Lean In

How to unlock the potential of women entrepreneurs

Author Sheryl Sandberg

Publisher W H Allen

Price: 499

Pages: 232

A recent survey reveals that even though India has a higher percentage of entrepreneurs than most developed economies, the percentage of women entrepreneurs is lower than the global average. Women entrepreneurship thus holds tremendous unlock potential for new enterprises in India. But what is holding women back?

The chief operating officer of Facebook, Sheryl Sandberg, has followed up her 2010 Ted Talk on “Why we have too few women leaders” with a book that explores this question in greater depth. This book is a must read for both men and women. Some truths are difficult for men to understand as they live in a different world from that inhabited by women. For many women, the extent to which the world of men has been accepted as the norm, places on them success criteria that is not only difficult to achieve, but the very achievement is also a form of discredit. Sheryl talks about how success and likeability go hand in hand for men, but in the case of women more often than not success leads to dislike.

While acknowledging the great progress made for women’s equality, Sheryl goes through statistics and examples to show how much more needs to be done across the globe. Drawing examples from her own life and from the lives of other women, Sheryl shares the challenges that women face in the world of business and simultaneously talks about strategies that can help overcome them.

The title of the book Lean In is a message to women to work against the characteristic response to “hold back” that they have been conditioned by society to have, and to actually lean in and make themselves counted in all situations. While most of the advice is relevant for men and women, the crucial issues of childcare is dealt with forthrightly.  Sheryl urges women to creatively explore possibilities of combining the responsibilities of raising a family with running a challenging business assignment. The book has received a negative response from many people who see Sheryl’s “solutions” as simplistic and placing too much of the onus to change on individual women. But as a book, Lean In has succeeded even if its only achievement is starting a conversation on the issue of how to unlock the true potential of women.

In India we are blessed with relatively inexpensive childcare services, but women still need to make their “Partner and Real Partner.” The saying is true across both sexes – behind every successful person is a supportive partner!

Team Small Medium Entrepreneur

Getting Investment.

The investment route to acquiring funds is a challenging route for a start-up. As investments are against equity rather than on collateral, the investors would be sharing the risk. Hence, the investor would be as interested in you as an entrepreneur, your vision and your commitment to the enterprise as he would in the assets you have created.

If you have a sufficiently innovative idea, you may approach angel investors who would help you at the starting stage. A commendable business plan too can help you arrange alliances and therefore obtain financing from them. Like bootstrapping and getting a bank loan, obtaining funds via investors has its share of challenges. In this day and age, having high-profile investors can give you new business credibility and contacts, which can help make your business a success. Though success cannot be guaranteed, it can provide you with a source of financing that can easily help make a more rapid growth.

You usually have to give up a large percentage of equity ownership in exchange of venture capital funding. This gives them a huge say in your business, which could put you under great scrutiny in your duties and earnings. When accepting this way of funding, you also have to agree to certain restrictions with the investors on things such as how you will pay yourself, how involved you will be in other operations and how much equity you will have to give up to your investors.

But more than the current assets, the investor would base the investment decision on the potentially inherent in your business to grow dramatically in the near future.

Growth Potential of your enterprise is measured in terms of your own commitment to your business, as you are the most important aspect of it. Investors will then determine the value of the concept, the potentiality of the market and your financial projections. The crucial aspects over which the final decision rests is the intangible value you have created in your business in terms of the brand, the goodwill with customers and the processes and systems put in place that deliver satisfaction to customers.

Your commitment to your enterprise will be viewed in terms of how much of your personal assets have been invested and whether you are dedicating all your professional time and attention to the business. The originality of the concept and the difficulty to replicate it will enhance investment prospects as it keeps you ahead of the competition. The size of the market is important to see if the growth plans would be supported by availability of targeted customers. These factors being default, investors will be keen to review the extent to which you have been able to build success in your business.

Write in to us for your views and opinions. Best of luck, Quitters!

Quit Your Job.

The start of the year is the time when you should look back and contemplate about what lies ahead. Everyone feels bored of monotonous work, to carry out the same set of activities at work robot-like. And then the deadly Monday stories. It strikes back after every six days, and the story continues. Suddenly, Monday seems to be a rut we cannot get out of, and the cycle continues from one Monday to another. Sitting in our offices, we have all logged on to sites such as naukri.com or Linked In to weigh other options as well.

The nagging thought of whether or not you should quit your job can be emotionally exhausting. You can expect a plethora of advice from your colleagues, friends and family, and even HR professionals on the subject. Some would warn you of its implications on your resume, while others would simply suggest you against sticking too long to one company. However, experts do suggest that for any young worker the ideal time is about 2-3 years, but an experienced professional is expected to stick to his/her job for a little more than four years.

Not sure whether to follow the urge to quit your job? These reasons will help you make the right decision. Read on:

You Always Seem to be Unhappy: If you feel anxious about going to office and working, it is a good enough sign that you should move on. Happiness (or the lack of it, in this case) is a suitable ground to look for greener pastures.

Your Health is Getting Affected: When work-related stress gets in way of your physical (and emotional) well-being and health, it sure can tempt you to quit your job. After all, emotional and physical well-being or safety is one of the better reasons behind staying put in a job.

Ethical Issues: When your ethics and morals do not coincide with your company’s way of operating, the time is ripe for you to look beyond.

Pay-off Not Good: You are working doubly hard and spending longer hours at your office. Your scope of work has increased as you have proved to be a good worker, but has your salary shown a rise? If not, it is time to move on. We work just rewards. If your pay-off is not good enough, it is time to take off.

After the realisation dawns upon you and you have decided to move on, take some time to reflect and list your expectations before finding your next job. Continuing with the same career field or exploring other options could be one of the questions to ponder over, too. Whatever the case, do not let your emotions take the better of you, rather be rational and pragmatic while taking the final decision. The options that lay before you are:

A new job in the same career-field as yours;
A new job in a different career-field;
A business of your own.

Quit your job! Explore All Options.