What I Learned in My First Year as a Female Startup CEO
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is the founder and CEO of , a San Francisco-based startup that’s changing the way we use our lock screens. This post originally appeared on Kim’s .
What is it like to be a female in tech?
I think the industry is really curious about this topic — almost so much so that we appear committed to proving how different (or perhaps difficult) it is to be a female CEO.
If a reporter asks me why it sucks to be a female CEO, I can come up with hundreds of reasons. On the other hand, if I am asked to argue why it’s awesome to be a female CEO, I can also do that pretty well. So here is my take on both sides.
Top 3 reasons it sucks to be a female CEO
1. If you are aggressive, you are a bitch. If you are emotional, you are PMSing. If you are soft, you are too feminine. Whatever way someone finds you, they can always justify it is because you are female.
2. You may get more sales meetings because some of the guys that you are pitching to have a different agenda. Since it’s difficult to distinguish it early on, you may end up wasting some time. If you turn down their advances (and it gets awkward), doing deals with their companies can become difficult.
3. Hiring engineers can get tricky. When you reach out to prospective developers, you may get emails like this:
And the sad news is, this is one of the more professional emails.
Top 3 reasons it is awesome to be a female CEO
1. Sometimes, guys are more willing to help you because you are a girl. On the flip side, girls will help you because you are a “fellow female entrepreneur.” This is one of the rarely spoken benefits of being a female CEO, especially when you are trying to get things off the ground.
Tyra sent me this T-shirt to celebrate her investment in Locket.
2. Fundraising can be easier. For instance, there are female investors whose personal goal is to empower other female entrepreneurs. When Tyra Banks invested in , I felt lucky to be a female CEO.
3. You might be able to hire more talented female employees. You understand them better so it can be easier to identify a good fit. And if you land on the right ones, they can be really good (e.g. our designer Lisa is the best).
After all, there are bunch of studies (done by female organizations, obvi) that show women perform better on the job.
The glass is half full
The lesson here is that it is all about how you frame your perspective. If you are committed to believing that it sucks to be a female CEO, you will be right, and it will suck to be you.
If you are committed to believing it’s awesome to be a female CEO, you will be happier and confident to be you.
After all, it’s not like you can choose whether to be a female CEO vs male CEO. But you can choose your attitude toward it.
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22 things I learned in my first year as an RN
&#8226; February 9, 2013
Jupiterimages | Comstock | Getty Images + Scrubs
1. Something all new doctors and nurses learn fairly quickly (it&#8217;s a universal law in hospitals): Never, ever, EVER say “slow,” “quiet” or “calm.”
2. Do not ever say “I don’t know what day shift was talking about—he hasn’t had a bowel movement all night” because within an hour you will be engulfed by poo.
3. It’s okay to cry after your patient dies.
4. A wall suction canister works great to drain your foley bag, especially if you need to walk any distance to dump it and don’t want to wear urine on the front of your scrubs.
5. There is no “I” in nursing unless you are trying to win a spelling bee.
6. The opposing shift is not your enemy (see #5).
7. It’s okay to say “I don’t know,” and usually, if you are willing to ask, you can find someone who does. Always, always, always put patient safety before your ego.
8. Charting is very, very, very important.
9. “Real world” nursing is SO not like Grey’s Anatomy or ER. Believe it or not, we do NOT have sex in the break room. In fact, we are too tired from working hard to do anything but eat, pee and sleep during our breaks in the break room.
10. We as medical professionals often get so used to being elbow deep in other people’s body fluids that we forget that our friends and family might not want to discuss stomach contents, rectal tubes, sputum samples or spurting arteries over dinner.
11. Always assume your sedated patient can hear you. Also always assume your brain-damaged patient can hear you. ALWAYS treat ALL of your patients with respect.
12. Do not ever let a patient die alone.
13. Vicks VapoRub under your nose works great to help with not-so-yummy odors. So does putting a tea bag in your mask before you put it on.
14. It’s entirely normal to hear ventilator, tele, bed and IV pump alarms in your sleep during your entire first year as a nurse.
15. Use good lotion to keep your hands from getting too dry from all of the alcohol antiseptics we have around.
16. A good stethoscope and comfortable shoes and scrubs are worth their weight in gold.
17. Ask for help (see #5).
18. If you’re caught up, ask your coworkers if they need help (see #5).
19. When you have an opportunity to learn something new, take it (see #5).
20. When you have an opportunity to teach something new, take it (see #5).
21. If you clean your stethoscope with a bleach wipe after using it on a patient with c.diff, MAKE SURE you let it dry before you put it around your neck again (don’t worry, after you’ve accidentally bleached your scrubs once or twice you&#8217;ll never forget again).
22. Nursing is an art, a science, a way of life, and a privilege.
SEE MORE IN:
Angel Vipond, RN, works in the Redlands Community Hospital ICU. She became a nurse at age 35 after recovering from a severe illness. She hopes to continue her education so that she can someday teach nursing students. Read Angel’s blog at www..
Scrubs MagazineFive Things I Learnt In My First Year Of Entrepreneurship | Lifehacker Australia
After having spent the majority of my 20s working for five different companies, I finally decided to strike out on my own. I started my own online business and quickly discovered the unexpected challenges that come with the territory. Here are five major lessons from my first year as an entrepreneur.
(Shutterstock),
This post originally appeared on .
In September of 2012 I said goodbye to what I hoped would be my last office job. In October, I created an online business that would teach entrepreneurs how to get started with online video. Even though I technically started my business in October, the first six weeks were spent building a website (I had no skills and no experience doing so), and the next two months were spent blindly going to networking events &#8212; and slowly becoming aware that:
In-person networking is a horrible way to grow an online business.
I didn&#8217;t know what the hell I was doing.
While I had budgeted, planned and prepared, I had still somehow missed the fact that the key to my business making money was having a captive audience and lots of web traffic.
I had neither.
My Background
After my initial foray, I realised I would rather be making videos than teaching people how to make them. So I pivoted,
(from a template this time) and set out on a fresh course with a fresh set of challenges.
My fifth and sixth months were spent teaching
classes, consulting one on one for clients, trying to find businesses to produce videos for, all the while continuing to network like mad. I was essentially grasping at straws since I hadn&#8217;t yet really made any money and was rapidly burning through my savings.
It wasn&#8217;t until February of 2013 that
(then ) posted a
to get a year of free business mentorship from Corbett Barr. Knowing I was desperately in need of help, I did the only thing I really knew how to do, I created a pitch video.
with them, and their team immediately set to work helping me figure out what would be the most sustainable model for me &#8212; something that I would enjoy that would also make me money.
Today, after 18 months of what has felt like grasping in the dark, I am able to look back and observe some tangible things I&#8217;ve learned, and continue to benefit from.
1. It Costs More to Be An Entrepreneur
Articles will tell you to budget for , and I did. But not nearly enough.
One thing we are not used to doing when we have a full time job is putting away money for taxes. Since it is usually taken right out of our paycheck, most new entrepreneurs and freelancers have no experience with this. And since most likely as a fledgling entrepreneur our paychecks are few and far between, we find ourselves using every dollar we have just to keep going.
Remember, you should aim to make considerably more than whatever your monthly expenses are going to be. For me, that number was double my monthly expenses. It might be less (or more) for you. But this should be something you give a lot of thought to.
You&#8217;re also going to be paying out of pocket a lot more for things you didn&#8217;t consider.
You&#8217;ll probably take a lot of meetings at coffee shops. It might be only four bucks a pop, but twice a week and suddenly it&#8217;s several hundred dollars a year you didn&#8217;t factor into your budget. There are a lot of other little expenses like that.
I did a year-end review after my first full year as an entrepreneur, but honestly I probably should have been checking every three months. And that&#8217;s something I&#8217;m going to start doing this year!
It&#8217;s ok to budget in a significant amount of money as &#8220;unknown.&#8221;
means making a lot of little adjustments on a regular basis, not just one big change every so often.
2. Double The Amount of Chickens You Count Before They Hatch
When I first started, my goal was to make $US5,000 a month. And I based my early revenue predictions on the clients I thought I might be bringing in.
A potential client would tell me they could afford a $US2,000 video, which to me meant a guarantee. And if I had three of those lined up I thought, &#8220;oh great, I&#8217;m going to make $US6,000 this month. I&#8217;m set!&#8221;
What I didn&#8217;t realise is that there are a lot of things that will happen. For example, a client will back out and not work with you, or the project will get delayed and that money won&#8217;t come in for months, perhaps even a year!
It took me a long time to figure out that if I want to be making $US5K a month, I need to have at least $US10K in opportunities &#8212; which made me realise I needed to be doing a ton of outreach to make sure that&#8217;s a possibility.
That way, if I have $US10K in possibilities and half of them fall through, I can still pay my bills, but if they all come through… woohoo new shoes!
to keep track of my contacts and my revenue, but I also have a simple revenue forecast at the bottom of my to do list in , so I can adjust it every day easily and always be aware of how much money is coming in.
3. Be as Specific as Possible When Writing Contracts
I will readily admit this is the hardest one because you don&#8217;t know what you don&#8217;t know. By which I mean I have no background in law or contracts, except the five months of business law I took in the 8th grade from which I remember nothing.
So when it came to my first contract, I cobbled it together from ones I found on the internet and other entrepreneurs I knew. And inevitably, no matter how great I thought a client would be, it always ended in me adding a new clause to my contract about something I didn&#8217;t anticipate like a kill fee, or 50% up front, or the specifics of the terms or even WHO the check should be made out to.
Make your contracts as concrete and clear as possible so there is no question of what needs to be done.
Sometimes a client wants to get to work right away without a contract. I don&#8217;t care how much you like them &#8212; it&#8217;s not worth it.
Every project I ever did without a contract turned into a nightmare.
If you can, find a lawyer friend to do you a favour in the beginning and help you get a legit contract to protect yourself. Even if it&#8217;s taking a while for a client to pay me, as long as I have a signed contract in place, I feel much more secure than if I don&#8217;t. Which brings me to my next point.
4. Clients Who Haggle Over Price Will Be a Problem
This isn&#8217;t that revelatory. You see this talked about in many entrepreneur blogs, but it really is true. Keep in mind, haggling is different than negotiating.
Call it the
rule or whatever you want, when clients beat you up over price, it is foreshadowing that they will beat you up over everything!
In the past 18 months I have done jobs that range in price from $US600 to $US10,000. And looking back now, every time I discounted my rates because I needed the work or was trying to be a nice guy, it has caused me enough stress to lose sleep.
I have found a magic number regarding the price of projects for my own clients that sets apart those who complain about everything from those I actually enjoy working with.
If at all possible, say no to unfairly discounted rates. Set a floor for yourself and then price yourself quite a bit above that so even if you have to discount, you aren&#8217;t really taking a loss. But you probably shouldn&#8217;t even take those clients because they still are trying to get something for nothing.
I know this is hard if you aren&#8217;t bringing in any money and you need that contract to pay the electric bill. I have been in that scenario, so I really do understand. That is why it is important to have multiple streams of revenue, savings, or at least a fall back part-time income that can sustain you.
Once you start doing crappy projects, it&#8217;s hard to break out of that cycle.
5. There Are a Thousand Ways to Get Clients and You Might Need to Try Them All
I spent an entire year going to between two and four networking events a week. I joined 20
groups. Some days my first networking event started at 6:45am and my last event ended at 10pm.
It was exhausting.
Do you know how many clients I got from going to 100+ networking events in one year? Zero. Not one. I emailed every single person whose business card I got, of which there were over 600, and had a bunch of lunch meetings, calls, and coffees, but not a single one amounted to a dollar made.
On the surface, it appears that networking events were a horrible investment, but I did learn a lot from them.
I learned how to talk about my business in one sentence. I learned how to interact with people and to promote my business without being a jerk. More than anything I learned a ton about human nature.
Looking back it was really just flying blind. The quickest way to make money is to find people who need your services. I can&#8217;t tell you where that is, but there are always options. If you feel like you don&#8217;t have any options, it means you aren&#8217;t looking in the right place.
One More Thing
A lot of things make no sense as an entrepreneur. I&#8217;ve had leads come from places I never expected. I met great clients in places I almost didn&#8217;t go. I&#8217;ve acquired clients from calls I almost cancelled. For the most part, you have to use a fair amount of discretion in choosing where you allot your time because you can&#8217;t do everything all the time. You can try, but you just can&#8217;t.
Allow yourself to be surprised, consistently check out new avenues, try new things, experiment. If something doesn&#8217;t seem like a good investment of your time, it might be hard to get excited about, but ask yourself: could this provide some value other than money? Many times you won&#8217;t know the answer.
And many times it will be very hard to figure out where your efforts are actually paying off. But you must plow forward. You must continue to do. Because when you stop doing, you stop getting. And when you stop getting, you stop making.
I&#8217;m getting better at understanding and trusting my gut. It&#8217;s a powerful tool when you are on your own. If nothing else, just take some time to think about your options.
If somebody wants you to commit something immediately and you&#8217;re not sure about it, give yourself a day to think about it. Time and perspective are incredibly important for making good decisions. And the more scenarios you find yourself in that require that skill set, the better that skill set will become.
The first year as an entrepreneur will be messy.
You won&#8217;t know what to do in every scenario and you will have to face a lot of discomfort. But like
says, lean into the discomfort. Nobody gets through anything by leaning back.
latest business is , through which he works with successful brands to produce videos to tell their stories.
Fizzle&#8217;s mission is to help the online entrepreneur grow their business, revenue and fulfillment until they&#8217;re buzzing, crackling and {cough} fizzling with creativity, impact, potential and purpose.　　　　　　　　　
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My First Year in College
来源：　 15:04:00　【】　
　　My First Year in College&& Many high school graduates wrongly assume that university life is totally free from worries. After a period of serious and solemn study in senior three, the hard beavers expect to take a break and develop some habits. However, many may find later that the situation may be beyond their anticipation.&& I‘ve tried to convince the adults around that the image they have of my university life as a free and unrestrained one is some what misunderstanding. In reality, school life is so busy that I sometimes wonder if my energy is enough.&& About my first year in college, my life is mainly made up of two parts, study and practice.& As a student, the main task is study. In order to gain a high GPA, I have to get used to the&college life style and begin a new pursue in study. It is the learning method that shows off most of the differences between senior study and college study. ! have a roommate who goes out to have lessons in the morning and comes back in the evening after the self-study classroom is closed. The peers‘ behaviors make me feel under pressure. In university, one% view of life is integrally formed and strengthened. I begin to program my future plan and realize that study itself is an affair for me. The more courses I learn by heart, the more maturity I get. University education ensures students of better jobs.& I usually reckon that time consuming on study is worthwhile as it bears such important events as occupation, career and responsibility.&& To some extent, study and practice are intertwined, and they begin from the very start of freshman year. Student Union enjoys almost complete acceptance. It is a place where one can get his ability trained, have his competence applied and make a lot of friends who share the same interests with him. But sometimes, social activities and practices are time consuming, what‘s more, the sense of responsibility also requires you to make effort to fulfill the task.&& No one starts in one‘s present position all along that it was what he or she wants to do. Sometimes, the chance will just lead you down some unforeseen trail only if you have a prepared mind. My first year in college is not relaxed, but all way along is full of curiosity and satisfaction.简& 评&& 通过这篇作文，我们看到了一个值得佩服的女大学生，学习努力，又积极参与社会实践，具有明确的人生目标，大一的生活过得充实而幸福。&& 从intertwine，time consuming，reckon等词汇可以看得出来，的语言功底较为扎实，词汇的使用准确而地道。从学习和实践两个方面进行阐述，并在末尾进行了总结，对文章开头进行了呼应，显示了娴熟的写作手法。&& 不过，从标题来看，这篇文章应当是写对大一的总结和感受。论述提纲也是如此，但有点过于注重论证，去justify自己各方面的行为，而非从内心自我的角度出发去谈自己的感受，除了在第二段用了几个I作为句子的主语以外，文章的其余部分几乎没有用I或my，反而是用了几次you，这样显得客观有余，亲切不足，是的美中不足之处。&& (点评教师：孙东云)1&&&
文章责编：liujun1987&　看了本文的网友还看了
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