Written by: Janet Henson & Janey Holliday, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
The Origin of Female Entrepreneur
Around 50 years ago, the thought of female entrepreneurs having their own companies would have been viewed as fanciful. Fast forward to 2021; women worldwide own 36% of small businesses. [1]
Women in small business are growing, and they became an important part of the global economy. In USA, 27% of all small businesses or franchise owners are women, growing by 4% yearly. [2] Women launch more than 1,200 new businesses every single day.
A Simply Business article analyzed more than 1.4 million small businesses and found a sharp rise in female owners of SMEs (small to medium-sized enterprises) in 2019. The 31% surge stands in contrast to only a 21% rise in small businesses owned by men during the same year.
806,000 stay-at-home mums run their own businesses whilst juggling school runs, nappy changes, and meal times – up by 3.7% in 2014. Mumpreneurs added 30% of value to the UK economy between 2011 and 2014, which generate £7.2 billion of wealth. [4]
The Evolution of Empowered Women
This growth of female small business owners highlights the leverage that empowered women have to empower other women. This empowerment has led to the ability to achieve more equal rights, challenge gender narratives, and the ability to enable our daughters to gain a brighter future. Women empowerment has traveled the world, and it inspires others in so many ways - having a positive ripple effect throughout communities, families, and economies.
When women feel empowered, they can achieve so much more and empower other women more. And achieve it in a more enjoyable way too. Some of the benefits include:
Increase of their self-esteem and self-confidence
Ability to open up and be honest and true to themselves and others
Being an advocate for issues that affect women
Leading by example
Mentoring other small female business owners
Supporting small female business owners
Encouraging mothers to follow their dreams around having children
Providing the ability for female business owners to recognize and know their own worth
Ability to appreciate and celebrate each other’s strengths
Connecting them to the right people who can help them flourish
Ability to transfer business knowledge and provide well-needed expertise in different areas
Acceptance of ability, individuality, and their unique contribution to the world
Female Empowerment transfer – a win-win empowerment solution.
Explore. Engage. Educate, Empower.
Within the female small business arena, there now exists many female business coach entrepreneurs whose remit it is to help other women set a business up, pivot an existing business, or take their business to a whole new level. This is the best example of empowered women empowering others whilst helping to grow the number of female-led small businesses.
As a divorce and narcissist recovery coach, I needed to find a business expert to upscale my coaching business and launch my online programs. This search led me to Janey Holliday, a business coach who helps female entrepreneurs, business owners, and professionals grow in various ways. Her online business course taught me how to plan my business better and have a more empowering business mindset. She also provided me with actionable feedback, personalized advice, and simple planning strategies to increase my business growth.
The Power of Advocating Issues that Affect Women.
Out of this meeting came a mutual empowerment that illustrates how women can help each other out in business AND advocate issues that affect women.
Janey’s Story I
Whilst taking Janey’s course, which empowered me to be upscale and develop my business to another level, it became clear that I could use my skills to address an issue in her life. I helped Janey realize that she had been in a relationship with a covert narcissist, one which behind the scenes of her thriving business almost broke her. Janey had not realized that she had been in a toxic relationship with a person suffering from a Cluster B personality disorder - Narcissistic Personality Disorder(NPD).
Being in a relationship with a narcissist is harmful. There are very few more dangerous things. There are many types of abuse you will be exposed to verbal, mental, emotional, financial, and sometimes physical. There is a high level of manipulation and exploitation, such as gaslighting, humiliation, and disrespect. Narcissists are very clever when they suck you into a relationship with them. It’s a subtle build from a highly skilled manipulative person. They often target empaths and highly successful women, and almost everyone does not realize what is happening until it’s too late and they’ve been sucked into the spiders' web. For Janey is was really traumatic dealing with the aftermath of a narcissistic discard, especially as her children were involved.
Once she understood what had happened to her from my coaching, she was able to heal, rebuild and recover. She was able to stop wasting negative energy on regret and blaming herself. And she realized she had been the victim of verbal and emotional abuse. Together we then decided to raise awareness of this abuse, talking to a much wider audience to help other women. We wanted to support and empower more women to recognize that they were in a relationship with a narcissist. They could remove themselves and move on positively if they had the tools and inspiration. We had both experienced narcissistic abuse, and even though our experiences were very different, we felt strongly that we needed to tell our story. The response was incredible.
Getting the Message Out There
Many people who have suffered abuse do not talk about it and often keep it secret. Many barriers stand in the way of a woman leaving an abusive relationship. It can be psychological, emotional, or financial threats.
Narcissists are often well respected or liked in their communities because they are charming and manipulative. This prevents people from recognizing the abuse and isolates the woman further. The narcissist often minimizes, denies, or blames the abuse on the victim. Victims may be ashamed or make excuses to themselves and others to cover up the abuse. Victims have had their self-esteem impacted and are often traumatized.
To help others, we organized an Instagram live to tell our stories. We wished to remove the threat and empower women to come forward and speak up. Knowing you are not alone and not the only one who has experienced narcissistic abuse empowers others to speak up and take action and break away and break the abuse cycle.
The insta-live was an amazing success and resulted in us both being contacted by many women who had hidden the fact that they were in an abusive narcissistic relationship or had realized via our talk that they were in one. We are both still empowering so many women as a result of telling our stories, using our shared skillsets.
You can watch the insta-live by clicking here.
Janet’s Story II
Like many awesome coaches, Janet invested in the training to be qualified and has big dreams for her vision and well-needed expertise. But as many entrepreneurs experience, she became overwhelmed with how much there is to do when you start your own business and wondered what her priorities were to create a successful and enjoyable business – something I’m so passionate about teaching entrepreneurs to create!
As a mindset coach with 20 years of running my own businesses, my expertise is helping women get clear on what they want, look at the best ways they can make that happen more easily, breaking things down into a simple strategy, knowing their power actions – and only doing the most important things that take them to their goal. And, of course, a helpful and empowering mindset!
The fact that Janet and I did an Instalive video to share our story shows just how far Janet has come in such a short space of time. Like many business owners, “getting yourself out there” can be scary. But when you break things down, start small and reframe what you’re telling yourself, i.e., “inspiring others” or “connecting with people that need my service or products,” it is much more encouraging for most!
Janet is a hugely talented coach – and she just needed help to do business slightly differently and with a better mindset to skyrocket. I’ve been running online programs for over a decade, and I feel very passionately that anyone who is offering a service must absolutely create an online passive income offering. Janet’s first course (where I had my huge AHA moment about that I had indeed been with a narcissist) was created because I set her a 5-day deadline to write it, record it and get it live. And it’s a brilliant mini-course that’s not only brought Janet some passive income that she deserves, but it’s helped so many women all around the world who’ve bought it and listened to it. Not everyone needs 1:1s. Getting Janet to see her business potential via offering different services that she hadn’t considered was crucial. She’s gone on to create more as well, and they are a fabulous way of empowering people who might not be able to afford 1:1s.
Empowered Women CAN Create A Lifestyle Business
More and more women want to create a lifestyle business too, so it’s essential that women are encouraged and taught how to make a business work for THEM! I’m a single Mum of three, and I moved to live by the sea four years ago – it was on my bucket list, why not now?! And I like to empower women to fit their businesses around their life, not the other way around. Janet likes to travel; she likes to walk in the mountains and ski. Business success can and MUST include lifestyle as well as revenue.
When Women Work Together, Incredible Things Happen
The course Janet did with me is a group online coaching program – taking a group of entrepreneurs on an enjoyable and expansive journey. By working alongside other women, in a judgment-free zone, with a common goal to do their business, success is one of the most empowering things you’ll ever see. Relationships (business and personal) are formed. They push through their fears and roadblocks together, become their team of cheerleaders, and learn so much from each other, even if their businesses are vastly different.
Give women the right environment where they feel empowered, and literally, magic happens.
Janey Holliday is a mindset coach who helps people take command of their health, businesses, and lives. Find out more at www.janeyholliday.com.
Janet Henson, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Janet Henson is a globally sought-after Divorce Coach, dedicated to guide men and women through one of life’s most traumatic emotional events - divorce. Janet's quest is to banish the stigma that still surrounds divorce and prove that the end of a marriage can be the empowering, life-changing, and affirming event ever to happen to you. Her coaching experience coupled with her own divorce experience enables her to develop coaching programs designed to help individuals transform their lives by taking control of their minds and equipping them with the strategies and tools they need to successfully deal with this major life event. Enabling them to navigate and cope with their journey with positivity and confidently transitioning into the next phase of their lives. Janet specializes in divorces involving narcissistic abuse, high conflict, divorce in later life, and ex-pat divorces.
References:
[2]InGuidant Financial and SBTA
