Dear female entrepreneur

Do you sometimes feel like you're pushing a tank up a mountain, striving for success in your business while also trying to be a ‘normal’ person, who, I don’t know—has a  basic self-care practice and at least a mediocre social life? I totally get it. It feels impossible. Plus the weight of expectation and the constant self-doubt is utterly exhausting... it's a familiar story for so many of us women entrepreneurs. 

I vividly remember the frustration, feeling like I was giving it my all but still not quite getting the results I saw so many others achieving. That all changed when I discovered the power of finding another woman to help me and I employed a women’s business coach.

The Unique Hurdles Women in Business Face

Let's be honest: the business world wasn't built with us in mind.  As women, we face a unique set of challenges, from ingrained societal expectations to systemic biases that can make it feel like we're constantly swimming against the tide. Imposter syndrome whispers in our ears, the struggle to balance family and work pulls us in a thousand directions, and online marketing is an uphill battle. 

Traditional gender roles often dictate that women shoulder primary caregiving responsibilities, creating an exhausting expectation to balance family and business demands seamlessly. This balancing act can limit advancement opportunities and reinforce the notion that business is not a woman's domain. You're not alone in any of this.

That's why having expert guidance, particularly from female business coaches, is crucial.

How a Female Business Coach Can Empower You

Imagine having an older sister in your corner, someone who believes in your vision even when you struggle to see it yourself. Business coaches provide the tools, strategies, and unwavering support you need to navigate the complexities of running a business so you no longer have to face it alone.

As I’m a business coach (hi, I’m Hannah!), you might not be too surprised to hear that I’m big on coaching. I enjoy being coached and I regularly employ other coaches to help me with whatever challenge I may be facing. However, I no longer work with male coaches.

Are there great male coaches out there? Of course, but I've never encountered one who truly understands my needs as a woman (I’ve tried quite a few!).

My kids have left home now, but I remember the days of being a single mum, juggling endless responsibilities while often feeling like I was failing. During those times, it was important to me that whoever sat opposite me on Zoom had some understanding of this and I enjoyed working most (and got the best results) with female coaches who understood those feelings and that dynamic.

Not all single parents are women, but I also needed someone who could understand and empathise with the unique experiences I faced that came with being a woman. I didn’t want to be judged for taking time off for menstrual issues, undergoing surgery for fibroids, or, more recently, navigating the challenges of perimenopause. 

It’s not that I want to spend my business coaching sessions discussing these things—I don’t. But I like my coach to have a direct understanding of the ecosystem of my life and my business.

To go further, when I choose a coach, I seek someone who truly understands the experience of being a middle-aged neurodivergent woman in a world where male violence is pervasive, the gender pay gap persists, chronic health conditions affecting women are at an all-time high and we exist in a patriarchal capitalist society which doesn’t benefit anyone.

Systemic biases manifest subtly and overtly, from challenges in securing funding—where women receive a fraction of venture capital compared to their male counterparts (even though firms with just 10% more female investing partners make more successful investments) —to being underestimated in male-dominated industries. 

Additionally, pervasive stereotypes question women's leadership abilities, resulting in less access to mentorship and networking opportunities. These barriers affect our confidence and constrain our ability to innovate and expand our businesses. 

Despite these challenges, if we persevere and leverage our resilience and creativity, we can redefine success on our own terms.

So I prioritise employing coaches who inherently understand my specific challenges and needs, and I recommend that you do the same.

Empathy and Understanding with Shared Experiences

Empathy is a powerful tool, one that can often be found in abundance when a woman employs a female business coach. Drawing from her own personal experiences, a female coach offers a level of understanding and relatability that’s transformative. By employing a female coach, women entrepreneurs can connect on a deeper level, feeling seen, heard, and validated. This shared perspective creates a safe space where we can openly discuss our vulnerabilities and receive mentorship that's strategic AND empathetic. This is why many women consider a female business coach as an essential partner in their entrepreneurial journey.

Role Models and the Power of Representation

Representation matters. Witnessing another woman excel in the world of business can be a source of immense inspiration and motivation. A female business coach serves not only as a guide but as a role model—a tangible example of what is possible. For aspiring women entrepreneurs, having a successful woman as a coach reinforces the belief that they too can achieve great heights. This dynamic fosters a positive cycle of empowerment and ambition. Coaches who embody the success their clients aspire to can significantly impact their clients' mindset, encouraging them to dream bigger and challenge existing limitations. 

Breaking Down Barriers through Collaborative Partnership

A feminist perspective embraces collaboration and collective progress. When women support women, barriers crumble. Employing a female business coach enables a partnership rooted in mutual empowerment and a shared commitment to advancing women's roles in business. Together, we challenge stereotypes, disrupt the status quo, and blaze new trails. A business coach for women is not just a mentor but a collaborator in breaking down systemic barriers and redefining success. By aligning with someone who inherently understands these objectives, we can strategically navigate our careers, making strides beyond individual success.

Specific Benefits of Hiring a Business Coach For Women

• Customised Strategy Development: A business coach can help tailor strategies that align with your specific goals and challenges, acknowledging the challenges you face as a woman, and providing a roadmap for your unique entrepreneurial journey.
• Enhanced Accountability: With regular check-ins, a business coach can hold you accountable for your progress, ensuring you stay on track and committed to your objectives, making sure you reach the goals which are important to you. If you struggle with what I call: Shiny Object Syndrome—having your head turned by the latest business strategy which leads to exhaustion and subpar results—I suggest reading this blog post about why we need to overcome it.
• Confidence Building: By offering constructive feedback and encouragement, a business coach can boost your self-confidence and help you overcome self-doubt and imposter syndrome so you can go out there into the business world, proud, with your head held high.
• Skill Enhancement: A business coach can provide valuable insights or specialist knowledge and training to refine and enhance your entrepreneurial skills, whether it’s in leadership, communication, or financial management.
• Networking Opportunities: A business coach can connect you with their network, opening doors to new partnerships, resources, and potential clients.
• Goal Setting: A business coach for women can help you set specific, realistic goals, that you can work towards in line with your lifestyle, and your vision for the future. 

Appropriate Support

Another key thing to consider before you employ a business coach for women is to make sure this coach has the specific expertise for your business. For example, in my role as a business coach, I work with service-based entrepreneurs. This is because I have extensive experience as a service-based entrepreneur myself so clients know I have the answers to their challenges. 

Serviced-based entrepreneurs include but are not limited to, coaches, therapists, healers, educators,  graphic designers, web designers, photographers, writers, copywriters, and illustrators. If you own a bricks-and-mortar business, or you sell physical products online, I wouldn’t be your first port of call. 

Business Coaching for Women Success Case Study

My client Jane is a web designer. She was a single mum working in the evenings while her daughter slept, allowing her to care for her before she was old enough to attend school. 

When Jane began business coaching with me, her confidence was at an all-time low after a difficult divorce, and her business was struggling to break even. Jane didn’t have enough clients, and the ones she had were not paying her enough for the fantastic work  she was doing. 

Together, we focused on rebuilding her confidence, enabling her to value her skills appropriately and charge rates that reflected their true worth. Her newfound confidence also helped her be more forward-facing in her business, creating videos and reels for Instagram and establishing herself as an authority in her niche, leading to lots of new opportunities. 

Sidenote: I don’t usually advocate using Instagram or TikTok to grow your business unless you already have an established and engaged following. Why? It’s too much hard work, and there are easier, more pleasurable, and less stressful ways to grow. 

One of Jane’s goals was to be featured in the national press. I used my experience as a qualified journalist to help her create a press release which was published in a national wellness magazine. This helped to build Jane’s authority in her niche, get more leads (and essentially more clients) and further improve her confidence. 

Nowadays, Jane has a client waitlist booked months in advance and charges a premium for her services. She has bought a larger home for herself and her daughter and employs a VA to help her with the tasks she can’t do or doesn’t want to do. You might find this post on accessing support helpful.

This is the power of working with a business coach for women - radically changing your business and your life.

How a Business Coach For Women Can Empower You

Let’s take a more detailed view of how a business coach for women can empower you to develop a clear business strategy.

Most female entrepreneurs who come to me for business coaching do not have clear or effective business strategies. This means that, among other things, they have no systems in place to attract new clients or new business, or the ones they have aren’t working properly. 

This is an incredibly insecure place to be in - not knowing when or where your next customers are coming from and, therefore, having no idea how much you will earn from month to month. 

What I see most is entrepreneurs trying all the things—throwing spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks— but nothing is working consistently. 

We’ve all been told to post continuously on social media to grow our audience or get new clients, but simply posting on social media (even multiple times a day) without a strategy in place to turn those followers into buyers of your services, will not bring you the rewards you’re hoping for and will lead to burnout, disillusion and continually feeling like a failure.

There are many ways to grow your business WITHOUT using social media.

Business strategies do not need to be complex; in fact, the simplest ones work best.

The key to building a successful business as a female entrepreneur is to focus on one marketing strategy and put all your time and energy into mastering that strategy and making sure it works for you.

Some examples of marketing strategies to attract new business.

• SEO 
• Blogging
• Email marketing
• Social media marketing
• Public speaking
• Paid ads
• Referrals
• Affiliates

A business coach for women can help you devise and plan a strategy so you know how to attract new clients. Imagine waking up in the morning and opening your email to see that you have new leads waiting to work with you. This is possible with the right strategies in place.

All of the above marketing strategies can work excellently; it’s about deciding which one suits you and your audience the most. A business coach for women can help you decide on this and then implement it in your daily operations.

Why Do Entrepreneurial Women Come To Business Coaching?

It’s usually because they’re facing one or all of three main challenges:

1. They’re overwhelmed, stuck in task paralysis and don’t know how to move forward costing them time and money.
2. They’re suffering with regular periods of burnout which not only makes them feel terrible, it takes them away from the business.
3. They’re struggling to get new clients leading to not enough revenue.

There are many ways a business coach for women can help with all of the above challenges. Every business coach will have a different approach and it’s important you understand what the approach is and see if it resonates with you before employing their coaching services. You’ll be able to find this on their website.

This is important. I once employed a business coach not realising that one of her key strategies to attract new clients was to cold DM women on Facebook (er no thank you!). This didn’t work out and it was a waste of both of our time and my money.

What’s Going So Wrong For Female Entrepreneurs Marketing Their Services? Why Is Nobody Biting? 

What I see most often, besides not having systems and/or strategies in place is that their messaging isn't strong enough. What this means is that their offer isn’t specific enough—who exactly does it serve? And, it’s not irresistible enough—it’s not meeting precisely what the clients want. 

The answer to finding out the answers to these questions is to conduct simple market research. This is something most small business owners don't do and don’t know how to do. A good women’s business coach can help you with this.

There are so many things a business coach can help you with, but these are the main things I tend to help my clients with.

• Simplify operations so it's easier and less stressful
• Put effective strategies/systems in place
• Get crystal clear with messaging and offers
• Offer regular support and accountability
• Building confidence and overcoming self-doubt and Imposter Syndrome. As a qualified life coach and psychotherapist (my first coaching business) I possess a wealth of effective strategies and techniques to empower women to confidently take decisive actions that will propel their businesses forward.

There Are Many Benefits To Employing A Business Coach For Women, So What Holds Us Back?

1. Cost: Hiring a one-on-one business coach might seem expensive for a small business, especially when we’re already struggling to earn consistent income. However, if we find and employ the right coach we’ll make this money back tenfold and more from working together so it’s a financial investment.
2. Time Commitment: Fear of significant time investment. It’s important to find out roughly how much time will be needed to complete the work needed to achieve our goals. 
3. Scepticism: It's natural to doubt the results of coaching, especially when promises sound too good to be true. Some years ago I paid a huge sum of money to go through a coaching program which was impossible to complete. This is why I don’t advocate for one-size-fits-all coaching. Every business and person is unique; what suits one might not fit another. A good coach will tailor strategies to each client's preferences rather than imposing their own. For example, while my methods have proven successful, they might not resonate with everyone. For instance, writing is my forte as a journalist and copywriter and it’s how I attract clients. But if long-form writing isn't your thing (as social media isn’t mine) we find other ways to proceed. There's always a way to attract new business that aligns with your passions and needs.
4. Self-Sufficiency: The belief in handling challenges solo is a common reason some of us might hesitate to hire a business coach. Many female entrepreneurs take pride in their independence and resilience. This used to be me! We may feel that seeking outside help undermines our autonomy and signifies a lack of capability. However, while independence is valuable, it's important to recognise that a fresh perspective and expert guidance can unlock new pathways to success. Much like a GPS aids in navigation, a business coach can offer insights and strategies that enhance, rather than diminish, an entrepreneur's self-driven journey. I wouldn't be successful without help from others.
5. Compatibility Worries: Concern over finding the right fit. This is HUGE. I advise you to thoroughly research your coach, check out testimonials and always have an actual conversation first. You need to check that your energy and values are aligned.

There’s often a pivotal moment when we decide to get help, usually when we’re at breaking point. It could be:

• When you don’t know how you’re going to pay your bills.
• When you’re too overwhelmed with new ideas and information you don’t know how to move forward. You are stuck in task paralysis with your business. (V Common)
• When your latest online marketing efforts which you were sure were going to be the golden ticket have failed.

But there doesn't need to be a breaking point. We can be proactive and start investing in ourselves and our business today.

Choosing the Right Coach: A Personal Journey

Finding the right business coach is essential and was a game changer for me. It felt like finding a missing piece of a complicated jigsaw. My coach understood the unique nuances of being a woman in business, and she challenged me to push beyond my comfort zone in ways I never thought possible, all the time supporting me so I felt safe. 

When searching for a business coach for women make sure she has a proven track record of success for her clients. Look for relevant experience, consider coaching style and personality fit, and always trust your gut as it’s rarely wrong. Testimonials and referrals can also provide valuable insights into success stories.

Beyond the Bottom Line: The Holistic Impact

The impact of business coaching extends far beyond the bottom line, although it’s highly probable your finances will increase. But it's about more than just profits and revenue; it's about personal development and growth, increased wellbeing, and a deeper sense of fulfilment in your daily life - finally getting to grips with that elusive life balance. A good coach helps you align your business with your values, creating a life that’s both successful and meaningful.  

Taking the Leap: Invest in Yourself

In a world that often feels tailored for others, carving out a space where you thrive as a female entrepreneur is empowering and transformative. Embracing the guidance of a female business coach can be a pivotal step in this journey.

Investing in tailored coaching is a commitment to yourself and your vision, ensuring that you not only succeed but feel fulfilled along the way. Remember, you are not alone on this path, and with the right support and strategies, you can create a life that's both prosperous and personally rewarding. Leap—you won’t look back.

Personal Expertise

I specialise in coaching neurodiverse women, which means that if you have ADHD or you’re autistic or both (AuDHD) I inherently understand the challenges you’re facing in your business - burnout, overwhelm and not enough money in the bank. 

If you don’t consider yourself neurodiverse but are introverted or highly sensitive, you will also resonate with my work. My business approach actually suits most women because my one-on-one business coaching focuses primarily on two things—more peace in your life (a more regulated nervous system) and more money in your bank. And which of us female entrepreneurs doesn’t want both of those things?