More black women should be CEOs.
One of the challenges I always give my clients is to change their title to CEO. The goal of changing your title to CEO is to set the stage for the company you’re building. You’re not building a wimpy party of one business. You’re building a ”nation”, as one of my clients refers to her business and tribe.
As black women, we can often be made to feel like being the CEO of a company is out of reach. In my earlier management career, I watched as my intern, a young white guy, was promoted to a director position over me.
What was wrong was I had more experience, I taught him the ropes and recommended him for the manager position that helped him beat me out of my promotion. I was pissed to say the least, but I know this kind of BS continues to happen everyday.
Being overlooked is one of the many reasons black women are leaving corporate in droves to create the job they want. However, in the process we can’t forget about building the company we want too.
Being a solopreneur isn’t the end goal. It should be a temporary stop on your business building journey. It should be the means to an end to get yourself as an entrepreneur and learn the lessons of starting a business.
There is so much spoken about living the laptop lifestyle. Work from anywhere, be your own boss, but what’s not talked about is the burnout that is associated with taking on every task in your business.
The exhaustion of having everything on your shoulders is real and it is one of the main reasons why a higher percentage of black female owned businesses fail. Not to mention, the financial strain of having to constantly work-when you stop working the revenue stops too.
Black women deserve better. We deserve to have the position and businesses we crave.
Being a CEO is about strategically building your business to not leave you stressed, overwhelmed, or burned out. A CEO’s job description is about putting the business in a position to be successful and working 60+ hours a week isn’t not going to lead to business success.
Most times when a business is started, the business owner will comment they were tired of working for the “man”, they had a calling to do something more in society, or they want to pursue financial freedom and not have their income capped.
All the above reasons are appropriate, but if you’re building a business to inspire a movement, well movements require a plan and help. None of us were given our purpose by accident. I know God provides the necessary people, resources and tools to help you along the way. You aren’t meant to do this work alone.
If you’re struggling in your business, learn the CEO skills so you aren’t floundering, losing time and money in the process.
There is more to running a business than owning a CEO mindset as a Solopreneur. It’s about knowing how to manage your business for today and the future. Being a CEO isn’t a natural gift. It is learned by trial and error, costly mistakes and if the skills are not learned quickly.
I know you didn’t leave one stressful job to be put into another one. Learn how to be a CEO today.
Need help? Click here to apply for The Private Practice CEO Program™!
