Coco Chanel – who created Chanel No. 5 perfume, bell bottoms, and the little black dress – was a successful businesswoman who had her own formula for success. Here’s what she said:

“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” – Coco Chanel.

She thought for herself, and she wasn’t afraid to say what she thought. And she probably said the wrong thing occasionally. She was human. But she also forgave herself (if she didn’t, she wouldn’t have succeeded the way she did!).

This key to success for female entrepreneurs are based on The Real Truth about Success:  What the Top 1% Do Differently, Why They Won’t Tell You, and How You Can Do It Anyway! Click the cover for details – Wynn is a funny, smart writer – and read on for tips businesswomen…

The Key to Success for Female Entrepreneurs – Coco Chanel

“We’ve been fed ideas about what it takes to succeed our entire lives, and we’ve eaten them up,” writes Wynn. “In many cases, though, we would be better off chewing them up and spitting them out.”

I won’t go into the wrong keys to success (though if you want me to, I will! Wynn’s wrong ways to succeed are very interesting…just comment below if you’d like me to write about them).

Instead of the usual keys to success, Wynn describes the key to success.

“Although wildly successful, the use of a personal advantage as a get-ahead tactic remains relatively unexploited by average U.S. businesspeople,” he writes. “And yet top performers are nothing more than average businesspeople who have discovered their secret advantage and leveraged it to reach new heights.”

The key to success for female entrepreneurs (and other successful women) is to find your personal advantage.

An example of using this key to success:

Paris Hilton decided she wanted to be more than a rich girl; she wanted to be famous. So, she hired paparazzi to follow her, snap photos, and publish those pictures of her. She used her personal advantages – money, appearance, love of the spotlight, shamelessness – to become a household name.

I’m not saying we should aspire to be like Paris Hilton, my friends. Nor am I saying we need money or elaborate exploits to get ahead. We just need to identify what our personal advantages are – our strengths – and use them.

Paris Hilton used what she had to become a highly successful woman on her own terms. And, her definition of a highly successful woman is different than my definition of a highly successful woman – but she achieved her goals. You gotta admire that.

Coco Chanel’s Personal Advantage

Coco was into fashion, clothing, elegance, and long-term style. Her key to success as a female entrepreneur was her focus on classic wear. Her designs had staying power. Her personal advantage was her tendency towards comfortable, casual, easy clothes – like the little black dress, which is still popular today.

“I don’t understand how a woman can leave the house without fixing herself up a little – if only out of politeness,” she said. “And then, you never know, maybe that’s the day she has a date with destiny. And it’s best to be as pretty as possible for destiny.”

Coco Chanel’s personal advantage was that she cared about her appearance, and she wanted other women to look and smell good. (Hmmm…is this a personal advantage, or is it just a passion?)

What’s Your Personal Advantage?

What sets you apart from the crowd? Think outside the box: what qualities do you have that other people don’t?  Think of things like how you once turned failure to success or how you changed careers. Your personal advantage is your key to success; you need only find and nurture it.

My next article here on See Jane Soar will list examples of personal advantages – some of them will surprise you – and describe how to nourish and use them.

What do you think of this key to success for female entrepreneurs? I welcome your comments below…

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Related posts:

1. Turning Failure to Success for Female Entrepreneurs – Maya Angelou
2. For Female Entrepreneurs – Martha Stewart’s 10 Rules for Starting a Business
3. How to Make Your Business Successful: Find Your Personal Advantage

“I believe in businesses where you engage in creative thinking, and where you form some of your deepest relationships,” said Anita Roddick, creator of The Body Shop. “If it isn’t about the production of the human spirit, we are in big trouble.”

For more info about how Roddick started The Body Shop, read Finding the Right Timing in Life – Anita Roddick. And, click on The Boss of You: Everything A Woman Needs to Know to Start, Run, and Maintain Her Own Business for specific tips for successful businesswomen.

When You’re Starting Your Own Business – What Successful Businesswomen Know

1. Believe in yourself. Your clients immediately know if you believe in your service or product, and they’ll assess you and your product or service accordingly. Tap into — and express! – your passion, integrity, and vision, and you’re more likely to be a successful businesswoman.

2. Gather a great team. When you’re starting your own business, don’t try to do everything yourself, even if you’re a freelance writer who works alone (like me!). If you can’t surround yourself with a smart, motivated team of employees or colleagues, then find a mentor. Soak up insight, feedback, and criticism from other successful businesswomen.

3. Leave your ego out of your new business. Your ego wants to keep you in control, make you look good, and manipulate people. Your ego wants to protect itself at all costs, and it doesn’t like vulnerability or rejection – which is part of starting your own business. Ignore your ego and focus on win-win situations for everyone. Speak up when necessary, even when you feel uncomfortable being in the spotlight!

4. Realize the value of failure. Successful businesswomen don’t escape failure. Successful businesswomen realize that success teaches more than failure, and that failing is a great opportunity to figure out how to do it better, or faster, or more efficiently. To learn more about what successful businesswomen know, read Turning Failure to Success for Female Entrepreneurs – Maya Angelou.

5. Don’t give up yet! Starting a new business can be hard, and many entrepreneurs quit because finding clients is harder than they thought, they feel discouraged, they lose hope, or they no longer believe in themselves or their product. The longer you persevere, the more you improve your chances of starting a successful business. “A writing career is nothing more than a long series of disappointments punctuated by occasional moments of success,” says Michael Bracken. Successful businesswomen know that this isn’t just true of writing careers!

6. Stay organized. Staying organized not only shows your clients what a great businesswoman you are, it makes you feel strong, motivated, and capable. If you get rid of clutter, do things immediately, learn to say no, stick with your routine, and prioritize your goals, you’re more likely to start a successful business.

If you have any tips on starting your own business, I’d love to hear from you! Please comment below…

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Related posts:

1. For Female Entrepreneurs – Martha Stewart’s 10 Rules for Starting a Business
2. From Hobbies to Careers – 5 Ideas for Turning a Hobby Into a Successful Business
3. How to Make Your Business Successful: Find Your Personal Advantage

“You did what you know how to do. When you knew better, you did better.” – Maya Angelou.

Bouncing back from failure involves accepting that you did the best you could at the time. When you know better, you do better…and the key is to learn from your business failures! One of my favorite books on turning failure to success is When Smart People Fail – click the cover for details. And, read on for specific ways to turn failure to success for female entrepreneurs…

Turning Failure to Success for Female Entrepreneurs – Maya Angelou

“Failure is a cleaning of the house,” writes Linda Gottlieb, co-author of When Smart People Fail. “It’s an opportunity to reorient your career, to inspect it, to relabel it. You learn to keep all your options in play, be light on your feet. Surviving failure makes you bold…Failure liberates you and gives you the courage to risk in a big enough way to guarantee big success.”

Research shows that female entrepreneurs are risk takers and less cautious by nature. Female entrepreneurs are optimistic but not always resilient — which is a shame, because bouncing back from failure may be the biggest predictor of success in business, relationships, and life.

Get real about failure. Failure isn’t a fatal flaw or social disease that renders you helpless and unhappy. Female entrepreneurs know that failure is not a permanent condition. Failure doesn’t make you less worthy, less intelligent, or less capable. Failure isn’t who you are….failure is simply an event.

Stop, take a deep breath, and think. After you fail, figure out exactly what happened. Did your business location lead you to bankruptcy? Were you fired because you weren’t focused? Be honest and specific. To turn failure to success, identify your mistakes and take responsibility.

“If you don’t like something, change it,” said Maya Angelou. “If you can’t change it, change your attitude.”

Regain control. When you know what went wrong, be deliberate not to make the same mistakes. Female entrepreneurs aren’t doomed to repeat history unless they’re oblivious! To regain control, determine what you did right and what worked in the past.

Also — remember that timing is everything. To learn how successful businesswoman Anita Roddick created the Body Shop, Finding the Right Timing — Anita Roddick.

Connect with other successful female entrepreneurs. Talk to women in business who have survived similar situations. Find out what worked. What would they do differently if they knew then what they know now? Compare stories. The more you hide your failures, the worse you’ll feel; so, be honest about your weaknesses and regrets. Not only is this emotionally healthy, it could open doors to new opportunities.

Adjust your perspective on failure. “I actually consider my failure to become a feature film director as the beginning of what I consider a saner and more successful life,” says award-winning Hollywood director Bert Salzman. “After winning the Oscar, I had visions of going right to the top, and when I didn’t get there immediately, I began to reconsider my life.”

Turning failure into success can be as simple as stepping back, looking at your life objectively, and realizing that failure doesn’t define you.

Work it, baby, work it! To turn failure into success, recycle your skills and talents. Reuse or re-label your abilities by breaking down the elements of your previous work into small, definable skills. Look at yourself differently – through the eyes of a stranger – and don’t be ashamed to share your hidden talents and abilities.

Failure can teach you compassion and humility. Failure can offer you a new sense of power and a different way to connect with the universe – if you let it. For more info on bouncing back, read 5 Ways to Build Resiliency – JK Rowling.

“Life loves to be taken by the lapel and told: ‘I’m with you kid. Let’s go.’ ” – Maya Angelou.

If you have any questions or thoughts on turning failure to success, please comment below!

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Related posts:

1. The Key to Success for Female Entrepreneurs – Coco Chanel
2. For Female Entrepreneurs – Martha Stewart’s 10 Rules for Starting a Business
3. When You’re Starting Your Own Business – What Successful Businesswomen Know