Freda Mooncotch member for 1 year 24 weeks Send a message

In Part One, Business Sense - Trust Your Gut, I shared how important it is for you to really trust your own judgment and gut. In this post I would like to delve deeper still.

With over 40 percent of all privately held U.S. firms (10.4 million) being owned or controlled by women you would think that we would share with each other the nitty gritty of how we got there. Yet, surprisingly, there is a huge disconnect for women to share with others the raw truth about their business experiences. Most business media focuses on Fortune 100 and 500 companies that often profile individual women and make their experience sound like a cake walk. There is a huge demand for women to share candidly about how they achieved their success in an open, honest way. Success didn't just fall into their laps. They worked hard, cried some tears, might have failed a few times and then it happened. That is the purpose of AlphaWomen.com, to let women share openly with the rest of the world their business experience, in an open and honest way so we can benefit and hear your testimonials about what you had to do to make it. I guarantee, it wasn't easy for any successful business woman.

Something I failed to mention in Part One of this series, is that the day before we launched the Beta site of www.AlphaWomen.com, the general contractor requested that I make her co-founder and giver her a monthly raise of about $6,000.00. She had her business card made up and when she sent me over the proofs of my business card, hers were right there. I was a bit shocked, but, I was very naive at the time even though my gut was screaming that something smelled and it smelled bad. I started making some phone calls and shared her request with my attorney and some of my successful business friends who run their own companies. Each business person I spoke with regarding this situation was floored. When in doubt, ask a lot of questions, get second and third opinions to confirm your gut feelings.

Many of us, for whatever reason, have been taught to suppress our inner voice. Yet, that inner voice is the best built-in antenna God gave to us. Little children are so innocent and they haven't been taught to put a silencer on their instinct so when they have an uncomfortable sense about someone they speak blatantly about it. I always trusted my son when he said he was uncomfortable or didn't like someone. I never told him to override his instinct. When he got a funny vibe about someone, it made me scrutinize them a little closer and often we would share the same vibes about the same people.

My son hated our neighbor across the street where we lived, even though his daughter was one of my son's favorite playmates, and for good reason. It turned out that the guy was one brick short of a full load and when the little girl grew up, she started telling people. My gut was always correct about him, all my son knew in his little head was that the guy wasn't all there and he didn't feel safe being near him. We watched him like a hawk around Zach.

My point is, many times we override our better judgment about people and try to give them the benefit of the doubt. In the business world that can equate to a substantial financial loss by the time you learn to trust your gut, whether it is someone trying to sell your company insurance or hiring a consultant to train your staff. Anyone can look good on paper; anyone can put on a good suit, dress up really nice and have an extensive linguistic background to deceive even the sharpest business man/woman. Bottom line - trust your initial gut reaction, and when in doubt pull in a few trusted friends and get their hunches too. You will be glad that you did!

One thing that I have learned through all of this is the right questions to ask people. I didn't know what questions to ask when I first started this venture. I was gullible and naive and very trusting of people. I thought I could take everyone at face value that they were as sincere and trustworthy as me. That is not a smart way to run a business and you will find yourself going out of business in no time at all. You have to be sharp and wise and really know what questions to ask so you know if the person is full of shit or not. If you don't know the right questions to ask, you better make sure that you bring someone on board who does or who can give you a good education real fast. I was fortunate enough to have good financial backing to blow through the budget, make some costly mistakes, but I learned a lot.

As a start up company, you are the CEO, CFO, CMO, Sales, Technology, Accounting and the list goes on. You have to be able to make good judgment calls and educate yourself on many aspects of your company, or it is easy for people to prey on your ignorance.