Why are Women Entrepreneurs Creating Their Own Glass Ceiling?

Women entrepreneurs tell me their secrets.

They share their deepest fears and their most audacious dreams.

After cultivating a global audience of women entrepreneurs via the Biz Chix Podcast and working one on one with over 200 women entrepreneurs and speaking on stages to thousands, I remain excited to see women create businesses that provide them freedom and control over their lives.

But.

I am saddened to watch as some women entrepreneurs create their own glass ceilings that lead them to earn less than their male counterparts.

(Prefer to listen to this article, click the player below.)

A study by Freshbooks, found that women who work for themselves earn 28% less than their male peers.

Let’s break that down into real numbers.

If a small business owned by a woman makes $10,000 in revenue, her male peer makes $12,800.

If she makes $100,000, he makes $128,000.

If she makes $1,000,000, he makes $1,280,000.

I can think of a lot of ways that million dollar woman owned biz could leverage an extra $280,000.

She could hire more people, she could spend more on marketing, she could hire a sales team, she could upgrade her space and equipment, she could invest in new technology, she could increase her family’s wealth, she could fund a non-profit.

All of these activities add to the economy and lead to gender balance.

This week marks International Women’s Day and the theme this year is #BalanceforBetter.

According to the IWD website:

“Balance is not a women’s issue, it’s a business issue. The race is on for the gender-balanced boardroom, a gender-balanced government, gender-balanced media coverage, a gender-balance of employees, more gender-balance in wealth, gender-balanced sports coverage …

Gender balance is essential for economies and communities to thrive.”

I see lots of statistics about the state of small business for women, but very little explanation of WHY.

What holds women back from charging more?

Why do we have a 28% gap when women entrepreneurs are seemingly in charge of their own wages?

Why do we Earn 72 cents on the Dollar.

Most of the women I work with have small service based businesses. You might even call them micro-businesses. They are the businesses that form the backbone of our economy and fulfill needs we all have as we take care of ourselves and our families.

You won’t see these women pitching on Shark Tank or seeking venture capital.

Their revenue is somewhere between $25,000 and $2,000,000. These are your neighborhood service providers. Think — your hairdresser, your accountant, your marriage therapist, your speech therapist, your chiropractor, your interior designer, your consultant, your personal trainer, your house cleaner, your music teacher, your tutor.

Some of them are solo practitioner and others employ a team of 30+.

These women are your neighbors, your kid’s friends Mom and your friends.

But collectively they are short selling themselves in the marketplace and we are letting them.

WHY WOMEN STRUGGLE TO CHARGE MORE

I asked women in my community to share what holds them back from charging more.

Their answers are revealing and sometimes shocking.

Many of them revolve around negative mindset issues that are rooted in fears around judgment, failure and scarcity.

Fear of Judgement:

“I am afraid of the statements like ‘Who does she think she is?’”

“I will be seen as greedy.”

“I will be seen as arrogant.”

“I will get shamed by peers who charge less.”

“I think my current clients will get upset if I raise prices.”

“People will question my worth.”

Fear of Failure

“I will lose clients.”

“I won’t be able to deliver on the expectations a higher price demands.”

“I feel like until I have it all together, I can’t ask someone to pay me more.”

“I worry my clients won’t think it was worth it.”

Scarcity

“I scared if I raise my prices, I’ll lose all my clients.”

“‘I’m so terrified I won’t have any new clients and then I’ll make $0 dollars and won’t be able to pay my team and will be in credit card debt again.”

HOW TO DEAL WITH MINDSET ISSUES AROUND PRICING

Mindset is something that I work closely with women to break through. Last year I published R.E.S.E.T Your Mindset where I share how I tackle my own mindset issues and how eight of my clients have tackled theirs. I also share a framework for working through mindset issues. I find that mindset issues do not get conquered as in many other skills we master, instead they our mindset needs to be continuously reset as we up-level and advance in our business.

One tool I have used with clients is the “What if Protocol”. In this exercise, I ask women why they are stuck? For example, why are they not raising their prices when they want to. They will share their fear, like one of the statements I shared above.

Most of us stay in this place. Trapped in that fear.

What we can do to break free of that is to ask, Ok, What if that thing you are afraid of happened.

What if someone asked if you were worth that price?

What would you do?

What if you overheard someone judging you for your higher price? What would you do?

We keep asking what if that next thing happened and playing out the scenario until there are no more what if’s.

At the end we are left with a decision.

Could we survive where we end up at the end of the What If’s?

You see, our brain is wired to protect us from pain and to keep us safe.

It just knows fear.

It does not differentiate between the fear of a physical attack or fear of getting our feelings hurt.

Our brain will talk us out of doing things we are fearing, so we have to push through the fear and ask ourselves these questions.

I find that when my clients keep asking, “What If”, and we get to the end of all the possible scenarios, it is really not as scary as they imagined. In fact, it often seems silly that they were even stuck in the first place.

We decide on the next step for them and I encourage them to take a small action step toward that goal. Send that email. Make that phone call. Ask for that introduction. Change that price on the website. #takeaction

HOW CAN WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS RAISE PRICES?

Surround yourself by supportive women entrepreneurs who have a mindset of abundance (find a mentor, coach, mastermind or online community.)

If your clients and/or colleagues have told you that you are underpriced, you need to raise your prices.

If you have a waitlist for your products or services, it is a signal from the marketplace that you can raise your prices.

Let go of perfectionism around pricing. It involves trial and error. You can always go back to your old pricing.

Stop trying to please everyone. Not everyone is going to agree with your price increase and that is OK.

It’s not YOUR JOB to help EVERYONE. If you out price certain populations, you can always donate a portion of your time or services or help support a non-profit with the resources to serve them.

HOW CAN WE COLLECTIVELY CREATE CHANGE

Talk to someone today who needs to raise her prices. Tell her why. Tell her what she provides is worth more. Listen to her fears.

Cheer on a woman business owner when she raises her prices.

Ladies — let’s as a gender stop arguing with our female service providers over price. If someone does not demonstrate value, go somewhere else, but if you want to work with someone, don’t nickel and dime them.

We need to elevate one another!

I work with a lot of women who help heal others and transform lives such as speech therapists, chiropractors, yoga studio owners, integrative medicine practitioners, yet they leave schools and certificate programs in debt, with messaging that they should not be greedy and zero tools to run a successful business.

Schools that are educating helping professionals need to STOP shaming around charging well for services and START educating their students on how to effectively run businesses.

IT TAKES GREAT COURAGE

Being an entrepreneur takes great courage. Being a WOMAN and an ENTREPRENEUR comes with it’s own challenges and being a WOMAN OF COLOR has even more, but they are all something we can support one another through.

Can we start by closing that 28% gap?

What do you say ladies?

Can you raise your prices by 28% by the next International Women’s Day?

Whose in?🙋