An economic downturn may seem like the wrong time to start your own business, but layoffs and downsizing can create new opportunities for one breed of entrepreneur – the corporate consultant. Companies who lay off full-time workers still have many needs for specific skills, and frequently hire consultants on a short-term or project basis to fill these gaps. If you’ve been laid off yourself, working as a consultant can allow you to earn a good income while salaried jobs are scarce.

Working as a consultant can have many benefits. You may be able to earn more per hour than you did as an employee, or work mostly from home. You’ll have more independence, increased flexibility, and the possibility of more time with your family. If you’ve lost your job, consulting will keep you current in your field, provide you with useful contacts, and fill the hole in your resume if you pursue another salaried position in the future. A consulting contract may even turn into an offer for a full-time job, once an employer gets to know what you can do.

But not everyone is cut out to be a consultant. You’ll need to be a self-starter, able to work without a boss looking over your shoulder, and manage your time efficiently. You’ll have to learn and employ sales and marketing skills in order to land consulting contracts. And you will also need to present yourself to prospective clients as a skilled professional with a defined specialty, as opposed to just someone who needs a job.

How Consultants Work

As a consultant, your job will be to provide analysis and advice, expert guidance, and/or an extra pair of hands to your business clients. Corporate clients hire consultants by the hour, the day, or the project to help them solve problems, complete essential projects, or handle day-to-day responsibilities, such as when an important position is vacant.

Some consultants work at the highest levels of the company, analyzing a problem or situation and advising management on how to resolve it. Others work at the mid-management level, overseeing projects, implementing new initiatives, and advising internal staff. Consultants also work as specialists rather than advisors, executing projects and completing tasks in specialty areas such as information technology, marketing, or accounting.

In some situations, consultants work similarly to employees. They travel to the client’s site on a daily basis and get paid by the hour or day while they are there. Other consultants work at home or virtually, seeing their clients in person only rarely. Consultants who work off-site sometimes get paid by the project or result they produce instead of for the hours they put in.

While the roles that consultants can play and the nature of consulting contracts can vary widely, to be successful at landing clients, you’ll need to make some choices about what type of consultant you plan to be. New consultants often make the mistake of approaching prospective clients as generalists who can work in many different capacities. But clients prefer to hire people who specialize in providing the specific type of help they are looking for.

Defining Your Consulting Niche

Before you hang out your shingle, make an honest assessment of your professional skills and experience. What level and type of consulting assignments does your background qualify you for? Consider also what types of work you both enjoy and can do well. You’ll be much more convincing to prospective clients if you are enthusiastic about your specialty and can tell success stories about projects you have completed for your employers in the past.

The most successful consultants have a clearly defined market niche. This means that they have identified both a professional specialty and a target market. Your professional specialty is the specific area of expertise you plan to offer your clients – technical writing, for example. Your target market is the industry or field you plan to concentrate on – for example, health care. Your market niche is then the combination of the two – in this example, technical writing in the health care field.

Defining a market niche enables you to target the kind of clients you are most interested in working for, and allows you to position yourself as an attractive solution to their needs. Without a niche, marketing yourself as a consultant can be extremely challenging. You will find yourself pulled in far too many different directions, pursuing numerous unrelated leads and opportunities. And when you speak to a prospective client, it will be much harder to convince them you are the right person for their job.

Getting Started as a Consultant

Once you have chosen a consulting niche, begin by creating your business identity and some marketing collateral. You’ll need a business card and a marketing kit, and you may want to consider creating a website.

Your business card can be one of the most important marketing tools you’ll have. Make sure that your card includes a few words about your market niche or capabilities in addition to your contact information. You don’t necessarily need a business name or a job title, although some consultants like to position themselves as “president” or “principal” of their own consulting firm. If you’re a one-person shop, using just your name on your business card is fine.

In addition to business cards, you’ll need a marketing kit. Most consultants use a folder with inserted pages rather than a pre-printed brochure. This allows you to be flexible about what you include in your kit, and also to get started with very little expense. You can purchase folders at an office supply store and print the inserted pages on your home computer.

A typical marketing kit includes a professional bio or resume, a description of your services or capabilities, examples of the benefits or results you provide to your clients, and testimonials or endorsements from people familiar with your work. You might also include an article you have written, a fact sheet about your specialty, or a case study of a successful project.

If you are planning to enter the consulting field permanently, you’ll definitely want to create a website. But even if you believe you will only be consulting for a short while, you may wish to build a simple site. Having a description of your expertise available on the web will build your credibility with prospective clients and make you appear more professional. It will also allow you to take advantage of opportunities to spread the word about your availability online.

Deciding What to Charge

With your marketing collateral in hand, you’re almost ready to start seeking out potential clients. But first, figure out how much you need to charge. In most cases, clients will ask you to set your own price rather than offering you a pre-determined amount. Keep in mind that your consulting rates must pay not only for your time, but your overhead expenses, marketing costs, and more.

In addition to covering your business expenses, your fees should be high enough to cover the benefits you received as an employee which you will now have to pay for on your own. These might include health, disability, and life insurance coverage, a retirement plan, sick leave, vacation time, and one-half of your Social Security payments.

Also, don’t set your fees expecting to bill 40 hours per week. Over the course of a year, most corporate consultants bill an average of only 20 to 25 hours per week. You may be working for your clients only part-time, or have gaps between full-time contracts.

Once you know how much you need to charge to cover expenses and earn a comfortable living, compare your rates to what others in your niche and geographic area are charging. Surf the web looking for posted fees, or ask your professional association. Even if your financial needs are low, you shouldn’t charge significantly less than the competition.

If You’re Still Employed

If you still have a job, the most practical thing you can do before becoming unemployed is to line up your first client in advance. Failing that, set up your business as completely as possible before you leave. Buy business cards, develop a website and marketing kit, and buy or upgrade needed computer equipment or other tools of your trade.

If you are leaving your job with your first contract in hand, you should have three months living expenses put aside. If you don’t yet have a client, your emergency fund should hold enough for six months. Apply for all the credit you think you might need while you are still employed. If you’ve been thinking about refinancing your home, do it now. Investigate your health insurance options before leaving, too.

Marketing Your Consulting Business

When you’re first getting started, begin by telling everyone you know about your new business. Go through your address book and holiday card list. Review the rosters of associations you belong to and directories of companies where you’ve worked. Send a card, email, or note to these contacts letting them know what you’re doing now, and follow up with a phone call. Ask your existing associates to refer you to potential clients, prospective companies, and other useful contacts to expand your network.

Remember to emphasize your defined market niche in these conversations. Don’t make the mistake of saying, “I can do anything in the area of…” Maybe you can, but clients will want to know what you do best.

For a one-person consulting business, spending money on magazine, newspaper, or directory advertising, or on mass mailings, is almost always a mistake. You don’t have the budget to sustain an effective advertising campaign, so leave that to the big consulting firms. The best ways for independent consultants to get business are usually personal referrals, networking at live events and on the web, speaking to professional groups, and publishing articles about your specialty.

Look around your local area for events you can attend to meet potential clients and make new contacts in your field. Seek out meetings of professional and trade associations for your specialty or industry, business mixers sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce, networking groups designed for professionals to meet each other, and lead exchange clubs such as Business Network International or LeTip.

When attending meetings like these, don’t try to sell yourself on the spot to everyone you talk to. Instead, make it your goal to meet people, have brief conversations on a topic you have in common, and collect their business cards. Then follow up the next day with anyone who seems like a useful contact in your search for clients.

The same events you might attend to meet people can also be good places for you to speak. Public speaking is an extremely effective form of marketing for many consultants, because it allows you to visibly demonstrate your expertise. Many association meetings and networking groups are always looking for speakers who can share useful information with their members, so it can be easier than you might think to get yourself booked as a presenter.

Will You Ever Go Back?

You may find that you enjoy consulting so much that you wouldn’t ever consider becoming an employee again. If you develop your sales and marketing skills enough to create a steady stream of clients, you may even decide to expand your one-person business into a consulting firm, hiring or subcontracting work to other professionals.

On the other hand, you may grow tired of always needing to sell yourself and managing a fluctuating income. Many consultants also suffer from feelings of isolation, or find themselves procrastinating endlessly. The prescription for these self-employment ills is to build some structure and support into your new lifestyle. Stick to a regular work schedule. Set goals and deadlines for yourself, and use a coach, mentor, or mastermind group to help you see things through.

Most importantly, try to spend time with other self-employed people to share ideas, experience, successes, and challenges. No one will understand what you’re going through like someone who has been there.

Sidebar: Success Tips for Consultants in an Economic Downturn

1. Network, network, network. When the market is tight, networking can save the day. The more people you talk to, the more likely you are to hear about an opening before someone else grabs it.

2. Seek out repeat business. It may be easier to get more business from existing clients who trust you than to convince new clients to take a risk. Watch for opportunities to propose new projects to the clients already in your stable.

3. Tell clients how you can save them money – or help them make it. Could your consulting services have the impact of reducing clients’ expenses in the long run, or of helping them increase sales? Now is the time to emphasize those possibilities in all your marketing efforts.

Copyright © 2008, C.J. Hayden. All rights reserved.

This article was first published in the August 2008 issue of Home Business Magazine, and has not been reprinted elsewhere. If you would like to reprint it in your publication, please contact me for details and permission.

The dictionary defines the verb “prospect,” as “to search or explore (a region), as for gold.” When you prospect for clients, you are exploring your region – whether you define that as your town or your market niche – to locate the gold that may be buried right under your nose. It’s a good bet that there are prospective clients all around you. You just need to identify them and get in touch.

Launching a prospecting campaign can produce several useful results beyond the obvious one that it may result in landing new clients. Prospecting will get you into action immediately. If you’re writing letters and making calls, you’re going to feel proactive and productive instead of disheartened and stuck. The information you discover and contacts you make will suggest many new possibilities for marketing your business. And in making these approaches, you’ll gain valuable experience in what works and what doesn’t to pitch your business.

Here are 25 ways to start building a prospect list and accelerate your marketing today.

In Your Office

1. Use advertising directories. Look up companies by category in the Yellow Pages and other directories, such as your local Chamber of Commerce or Better Business Bureau.

2. Review membership directories. You can find both consumer and business prospects in the membership directory of any group you belong to. Don’t forget your alumni association.

3. License a compiled list. Services like AccuLeads or Zapdata can provide you with targeted lists for direct mail or telemarketing.

4. Explore “top company” lists. Publications like Forbes, Fortune, and your local Business Journal regularly publish lists of the top companies in many industries.

5. Read the press. Notice who is being quoted as an authority in your community or market niche. Compliment them on their ideas when you make contact.

6. Publish a print newsletter. Producing a complimentary newsletter gives you a persuasive reason to ask people for their contact information in any environment.

7. Launch a survey. Create a survey for your target market and offer to share the results with everyone who completes and returns it with their contact info.

8. Compose a white paper. Researching a white paper on best practices in your field will give you an excuse to seek out prospects, interview them, and ask them to refer you to others.

9. Write for periodicals. Write letters to the editor, guest editorials, or articles aimed at your niche. Include in your signature or bio slug a mention of your newsletter, survey, white paper, etc. to encourage readers to make contact.

10. Add everyone who contacts you. Don’t forget to add to your list people who call or write YOU. Even those who are selling their own wares can be valuable prospects.

On the Web

11. Use the search engines. Search for companies in your target market and geographical area, e.g. “Portland hospital” or “Atlanta restaurant.”

12. Explore online directories. Use Google Directory or Yahoo! Directory to find organizations listed by category.

13. Subscribe to business directories. Dun and Bradstreet, Hoover’s, Standard and Poor’s, and Thomas Register all offer online editions with some services complimentary and more for a fee.

14. Offer a free bonus. To entice people who visit your site to subscribe or register, offer an ebook, audio download, ecourse, or other exclusive content in return for their name and email.

15. Publish an ezine or blog. People who like what you have to say will forward it to others. Those people will come to your site or contact you to subscribe.

16. Publish articles online. Submit your articles to sites or ezines your prospects read. Your bio slug should offer readers a gift if they visit your site.

17. Post to message boards. Answer questions people ask on message boards aimed at your market niche. Include in your signature a mention of your complimentary bonus, ezine, or blog.

18. Ask for people to opt in. Provide a way for people to subscribe or register on every page of your website and suggest that they do so in the signature of every email you send.

Out in the World

19. Find lists at the library. Libraries subscribe to business and membership directories you can’t afford and librarians will help you find the kind of prospects you’re looking for.

20. Attend networking meetings. Focus on collecting business cards, not just handing them out. Pick up any flyers or brochures you see displayed; those people may be prospects, too.

21. Join a leads group. Meet regularly with a group of other business owners to share contacts, leads, and referrals. If you can’t find a group you like, start one.

22. Canvass on foot. Visit office buildings or industrial parks, and collect information about the tenants. Pick up literature you see displayed or ask the receptionist for it.

23. Sponsor a contest. Ask people to enter a drawing for some valuable prizes or a competition where you will acknowledge the winners and publicize the results.

24. Exchange lists with a colleague. Trade contacts with someone who shares your market but isn’t a competitor. Or jointly sponsor a campaign using each other’s lists to promote you both.

25. Offer rewards for referrals. Affiliate programs, referral fees, and discounts on future services can all be incentives for people to pass along leads.

Is making cold calls from a compiled list of prospects the best way to get clients? Usually, no. But you’ll notice that many of the ideas above incorporate relationship-building tactics into your prospecting. Prospecting will get you out of your own head and into the habit of talking to people, and that will naturally lead to getting to know them better. Every relationship has to start somewhere.

Copyright © 2007, C.J. Hayden. All rights reserved.

This article was first published in the June 2007 issue of AORCP Newz-Bytes, and has not been reprinted elsewhere. If you would like to reprint it in your publication, please contact me for details and permission.

But isn’t the purpose of business to make a profit? Aren’t businesses supposed to be focused on the bottom line? It appears that the very definition of these terms is changing. Increasingly, businesses are choosing to pursue what many are calling the “triple bottom line” of people, planet, and profits. They are judging their own success or failure not just on financial performance, but on how well they address social and environmental issues.

In pursuit of this triple bottom line, many businesses have adopted social responsibility practices. They work to reduce their carbon footprint, source their products from manufacturers that treat workers fairly, and commit to provide a higher quality of life for their employees. Others go beyond making their own operations socially responsible and contribute to the world around them. They donate a portion of profits to charities, engage in cause marketing partnerships, or sponsor volunteering programs for their employees.

But there is a new breed of enterprise making its appearance. An increasing number of businesses are not merely socially responsible; they have adopted a social mission at their core. For these enterprises, their reason for existence is not to turn a profit, it’s to make the world a better place. They have joined the ranks of social entrepreneurs.

Social entrepreneurship is an innovative blend of social action and entrepreneurial strategies. These new enterprises take a variety of forms, and come in all sizes. Some are organized as for-profit businesses dedicated to social change. Others are nonprofit organizations paying their own way with income-earning enterprises.

A third approach is used by professionals in private practice who offer their services pro bono to people and communities in need. And some social entrepreneurs are individuals working as full-time activists, educators, or organizers for their cause.

The uniqueness of the social entrepreneurship approach becomes more apparent when seeing it in action. Here are three typical models for social entrepreneurship ventures and examples of some of the people and organizations engaged in them.

Social Business - A for-profit business with a social agenda that holds a higher priority than maximizing profits. Its core product or service line is designed to directly address a social need. Also called “not just for profit (NJFP)” businesses, these enterprises use earned income to finance their good works.

Perhaps the most dramatic example of this model in practice is the Grameen Bank. Founded by Muhammad Yunus in 1983, Grameen Bank was established in order to provide microloans to the poorest of the poor in rural Bangladesh, without any collateral. As of December 2007, Grameen has over 7 million borrowers, and a 95% percent repayment rate. In 2006, Grameen earned a profit of $20 million U.S. It is the first and only business to ever be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

Earned Income Nonprofit - A nonprofit organization addressing social problems that derives a substantial portion of its income from products and services it sells to those who can pay, rather than relying solely on grants and donations. Organizations like these and their initiatives are often referred to as “social enterprises.”

A thriving organization using this model is the Delancey Street Foundation. Founded by Mimi Silbert and John Maher in 1971 to help substance abusers, ex-convicts, and the homeless get back on their feet, Delancey Street accepts no government funding. Up to 65% of their funds come from businesses run by the clients themselves: a moving company, restaurants, a print shop, and more. The businesses serve as vocational schools, teaching marketable job skills to the clients. Over 14,000 people have turned their lives around through Delancey Street’s programs.

Pro Bono Practice - A professional services group of one or more lawyers, health practitioners, consultants, or other professionals designed primarily to serve people unable to pay. The group earns its income by charging full fees to other clients, selling additional products and services to those who can pay, or finding sponsors for their work. It’s a simple model that allows even the smallest business to have an impact.

For example, San Francisco chiropractor Dr. Juan Campos began in 1988 to make an annual trip to El Salvador to offer pro bono chiropractic services. He soon asked other chiropractors to join him, all of whom paid their own expenses for the trip from their private practice income. Dr. Campos’ Chiropractic Mission to El Salvador has continued for 19 years. In 2005, 17 chiropractors and 34 students provided chiropractic care to 24,000 Salvadorians. Every volunteer paid his or her own way to participate.

What these models have in common is that they apply business principles and entrepreneurial skills to address social issues. They use the spirit, creativity, and drive of motivated individuals to make a positive difference in the world.

Because social entrepreneurs cross traditional boundaries between the worlds of government, nonprofit, and business, there is no way — yet — to accurately count how many social entrepreneurship ventures there actually are. Charles Leadbeater, author of The Rise of the Social Entrepreneur, estimates that the social entrepreneurship sector employs around 40 million people globally, with 200 million more as volunteers.

Another reason it’s difficult to count social entrepreneurs is that a standard definition for the term has yet to emerge. In this article, the focus is on enterprises that earn income or are driven by business entrepreneurs. But many believe the scope of social entrepreneurship is even wider, encompassing any innovative venture with the aim of creating social change, regardless of its funding sources or business model.

Regardless of what truly defines social entrepreneurship, one telling indicator of its tremendous growth is the number of organizations and programs that have been established to serve social entrepreneurs.

Ashoka and Echoing Green sponsor fellowships for social entrepreneurs. The Skoll Foundation and Schwab Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship offer grants. Social entrepreneurs gather in associations such as Social Enterprise Alliance, Social Venture Network, and the International Network of Social Entrepreneurs. There are conferences like the Skoll World Forum on Social Entrepreneurship and the Social Enterprise Summit.

At least thirty universities around the world have social entrepreneurship programs, including Columbia, Harvard, Stanford, and Oxford. Fast Company magazine recognizes leading social entrepreneurs annually with its Social Capitalist Awards.

Social entrepreneurship is not just an appealing idea, it’s a growing, worldwide movement. In the words of Ashoka founder Bill Drayton, “Right now we have one of the rare instances where we can really impact the long-term architecture of half of society — for generations going forward. Every leading social entrepreneur is a role model. The result is that in community after community, each entrepreneur is encouraging someone, or several people, to become local changemakers. And that leads to everyone being a changemaker.”

Copyright © 2008, C.J. Hayden. All rights reserved.

This article was first published in the Feb 2008 issue of the Get Slightly Famous Webzine, and has not been printed elsewhere. If you would like to print it in your publication, please contact me for details and permission.

My sweetheart Dave moonlights as a tax preparer, and every year at the beginning of February, he begins his Groundhog Day schedule. He works a full day at his day job, evenings and Saturdays at a CPA’s office, and sees his own clients late at night and on Sundays. Somehow, I always seem to have a major writing deadline during the same period. With Dave not around to keep me company, I often work 12-hour days.

Somewhere around mid-March, we start saying to each other in the morning, “Is it Groundhog Day again?” As we feed the cats and brush our teeth and stumble off to work, it feels like we’ve already done this day a thousand times before.

For us, this phase only lasts the twelve weeks until April 15. Then we take our annual trip to Hawaii, and return home to a more normal existence that includes time for learning, play, contemplation, and rest. But I remember the days before I learned how to live a balanced life, when Groundhog Day was 365 days per year.

I see many of my students and readers now trapped in the same cycle of endless work and responsibility. Their day begins with making breakfast and lunch for the whole family, getting everyone dressed, and delivering them where they need to be. Then they’re off to work. If they commute, they’re often checking voice mail and making calls on the way.

After a full day at the job, it’s time to ferry the kids to or from their next activity. Eventually, everyone gets fed, then there is more work to do for the boss or their business, housecleaning or repairs to be done, volunteer work, or yet another activity for the kids. By the time they lie down at night, there’s often six hours or less before it’s time to get up and do it all again. Weekends get filled up with more of the same. It seems there’s always something important scheduled and pressing errands to run. And there’s never enough time to sleep.

What living like this does to you is not only exhaust your body, it hardens your heart. Even if you began with the best intentions — to do a good job for your family, your employer, your clients, and your community — when there is no time to breathe, you start to emotionally shut down. In addition to chronic illnesses caused by the physical strain, you develop a short temper, selfish attitude, and a world view that ends at the tip of your nose.

Selfish, you say? Me? When I spend so much time doing things for others? But the question to ask yourself is, are they the right things?

Are you a real companion to your children or their grumpy chauffeur? Are you a true partner to your spouse or an exhausted cook? Are you really doing your best for your boss or your clients, or are you stretched so thin that your work is often barely adequate? How many of the activities in which you are engaged are really the best use of you? And how can you know if you never have the energy to look beyond the next five minutes?

If you’re not happy with the answers these questions provoke, maybe it’s time to wake up from Groundhog Day. In the movie, Bill Murray’s character Phil finally wakes up to a new day when he starts making different choices. At first, Phil spends all his time trying to “get it right.” He does the same things over and over, hoping that somehow he can produce different results. (Sound familiar?) When despite his efforts, he remains stuck in the same endlessly repeating day, he becomes depressed and attempts suicide. But there is no escape; he simply wakes up right back where he started.

Finally, Phil takes two important steps: he tells the truth about what’s happening to him, and he asks for help. And what is the advice he gets? Instead of struggling to get it right or fighting to escape his daily existence, he is told to experience life at its fullest. Phil starts to really connect with the people around him, to listen to what’s important to them, and to help with their problems instead of being focused on his own. He joins into the community and works to develop his talents and share them with others. He begins for the first time to live a balanced, compassionate life.

Real life answers aren’t always as simple as the Hollywood version, but as fables go, this one holds some valuable lessons. At the end of the film, Phil says, “No matter what happens tomorrow or for the rest of my life, I’m happy now.” Sounds like a life worth living, doesn’t it?

Copyright © 2004, C.J. Hayden. All rights reserved.

This article first appeared in my blog How to Become a Hero in April 2004, and has not been printed elsewhere. If you would like to print it in your publication, please contact me for details and permission.

Supporting entrepreneurship in the developing world has long been considered one of the best approaches to “teach people to fish” and build sustainable local economies. In recent years, studies by the United Nations, World Bank, and others have shown that women entrepreneurs are more likely to contribute to community development than men, and are therefore better candidates for support programs. In the words of rock star/activist Bono: “Give a man a fish; he’ll eat for a day. Give a woman microcredit; she, her husband, her children, and her extended family will eat for a lifetime.”

Many programs have focused on providing access to capital, building needed infrastructure, and revising legal and regulatory requirements to make business ownership a more viable option. While these factors are critically important for entrepreneurs to thrive, there is one more issue that successful programs need to address: building an entrepreneurial culture.

Without a culture that supports entrepreneurship, women don’t perceive it as an option. Learning to fish requires something even more basic than bait, nets, or an adequate supply of fish. It requires that there be water. An entrepreneurial culture is the body of water that must exist in order for fishing to begin.

There are three dimensions to building a culture that supports women’s entrepreneurship in the developing world:

• Education and training
• Access to support and information networks
• Family and community support

When all three of these dimensions are addressed, entrepreneurs can flourish. But when any one of the elements is missing, the others alone may not be sufficient for women entrepreneurs to succeed.

Education and Training

Providing business education and entrepreneurial training is often the central component of economic development programs, and is essential to successful efforts. Many training programs focus on teaching women the technical skills needed to operate a specific business, such as manufacturing handcrafts, producing food or beauty products, or raising dairy or wool animals.

But in many areas of the developing world, women have received little or no formal education, and what schooling they have often focuses solely on literacy. Needed areas of added learning are typically basic business skills such as bookkeeping, budgeting, supervision, marketing, and sales, as well as understanding the legalities of starting a business, and obtaining localized information about access to markets and sourcing materials, inventory, or qualified workers.

The needed learning doesn’t end there. The European Commission 2004 report, How to Create an Entrepreneurial Culture, explains that education is not only necessary in business skills, but also in “the development of personal qualities that are relevant to entrepreneurship, such as creativity, spirit of initiative, risk-taking, and responsibility.”

Business skills can often be taught in a classroom or workshop setting, and through internships or apprenticeships, but skill-building in areas such as initiative, risk-taking, effective communication, and leadership qualities may require mentoring, experiential learning, and peer support, as described further below.

Access to Support and Information Networks

A key element for the success of any entrepreneur is the availability of mentorship and peer support. Studies by the U.S. National Commission on Entrepreneurship revealed that the most successful entrepreneurs are “embedded in a supportive system that includes networking opportunities with other entrepreneurs” and “links to mentors and role models.”

Mentors and entrepreneurial peers can provide general business advice, suggest specific solutions, make connections to influential people, recommend resources, and share best practices. Role models can inspire by example, encouraging prospective entrepreneurs to follow what may be a non-traditional path.

Mentorship and support networks can be significant for men and women alike, but evidence suggests that for women, they are critical. According to Joan Steitz, a UNESCO laureate at Yale University, “We cannot expect to capture the interest and talents of girls and women… unless they can view their own participation as possible.” Women often need to see other women operating businesses before they will choose entrepreneurship for themselves.

A fundamental component of successful women’s entrepreneurship programs is that they provide access to mentors, peers, and role models through structured group activities, formal mentoring partnerships, or informal networks of students, graduates, and other women in the community.

The most effective programs offer regular gatherings where participants can share success stories, seek solutions to common problems, reinforce newly-learned skills, and experience a sense of partnership and camaraderie. These meetings continue well beyond the initial training period, to provide ongoing support as the women’s enterprises grow.

To help women improve the personal skills that bolster entrepreneurship — risk tolerance, self-confidence, and powerful communication, for example — support groups like these can be a more effective method of skill-building than classroom education. With the continuing encouragement and example of their peers, women become more confident about their enterprises, increase their self-esteem, learn to lead others, and are better able to withstand opposition and setbacks.

Family and Community Support

The final dimension to building an entrepreneurial culture can be the most difficult to achieve. If family members and community leaders oppose women launching business ventures, this can be a persistent barrier. Values, attitudes, and cultural attributes in many areas of the world can prevent policymakers from taking the necessary legal or financial action to support women entrepreneurs. Opposition from husbands, fathers, in-laws, and religious and political leaders can discourage women from choosing entrepreneurship or sabotage their efforts.

One approach to building support for women’s entrepreneurship is to provide evidence to community leaders of how other communities have benefitted. In areas where women have been able to launch successful entrepreneurial ventures, communities see a dramatic improvement in living standards. Not only are the women’s families better fed and housed, but their children receive more education, and the family’s health improves. When political and religious leaders learn of these tangible potential benefits, they can often be persuaded to change their views.

Another effective strategy is to educate family members. Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, overcame initial opposition to offering microcredit to Bangladeshi women in this way: “We started meeting with the husbands and explaining the program in a way where they could see it would be beneficial to their family. And we made sure to meet with husbands and wives together so everyone understood what was expected.”

A third successful avenue is to encourage women to speak out for themselves. Bolstered by seeing other women’s success and participating in peer support groups, Yunus says, “Women started confronting the religious people. They said, ‘You think taking money from Grameen Bank is a bad idea? Okay, we won’t take any more — if you give the money yourself… And of course the religious advocates said, ‘No, no, we can’t give you money.’ So that was the end of that.”

Building an Entrepreneurial Culture

To teach women entrepreneurs how to fish, it’s clear that simply handing out fishing equipment isn’t enough, nor is it effective to teach basic fishing skills and then walk away. Entrepreneurs need the ongoing guidance of experienced fisherwomen, as well as the companionship of other novices. They also need to live near a body of water where fishing is not only permitted, but encouraged.

Creating this environment is the critical task of entrepreneurial development programs. But many programs have focused only on skills training, neglecting the social support elements that enable entrepreneurs to thrive. According to the Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, the essential attributes of an entrepreneurial support organization are:

• They place primary focus on entrepreneurs rather than the enterprises they create.
• They build a support system that nurtures entrepreneurs during the idea phase, provides the resources and tools needed to create new enterprises, and guides the entrepreneur through the process of growing a business.
• They contribute to the creation of entrepreneurial environments where entrepreneurship is supported in both the public and private sectors.

The hallmark of a successful program is that it offers support to the entrepreneur instead of just to her business. Program elements such as peer support groups, mentoring partnerships, and community outreach provide a nurturing social environment for fledgling entrepreneurs.

Supporting all three dimensions of entrepreneurial culture — education and training, access to support and information networks, and family and community support — should be an essential goal of every entrepreneurial development program. With this three-faceted approach, advocates of women’s entrepreneurship will create an environment where women business owners can thrive.

Copyright © 2007, C.J. Hayden. All rights reserved.

This article was written for the Accelerating Women Entrepreneurs project of FLOW: Liberating the Entrepreneurial Spirit for Good, and has not been published elsewhere. If you would like to print it in your publication, please contact me for details and permission.

“How can I help?” is one common question. “What will this economic downturn mean for my business?” is another. I also hear people asking, “Is what I am doing really meaningful? After all, if I don’t know that I’ll be alive tomorrow, is this work where I truly want so many of my waking hours to be spent?”

It all adds up to a time of doubt, rethinking, even total confusion about where you are headed and what to do next. For me, what uncertain times require is the assurance that only comes from being firmly grounded in your personal values and a sense of purpose. What does that have to do with marketing your business, you might ask? I think it has everything to do with it.

If you want to sell someone else on something, you had better believe in it 100%. If you’re having doubts; if you’re no longer sure that the business you are in is the right one to be in, how can you possibly be sincere in your marketing?

We’ve all been sold to by an inauthentic salesperson — and hated the experience. As an independent consultant or professional, what you are selling is you. You have to believe in yourself or no one else will. When you find yourself in a place of questioning, perhaps it’s the time to better align what you do for a living with what you want to do for a life.

So many people have told me in recent years that they want to be of service in some way. I don’t think there is any more powerful way to be of service than to earn one’s living at it. Why? Because it’s where your vocation meets your avocation, your labor intersects with your values, and the purpose of your day joins with your purpose for being alive.

This is the concept of right livelihood, well known to Buddhist teachers and modern writers such as Marsha Sinetar, who describes it as work “consciously chosen.” She also assures us that it doesn’t have to mean vows of poverty.

Here’s what I know. My own work is consciously chosen to honor some of my highest values: being of service, creative expression, human connection, and independence. Until I found this work over fifteen years ago, I wandered from one career and business enterprise to the next, with minimal success at any of them. Marketing was always a struggle. I was afraid to do it and procrastinated to avoid it.

When everything turned around for me was the moment I declared I would start a business that honored my values. As soon as I did this, marketing became effortless, and more than that, overwhelmingly successful. I could speak authentically about my belief in what I was doing, and people I had never met suddenly believed in me.

Some of you reading this are working in a business you don’t believe in. My prescription for you is simple: get out, and find something else. You want a competitive edge in a tight marketplace? Finding and following your right livelihood will give it to you. (I’m speaking from experience — the U.S. was headed into a recession at the time I redirected my career path.)

For my other readers who believe you truly are on the path of right livelihood already, I gently invite you to look again. What action have you not taken, what territory haven’t you entered simply because of fear? Please notice that the fear is still there whether you take action or not. If you have to be afraid anyway, wouldn’t it be better to be moving in the right direction?

Copyright © 2001-2005, C.J. Hayden. All rights reserved.

This article was first published in the October 2001 issue of the Get Clients Now! E-Letter and updated in 2005. If you would like to reprint it in your publication, please contact me for details and permission.