{"id":3289,"date":"2015-10-20T15:31:44","date_gmt":"2015-10-20T20:31:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/bizwomenrock.com\/?p=3289"},"modified":"2015-10-20T16:04:08","modified_gmt":"2015-10-20T21:04:08","slug":"tips-to-help-women-business-owners-focus-on-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/bizwomenrock.com\/beta\/tips-to-help-women-business-owners-focus-on-growth\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips To Help Women Business Owners Focus On Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By:\u00a0<a class=\"author-name check_login\" title=\"Author Profile\" href=\"https:\/\/www.americanexpress.com\/us\/small-business\/openforum\/members\/karen-michelle-mirko\/?linknav=us-openforum-article-author-top\">Karen-Michelle Mirko<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Women open businesses at a rate 1.5 times the national average. Ana Recio Harvey, director of the SBA&#8217;s Office of Women&#8217;s Business Ownership. shares what women can do to keep this growth up.<\/p>\n<p>Recently, OPEN published a report on women-owned firms that confirmed women\u2019s impressive record when it comes to opening businesses.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.openforum.com\/idea-hub\/topics\/innovation\/article\/the-american-express-open-state-of-women-owned-businesses-report-american-express-open\" target=\"_blank\">The report<\/a>\u00a0showed that women open businesses at a rate 1.5 times the national average. What\u2019s also true is that these businesses face a significant hurdle when it comes to growth: only about 1.8 percent of women-owned businesses exceed $1 million in revenues.<\/p>\n<p>I recently discussed this challenge with Ana Recio Harvey, the director of the Small Business Administration\u2019s (SBA) Office of Women\u2019s Business Ownership, and asked her advice on what women can do to improve growth in their businesses.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cOPEN\u2019s report really corroborates what we\u2019re seeing at the Women Business Centers at the anecdotal level,\u201d Ana acknowledged. Based on what she has learned working with countless women-owned businesses, and through her own experiences as a small business owner, Ana offered the following recommendations:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Set goals for growth<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>If you don\u2019t have goals, then you probably don\u2019t have much of a plan either. Setting realistic goals for where you want your business to be next quarter and next year allows you to build a plan to get there. This kind of planning can help keep a business looking toward the future, instead of focusing on daily operations and the next deadline.<\/p>\n<p>While it means work upfront, planning can really be less work over the long term. \u201cImprovisation, as opposed to planning, really multiplies the level of effort. And having goals and a plan to accomplish them also helps get rid of a lot of anxiety for business owners,\u201d Ana observes.<\/p>\n<p>The SBA and its many resources available to women business owners\u2014including\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sba.gov\/content\/womens-business-centers\" target=\"_blank\">Women\u2019s Business Centers<\/a>\u00a0(WBCs) and\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sba.gov\/content\/small-business-development-centers-sbdcs\" target=\"_blank\">Small Business Development Centers<\/a>\u00a0(SBDCs)\u2014work with entrepreneurs to establish goals and plan from the start. \u201cWhat we want to do is catch women business owners early and make them sit down and think things through. And then we help support them as they grow,\u201d Ana explains.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Hire when you need help<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Making the decision to hire your first employee is a big step.\u00a0 Unfortunately for many women business owners, it\u2019s also a step that often comes too late. If you\u2019re consumed by everyday operations, you can\u2019t properly pursue new opportunities to grow your business. Consider how much of your time is dedicated to operations and how much is devoted to growth.<\/p>\n<p>If you\u2019re considering hiring, two simple questions can provide a good place to start. First, who can do a significant portion of what you\u2019re\u00a0 doing, and do it well? Second, who can perform the tasks you\u2019re not qualified to handle? Commenting on the second question, Ana suggests, \u201cGet an accountant as soon as you can. You might be fantastic at what you do, but if you\u2019re not an accountant, you need to get one. An accountant is an incredible first hire for a business.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.americanexpress.com\/us\/small-business\/openforum\/articles\/tips-to-help-women-business-owners-focus-on-growth\/\" target=\"_blank\">CONTINUE THIS ARTICLE<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By:\u00a0Karen-Michelle Mirko Women open businesses at a rate 1.5 times the national average. Ana Recio Harvey, director of the SBA&#8217;s Office of Women&#8217;s Business Ownership. shares what women can do to keep this growth up. Recently, OPEN published a report on women-owned firms that confirmed women\u2019s impressive record when it comes to opening businesses.\u00a0The report\u00a0showed [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3292,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1128],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advice-from-the-best"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v24.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Tips To Help Women Business Owners Focus On Growth<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"http:\/\/bizwomenrock.com\/beta\/tips-to-help-women-business-owners-focus-on-growth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tips To Help Women Business Owners Focus On Growth\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By:\u00a0Karen-Michelle Mirko Women open businesses at a rate 1.5 times the national average. Ana Recio Harvey, director of the SBA&#8217;s Office of Women&#8217;s Business Ownership. shares what women can do to keep this growth up. 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