be engaged in managing finances ourselves. However, once we set our business plan in place it is imperative that we reach out to utilize professional accounting services and hire a capable resource to record all financial information and manage that for the company on our behalf. This would not only help women run the business better but also allow the opportunity to maintain focus on growing the business at the front-end. While preparing the financial plan we must ensure not to put all our savings into it and devise the financial strategy in detail, such that we are able to not only earn money but also make the money work for us in future.

3.       Establish sources for funding: Another question invariably runs in the mind of every women looking to start a business is where the money for funding the business would come from? We must know that there are several avenues that can be utilized to meet our funding requirements to initiate a business. We have angel investors who are looking for credible businesses and the team behind it to put in seed funding for returns. In addition to these we can consider

 crowd funding, tie-ups with corporates or taking loans from government banks offering schemes like Mahila Vikas Yojna, Stree Shakti and many more.

4. Ensure transparency:  Often overlooked, although it is important for women business owners to ensure that when starting a new venture they maintain transparency through the accounting books and organizational processes to govern the firm effectively. Being transparent implies ensuring that we are making the required declarations in terms of filing our taxes, how much money is being spent and where and what returns is the company actually making. Building a transparency culture is vital and is best established at the onset of the business to ensure a healthy growth. Nevertheless, a successful woman entrepreneur must be passionate about her idea to grow it into a successful venture. It is important that we engage in networking, PR activities, obtain feedback from time to time and build a team of like-minded individuals to support us in realizing our dreams.