Women Entrepreneurs Over 50 Are the Groundbreakers We’ve Been Waiting For

When I talk to women about how female entrepreneurs in their 50s are groundbreakers, I sometimes get a blank stare. They pause, process, and then say,"You know, I never thought of it that way."

My mother was a housewife. She had been an executive secretary in NYC before that, but gave up her job when she got pregnant. My mother's mother was a housewife. She loved hosting, cooking, and caring for her loved ones.

Things are different now. 

Women are formally educated and have been encouraged to have passion and purpose. We are independent and self-sustaining. We are living longer, which will require more savings, and also allows us to do something we may have put on hold to raise families, care for others, and work for someone else. We are in better health, and we travel the world. But like a magnet, we are pulled to the shrivel concept when it comes to entrepreneurship. But there's so much more to do than just wait for someone else to tell us what that is. We question ourselves:

• Can I really run a business?

• Who will want to work with me?

• What if I fail?

• What do I want out of it, for myself?

I find that women don't know themselves for who they are, but more as the person that other people in their lives have needed them to be. They show up as that person, rather than going inward and connecting with who they need to show up as to feel confident, fulfilled, and motivated. They think it's a privilege to be "let" into the business world. That mindset leads to writing copy that's limited by "what other people think," I should say. Your clients want to know that you've made it through the fire. That you'll share that journey so they can get through the fire, too. 

What about your work lights a fire within you? Let me know. Or if you'd rather have a heart-to-heart discussion about it, let's talk.