I was recently interviewed on Lady Alex Podcast, and one of the things we talked about what the main struggles that women entrepreneurs face.

3 Key Struggles of Women Entrepreneurs.png

Listen to the Episode below:

If you’re hustling as you’re juggling between full-time job and your business; OR

you’ve been running your business for over a year full-time and thinking of ways to make it work; OR

you’re just figuring out a way to juggle your personal and business commitments

this article is for you.

The struggle of entrepreneurship is real, especially for women. With over 163 million female entrepreneurs around the world, the struggles are different from economy to economy. In this article, we’ll talk about the most common struggles women entrepreneurs face.

#1. Managing Finances

Fempreneurs tend to mix personal expenditure with business income. As we wear many hats through our lives — as wives, mothers, sisters, daughters, boss, manager, customer relationship executive, and more — we can get confused with how our money should be spent.

Oh, my friends. This is a much too familiar struggle. When I began my first business in 2010, the same thing happened to me. Whatever I earned from my business goes straight into my pocket. Then, I spend on personal things. When it comes to business expenditure, I don’t have enough anymore.

Then, the same thing happens when I earn personal income from my private tutoring income. It goes straight into my pocket, but when the business needs money, I’ll spend using my personal money.

Now that I’ve penned it down, don’t you find it ridiculous? It seems logical to spend personal money on personal expenses, and business earnings on business expenses right? In reality, that’s not always the case!

The main problem happens when we don't keep separate accounts. There are implications to this, which I had to learn the hard way too! Not keeping separate accounts for personal and business can affect our year-end tax submission and has an eventual impact on our business financial standing for future business loans.

During tax season, you’ll need produce receipts and your bookkeeping records of expenses and earnings for the year. When you spend your business earnings on personal expenditure, your accountant would ask you 1001 questions to qualify your expenses. They have a headache figuring it out, causing you an even bigger one!

When you don’t do proper accounting for your business, it gets tougher to get business loan when your business grows. Buying your first company vehicle or first office space may pose challenges. When banks are not able to determine your projected income, they wouldn’t know how much to offer your company in loans. To safeguard their banks and simplify things, they often reject the case altogether.

The Solution: Create a Corporate Account

It’s not that difficult to create a corporate account. In Singapore, you can get an account setup from as low as $1000 initial deposit. With so many options available in the market for you, setting an account is not challenging.

There are two accounts I recommend for businesses in Singapore:

1. Maybank Flexi Biz

I recommend this if your business is small.

There is no minimum balance requirement, and no fall-below fee. There are fees per transaction like bank transfer and cheque deposit.

There is a penalty if you close the account earlier than 6-months. Since there’s not fall-below fee, there isn’t a need to close early!

For my two other businesses, we have been using Maybank Flexi Biz since we started. Our cost from bank fees have been kept low allowing us to focus on our actual business expenditures.

If you’d like to sign up for Maybank Flexi Biz account, speak to your nearest Maybank Branch or you can learn more at their website.

2. OCBC Growth Account

If you require a corporate debit card, then OCBC Growth Account is for you. It is recommended for you, especially if your business is less than 6-months old.

OCBC is a reliable global bank and has an emphasis on business banking. Their branches open longer hours and even offer Sunday Banking. That helps especially when your business runs on the weekends as well.

OCBC Growth Account does not require an initial deposit, and has no fall-below fee. However, there is a $10 management fee monthly. Bank transfers are free so that $10 management fee monthly is great if you do lots of bank transfers in a month.

I love OCBC Growth Account because of their iBanking system called Velocity@OCBC. It’s easy to use and gives you almost instant update of purchases made via your debit card. This way, you know exactly how much is left in your account accurately.

If you’re not based in Singapore, speak to your local banks and shop around for the best rates before locking yourself down with a bank. Read reviews and get the best recommendations from your accountant.

#2: Fear of The Unknown

This isn’t a struggle faced just by entrepreneurs but all humans. It’s a normal struggle of being a human being. We are often fearful and worried about what we don’t know. That’s just the way our brains have been wired to protect us from danger and harm.

When it comes to running our business, the biggest struggle happens in our minds. We fear what we don’t know and we fear of what others think of us. All that starts from the mind, and it takes extra courage to overcome the battle in our minds.

When I started my business, I was so afraid of calls. I always thought that the person on the other line would be scary, or would be rude to me. This was caused by my past experiences. I hated picking up calls because I was afraid of the person, whom I cannot see, on the other end. Don’t you think that’s ridiculous? I fear what I wasn’t able to see AND control!

With practice, I was able to rid that ridiculous fear. I’m no longer afraid of calls, though I don’t answer calls during my off days. I became more conscious of what I was saying on the phone after years of practice. Those years wouldn’t have happened if I didn’t take the plunge to accept calls in the first place.

The Solution: Do what scares you everyday!

Ladies, remember that we are our biggest critic but we cannot allow ourselves to hinder our growth and success. Don’t shortchange yourself because of something you cannot control like the outcome, people’s views or even the weather.

#3 Time Management

"Not enough time" is one of the most common complaints of women entrepreneurs. Juggling life and business responsibilities can get crazy. We all know it isn't easy.

Everybody have an equal amount of time: 24-hours in a day, 7 days of the week. What makes one person different than the next is the way they manage their time.

As entrepreneurs, our job is to find solutions always. That’s why we take the leap of faith to create a company and job for ourselves. “If we can’t find the solution to the way we manage our time, it means we’re not cut out to be entrepreneurs in the first place.” That was the most painful advice I got in my early days running my businesses.

“If we can’t find the solution to the way we manage our time, it means we’re not cut out to be entrepreneurs in the first place.”

But there is so much truth in that. If we’re always complaining about the lack of time, it means we need to figure out a way to have pockets of time to achieve the things we want and need!

I recently spoke to a business friend of mine telling her I have no more time to fill and she thought I was just having a mind-block. I showed her my calendar and my commitments, and she said “Oh, you mean you really don’t have time”. 😂

Even after delegate and deciding what I need to work on, I’ve maximised my hours of the day… to a point where I can’t fill it up any further.

In case you’re wondering, I have 7 Google Calendars and plan my whole day around them. It’s just one of my characteristics: If I don’t organise down to my rest time, I won’t get rest time either! I’m a workaholic, so I have to schedule breaks and rest time too.

I will share this organisation strategy I have going on in another article.

The Solution: Decide & Delegate

This is probably one of the most difficult changes a female entrepreneur must make in their business. Women are natural micro-managers as that is what we’ve been wired to be. With an awareness of what we do in our lives, we can make better decisions on what needs to get done!

Decide on what work you must do on your own, and what you can delegate. "Rent" someone else's time in exchange for money to fulfil your vision of a successful company.

Hire a team, and you'll fulfill your dream

There is no business that comes with no struggles. Even in life, you will have some challenges. The smart thing to do is to figure out what you need to do to get your life and business in order.

Turn your struggles into solutions and don’t give up. Believe that you can gain immense growth and success. You just have to run your business strategically and smartly!

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What do you think?

I'd love to know what you think of this episode. Do you plan on leaving your full-time job soon to start your business? If so, where are you now in that plan? Share with me in the comments below!

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