Wait for Your Opportunity

At this point in the process, you know how much money you need and what you will and won’t do when it comes to managing your resources. By now, you are no doubt chomping at the bit to get going and put your newly penned financial rules of engagement into play. But first, you’ll need to wait. And possibly wait some more. Until that golden opportunity finally arrives.

While you’re waiting, it’s a good time to review your progress on Rule Three thus far:

As we have been taught – and, unfortunately, learned firsthand on more than one occasion – timing is everything. Even if the business idea is brilliant, if the market for it isn’t ripe, it will fail. And frankly, with a limited runway for success for most Female Mavericks, timing is an art-not-science that needs to be mastered.

Resist the urge to get out of the gate too early.

Lots of Female Mavericks will bootstrap the initial capital for their business. Which means it’s likely limited and must be dispersed wisely. The sooner you start spending it, the greater the chance it will run out before the market catches up to your dream.

We know this only too well. We started the fast-growth portion of our consulting business about 18 months too early. (In Beth’s defense, ESG was her baby. After taking a one-year mandatory garden leave from her previous position, she re-entered the startup world with guns blazing and ready to indoctrinate the investor relations officers of the world on the critical importance of having a strong environmental, social and governance investment narrative). We learned the hard way that our buyer still was too green on ESG to make budget commitments. No member of the executive team had stepped in to own it just yet. And the Board wasn’t quite ready to pull the trigger on these programs. Our corporate clients needed another year or so to get comfortable with the high price tag of our services.

Now, we also got lucky. The other segment of our business, financial communications, was doing quite well. Victoria, who was not forced to take a mandatory garden leave, had hit the ground running. As a result, we had revenues to support an investment in ESG, and the beginnings of a brand in our market to make sales easier. The downside? Work weeks pushing 100 hours or more so we could dedicate enough time to both generating revenue and nurturing our startup. Yes, we were exhausted. But had we not had a financial communications business for bringing in cash, the capital investments in data and programming for our ESG consultancy would have bankrupted us pretty quickly. Lesson learned.

Even after you start, be prepared to keep waiting.

Waiting for the right opportunity doesn’t stop once you have launched your business. You will have a few come-to-Jesus moments with yourself (and/or your partner) on the right way to spend valuable capital. (These will be so much easier to negotiate if you already have your financial rules of engagement in place.) In any case, Female Mavericks are often just barely covering operating expenses in early days while watching personal startup capital dwindle away. It's not easy to stay disciplined and you will be hungrier than ever for your big break. Maybe it’s taking on a huge new customer. Sponsoring a major conference. Or taking a turn with a product engineer to guarantee a flawless offering.

When these opportunities arise, you will understandably want to jump right in. But, if something feels off, it probably is.

For example, if you can’t serve the new client without taking on some key hires, and that client is only willing to sign a short-term contract until you prove you can play in the big leagues, it might not be as good an opportunity as you originally imagined. Maybe the price tag for the massive conference sponsorship opportunity doesn’t exactly jive with the names on the attendee list. Or the product engineer who came so highly recommended keeps delaying the kickoff meeting.

Red flags like these, or just a feeling that something’s wrong, should always cause you pause. So, listen to your gut.

Also, listen to your peeps.

Remember back to Rule Two when you set up your kitchen cabinet? There’s a reason that step comes before growth, and this is it. Feedback from your clever advisory board is essential in picking the right opportunity. Especially if you and your business partner aren’t entirely on the same page. Since your cabinet peeps are not as close to the situation as you are, they’ll have a better view of the opportunity you’re contemplating. Dial them in and see what they say.

For us, the opportunity we angsted over was a major (and majorly expensive) hire. The candidate was everything we wanted on paper. She had the sales chops, a huge network and was so engaging in person there was no way she wouldn’t win over clients. In fact, that’s exactly what she had been doing at a much larger competitor. Beth was all in and ready to make an offer. Victoria wasn’t quite sure. She had this niggling feeling that our gal was not the type to get her hands dirty. Rather, she was more used to having the ball teed up to hit out of the park than beating the bushes to find new opportunities for herself.

To end the stalemate, we agreed to have other senior members of our team interview the candidate and weigh in. Guess what? They sided with Victoria. Beth went down swinging but ultimately agreed to forgo the hire. Good thing. This promising candidate ended up failing quickly at a much smaller competitor before returning to her original company and comfort zone.

Now, who knows what would have happened if she had joined us. But, with a $350K-plus salary coming directly out of our own pockets, we couldn’t take the chance.

What’s Next?

Not being able to see perfectly clearly when evaluating a make-or-break opportunity is human nature. That’s why you need to tap your network, hard, in these situations. They want you to be successful and aren’t blinded by the rose-colored glasses every entrepreneur wears from time to time. While letting an exciting opportunity pass you by is never easy, take heart. There’s another one coming soon. And when it’s the right one, you will be more than ready to take that big swing.