Epsiode 226: Why Women Are Better Business Owners

Welcome to another enlightening episode of the Female EmPOWERED Podcast, hosted by Christa Gurka! March is Women’s History Month, so on today's episode, I’m taking a look at why women often excel as business owners. 

Here's what I unpack:

• Unlocking Women's Strengths: From superior communication skills and heightened emotional intelligence to exceptional time management, women possess a unique set of qualities that set them up to be excellent business owners.
• Navigating Challenges: Despite progress, women still confront gender biases, limited access to funding, and the ongoing struggle for work-life balance. For women of color, the biases and limited access are even more significant.
• Insightful Statistics: I shared some pretty astonishing stats on the growth of women-owned businesses, executive representation, and the persistent gender pay gap.

If you enjoyed this episode: screenshot it, tag me @ChristaGurka, and tag another female business owner. Share the wealth and let’s support each other - a rising tide raises all ships. We are not each other’s competition.

Looking for advice and resources to help you market and grow your clinic or client-based business? Visit my website or follow me on Instagram!

Thanks for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please leave a review for the show to help other female fitness and wellness professionals find our podcast! 

Interested in being a guest on a future Female Friday episode? Email me at Christa@pilatesinthegrove.com!

Transcript

0:09

Hey there, everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the female and power Podcast. I'm once again your host, Krista Gurkha. And this episode is airing in March, which is Women's History Month. So shout out to all the women out there who are making this world and amazing place. All right, so we're going to talk about today, if you saw the title, it's why women make better business owners. All right, so we're gonna talk all about women. Today, we're going to shout out women, we are going to give high fives to each other. We are going to talk about not only the challenges we face as women in business, but also why sometimes we do make better business owners. All right, I know firsthand how amazing women are as business owners. All right, the women in my mentorship groups are rockstars. The women I've come into contact with it, or in my mastermind, my colleagues, amazing and inspire and motivate me every single day, the women that are on my team at Pilates and the Grove, fabulous. The female founders that are experts in our mentorship groups, and the vendors and people I do business with. Spectacular, right. So I mean, we can have meme after meme after meme on this, but let's get into it. Let's get into it. Let's talk about some reasons why women can sometimes make better business owners than men. All right. Number one, I think women oftentimes have better communication skills. Why? Because we've had to have better communication skills. Because if we don't have good communication skills, we get labeled as bitchy, or aggressive or bossy. And so when you are a leader in business, it is crucial that you have effective communication skills for your employees, for your vendors, for your managers, for your customers. So women oftentimes have better communication skills, right? We, on average, I don't have any research about this, but I say stereotypically women tend to be more empathetic. We tend to be better listeners, okay, which does enhance our ability to understand and respond to the needs of our team, our clients, etc. Now, is this always true? No, and I'm saying none of this most all of this is conjecture. And all of this is my opinion. But this is my podcast, so I get to the air my opinion on my podcast, okay. So I think communication skills helps make some women better business owners. I also think women have higher emotional intelligence. Okay, so what they call like, I think they call it like e i emotional intelligence, not a i. Alright, so I do think that we have higher emotional intelligence, I do think that we have higher self awareness, which allows us, prepares us to better handle complex territory, interpersonal communication between team members, and all of the dynamics that go into running a service based business. Now, why do you say, Well, same reason as effective communication? For years and centuries, if you did not have emotional intelligence, we had to task switch a lot, we had to be careful with what we said, Right? Or we'd get labeled as aggressive as bossy. Okay, so having a high emotional intelligence really does help you as a business leader. Let's just say we have better time management skills. Why? Because we do all the shit in our lives. If we have kids, we're taking care of the kids. We are making breakfast we are keeping their schedules, you know, their calendar there. Who needs to go with this to what sport and what do they need to bring and who needs to pay this? And what do we have to sign for the field trip? And when do we have to bring brownies in for the bake sale? And when is their report card do and when is teacher conferences and what time do they get out early from school and when is their spring break and all of this etc, etc stuff. And so our time management skills, we're just used to managing our time efficiently because oftentimes we have less of it. We have to do the laundry and we have to do the cooking and we have to order the food and we have to pack for the trip and we have to book the tickets and again, are there a lot of dads that do this? Absolutely. My husband is super good at all. other stuff. He's always on the packs for us. He's one of the books, the plane tickets for us. So So is that stereotypical? Yes, again, but again, we're celebrating Women's History Month. All right. And in the history, at least of the United States, women have done more in the household. All right. So that is a fact. Risk Management. Sometimes we tend to be less or more risk averse, we're willing to take more prudent risks. Why? Because we've had to, we've had to. Okay, so the cautious approach, we can help us mitigate potential losses. So we've had to be risk averse in our life. Okay, so this is why sometimes having risk management strategies is helpful, or women in business. innovation, creativity, I do not know, well, I do not have this gene necessarily. I can innovate. And I'm very pragmatic, but I don't have a lot of creativity. Or maybe I do, why should I say that about myself? Anyways, as moms, we have to be creative. And we have to innovate, how are we going to keep these kids? You know, entertained? What are we going to feed them when they don't want to eat their vegetables? How are we going to figure out how to make a costume at midnight, because our kid just told us that they have to do spirit we tomorrow or its colonial day at school tomorrow, and now they need a costume and it's midnight. So we've had to be innovative and creative. We know how to pivot, we know how to think on the fly. Okay, so those are reasons why women can sometimes be better business owners. Women also tend to be customer centric. We're more attuned by nature of being more empathetic to our customers needs to our client's needs to our staff needs. So oftentimes, they can lead especially if we're the target audience. So let's say in Pilates, women in general are the target audience. So who better than to know what women want than women? Okay, so we can really drive customer centric approaches, especially in boutique fitness and wellness. We also have a very strong sense of social responsibility. And that's what people are buying into now. They want to be part of a movement, they want to have impact. And so women really as us and I truly believe this, this is why I have my mentorship programs is because I do you believe that by putting money and financial freedom in the hands of more women, they will in turn better their communities, and it will all be a better place. I do believe that I really do. Okay, the social responsibility that we feel helps build your company's reputation. It helps attract customers, it helps foster loyalty among employees, which ultimately leads to better outcomes and business. All right. So those are some of the reasons I think women often can make better business owners and better sound decisions, especially when we're talking about boutique health care, wellness and fitness. All right. Okay. So now let's talk a little bit about the challenges that women have faced historically, but also challenges that women face currently in our current society 2023 2024. There is still gender bias and discrimination. There is in various forms, hiring, promoting access to capital and funding. I have a few brands, acquaintances, colleagues that are founders and tech companies and boutique healthcare and wellness. And they really have a hard time. Oftentimes, they're behind the eight ball a little bit when it comes to access to capital, and funding and all of that. Okay, so there is a little bit of that. And I've heard from women that are that are presenting to venture firms and things where they say, Well, what is your plan to have a baby or babies or family? And they don't I guarantee you, they don't ask them that question. Okay, so limited access to funding. It wasn't that long ago. It really wasn't that long ago. I think it was in the 60s or 70s where women could not open a bank account without a man signature. They could not own a home without a man signature. Now if you think about it, it's not that long ago, what is that? 50 years ago? 60 years ago. It's older than my parents. I mean younger than my parents. It's only 10 years older than I am. Okay, so can you imagine going to a bank and saying you as a female cannot open a bank account, you need a man to sign for you? It's asinine. Okay, so luckily, that's better. But there's still at limited access to funding. Forget about in the United States, when we talk globally, that's a fact. And then even in the United States, like white women definitely have more access than women of color. All right, what's another challenge? Work life balance. I really don't love that term. Because I don't think there is a work life balance. To be honest, I don't think it's level. Like if you're talking apples, I don't think it's level, I think there will always be a time where work might take a little more, and I think there's always gonna be a time where life can take a little more, I will say that as a business owner, I do love that I have. I'm the boss. So if I need to take time for my kids, I can still do that. But I will also dive in and grind my way through to get shit done. Okay, so have there been sacrifices with me and my kids? Absolutely. Have there been sacrifices at work? Absolutely. Have there been sacrifices in my personal life? Yes, there have. Alright, and as a mom, do I feel guilty for not being with my kids? I used to? For sure. I did. But I can't go back and change that now. Okay. And I definitely don't appreciate being asked, Do you need to check with your husband on that book? No, I don't. Why would I? He's not on the books of Pilates and growth. He doesn't sign my lease. Right. So no, I don't have to check with him. If I want to check with him. I will. But you know, when when landlords are like, Oh, here's the new update to your new lease, you need to check with your husband first. No, I do not, he does not make any decisions for the business. He does not. Another challenge I think women face and this is one of the things that I am trying to change is mentorship and just mentorship. Seeing people that look like you that sound like you that act like you that don't have your reality, doing the things that you want to do. I know that when I first started Pilates on the beach back in 2008. Again, I didn't know that much about business. So there might have been women out there that I just didn't have access to remember social media wasn't a thing back then and all of that stuff. So I didn't see anyone that looked like me doing what I wanted to be doing. And what I mean by that is they were all men. And if there were women doing what I was doing, like growing a business to a million dollars, they were they had a corporate background they they had they came from like big executive firms like Nike or things of that nature. They had NBA so it didn't look like me and the men that were doing what I was doing, they were not the primary parents. And so I was like, well, maybe there's not room for me. Or maybe this is maybe there is a glass ceiling. Okay, so one of the things that I want to help is I'm really on a mission to change the boutique fitness industry, one female business owner at a time. And I really want to create professional development programs and access to resources to other women that are running, growing, scaling their boutique fitness businesses and be an example of what is possible. Okay. Another thing that really is a challenge to women is there still is a gender pay gap. There is you might not think it is there is but there actually is, you know, women get paid less than men for the same amount of work now and brown women of color get paid less than white women do. Okay, so when you think about executives people in the CCE, a bit a little odd. That was a tongue twister C suite. Okay, there's a lot less women in the C suite even though women go into business school has significantly increased. Alright, so in the United States as of January 2022, so we're still two years like it's just about two years, okay. The gender pay gap was reported to be about 82 cents on the dollar. That means that women get paid 82 cents for every dollar a man makes and that doesn't include Um, black and brown women that's really geared towards white women. Okay, so there is a pay gap. All right. Now I do think Finally, there is a lot more access to education for young girls coming up. So access to STEM and STEAM programs, okay is really good for girls. So young girls, if you're probably not listening, but if your moms are listening, and your daughters exhibit anything that leads you to believe that they would be interested in coding science, engineering, technology, put that math, chemistry, put them in those programs, okay, they can study and people are really looking for more women in this industry. And so they can hopefully, if the times keep changing with us write their own checks for the most part. So if your daughter if you have a daughter that's interested in science, math, technology, engineering, any of these things, chemistry, like, foster that, don't force it on them, but foster it. All right. So I just kind of wanted to go through a few different statistics. Now some research. So this is some research that I did for this episode. All right, so according to the Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, I think they I think that's like GE, I think they abbreviated gem Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, the number of women entrepreneurs globally increased 7%, between 2016 and 2020. And from 2020 to 2023. I think it increased another like 32%. Because from 2020 to 2023, so many people after COVID, so many women started their own businesses. Women led startups received only 2% of venture capital funding globally in 20 22% of VC money. Now, that's probably changed in the last couple years, but the status from 2020. In the United States, women owned businesses grew at a rate of 21%, between 2014 and 2019. And it's grown 42% since 2020. All right. In 2020, this was what I was talking about in terms of the C suite, women held 29% of senior management positions. So it's up a little bit, I think 2015 was like 18 to 20%. And so now it's up to 29%. But it's still only 29%. So 30%, three out of 10. C suite executives are women. When women make up 52% of the population in Fortune 500 CEOs, all right, the number of female CEOs in 2021 hit an all time high of 41. That's still only 8% of the total. A percent very much. Not very much. Right. Um, again, we talked about the gender pay gap 82 cents for every dollar a man makes all right. Board representation. So women held 26.5% of board seats in 2020 up from 23% in 2016. Okay, let's talk about tech. This is one of the things we talked about. So female leadership and tech, women held only 12% of executive positions in Silicon Valley's in 2020 12%. Now let's talk about the women owned business impact. This is really good. I love this step. Okay. women owned businesses in the United States generated $1.8 trillion in revenue, and employed over 9 million people in 2020. According to the American Express state of the women owned business report $1.8 trillion in revenue and employed over 9 million people. Now imagine and still women on businesses are so small section of the population. So now imagine if we put more women at the front of owning businesses, what that will do to the revenue and the employment rate of other people. drastically increase it. Okay, so anyways, what I'd love for you to do, okay, what I'd love for you to do is screenshot this episode if you're listening to it, screenshot this episode posted on social media tag me and then also tag another female founder or female business owner and say that you see them. Okay, so let me let me say that again, I want you to take a screenshot of this episode. I want you to post it on social media, tag me at Christa Gurkha and then also tag another female business owner. And let's share with each other and see the power of social media and how we can lift each other up. Right, a rising tide raises all ships. So let's raise this tide together women. All right, let's shout each other out. Let's not think about ourselves as competition. Let's think of ourselves as proof of what's possible. If she can do it, so can we. Okay, I look forward to seeing all of those screenshots. Tag me at Christa Gurkha and then also tag someone that you want to give a shout out to that's doing amazing things in their women owned business. And until next time, my friends my ladies bye for now everyone.