I think it’s time to celebrate women in business and I want to show you how your skills can lead to exceptional success. ECommerce is a hot topic in the business market, especially for people who want to make an extra income with a side hustle, so read on to find out why you might want to try it…
Have you seen the glass ceiling shatter yet? It’s a much debated topic and we’re naive if we think the business world offers exactly the same experiences for women as it does men. It might not be equal yet, but women are strong in many wonderful ways and your business can flourish thanks to the natural skills you already have. Here’s why women can—and will—make successes of an eCommerce venture.
1. NATURAL LEADERS
I’m not saying men aren’t natural leaders, but women are leaders too so running an eCommerce site is a perfect position for a woman. Or at least, I found it to be a great job for me when I ran my online business back in the day. I believe women have an intuition to nurture and are always looking for ways to improve, and part of nurturing is leading people to a more positive state. Isn’t that what every company needs? Whether it’s starting an online business on her own or being part of a team, a woman ensures growth and can lead the way.
2. SELF DISCIPLINE
It’s no easy task to run an eCommerce business! Believe me, I’ve been there with my fancy dress shop! There are no offices hours to keep or customers knocking on your door, so if you want to run an eCommerce site you’ll require self discipline. You’ll have to get those orders out, even when you’re not feeling 100%. Plus, even when the site is faring well you need to keep improving it. I believe that women are excellent at self discipline and can keep up this process of constant innovation, which is what will make your business evolve into something big.
3. MULTI-TASKING
If you’re running an eCommerce site you have to be ready to wear many hats, especially when setting up your online store as you won’t have employees in place straight away. Can you manage all these responsibilities all in one day?
- Media marketing
- Update product information
- Create content
- Reply to clients
- Handle sales queries
- Fix online problems
- Accounting
- Research to keep your site up to date
Yes it’s a lot! But it’s widely accepted that women are exceptionally skilled at multi tasking so you’ll be able to handle many of these responsibilities at once. The only trouble is that you can’t pencil them into a neat schedule and often you just have to handle it as it appears on your desk. Once again I want to say that I don’t think men are inferior and CAN’T do this but I know that I’m much more skilled at juggling lots of tasks at once than my husband is, for example! 
4. MOTIVATION
The one benefit of the ‘glass ceiling’ is motivation. To get where they are today women needed to fight and the victories of the past serve as motivation to carry on the winning streak. People with motivation can perform well day after day and they have the determination to succeed. This is an excellent characteristic for an eCommerce business owner, as setting up an online shop often requires trial and error scenarios. If one approach doesn’t work who will have enough motivation to carry on? Us women, that’s who!
5. LONG-TERM PLANNING
We know that business grow slowly and we aren’t simply focused on having a high sales right now. A female team leader wants to build a solid foundation that that the business will have high sales and victories for years to come. Your innate farsightedness will help you reap the benefits in future. Slow and steady wins the race, eh??
6. REALISTIC
I don’t know about you but I’ve found that I’m very realistic (even cautious) when it comes to planning my business. I prefer facts to taking risks and don’t like the unpredictability of investing in something (such as advertising etc) that I haven’t done all the research on. This can be a good thing, because all of your business decisions will be well thought-out and more likely to succeed. I think that women in general are less prone to over-committing or under-budgeting so their expectations of performance is realistic and less risky.
7. COMMUNICATION
It is so important to be a good communicator when you’re running a business as you’re rarely operating on your own. Sure, you might be in an office on your own at home, but you’ll be emailing customers all day, telephoning clients, visiting suppliers and messaging your audience on social media. So if you have the natural characteristics to be personal, build good relationships and communicate clearly, you’ll be onto a winner. Plus, if you want online success you need to build a community. Social media channels are used to guide traffic towards eCommerce websites and you’ll need to be skilled at building relationships with online users by being understanding and empathetic. 
8. CREATIVITY
Some of the greatest artists of all time were males but general aesthetics do come more naturally to most women than men. They’ll take notice of the small nuances that make a website neat and stunning to look at. While men can deliberate about the practical aspects, a woman’s creativity can benefit the look and functionality of the site. Plus, it’s really fun to make those aesthetic decisions when you’re setting up your business – just imagine all the moodboards you can create on Pinterest!
I hope that you can recognise some of these traits in yourself and can appreciate the innate skills that women have that can help businesses flourish. Just to be super-clear, I’m not men-bashing or saying you can’t run an eCommerce business as a man, I’m just trying to point out the ways in which your skills can be used to create a side hustle that you enjoy and can make some extra money from. Go girl!
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