Whether Local or Global: Ask For Help

How do Britain’s most successful female entrepreneurs feel about the ways that they are characterized and the obstacles they encounter in running their businesses?

You can find out each week for the next month at Telegraph.co.uk where they will be asking some of Britain’s 100 most entrepreneurial women for their insights into specific challenges and opportunities confronting women today.

And they start with three women who have made it to the top in optical retail (largest privately owned optical company in the world, with more than 1,350 stores throughout the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, Spain, Australia and New Zealand) recruitment process outsourcing and field marketing.

Here’s a sample Q&A:

Q: You have built a business in recruitment process outsourcing, but recruitment is one of the more traditional sectors for women to work in. Was it a deliberate choice and what are your reflections on being a woman businesswoman in that industry?

A: “I see us much more as being in the business processes outsourcing industry and I don’t really see myself as a woman in business. I see myself as a business person.

“I think women are a lot less confident and a lot more self-critical than men. When applying for jobs, for example, men will tend to look at the job description and say to themselves, ‘I have three of the things they are looking for, so it will be fine’, whereas women might have six or seven of the same things, but because they have not got one of them they are afraid to go for it. I think women should be braver and have more confidence. One of my big regrets is not having the confidence early on to ask people if they would be a mentor to me. I really regret it because I now know that some of those people would have been thrilled to have been asked and would have gone out of their way to help me.”

We can learn so much by reviewing what other women entrepreneurs are doing in different parts of the world.  Read more here.

Posted by:  Laurel Delaney

Pictured:  Roseleen Blair, CEO, Alexander Mann Solutions, UK