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Top Tips to Help Women Smash the Glass Ceiling

• December 13, 2021

In more recent years, there has been a significant rise in women making their way to the top of a company and overcoming any obstacles that may have been put in their path to get there.

According to research by UENI, 32.37% of all UK businesses are owned by women. Though this figure should ideally be equal to their male counterpart’s percentage, it is still a significant increase from the 17% of female owned businesses from 4 years ago.

This promising rise for female leaders is also mirrored in the Global 500 businesses where women running the businesses have risen from 14 in 2020 to 23 this year. This increase is promising but still an extremely low percentage.

So the question here then is: what can women do to overcome these poor odds of being a successful business owner who is taken seriously by the world?

Here are a few tips to help these aspiring women to achieve their goals.

Block out unwanted advice

People will try to give their opinions as often as they can to somebody starting out, usually when they do not know as much about the company’s plan as the person who is creating it. It is important then to filter out all of the empty advice that comes your way. Women are often spoken over and their opinions tend to be overlooked a lot more than the males in their workplaces. As a result this way of thinking would inevitably flow into a new business and people may not think that a woman starting up is as knowledgeable as she should be. This simply is not the case. It is likely that women are more than qualified for this role if they are willing to take all of this on and truly believe that they will be able to achieve their goals.

However, the noise is not always from other people trying to put you down but also by yourself. Self doubt exists in everybody but it affects some more than others. Just remember, you would not be taking this huge leap if you were not skilled enough to do it in the first place. Ignore this unwarranted internal advice and persevere, go back to your original plan and allow yourself to refocus on your goal.

Expect the Unexpected

This is easy to advise but hard to actually set out for since the whole nature of it is unpredictable. However, it is key to note that you can never plan completely when creating a new business, something will always pop up that will force you to alter your plan in some way.

And though it would be impossible to know what exactly will come your way, a global pandemic for example, there are certain counterplans you can make to best prepare you for these situations.

Put in the hours

With the way the world is currently working, it is the perfect time to start up a new business as flexible working and working from home means it is easier and cheaper to start up. Be prepared for unconventional hours. Unfortunately, for most people who are starting up their first company they work many more hours than the standard rate. You will need to embrace this, put in those strange hours and work around your life.

Working from home, and having your whole staff do so too will mean your company will have more money to spend on what you truly need rather than paying rent and monthly bills for your office. This also allows employees to have more freedom and to not have to spend time nor money travelling to and from work everyday.

Focus on your company, not others

Though it is good to see what other companies with a similar business are doing, it is not an issue if you are not immediately getting the same traction as they are.

There is little to no point in directly comparing your company to others, you are not the same company so you will not be doing the exact same thing. There are many ways to run a business and there are a lot of ‘competing’ companies out there that are thriving in different but still successful ways. So try not to do something just because you have seen another company doing the same.

Comparing yourself to others in any aspect of your life is not a healthy way to live, and doing it for your business can really hinder your progress. You may not go ahead with something that could have been your company’s ‘big break’ purely because similar successful companies would not take that route. In this situation your downfall is not your competition’s success but your company’s hesitation.

Focus on your company and what is best for the business!