10 Reasons Being a Female Business Owner Rocks

More than simply being your own boss, female entrepreneurship rocks for some less-than-obvious reasons.

If you’ve ever considered venturing out on your own, here are ten of the best reasons to start now.

1. The World is Your Office

Thanks to the internet, entrepreneurs are no longer tied to a corner office or the confines of a specific address. Want to travel the world? Your laptop is all you need.

Technology has turned business into a wherever, whenever opportunity. The entrepreneur who takes advantage of that can have an office with whatever view they desire. Ellie Badanes developed The Pajama Company while living abroad. Not only was the international living situation perfect for her family, she got to lounge around in pajamas all day, for “research” purposes, of course!

2. Balance is in Your Control

Finding a balance between working full-time and caring for children and household duties can be a stressor for both men and women. Typically, women are more likely to feel the burden of family responsibilities, and worry about managing both successfully.

Related Article: 8 Traits of Resilient Female Leaders

As a female entrepreneur, the ability to keep a healthy balance by setting your own hours and work schedule allows you the opportunity to keep that balance in check.

3. Your Work has Meaning

Interestingly, both men and women are equally concerned about being at the top of their field. The next in importance for women? Meaningful work.

Women have a strong desire to find work that has purpose and is personally satisfying. Starting your own company allows you to work in a field that you feel passionate about. You have the ability to engage with other companies that hold the same values and priorities, make decisions based on your ethics, and be active within your community.

4. Learning Opportunities Abound

As an entrepreneur, you wear many hats. Without a clearly defined corporate role, the entrepreneur is constantly learning and making decisions that impact the business.

Entrepreneurship allows for flexibility and creativity, while engaging your whole brain in the process of learning how to run a successful business. An ever-changing list of tasks keeps work interesting and engaging.

For example, Monica Eaton-Cardone’s career journey took a surprising turn when she became a self-taught expert on chargeback management. Her newfound expertise enabled her to open a highly specialized business; now she serves as COO of that company!

5. Increased Access to Working Capital

Women-owned businesses are the fastest growing segment of business today. While women in the past had a difficult time establishing credibility and much needed capital, banks and other financiers are recognizing the potential women-owned businesses offer.

With lending initiatives, special financing programs, and organizations designed to help level the playing field, the opportunities to borrow the necessary funds to start a business are easier to find.

6. Minority Women are Leading the Way

Within the sector of women-owned endeavors, minority women are starting businesses in record numbers.

Citing a list of reasons that include income-disparity, lack of promotion, and policies that are less than family-friendly, minorities are leaving the corporate workforce and venturing out on their own. In addition, they are hiring other minorities, something that not even male-owned small businesses have done a high percentage of.

7. Your Income Potential Sky-Rockets

Women business owners are quietly amassing wealth at a faster rate than working women.

The household income of women business owners is 56 percent higher than that of full-time working women. As an added bonus, they work fewer hours than their male counterparts.

With the ability to control your own working hours, rates and work-load, you have direct control over your income potential.

8. Business Tools are Easier to Use

DIY is not just for home improvement projects. The abundance of user-friendly tools make designing a website, creating business cards, tracking job progress and other tasks easier, cheaper and more convenient than ever before.

It’s no longer necessary to hire an expert designer; professional-looking business components are easy to come by, making the jump from ‘employee’ to ‘owner’ easier to navigate.

Cat LeBlanc, a business strategist and venture catalyst, points out that these new tools and technologies are impacting female entrepreneurs in less-conventional ways too. “In the same way that traditional corporations have been ‘old boys’ clubs,’ women are making their own new girls’ clubs online to support one another in business.”

9. Glass Ceilings Disappear

The much heralded ‘glass ceiling’ becomes a non-issue when you take control of your own company. In a true sense, there is no ceiling to break through and no set of policies or standards that can prevent you from accomplishing everything you set out to do.

By creating your own opportunities, there is no barrier to stop you from growing your company.

10. You get bragging rights

In the “So, what do you do?” conversation, there is something fulfilling about answering, “I own my own company.”

It takes a certain amount of bravery and initiative to step into the unknown, and people respect that type of courage. Not only does it cause you to ‘stand a bit straighter,’ it gives people a newfound sense of respect for what you do.

Today’s marketplace is a wide open arena for entrepreneurs, and the opportunities for women-owned businesses have never been greater.

For today’s female business owner, it is possible to not only have your cake, but eat it too…and then incorporate, patent the idea, build a website and start shipping your cake all over the world for others to enjoy as well.

Author: Jessica Adams is a business and leadership expert. She writes for her own blog, The Leadership Notebook, and contributes to Parenting Squad. You can find her on Twitter.