Sowing the seeds of success

STARTING your own business should be organic, something that blooms naturally from who you are as a person. It’s about taking responsibility for your own life - and thoroughly enjoying the results.

But the question for so many women is, can this be possible without sacrificing our personal lives in some way?

The truth is that none of us get it right all the time, whether we’re working for ourselves or someone else. For many there is no choice but to juggle to bring in an income while running a family and home. And, multi-taskers that women are, we just try and do the best we can.

So, why create more pressure for ourselves by opening our own business? I believe that for many women, the experience of becoming your own boss has far more plusses than minuses. Once we are in control of our lives, we can often manage to have more quality time with our families by having the flexibility of working ‘virtually’ through the new technology of e-mails and mobile phones.

Running our business from our kitchen table; answering our e-mails in our pyjamas once the children are in bed; relationship building with our community: this is certainly a more comfortable way of working than being in an office from 9am-5pm.

There is no easy answer to being a working mother, whether we work for ourselves or not. Helpful mothers and mothers-in-laws; nannies and even house husbands can be invaluable, although it tends to be us that still have to organise the family. I do meet many women who have found from experience that working from home gives them the freedom to spend more time with their families, while still earning a living, although it’s often a case of clarity on boundaries. Letting your family know when you can’t be disturbed is important; informing them which piles of your papers need to be left alone is essential and respecting your workspace, especially your computer, absolutely crucial.

But, most importantly of all, is the need to create the time and space for yourself when, by letting go of all your responsibilities even for a short while, you will allow everything to fall into place as it should. This way there is a natural flow between work and family, and when you open up to all possibilities without guilt and worry, it is extraordinary how everything works out exactly as it should.

And by consciously organising our time and space, we can make sure we include time for our partners, too.

It is rarely just money which has inspired any of the women I meet into becoming an entrepreneur. Although we all want financial independence and a decent quality of life for our family, our motivation tends to be far more about fulfilling ourselves creatively, giving to others in some way, working with other women in our communities.

In The SEED Handbook, The feminine way to create business being professionally successful doesn’t mean being on the top of the pile, looking down on everyone else. It’s about achieving our dreams while creating loving relationships and working in co-operation with our peers.

The way we manage people at work will impact on the success of our business - and our ability to juggle our work and family life.

WHEN YOUNG WOMEN first enter the competitive male workplace, they often believe that they had to behave and even dress like men to succeed in business, especially in the corporate world. By not being true to their feminine selves and becoming parodies of men, these young women, according to recent research, often turn to drinking too much alcohol, can become sick in their mid- thirties and can end up too stressed to conceive when they do decide to have a family.

It’s a question of getting the balance right and women understanding that they can be successful on their own terms, which includes relationship building and mutual co-operation, whether building their own business or as managers inside a company.

Medical research has also shown that women need to relate and share with each other in groups and not live and work in isolation, which can often happen whether you’re self-employed or even working in a busy office. With the SEED network we encourage groups of women entrepreneurs who have gone through our learning programme, or just simply live and work in the same neighbourhood and share the same values, to meet together regularly to support and share with each other.

We have proved that finding the time to meet regularly with a peer group, gives women the opportunity to share their creative ideas as well as problems and enables them to see possibilities from other’s perspectives.

Giving back to the community in some way is a common thread for many women and is the reason why social enterprise has become so popular. Creating a business whose profits benefit the whole community is a concept that matches many women’s values. When speaking at the Edinburgh International Book Festival last August, I met with a group of women from all over Scotland , running different social enterprises and local charities, ranging from children’s nurseries; centres for the mentally disabled to holistic health guide books. This group meet together regularly, encouraging and inspiring each other with their triumphs as well as their problems.

And it’s been the success of women in more traditional businesses and yet who have still managed to follow a more feminine way of working that inspire others too. Glasgow’s most successful business woman and mother of a young family, Michelle Mone, creator of the Ultimo Bra; Anita Roddick of Body Shop; doctor’s wife, Perween Warsi, founder of S&A Foods, one of the country’s largest manufacturers of Asian cuisine, are just some of the women I have met who have shown that you can run a large, successful business and still stay true to your natural feminine principles - all while enjoying family life.

COMBINING A SUCCESSFUL work and family life is not just about the other people in our lives - it is also about our relationship with ourselves. Eating healthily, exercising daily, drinking lots of water, going to bed early and ensuring you have quiet time for inner reflection during the day, will stretch your energy as well as your time. It’s amazing how taking the time for a quiet walk in the park at lunchtime will bring you back with more creative ideas and solutions to your daily challenges .

The first thing I advise any women who feels she is ready to start her own enterprise is to clear all the unnecessary clutter out of her life, creating the physical, mental and emotional space to let in the new. So, if you’re ready to take the first step, take a cool, clear look at your life, clean up your physical and virtual workspace, check on your physical regime, be clear about your boundaries that will still give you the time for the people you love... and start planting the seeds.

See you in the garden!

Lynne Franks is the author of The SEED Handbook, The feminine way to create business, now available in the 2005 paperback edition with free CDRom published by Hay House at 10.99. She is also founder of the SEED Enterprise Programme and Network. For information on all SEED activities check www.seednetwork.com.

Lynne Franks will be speaking at Ottakers in George Street, Edinburgh at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, April 19 and Borders in Glasgow at 6.30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 20.