Women Entrepreneurs Should Negotiate to Protect Support Networks
Women entrepreneurs tend to value professional and business networks more highly than men according to Forbes Magazine. Moreover, they point to these networks as key factors in their success more than men (who are likely to cite their own personal qualities).
So when it comes to making legitimate requests and strategic demands, it is particularly vital for women that they not alienate the other side in order to preserve the ‘network effect’ while still getting what they want.
Few women have more need of negotiating skills than female entrepreneurs. In those first critical years when a new business is establishing itself (or not!), the difference between success and failure can often be how well you negotiate with vendors, service providers and even customers.
A chronic danger facing women entrepreneurs, experts have noted, is that they can often appear too aggressive in framing their positions. Even when you’re well within your rights, you can undermine your position by coming across too strong. Rather than make an overt demand (“I won’t pay more than $1,000 for this material,” “My services cost $250 an hour”), pros agree that as a woman you’ll do better by saying something like “I checked out the internet and vendors are getting $1,000” or “other professionals in this space charge $250”).
Forbes found that overall, women are motivated primarily by psychological as much as financial factors in becoming entrepreneurs. The biggest reason is the desire to build wealth but the next most important factors are the wise to capitalize on one’s own business idea, the appeal of start-up culture, and the reluctance to work for someone else.
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thanks for the mention …. i think there is a lot in this idea of supporting the networks for their own sake as a business concept (and it’s interesting that men don’t apparently value networks the same way). Cait
Home Schooling…
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