Women have more attachment to thier business than men

da8iwr · Jun 23, 2008

http://racheleelnaugh.blogspot.com/2008/06/boycotts.html

Rachel Enlaugh the ex dragons den girl (Red Letter Days) has posted this comment yesterday on her blog

I think women tend to have much more emotional attachment to the companies they create than men.

If i wrote "Men have more emotional attachment than women to thier business" imagine the slating i would get for being a chauvinist....

DanMartin · Jun 23, 2008

I agree that such a sweeping statement is wrong. Entrepreneurs come in all shapes and sizes which has nothing whatsoever to do with gender. I'd argue that pretty much anyone who takes the huge risk of ditching a full-time job to go it alone ends up having an emotional attachment to their business. It's their livelihood so why on earth wouldn't they?

By the way, I have covered the boycott comments which Rachel has now removed from her blog on BusinessZone.co.uk. Read the story here.

cjd · Jun 23, 2008

As she offers no evidence, you can safely ignore it.

cubel · Jun 23, 2008

It's quite natural for people to jump to conclusions such as (wo)men are more likely .... or children are more.... As a guy from a different culture, I did find it difficult somtimes when mentioning a particular group of people regarding their gender, ethnic origin, religion etc, being afraid that I might be thought of as being biased. anyway, I would always try to avoid such kind of remarks.

da8iwr · Jun 23, 2008

DanMartin said:
By the way, I have covered the boycott comments which Rachel has now removed from her blog on BusinessZone.co.uk. Read the story here.

Thats how i found the story mate

cjd · Jun 23, 2008

Well at least there's lots of evidence of women's brains and behaviour changing during pregnancy.

"SOME pregnant women complain that their brains have gone on leave they find it difficult to concentrate, and have poor memories. Now, an explanation may be at hand: a group of anaesthetists and radiologists believe that women's brains shrink during late pregnancy and take up to six months to regain their full size."

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg15320640.400-pregnant-women-get-that-shrinking-feeling.html

Stephen Berry · Jun 23, 2008

But maybe size isn't everything.
From deep within the inner sanctum of my neo-cortex I recall somewhere that the largest (or was it the heaviest?) human brain on record was that of a Frenchman who was consigned to a lunatic asylum.

But ..... even my mega-organised wife, Mrs B, did a few uncharacteristically scatty things during pregnancy.

Tim R-T-C · Jun 23, 2008

"I think women tend to have much more emotional attachment to the companies they create than men."

Fine with me - I would personally call this a bad thing.

While having an attachment to a business is essential, becoming deeply emotionally attached can be a big negative. When a business is failing, a level headed businessman can decide enough is enough and move on, cutting the losses - someone too attached will stay on board until they become bankrupt or the company just completely shuts down, often leaving them unwilling or financially unable to try again. At the other end of the spectrum, a highly successful business might have been your life for the last 10 years, but if you get a generous take-over bid, an emotional attachment might well tempt you to keep control, but the smart businessman sells up, makes his fortune and tries something new or just retires.

(PS any sexism in this post is entirely tongue-in-cheek however the message is not...

(insert smiley face to underline this))

Dawg · Jun 23, 2008

How many times have we heard a gnother guru say "a passion for your business is essential"? Tell me that this passion isn't the same as an emotional attachment.
If I want a straight down the line, passionless, numbers only analysis I use an accountant. If I want a passion driven, exciting and invigorating buzz about the biz I use a salesman.
So you need both, and to deny one is foolish.
Business: dancing with numbers.

sm1 · Jun 23, 2008

That's rubbish - The sex of someone cannot determine that!

cjd · Jun 23, 2008

john.thomson said:
Hi,
I totally agree with the fact that women are more attached to their business and there are actually more and more women who started a real career of business women and are to the head of an company.

Let's see the evidence then

GreatSEO · Jun 23, 2008

Women, Men, Children and even aliens could be emotionally attached to their businss.

Does it not depend on your type of character? I believe that there are certain types of people and it is very much down to each individual situation/business.

I do not believe for 1 minute that women or men are more attached

Just my 2p

Regards

Dave

bargaindoctor · Jun 23, 2008

This doesn't make sense.

Women MAY be more emotionally driven, but when it comes to their business, men are also pretty emotionally driven!

So I don't see the point in this argument whatsoever...

da8iwr · Jun 23, 2008

I wonder if Women are more emotional, they will actually make more business mistakes as they cant step back and detach themselves from the business and look at it from a business point of view.

But men who are less emotionally driven will detach more easily and make the correct business decision which may be a worse personal decision (loss of jobs etc), but the right one for the business.

For example Rachel , went bankrupt, but 2 men managed to make the same business work profitably as they changed the business model to make it work rather than holding a personal attachment to the business and running it in to the ground.

Cornish Steve · Jun 23, 2008

"Women have more emotional attachment than women to their business"

Another way to put this is that men make better decisions because they remain more detached from their business.

It's all a matter of interpretation.

While it can be misleading to make sweeping statements, there is data to support the statement that men tend to be more stubborn and women more collaborative in business. A decade or so ago, there was a big trend for companies to become more 'feminine' (i.e., collaborative) in their management style. I didn't believe in it then, and I don't believe in it now - sorry. While managers may achieve more by collaborating, leaders need to lead. Partnerships are fine, and listening is important, but a leader must act decisively and make decisions that may or may not be popular. For sure, a business is not a democracy.

DanMartin · Jun 24, 2008

If anyone saw last night's episode of Mary Queen of Shops, I think it showed that men as well as women can develop an emotional attachment to their business.

sm1 · Jun 24, 2008

Yes Dan - have to agree 100%

deniser · Jun 24, 2008

This statement is true in relation to me personally and my husband. We are joint owners of our business but whereas I am truly in love with our business, my husband is only interested in the bottom line and how much money we make. Loving my business does not mean I am not still very level headed when it comes to making decisions.

If we sold it tomorrow I would feel very empty inside whereas my husband would think great, more time to play golf. The fact that I am emotionally attached to it also means that I work at it ten times harder than my husband - who happens to be on the golf course as I write this......

DanMartin · Jun 25, 2008

Rachel Elnaugh has responded to this discussion on her blog claiming to have evidence that women have more of an emotional attachment to their business than men. What's your reaction?

cjd · Jun 25, 2008

54% of men profile as having strong money/material drivers vs 45% having predominantly emotional drivers, whereas only 34% of women have strong money drivers vs 65% having strong emotional drivers.

Even if you accept as evidence the sort of information that 'Entrepreneural Profile Tests' provide (which I don't), where in those words does it say that women have a greater emotional attachment to their business than men?

Never mind, I could bring myself to believe the statement without evidence - but then so what? Is it good or bad to be more emotional about your business?

The inference is that men are the poorer for being less emotional about their businesses (in both senses of the term). Now that flies in the face of perceived wisdom - so I'd like to see that evidence too.

Preferrably not from a women's magazine survey.

mannakin · Jun 25, 2008

I have 3 children and in the first two pregnancies I was running my own business and never felt much change. Both older children are boys. With my third pregnancy, yes my brain did turn to mush - I couldn't even mend my computer and actually went offline for a while whilst doing not much but buying baby clothes and wandering from shop to shop admiring pretty pink shoes. My third child is a girl. Work that one out.

Cornish Steve · Jun 25, 2008

mannakin said:
I have 3 children and in the first two pregnancies I was running my own business and never felt much change. Both older children are boys. With my third pregnancy, yes my brain did turn to mush - I couldn't even mend my computer and actually went offline for a while whilst doing not much but buying baby clothes and wandering from shop to shop admiring pretty pink shoes. My third child is a girl. Work that one out.

From the evidence it's clear: The mother's brain mimics the gender characteristics of the child she is carrying.

KidsBeeHappy · Jun 25, 2008

It's interesting that all bar a couple of posters on this thread are men. I wonder why that is? Presumabley becuase the women are so emotionally attached to their business that their working on it whilst the men are gossiping about women on the forums

Cornish Steve · Jun 25, 2008

Boxby said:
It's interesting that all bar a couple of posters on this thread are men. I wonder why that is? Presumabley becuase the women are so emotionally attached to their business that their working on it whilst the men are gossiping about women on the forums

Nah. I think it's our natural tendency to help damsels in distress.

An Oasis · Jun 25, 2008

The post has been taken down at first I thought it was good old link bait, headline grabbing. Looks she posted and got nuked as a result, kind of a bad letter day.

Antonia @limeone.com · Jun 25, 2008

It's great PR as is any sweeping statement on almost anything based on gender! So much depends on the person, what else is in their lives and what the business is run for. It's a great way to get comments and publicity though

mannakin · Jun 27, 2008

Cornish Steve said:
From the evidence it's clear: The mother's brain mimics the gender characteristics of the child she is carrying.

No! It's called the brain transplant effect. A mother will always give her talents and intelligence to her daughter whilst in incubation mode. Hence all the clever females, designed to survive absolutely anything! Including attachments to the success of a business of course!

Stephen Berry · Jun 27, 2008

mannakin said:
No! It's called the brain transplant effect.

I remember when I was a young teeneger - my mother said to me "You've got my brains".

the reply of "I'd always wondered where they'd gone" is now still in familty fokelore.

da8iwr · Jun 27, 2008

mannakin said:
Hence all the clever females, designed to survive absolutely anything! Including attachments to the success of a business of course!

You mean like when Rachel went bankrupt with red letter days and needed 2 men to bail her out.

By the way, i lost £240 from that situation, as it was my mothers 50th birthday in May 2005 and we bought her a hot air balloon ride between my sister and I which was lost and to this day never had any refunds or anything, so yes i have a massive grudge against somebody who stands on TV saying how pro she is looking down at others criticising others businesses, and then goes pop and hides behind the shield of LTD company status and walks away a very wealthy person whilst I'm a weeks earning short! And then to cap it off she keeps a blog going to show her talents as a business consultant/business person of some form.

In the end we only had time to organise a meal for my mums 50th, as we never found anything out until we saw the bankruptcy on the news, we tried to call red letter days and there was no answers, and the website was turned off.

We contacted the company directly that was to give us the balloon ride, and they told us they hadn't been paid for 6+ months from them, so wouldn't honour any deals regarding Red Letter days, so She and the rest of her company must have known when we gave our money over there was no chance of it being honoured as there was obviously a major cash flow problem.

[EDITED BY MODERATOR]

But anyway back to the subject (after my little rant), I have my mothers brain, and my sister has our dads and thinks or acts nothing like our Mum, so that idea of the mothers brain is hit and miss, prob 50:50 as there are 2 parents.

Simon Campbell · Jun 27, 2008

Whether women have more or less of an emotional attachment than men to their business is probably something that is hard to measure or prove. It will also depend upon the specific business

Perhaps more important is that having an emotional attachment to a business can be good and it can also be bad. Emotion certainly adds drive and determination, but it can also cloud judgement. Emotional attachment might mean someone keeps fighting for the business when it should be closed down, ultimately putting off the day rather than avoiding it, and creating more problems and debts in the meanwhile.

in2town · Jun 27, 2008

Although this goes off the track a little, I have found that women are much better at networking than men, especially at networking events.

da8iwr · Jun 27, 2008

in2town said:
Although this goes off the track a little, I have found that women are much better at networking than men, especially at networking events.

LOL, is that a nice way to say they talk a lot

in2town · Jun 27, 2008

Well we all know that, but seriously women are more confident, when you next go to a networking event, have a look around the room and see how many men are stood in the corners of the room and have a look and see how many men are pretending to do something while trying to get the courage or trying to get their sales patter ready, while women are more straight forward and simply mix well with people.

Cornish Steve · Jun 27, 2008

in2town said:
Well we all know that, but seriously women are more confident, when you next go to a networking event, have a look around the room and see how many men are stood in the corners of the room and have a look and see how many men are pretending to do something while trying to get the courage or trying to get their sales patter ready, while women are more straight forward and simply mix well with people.

Personally, I think this is a British thing, not a male/female thing. I don't remember a meeting in the last several years in which men didn't network just as much as women - if not more - except in Britain. Brits tend to be more reserved and shy and not so willing to just jump in. Having travelled on business to many countries around the globe, it's something I had to overcome early on.

Having said that, women do tend to collaborate more willingly.

da8iwr · Jun 27, 2008

I think its the cave man thing, ug ug

If you make the first move, then your the weaker man, so you cant dominate the room. I have to say mind you, for you that will be coming to our meeting in Newcastle will see very quickly I'm a gob s***e and never shut up.

So have never really understood people staying quiet??

But yes it is def a British thing, my fiance is Greek, i dated before her an Italian girl, and also a french French girl. My closest friend and business partner is from Hong Kong and my other business partner in another company is from Sri Lanka.

And out of all the circles of friends I've been thrown into, the British are with out doubt the most quiet.

You cant shut Italian or Greek blokes up!!!

serendipitybusiness · Jun 28, 2008

I disagree with her statement on a personal level, I love them both but couldn't sell my man off for a profit!

ginantonic · Jun 28, 2008

I was in business with my partner for 3 years and he walked away from our failing business long before I gave up on it. I hung on long past it's sell-by date, and as a consequence, have financial difficulties, and am looking to return to the (aaargh!) 9-5 working for someone else, while he has set up another (more successful) venture. I think it IS harder for a woman to let go of something she's created, maybe something to do with the nurturing instinct. Hell, if all of us women gave up on our teenage brats....same thing? I think so. Incidentally, my business partner is also my dearly beloved, and we are still together...

Jezclayton · Jun 28, 2008

ginantonic said:
I was in business with my partner for 3 years and he walked away from our failing business long before I gave up on it. I hung on long past it's sell-by date, and as a consequence, have financial difficulties, and am looking to return to the (aaargh!) 9-5 working for someone else, while he has set up another (more successful) venture. I think it IS harder for a woman to let go of something she's created, maybe something to do with the nurturing instinct. Hell, if all of us women gave up on our teenage brats....same thing? I think so. Incidentally, my business partner is also my dearly beloved, and we are still together...

Men will definitely give up on the teenage brats quicker... Perfect excuse for more golf.

I have no emotional attachment to my business whatsoever, as it is nothing more than a vehicle to make money. As soon as it fails in that task, I will send it down to the scrap yard and start another one.

I don't see anything wrong with that approach and take no notice of a failed entrepreneur whose mind has clearly gone to mush.

serendipitybusiness · Jun 28, 2008

Jezclayton said:
take no notice of a failed entrepreneur whose mind has clearly gone to mush.

That is very harsh. I heard somewhere the average Entrepreneur has 16.5 failed businesses before they hit it big time. Everybody makes mistakes. She is talking from her own personal experiance on hanging onto red letter days too long herself, she openly admits that. Her mistake was putting the business into someone elses hands. However, her reasoning to do so in the first place was a sensible business decision. Red letter days was a brilliant business idea and she started it through grit and determination. She also fought to keep it alive right until the end. Not only that but she had the guts to pick herself back up and to go onto national television and back into the Dragons Den after, leaving herself open to further scrutiny. Now she has written a book about how business can fail so that we can learn from others mistakes. She has turned her mistakes into a positive. Any one of us could have made the same mistake its all part of being in business. Failing in a business does not make you a failed entrepreneur. Plus she probably has projects on the go right now. A failed Entrepreneur would run away and hide, she has done exactly the opposite and good on her!

I personally (I am a woman by the way

)have no quams about selling any of the businesses I have built or will be building in the future if it makes financial sense. However, that doesn't mean that I would disregard her statement out of hand, I could see how that could be the case.

"maybe something to do with the nurturing instinct"

Absolutely and it is the most powerful instinct we have so am not surprised that this could carry on over to business.

And thats my rant over

Jezclayton · Jun 28, 2008

I love a rant and yes my comment was harsh, but it is my honest opinion. There again generalizations, such as her statement, often attract such a response.

Speaking your mind often has the effect of getting straight to the point without beating around the bush. It also has the pleasant side effect of keeping your social network to manageable proportions.

The true test of an entrepreneur is not judged by success, but a dogged determination to try and try again as a self employed business person. I personally don't regard opting back into the TV celebrity/author route (both effectively employed positions) as fulfilling this criteria.

Cookie Consent

Essential

Analytics

Marketing

Women have more attachment to thier business than men

Dawg

sm1

GreatSEO

sm1

ginantonic