WomenPartner.org asked #1 Bestselling Author, Serial Entrepreneur, TV Business Guru, Investor and Columnist Marsha Wright: why don't more women partner? Here's what Marsha said...
"I have seen these [the number of partnerships with women] increase but sometimes they are surprised when it works really well or surprised when another woman makes the approach.
It's happening more and more, there are women who want to partner, who want to put the word out, who want to get their businesses to move further; and they are wisely using The Collaborative Economy™ to be able to Leverage Strategic Alliances™ and strategic relationships in finding ways to help one another".
Wright, who has a global business portfolio (which includes an equity/acquisitions firm in Switzerland, training & mentoring company in Gibraltar, a media and publishing company in the US, and a high end consulting business in New Zealand) is all too familiar with partnering up, and is regularly interviewed by International press as an authority on the topic of Leveraging Strategic Alliances™.
Her belief for newbie or inexperienced people in partnering seemed to hint that it starts in the mindset of the partners first. She says "It used to be that you would take something from someone, and someone else would take something from you. But that's a limited to mindset. Great partnerships go way beyond that".
Wright says that this is not just a feminine issue:
"This isn't limited to just women entrepreneurs, this is something that happens when you are a solo entrepreneur when you come out of being an employee".
"Because as an employee you are always fighting for your job, you are always trying to stay autonomous, you are trying to stay valuable to your employer. So as a result when you go into business if you want to be successful you need to move away from that; but often people are actually bringing a lot of that employment mentality into business.
It makes you very insular, and as a result it falls over into not partnering with others".
Sounding much more positive Wright, who is also a two-time international #1 bestselling author, elaborated further, "what I do find beautiful is that when you do partner up - and I have done with many women; from my best selling books, right through to speaking events and engagements, and in business deals or companies I have invested in, etc. - it's great there is always this female camaraderie, this special code. There are always things that could go wrong but there are controls to prevent that."
"In my mind I think the reason that women don't do it as much, is that there is a fear something is going to go wrong. Or they have been stung by a relationship in the past where in the beginning they didn't clarify everyone's responsibilities. We have to trust womens' intuition, but we can't use it as an excuse to hold back our potential because human nature prefers that we stay away from things we don't now or understand."
Almost as though she knew that people would want to learn more about how to partner up the right way in order to grow their businesses, Wright chimed in with "In fact I have just written a book about this whole topic its called the 'The Secret Collaborative Economy: More Clients, More Exposure, More Profit, Faster!' that deals with the whole element of collaborating and leveraging strategic alliances to get to where you want to be".
She goes on to say: "Women want to partner up, all that is needed are willing partners with a shared vision of greatness, desire to do more than one can do alone and a large dose of integrity".
The Secret Collaborative Economy: More Clients, More Exposure, More Profit, Faster!' is due for worldwide release in July 2013, but pre-registration of the book has already taken off and thousands of entrepreneurs and professionals are expected to pre register for their copy and the bonuses.
You can do so too using the link below. You may also contact Marsha Wright through twitter where she is very active @MarshaWright.
The webpage for pre-registering can be found here:
http://www.marshawright.com/booklaunch
