Why Women Start Businesses - And Why Men Should Pay Attention

Today's guest blogger is Melissa Mashtonio.

Ask any female business owner you know why she decided to be her own boss and the answers you get may surprise you. For women, it’s rarely about money.

Currently there are 11 million women-owned businesses in the United States. What’s motivating women to start their own businesses? According to a survey by Ladies Who Launch, women launch a new business to:


* Have more freedom and control over their schedules and lives.
* Pursue their passion and dreams.
* Create revenue and make money doing what they love.

In study after study, women are more likely than men to cite personal interests, a desire for self-fulfillment, and job satisfaction as their reasons for starting businesses. Male entrepreneurs are much more likely to say that they started their businesses because of the desire to make money or to build a company.

In her article, “Women Entrepreneurs – Doing Business in a Feminine Way,” author Kim DeYoung (aka "The Metromom") found that while specific motives for starting a business are unique to every woman, they reflect a clear pattern: “Women want their work to fit in with the rest of their priorities and values in life.”

It's YOUR Choice - Wage Slave or Entrepreneur?

Is it better to keep on working for someone else for a regular paycheck or start your own business and earn your own paycheck?

It wasn’t always this way. Once upon a time most of us were slaves to persons of privilege called masters, who in turn were owned by a ruling class of people. Slaves did the master’s bidding under threat of bodily harm or banishment, both of which often resulted in death. Some masters took minimal care of their slaves by feeding, clothing, and housing them, but for the most part slaves were worked until they ceased to be of value to their masters and were then disposed of.

It wasn’t long, however, before the slave-master realized that rewards for good work caused the slaves to do better work. Rewards included better food, cover from the weather and trinkets. Slaves were quick to discover that other slaves would trade amongst themselves for these rewards.

Giving slaves too much in the way of payment meant it was conceivable they could accumulate enough to break out of the system. To guard against this, the concept of requiring slaves to pay a tribute to the owner arose. For this tribute the owner would offer lifetime protection to the slave.

Slaves were still able to break away and set up shops and establishments of their own, and although these renegades competed with the slave masters, they provided so many of the goods and services slave masters valued, and provided them at such a low cost, the renegades were not only allowed to remain in business, they were encouraged.

Today we call these people small business persons or entrepreneurs.

And today a two-part system of exacting tributes continues to exist, one of which favors and encourages entrepreneurs. These are the W-2 and the "1099" (sometimes called "Schedule C") systems.

If you are a wage earner under W-2 you receive a paycheck with many of the "tributes" already deducted, and you can spend the remainder on food, shelter, clothing, transportation, education and other desirable things. No, you don’t earn $60,000 a year as you thought; you earn $30,000. Half your earnings are taken by various levels of government: federal, state, county, city and others.

If you operate under 1099, however, you receive the $60,000 up front, and you get to deduct the cost of sheltering your business, the cost of employees and other expenses before you pay taxes on the remainder. It is possible to arrange your business affairs so that you live well and only have to pay taxes on what is left after expenses. Sometimes this can result in $0 taxes!

Of course, you will have to hire accountants to get to that point, but even this cost can be subtracted in advance, further reducing your tax bite.

Now, which is better? Pay taxes of $30,000 on the front end of $60,000 in earnings, or paying little or no tax on the same earnings and still have all the perks of ownership?

This, of course, is a highly abbreviated view of why going into business for yourself can be one of the most rewarding things you can do with your life. But it gives you a starting point for thinking about the subject.

Paul Tulenko writes a newspaper column called "Small Business" for the Scripps Howard News Service. This article appeared in The Trentonian on September 21, 2002.

The Proverbs 31 woman had a home business

We have talked about whether you CAN work and home school - but you may be wondering if you SHOULD?

The Proverbs 31 woman had time to purchase fields and plant vineyards with her earnings, work vigorously, provide food for her family, oversee profitable trading, make bed coverings and sell homemade linen garments, AND faithfully instruct her children. Nowhere does it criticize her for trying to do both.

Now it is certainly possible that in your personal circumstances you will decide that God is not calling you to work at all, but to be a keeper of the home. Or you may feel that you do not have the energy or self-discipline to teach your children at home. Only you can know what He is asking of you, and you should do that. But I do not see that Scripture precludes working from home, even for a mother with children. He will not ask you to do anything that He will not also empower you to do.


10 [c] A wife of noble character who can find?
She is worth far more than rubies.

11 Her husband has full confidence in her
and lacks nothing of value.

12 She brings him good, not harm,
all the days of her life.

13 She selects wool and flax
and works with eager hands.

14 She is like the merchant ships,
bringing her food from afar.

15 She gets up while it is still dark;
she provides food for her family
and portions for her servant girls.

16 She considers a field and buys it;
out of her earnings she plants a vineyard.

17 She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.

18 She sees that her trading is profitable,
and her lamp does not go out at night.

19 In her hand she holds the distaff
and grasps the spindle with her fingers.

20 She opens her arms to the poor
and extends her hands to the needy.

21 When it snows, she has no fear for her household;
for all of them are clothed in scarlet.

22 She makes coverings for her bed;
she is clothed in fine linen and purple.

23 Her husband is respected at the city gate,
where he takes his seat among the elders of the land.

24 She makes linen garments and sells them,
and supplies the merchants with sashes.

25 She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.

26 She speaks with wisdom,
and faithful instruction is on her tongue.

27 She watches over the affairs of her household
and does not eat the bread of idleness.

28 Her children arise and call her blessed;
her husband also, and he praises her:

29 "Many women do noble things,
but you surpass them all."

30 Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

31 Give her the reward she has earned,
and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

The Pitfall of Being Entrepreneurial

The Pitfall of Being Entrepreneurial
TGIF Today God Is First Volume 1 by Os Hillman
Saturday, September 20 2008

"When they came to the threshing floor of Kidon, Uzzah reached out his hand to steady the ark, because the oxen stumbled. The Lord's anger burned against Uzzah, and He struck him down because he had put his hand on the ark..." 1 Chronicles 13:9-10

God's ways are not our ways. The most important quality God desires to develop in us is our dependence on Him and Him alone. When we begin to make decisions based on reason and analysis instead of the leading and prompting of the Holy Spirit, we get into trouble with God. David later learned the importance of this principle in his own life. This encounter was one of the stepping-stones in his pilgrimage. David was an extraordinary entrepreneur. He ran the nation very successfully, but he, like each of us, had to learn the difference between "good things" and "God-things."

There are good things we can do, but only God-things we should do. Those activities not born out of the Spirit will result in wood, hay, and stubble. What seems good in our eyes may be an abomination in God's eyes. For instance, if you decide to build an orphanage but God has never directed you to do so, then God will not see that work as good; it was born out of your own strength, even though it was a "good work." The most difficult challenge a Christian workplace believer will ever have is to know what things to be involved in and what things not to be involved in. Many workplace believers have a great ability to see opportunity. What appears to be a "slam dunk" may come back to haunt us if God never ordains us to enter that arena. There are many good things we can be involved with. However, there are God-things we are supposed to be involved with. Uzzah was a good man in David's sight. It was a time of celebration, and David and the people were transporting the ark of God. However, the ark hit a bump, and Uzzah reached for the ark to hold it steady. He touched the ark, and he immediately died. David became very upset with God about this situation; he questioned whether he could serve God.

Are you involved in anything in which God has not directed you to be involved? Do you seek God about every decision, every action before you take it? This is where God wants you and me to be. Ask Him to show you how to walk with Him in this way.

Reprinted by permission from the author. Os Hillman is an international speaker and author of more than 10 books on workplace calling. To learn more, visit http://www.MarketplaceLeaders.org

Knowing Our Limits

He who works his land will have abundant food, but the one who chases fantasies will have his fill of poverty. - Proverbs 28:19

Webster's defines entrepreneur: "one who organizes, operates, and assumes the risk in a business venture." [Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Tenth ed. (Springfield, Massachusetts, 1993), "entrepreneur."] Entrepreneurs can smell an opportunity a mile away. However, what is often their greatest asset can become their greatest downfall. The road is littered with entrepreneurs who have been successful in one venture only to fail in countless others. Is this the natural way for an entrepreneur, or is there a better way?

King David was an entrepreneur. He grew up as a shepherd boy and later became Israel's greatest warrior. He responded to opportunities, like the time when no one would fight Goliath. He saw this as an opportunity. He ultimately became king of Israel and faced many opportunities placed before him. David learned an important lesson somewhere along the way that each of us as workplace believers should learn.

As an entrepreneur the greatest danger is engaging ourselves in activities in which God never intended us to be involved. This is poor stewardship of what God has entrusted to us. When the Philistines attacked David, he always inquired of God as to if and when he was to counterattack. When he was attacked a second time on one occasion, David inquired of God as to whether he was to attack yet. This time God said yes, but with a condition, "Wait until you hear the sound of marching in the balsam trees" (see 2 Sam. 5:24). This story tells us that David had learned an important lesson about staying vertical in his relationship with God at all times. David had learned the important principle of staying focused on what God wanted for him, not what seemed logical. He was an opportunist, but only through the filter of the Holy Spirit in his life.

How do you approach opportunities? Do you consider the merits of the opportunity only? Or do you inquire of God as to whether He desires you to pursue? It may be a wonderful opportunity, but it may not be God's will for you to be involved. Ask the Holy Spirit to direct you as you seek to use the skills He has given you.


Excerpted with permission from the book TGIF Today God Is First by Os Hillman. Copyright 2003. Reprinted by permission. For free daily email subscription to TGIF Today God Is First, visit www.TodayGodIsFirst.com or www.MarketplaceLeaders.org