READING MATERIAL
The Centre for Conflict Resolution: Women and
Peace Building in Africa.' http://www.ccr.uctac.za/
fileadmin/template/ccr/pdf/VoL 9- WPA_ Report
Final Web-smalLpdl. 27 and 28 October 2005
The Office on the Status of Women: South Africa's
National Policy Framework tor Women's Empowerment
and Gender Equality', Dr Ellen Kornegay, http://www.
doh.gov.za/docs/policy/gender.pdt
USEFUL WEBSITES
• Top Women in Business & Government: www.businesswomenco.za
• Business Partners: www.businesspartners.co.za
• HBD Venture Capital: www.hbd.com
• Blue Catalyst: www.bluecatalyst.co.za
• Industrial Development Corporation: www.idc.co.za
• Umsobomvu Youth Fund: www.uyt.org.za
• Entrepreneurship: http://entrepreneur.co.za
• US website for the US version of Entrepreneur magazine: www.entrepreneur.com
• Gender Links: www.genderlinks.org.za
• Business Women's Association: www.bwasa.co.za
SELECTED GENDER EMPOWERMENT CONTACTS
Professor Cathi Albertyn: Director: Centre for
Applied Legal Studies www.law.witsac.za/cals
Joyce Seroke: Commission for Gender Equality www.cge.org.za
Debbie Budlender: Community Agency for Social Research bttpj/sangonet. org.za/portal
Bronwyn Harris: Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation www.csvr.org.za
Oelphine Serumaga: Executive Director: People Opposing Women Abuse (POWA)
www.powa.co.za
Colleen Lowe Morna: Executive Director: Gender Links www.genderlinks.org.za
Sally Jean Shackleton: Programme Manager: Women sNetsallys@womensnet.org.za
Busi Mkhabele (Assistant to the CEO): The Businesswomen's Association (BWA)
www.bwasa.co.za
Mmabatho Matiwane: SA Women Entrepreneurs Network (SAWEN)www.dti.gov.za/sawen
Fiona Tudor-Price: Chairperson: Women in Film and Television SA (WIFTSA) www.wittsa.org.za
Jane Bennet: African Gender Institute, UCT http://web.uct.ac.za/org/agi
Pumla Mncayi: Gender Advocacy Programme www.gender.co.za
Michelle 0 Sullivan: Women's Legal Centre www.wlce.co.za
African Gender Institute www.uct.ac.za/org/agi
Gender & Women's Studies for Africa's Transformation www.gwsafrica.org
OTHER
Cape Business News: www.cbn.co.za
Gauteng Economic Developmen! Agency: www.geda.co.za
Wesgro: Official Investment and Trade Promolion
Agency for the Western Cape: www.wesgro.org.za
Black Business Women's Association (BBWA) www.bbwa.co.za
National Empowerment Fund: www.netcorp.co.za
Umsobomvu Youth Fund: www.uyt.org.za
Whichfranchise.co.za: www.whichtranchise.co.za
Business Partners: www.businesspartners.co.za
Industrial Development Corporation: www.idc.co.za
Women's Legal Centre: www.wlce.co.za
Department of Labour: www.labour.gov.za
Nelson Mandela Foundation: www.gcis.gov.za
Malibongwe. www.malibongwe.org.za
Leading Women of Africa: www.leadingwomenolafrica.com
Women Development Serving Africa: www.toundation-development-alrica.org
Women's Net: www.womensnet.org.za
The Centre for Conflict Resolution: www.ccr.uct.ac.za
ACCREDITATION
• BEEOnline: www.beeonline.co.za
Honceiving, creating, starting and running your own business doing work that you love and is meaningful to you is one of life's great blessings. You can experience fulfilment, earn your income, grow into your potential, feel free, have a balanced lifestyle and make a difference in the lives of others. This alone seems too good to be true for many people, but it is possible. Yet it is a path that can be fraught with obstacles and too few women are able to bring their dreams to fruition. Becoming an inspired entrepreneur is about more than just making money; it is a way to become who you are. It isn't always easy following your heart because putting yourself out there opens you up to criticism and makes you acknowledge and confront your fears. But it also shows you how to harness your unique talents, skills and gifts, teaches you patience and persistence. When you follow your heart you become greater than you dreamed you could. So how do you discover what you'd most love to be doing, which is what I call the work you were born to do? In my experience, there are three major ways.
These are:
1. Through your sense of inspiration - it is what you'd most love to do, it is in your heart to do, and is what would most thrill and excite you. Each of us has the capacity to be inspired, but often we are not encouraged to follow or value our sense of inspiration.
2. Behind your greatest resistance - while some of the obstacles are external, many of them are internal, and are manifestations of what I call our inner resistance. Resistance is the inner force we all have, through which we delay, sabotage and undermine our dreams, doubt ourselves, talk ourselves out of our success and not let our lives be as good as they could be. We resist failure but very often we often resist success too. So many women find the work they'd love to do but by envisioning it, it can seem too wonderful, too exciting, too scary or significant.
3. In your shadow life your shadow life is your unlived life, what you have disowned in yourself. You may not consider yourself particularly talented, creative, intelligent or able to be successful. Many women feel embarrassed about acknowledging their own strengths or talents, or believing in their own self worth.
WHAT YOUR BUSINESS COULD LOOK LIKE - THE FOUR MAJOR TYPES OF BUSINESS
What different areas of businesses are there? Below are four major types of business that our ideas could give rise to:
1. The creation and manufacture of physical products You might decide to create products that you love, such as jewellery or other art. Obviously these items will need to be sold and marketed in shops, at exhibitions, one-to-one, or via the Internet or mail order. You might wish to do the marketing yourself or get someone else to do it for you.
2. Personal services This is when you perform a service on someone else's behalf that they could do themselves but would rather not do, such as decorating, cleaning or gardening. Alternatively, you provide a service in which you offer specialist knowledge or special skills, such as in the areas of coaching, massage, healing, consulting, plumbing, building, public relations, marketing and selling, etc.
3. Information You package and share your wisdom, ideas, experiences, knowledge and expertise with people who can benefit from it. You can make this a live exchange by giving talks, workshops, tele-seminars and courses, or you can achieve it via the creation of products. The products can be physical items such as books, articles and CDs. or digital products such as e-books and MP3s You may
also package other people's knowledge
4. Renting, leasing or becoming a land lord This is when you own something and let other people have use of it in return forincome, such as dress hire, car hire, a
house or flat, or the props used on film sets, or any possession that others may
want to use. So those are the types of businesses that you can start, but the journey to creating your own business is partly practical, but is also a personal growth
journey in which you discover more about yourself, your potential and possibility
This can involve you growing in skills, confidence, growing in emotional maturity by engaging with your fears and even growing spiritually. Below are the seven major obstacles I find women encounter on their journey to entrepreneurial success:
1. You have too few entrepreneurial heroes and heroines that you can aspire to be like. You may not want to start a massive business and employ people, you may just want to work on your own and associate with others. Find role models that appeal to you and that you can learn from and even be mentored or supported by.
2. You are afraid to be a pioneer in your work or life and afraid to fail at something you've never done before. As an adult, you may find it hard to contemplate "starting again" and building something new up, and find it hard to be a beginner. But you'll need to start afresh and your new business may be an evolution of all you've learned so far, so nothing you have invested will be wasted.
3. You don't believe you can - or should - make money from doing what you love while enjoying yourself and contributing to others. You may have a belief that if you love your work, you should do it for nothing. This has its roots in the work ethic that says you should only be paid for what you don't enjoy, what feels bad and involves
some pain and suffering. Recognise but move past any guilt that you have about
receiving money for what you would naturally do and comes easily to you.
4. You have great ideas but don't know how to bring them to fruition. If you have only known family, friends and colleagues who are employed, then you may simply not know how to develop your entrepreneurial ideas into tangible products or services that people could pay you for. Get some advice or coaching from other entrepreneurs or mentors who can teach you how to turn your ideas into income,
your passions into profits.
5. You haven't yet fully understood the power of baby steps and incremental growth You may want a fully fledged and functioning business, but need to remember that you start your business with your first product or service, and then your first client. Start small and grow, because as you grow you'll develop your skills, understanding, confidence and abilities.
6. You have been exposed to too many naysayers and dream-bashers who have scared you and given you incorrect advice and erroneous opinions that you shouldn't be listening to. Sadly, sometimes these are people you respect and even love, and are close to you. You must develop a filtering system by which you decide which advice and opinions you should pay attention to. Adopt this mantra: consider the source. Is this someone doing what they love and being entrepreneurial? If it is then listen and discern, if it is someone who has only ever been employed, then perhaps their advice is not so valid.
7. Spending too much time and energy worrying about or trying to solve problems you don't have yet. So often you try and figure out what you will do if certain things happen to you. While it is wonderful and useful to plan ahead, it can also deplete your power to act now. So often I find people are reluctant to act in the present because of fear of problems that may occur in the future, like, "What will happen if I start doing this and then I getbored or outgrow it in three years?"Focus your energies on solving the problems that are in front of you right now, know that if and when other problems arise, you can handle them at the time.
The seven steps to moving from being an employee to an inspired entrepreneur
I am a great advocate of taking baby steps and breaking through fear on small
ways, building skills and confidence a step at a time, and failing and learning a step at a time. You can do this in evenings and weekend while still employed so as to
make it less pressurised financially.
These are the steps 1 recommend you follow:
1. Develop the mindset of an inspired entrepreneur
2. Design your entrepreneurial lifestyle
3. Develop your offering
4. Generate your first sale
5. Build your support network
6. Launch and grow
7. Plan your transition into your business
1. Developing the mindset of an inspired entrepreneur Inspired entrepreneurs do something they love, but are always curious about how I they can serve other people with what I they love doing, so are always seeking I or creating opportunity. They initiate, they
2. Design your entrepreneurial lifestyle You design and create balance in your life and want to be whole rather than fragmented, so your business will allow you time for family, friends, community, hobbies, holidays and time for refreshment and renewal.
3. Developing your offering Take your big idea and then think about the first small way you can take the idea and give it form. What is the quickest, easiest, low risk way that it can become a deliverable product or service? Then create that product or service, and if necessary, find your first non-paying client.
4. Generating your first sale Finding your first paying client, who is not a family member or friend, is the birth of your business and is massively significant, so take the step to ask for money for the first time rather than receiving a salary. This is often a big step through your fear and worries about rejection
5. Building your support network Just as you need to avoid your naysayers and dream-bashers, you also need support and encouragement for your inspired dreams, skills and who you are and what you are capable of.
6. Launch and grow Once you have your first happy client you are in business, and then your job is to create ways to regularly get yourself seen and known so that you can attract more clients.
7. Plan your transition Once you have a regular flow of clients you can confidently start investing less in your day job and more in your own business because you have some strong foundations. Then you can drop hours and focus more on your own business. These steps will enable you to conceive and create theinspired business of your dreams.
Resource box:
If you are not yet sure about the work you were born to uo, ana want more information about becoming an inspired entrepreneur, you can download
your free copy of a nine part programme at: www.inspired-entrupeneur.com