Episode 4 – 5 Reasons Why Women Should Start A Business

0:02  INTRO: Welcome, my name is Christy Fechser, and you are listening to all in the name of growth. This is the podcast for women who are seeking inspiration and advice on how to design their life on their terms. We cover relevant topics like mindset shifts, setting boundaries, growing a business, overcoming limiting beliefs, plus the timeless topics like life, business, relationships, and money. After 20 years of marriage, raising a family, building several businesses as an entrepreneur, and mentoring women for over a decade, I have a thing or two to share. I love helping women see their life with a fresh perspective. So thanks for tuning in.

0:42  Hey, welcome back to All In The Name Of Growth, I’m really excited to be here today to talk to you about a topic that I’m really passionate about, it is something that I am really driven to educate women about and to help them be able to achieve in their own lives- and that is why women should think about starting their own business. So a little background for me, I- when I was in college, my final major that I chose, so I waffled around a little bit and trying to figure out what I wanted to do, the one I landed on was business management with an emphasis on entrepreneurship. And the reason why that was so intriguing to me was because I really wanted to be in control of my life, and to be able to have lifestyle freedom. And so being able to own my own business just seemed like that would be the thing that enabled me to be able to be kind of more in the driver’s seat. 

1:30  And the cool thing about our modern day and age and where we are out right now is that business- being in business for yourself doesn’t at all look like it used to. So we used to just only have the options of, you know, basically brick and mortar businesses or service businesses, but they were all in person. And we now have the ability to have, you know, service businesses online or offline in person, you know, to be able to have brick and mortar businesses or E-commerce businesses to be coaches or like to like there, there’s a whole range of businesses that women could get into. And I’m actually going to spend next episode talking about those different businesses and kind of the pros and cons to them. And I’m also working on a quiz to be able to help you, like look at your own life and see what business might be a good fit for you. So be looking for that, hopefully, next week that will all come out,  and I’m just really excited about being able to share that with women, I think that there’s so much value to the world, in women showing up and owning their own businesses, but also for women in their own lives to show up and on their own business. 

2:37  And so today, I want to talk about five of those reasons- five reasons why women should consider starting their own business. So number one, is that the world could really use a lot more good-hearted, level-headed women stepping up and being heard in their communities. And that’s to say nothing of just having a woman’s touch in influence and, and the way things are done in the world. When we look at the numbers of male-owned businesses and women-owned businesses, there’s definitely an imbalance in them. And I’m not saying that has to be equal at all, I just feel like there would be so much more benefit to the world in general, if more women-owned their own businesses, and were able to have a voice, and to be able to have that platform to be able to stand on and to serve their community, or you know, the community that they create, through their own means of having their own business. I think that part of that and what goes hand in hand with that is that when we show up in our own lives, it gives others permission to be able to show up in their lives as well. 

3:54  And I think that for a lot of the population, it’s like normal, it would be more normal for a man to create a business than it is for a woman to create a business. And I think that that’s in large part because women have other responsibilities in traditional living within the home, in raising children and taking care of the house and that kind of stuff. But we live in a society now where most families are a two-income family anyways, and you need that income to be able to live. So instead of just going to work for somebody else to create that income, I really encourage women to try and create that on their own terms so that they have that lifestyle freedom to still be able to meet the needs of their family, but also to be able to have a purpose and feel fulfilled within themselves because and that was actually- 

4:47  Okay, number one, the world needs more women to step up, number two, when you step up, it teaches other people that they can step up to. So when we do that it teaches our children, our husbands or our partners, and our siblings, parents, whatever our friends, our religious community, like when we show up in our lives, and we do big things, it helps people understand that they can step up in their lives and do big things too. And so it just encourages everybody around you to push past their fears because you push past yours. And now, I’m not saying that this part of it is going to be easy, because there are going to be some people that push back against you. And I could probably spend a whole episode on just focusing on, like some of the things that you’re going to come up against when you try and start your own business, I think I probably will. That’s a good, that’s a good podcast to do, too.

5:34  And so number three, though, is that women, a lot of times will lose themselves in the shuffle of life- whether that’s with our children, or in our relationships, or in our work life, it’s easy for us to put other people’s needs before our own. That is a very, very common trend with women, in putting other people first, and owning your own business helps you to be able to step into that main character role within your own life and to show up in a way that is totally different than it is otherwise. And I’ve seen this happen over the last decade- I’ve been mentoring and coaching women on how to start their own business within a specific niche, but I have seen so many women and I’ve had so many women tell me that owning their own business and doing something outside of their regular responsibilities within their family has helped them with their identity, and helped them to find themselves and to focus on, you know, what they want out of life, who they are in on the inside, instead of kind of the boxes or the hats that people- the boxes people put us and the hats that people put on us, or that we put on ourselves.

6:49  And it helps them to be able to really get back to the heart of who they are and what they really wanted out of life and to put themselves not last, but in a more forward position. And I heard a quote today actually, that was who is actually from a woman who lives in Spain, she’s a doctor, she well- she was a doctor of pediatrics for a really long time and now she teaches women how to be healthier people, how to be healthy in general,  but on her website, she had a quote that I came across and said, “The best thing that you can give to your kids is your own happiness. And the second best thing is vegetables” which was funny. But I loved that first part of it- that the first best thing that we can give to our kids is our own happiness. And I really like sat with that for a minute. And thought about what that actually means. Because for women, we’re really good at putting ourselves on the back burner, and we’re really good at sacrificing what we want and our needs to be able to provide for or to take care of those who are around us. 

7:50  I think that a large part of that comes in when we start having children, in that when you have a new baby, you do have to sacrifice at that level, you do have to give up your sleep, and you’re like everything is dumped into this baby and ensuring that they are going to be healthy and happy and well taken care of. The problem comes in is when we don’t ever remove ourselves from that situation and recognize that we can create that kind of gap, I guess or that separation between being the all sacrificing person and realize that we can actually take back some of those things that we enjoy about our own life and the things that we want to pursue. And recognizing that in our pursuit of our own goals and dreams, it only teaches our children to pursue their goals and dreams as well. And so, I love that quote that, you know, the best thing that we can give to our children is also a good example. And it’s also showing them to be courageous and to be brave, and to do things that scare you, and all of those things that come from starting your own business and believing in yourself. 

8:54  When you can jump across those barriers and become the person that you really want to be and be able to be in control of the things that matter the most to you, it only allows them the freedom and the permission to be able to do that for themselves. And it makes it so much easier for them to be able to accomplish those things because they’ve seen it done before. And I know that that is true. My mom, when I was growing up, she was a single mom for a lot of the years. So about half of my life, she was a single mom, and that half of it she was married but always courageous and always determined and always goal-oriented and wanting to make sure that she was providing for us in a way that was going to help us to grow up and be functional adults, which is the mission of raising children is that we want them to be raised to be adults not to be children. So I always had a really good strong work ethic and belief in myself, but one of the things that I never had in my life was somebody who had really gone outside of the box and done something so like outrageously different than everybody else. I didn’t have that example and I was talking to my husband the other day about that, about how you know, so one of my goals is to be able to create a six-figure a month income, and that’s a whole other discussion, I’m sure that some people are like, “Oh my gosh, that’s disgusting.” 

10:10  But I have big dreams for a foundation and I know that it takes a lot of money to be able to create a nonprofit and to be able to do this in a way that I want to. So I was telling him, I, I’ve never seen anybody be able to create that in the way that I am trying to create it. And so it’s a little bit harder for me to get to that point because I don’t know what that really looks like. And all of that to say, bringing it back to the main point is that when you do those outrageous things in your own community, in your own sphere of influence that is so radically different from what other people are doing, it gives them permission and the courage to do the same thing. 

10:47  Number four, the other thing that I really love about business, and this is something that a lot of people don’t even understand about business, and you probably won’t until you get into it is that because so many people aren’t doing it, there is so much room for you to do it. And I know that you’ll get in there and you’ll start looking around and you’ll be like, “There’s a million people doing the same thing I want to do,” but that is not true. So when I decided that I wanted to start a podcast, I started looking at the numbers and how many podcasts are out there. And there are millions of podcasts out there. But as I started really looking into the podcast, I realized that some of them only have seven episodes, and they were from like 2018, or 2014, or, like even 20. In the pandemic period, the two years of the pandemic period, there was like this huge spike in podcasts, there was like over a million podcasts created. Of those podcasts that were created during that time, there’s only a fraction of them that still exist. 

11:49  And this is the thing that is true in business is that some people will quit before they get to their like, their sweet spot. And so if you can persevere and you can be committed to your dream and what you’re trying to create, then it’s just a matter of time until you’re able to create that success because so many people will drop out. So there’s several layer layers to like going into business for yourself and starting up or pursuing your own dream. And a lot of times we look at it, and we’re like, oh, there’s so many people out there. But like, let’s look at the real numbers, right? There’s almost 8 billion people on the planet. And the majority, the vast majority of those people will never do something so outside of their box, something that is scary or pushes them or even requires change on their part. So already, so much of the competition has already been eliminated, I would say probably 90% of the world is that is been eliminated just because they won’t push themselves to do something. 

12:48  So then you get into the people who are like, “Okay, I want to pursue this, I’m going to you know, consider doing this”, and they start working themselves through the process- what, what can this look like,  and then you have a large portion of those people that drop out because once they start looking at it either scares them, or they give themselves the I don’t know how to do it, and not realizing that they can learn how to do it. And then they drop out. And then you have the people that are like they push through all of that, they get into their actual business and they start growing, they start doing their thing, but then they quit too soon. 

13:23  And so which is something that I talked about on last week’s episode about the miner that came to California during the Gold Rush days and bought this plot of land and started digging it trying to find gold. And after a time, he quit and went back to his country, sold it to somebody else. And then that guy came and picked up a pickaxe, started going, you know, like three feet, he found this like huge vein of gold. A lot of people are the guy who quit and move back to their country. So in that, a lot of people are already eliminating themselves. So as long as you can outlast a lot of people that in and of itself is going to create success for you because there are a lot of people who don’t have the ability to push through and to be smart in their decisions and make sure that they can go long- for the long term rather than just having it be in immediate gratification or success. 

14:10  So there is a lot of room for women, especially to be able to join in and to create their own businesses. And when we’re talking about all the ways that you can create a business, create an income, doing something that isn’t punching the clock for somebody else, like it’s incredible how much space is actually here for women to be able to show up and have their voice heard. And my number five reason is why not- why not start a business? I think that we sometimes think that we have to have this like grand idea of what we’re going to do and this grand like, reason for doing it. And I think that we as women are really good at overcomplicating things a lot of the time and we don’t need to. 

14:51  Like starting a business is an opportunity for you to grow as an individual, it’s an opportunity for you to help those around you grow. It’s an opportunity need to be able to show up in your own world and to offer your services or your product, whatever that is for the world to just be able to better it. And it can help make you a side income or potentially a full-time incredible income. Like there are so many benefits of being able to go in business for yourself and so many opportunities to be able to start a business without hardly any costs, which we’ll talk about next week. But there’s, there’s- sure you can come up with all the reasons why you shouldn’t, and I’m just going to encourage you to shut those down for just a minute and look at it as a possibility of what would your life look like if you had more lifestyle freedom if you could, you know, in the middle of the day, go do what you wanted to do, go spend time with your kids, or go on a lunch date with your husband, or to take a week off, and, you know, whatever I mean-

15:52  A couple of years ago, back in 2015, I think it was no 2000? I think maybe 2014 or 15? Anyways, we sold most of our belongings, and we moved into a travel trailer, and we just wandered around the United States for almost two years. And that was a total lifestyle freedom choice because we owned our own business, and we have the ability to do that. And a lot of people when I tell them that story, they’re like, “Oh, my gosh, that’s been a dream of mine, my whole life is something that I would really love to do.”

16:22  This is an opportunity to really do what you want to do and to be able to make an income. And I am in no way saying that this is going to be blissfully easy and it’s all going to just work out magically for you- that’s not what I’m saying. What I am saying is it’s worth pursuing. Definitely at least consider the idea and what that could look like for you. So that was really what I wanted to talk about today. I highly encourage you to really consider the opportunity and the option of going into business for yourself. Even if you’re working right now, and you have a regular full-time job, what can you do to create a side income that could turn into a full income? 

17:00  And like I said, I will talk next week about some different business ideas and things that you can do that, you know, take little investment upfront, and I can help you be able to start rolling in that direction. So just to recap, number one, the world needs more amazing women to step up and have their voices heard, and two, when you show up in your own life, it only gives the people around you permission to show up in their own lives. Number three, women oftentimes lose themselves in the shuffle of life, and being able to own your own business helps you to become the- in the forefront, the main player in your own game and helps you to be able to find your purpose and show back up in your life for yourself. And number four, because so many people aren’t doing it, there’s so much room for you to be able to do it, to be able to have success at it, and number five, why not? Totally worth pursuing. Okay, I am excited to be able to talk about our topic next week and hope that you will join me for that until then I will talk to you guys later. Bye. 

18:06  OUTRO: Thanks so much for tuning in to this episode of All In The Name Of Growth. If you felt like the content shared today was helpful or inspired you in some way, please share it with your friends. And be sure to tune in again for a fresh perspective on growth mindset shifts and leveling up your life and business.