Samantha Kelly recently carried out a survey on the Women’s Inspire Network Facebook group (4,000+ members), asking them what their biggest challenges are, as female entrepreneurs.

“For me, as a woman, I find it difficult to be taken seriously,” says Samantha Kelly. “Sometimes I wonder should I become more strict or tough but I don’t want to change how I am. I wondered were others feeling the same?”

Below are the thoughts of ten female entrepreneurs gathered from the survey.

1. ‘My biggest challenge is time management and being disciplined with your day, ensuring that you’re as productive as you can. If you’re a working Mum, it’s hard not to feel guilty. My advice is to schedule in ‘me’ time.’ Lilach Bullock.
2. ‘The emotional roller coaster is my biggest challenge. The guilt for leaving my children, the jealousy that my partner doesn’t juggle the same workload because Dads don’t get the phone calls from the child minder and women are still (for the most part), the homemaker. However, there’s also the joy and pride that you’re doing something for yourself.’ Karen Mc EcEvoy, Beauty Bright.
3. ‘Expensive childcare costs and no tax breaks on the fees. Free years only apply to pre-school children, and they grow out of that stage so fast. Then there is the full-time healthcare tutor and all in between.’ Alison Metcalfe.
4. ‘Being taken seriously. When someone looks you straight in the eye and asks to speak to the boss.’ Pat Murphy, SmartHeat.ie.
5. ‘Being made feel guilty and crazy for having big ambitions and dreams. “Oh, really that’s what you’re going to try & do, and with three children? Hmm, good luck”.’ (Anon)
6. ‘Sometimes it’s a curse that we are such good multitaskers as we can push ourselves beyond the limits, but working to the point of collapse.’ Betty Kehoe, Aisling Design.
7. ‘Confidence that you are doing the right thing and that you have all the boxes ticked and won’t look like foolish if something goes wrong which leads to the second issue which is the fear of failure which I think us women reflect on much more than our male counterparts? Also, I feel that when you are the MD or owner of your business everyone in your business thinks you have all the answers and you know how to solve all the problems and well, I don’t. This is why I need a really strong network of other business owners around me that I can call on while I say “Let me think about that, and I will be back to you tomorrow”. This then leads to the next challenge which is building a network you can trust.’ Oonagh O’Hagan, CEO, Meagher’s Pharmacy.
8. ‘Me Time. Like others – managing work, long hours, family life (the guilt) and the house. Fulfilling work ambitions and finding time for just me. Always saying I have a very demanding boss. Me.’ Pauline Geraghty, PassRight Driving School.
9. ‘Finding time for me, forgetting the importance of prioritising my needs, because as many others have said, still we manage and juggle so much. We have to learn to take care of us first.’ Roisin Prizeman, BusinessBuddy.ie.
10. ‘People think that what I do is a hobby.’ Carol Faughnan (web designer).

Clients that don’t care

Other comments were: ‘My biggest challenge as a designer is that sometimes when you send a client a proof of either first design draft or a concept idea for a new business product, that at times they forget that business evolves around time and money and just because their lives have got busy; they simply don’t bother to get back to me for over a month or two which is really unfair as you had put in all of your own time, to begin with. This results in the design project are simply evaporating into thin air. A waste of time for both parties.’ Lisa Marie Flanagan, Bebrandbrave.com.

‘Being in the handmade sector, I find my biggest struggle is to be taken seriously as a business woman. People often make the assumption I’m a SAHM or housewife looking to make pocket money. I don’t feel my male counterparts suffer these struggles.’ Alia Moloney, Terramor.

If you would like to hear more

So as you can see, many women in business suffer from guilt, lack of confidence, lack of time for themselves and being taken seriously. Do men have the same challenges?

If you would like to hear speakers talking about how they overcame these obstacles or learn time management skills and confidence building amongst others, the Women’s Inspire Network has a national event coming up on October 5, which will cover many of these challenges. There will be workshops and networking. With Lilach Bullock coming from the UK and Anna Scheller, sales queen, coming from the US, it promises to be a very useful event.

READ MORE: Never before has there been so many state-backed programmes designed to help women to start in business.

The national Women’s Inspire Network event will take place on October 5, 2016 in Dublin. The title of this year’s event is ‘From kitchen table to building an empire’.

The orgainser of ‘From kitchen table to building an empire’, Samatha Kelly, says women are coming together in more and more numbers to support each other in business and in life.

“Women are great communicators and they understand the value of building relationships online and then taking them into an offline setting.”

Kelly, who has created online social communities like the #irishbizparty for SME owners, also started the thriving #womensinspire hashtag which takes place every Tuesday night on Twitter. The #womensinspire network also has over 3,000 members on Facebook and there are regular meet-ups.

The ‘From kitchen table to building an empire’ event aims to bring influential women and those who need business support and advice together in a meaningful way. As well as many influential speakers, there will be practical workshops.

“This event is about support, advice and networking, but it’s also about business,” says Kelly. “In business, most successful people assist others and mentor people as they develop. People buy from people so this basic nurturing instinct that women have can also increase sales for companies.”

More event details.

To maximise sales, every business owner needs an effective, realistic sales process. Here’s how to get one.

Examine your existing sales strategy

Are you selling in the right way? Are you selling to the right customers? If you haven’t already done so, write a sales strategy and examine its results after a six-month period. Identify your strengths and weaknesses, and build on them. This will help you to meet your objectives, decide how to best reach target customers, and track effectiveness.

Increase business from existing customers

The oft-quoted Pareto Principle states that 20% of your customers deliver 80% of your revenue. Tap into that rich resource by offering loyalty discounts and deals, and be sure to market any other products or services you have to them. Just because they buy from you doesn’t mean they know about everything you sell. Remember, they are already on your side, so make that loyalty a two-way street.

Make sure your prices are right

If your prices are too steep, you will turn off potential customers and if they’re too low, customers and potential customers will assume you are selling an inferior product. Conduct market research to ensure you’re selling at the right prices.

Forecast your sales accurately

Set yourself a realistic sales goal at the start of every month, year or accounting period, depending on your business, and aim to meet targets to realise that goal. These targets don’t always have to be financial (for example, you could set yourself a target of calling a certain number of potential customers every month), but they should all add up to meet your goal. Compare your forecasted sales with actual sales using the ThinkBusiness.ie Sales Tracker Template, and revise expectations afterwards.

Up-sell and cross-sell

If your business is customer-facing, try to entice customers to either buy another one of your products or services (cross-selling) or to buy a more expensive product or service (up-selling). You can achieve this by offering deals, discounts and loyalty rewards, sometimes even directly after the customer has bought a product. A good example of this is an airline offering hotel deals after you book your ticket.

Get an agent or another third party to help

This may not be appropriate for every business owner, but agents can act effectively on your behalf to negotiate legally binding sales of your products or services.

Sell new products or services

You need to keep your offering fresh if you’re to consistently attract customers. Business is all about evolution, and without it you will never thrive. Look at what you could do differently, and make the change.

Make customers your top priority

It may sound obvious, but the customer always comes first. Ensure your customer service is outstanding, all the time. Train your staff and offer after-sales support for customers, as well as recurring deals and offers. This will encourage word-of-mouth recommendations.