GOING INTO BUSINESS FOR ONE'S SELF
Responsibility is something in which we all should share. If girls will
observe people, they will see that human beings grow and become better able
to work and help others through the exercise of responsibility. The girl or
woman at work who feels her responsibility and is able to act on her own
initiative is more valuable than the worker who always has to be told what
to do. By gradually learning how to take responsibility, the girl becomes
fitted to go into business for herself.
In the first place, few girls actually enter paid employment or business
life with the intention of becoming independent proprietors. It is only
after some years' experience of work that the idea occurs to them.
A trained nurse may have been in private practice three or four years
before she begins to think that she would like to own and manage a private
hospital. For the properly qualified and equipped woman, this is a good
business enterprise. A number of nurses are conducting excellent private
hospitals. The work is exacting, the hours are long and the responsibility
is heavy. But any girl who thinks of going into business for herself should
know at once that all these conditions are true of every independent
business that is worth while.
The business woman requires a precise technical and financial knowledge of
the business which she means to enter, and she needs as well originality,
a fund of ideas, courage, initiative, imagination, that feeling of capacity
for responsibility and enterprise which is like love of adventure,
judgment, nerve and character. She should not be too excitable and yet she
ought to be keen. She should not be easily disturbed and she ought to be a
steady worker. Above all, she requires to be able to deal with people, both
customers and employees.
Instances of women who have been successful in business enterprises may be
quoted which do not seem to conform to the requirements specified. But if
they are examined, these instances will show that the women in question
have fulfilled the conditions of success almost exactly as described.
A woman has succeeded, for instance, in managing her own country inn.
She was in a totally different employment before she started this
successful enterprise. But she had already bought, built on, and sold with
a margin of profit, three or four other properties. She had learned how to
buy land to advantage in the neighbourhood of a city. She bought her
present property, choosing a few acres which were already in fruit or in
use for growing vegetables. There was an attractive, large, old-fashioned
farm house on the premises, the property was near a railway station and
situated on a road constantly used by motorists. Other enterprises of the
same kind were studied by her. The food provided was made a specialty.
Every expense which could be lessened in connection with the property was
considered. A flock of poultry was kept. The fruit was either sold or put
down for winter use in the inn.
In almost every instance the successful woman of business enters on her
new enterprise in a small way. A girl begins by making and delivering
lunches to the staff of a large office building. Later she adds other
buildings to her list. She sells cakes, sandwiches and preserves from her
own home. Having saved some capital, she embarks on a down-town tea room.
Every detail of her business is planned as it expands and the management
is entirely in her own hands. The successful management of a large
business would have been impossible for an inexperienced girl, but it
comes easily to the young business woman.
In the same way a nurse began a business preparing supplies for doctors.
Soon she added invalid cookery to her other work. Her venture developed
into a business partly catering, partly a dining club, and in part a depot
for surgical dressings and home made cooking for invalids. Another woman
has inherited a large catering business from her father. It was a
considerable business when she became manager, but she had gone to work
with her father as soon as she left school. Still another woman has
established a system of hairdressing businesses. She began with one room
in one city. Her business has been extended to over forty cities. No chance
good fortune can account for successes such as these described. Managing
ability, foresight and character are responsible for a great part of the
achievement. The woman in each case made the discovery that the best
commodity of its kind offered to the public in the right way must bring
success, if the business enterprise itself is well managed.
Examples of the wise judgment of women in business are found in every large
community. A girl who makes good marmalade for home consumption began to
make and sell this product in a small way. She is now part owner of a large
business. A woman who went into a factory as an office helper proved to
have a gift for designing dresses. After spending a number of years in the
employ of the firm with which she began work, she has gone into partnership
with a woman dressmaker in a small specialized factory. A large wholesale
fish business is owned and managed by a woman, whose knowledge of the
business, including sources of supply and distribution, is entirely
adequate.
Women who own and manage business enterprises when they succeed often do so
because of their womanly qualities. There is no conflict between capable
thorough work and womanliness. The normal woman has always a capable and
helpful side to her character. She generally retains in affairs her
gentleness, considerateness, and patience in dealing with all sorts of
people. No quality is more important in business than a natural ability to
understand and sympathize. A woman's ideas may be original and her
knowledge of business details exact, but it is her power to work with
others and to make the best of them which is the highest part of her
business ability. Many of the businesses owned and managed successfully
by women are connected with food, clothing, health, physical, mental and
moral training, and personal well-being. The woman's advantage in business
has to do most frequently with perfection in detail, personal supervision,
knowledge of the highest home standards, and with making her commodity a
little the best on the market. The best women in business excel in making
conditions for their employees ideal. They plan to give their workers
opportunities for education and training, and sometimes help them to start
in business for themselves.