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Nov 17, 2009 -

In a recent 99% session with an all-female group of entrepreneurs, we were discussing the challenges faced by very small business owners, and particularly those in the creative sector. Many of the women in attendance were the sole proprietor and employee of their business.

During the workshop, the question arose as to what issues, specifically, female entrepreneurs struggled with the most. As 50% of the workforce is now female (though not yet 50% of the entrepreneurial workforce), it’s a question that increasingly demands attention. So what’s the most common problem of women in small business? From an anecdotal survey I took for this post, the universal reply was: women feel that they must be able to “do it all.”

As Adelaide Lancaster, co-founder of In Good Company, an all-women co-working space in New York says, “Since the vast majority of women business owners run companies that do not have employees and do not take on startup capital, they must be very comfortable juggling multiple roles and wearing the various hats that it takes to do business. While this stretch is often necessary in the beginning there is a risk getting too comfortable with the idea that you should be able to ‘do it all.’ Not only will you get burned out by spending too much time on tasks you don’t like, there is also an opportunity cost associated with spreading yourself too thin.”

Of course, feeling the need to be a jack or jane of all trades is a common affliction among all entrepreneurs – it comes with the territory. But it may be magnified for women because of the additional demands of family as well as a heightened sensitivity to gender bias, or the fear of being seen as weak. “I've often seen women being afraid of asking for help because there's this sense that we need to be able to handle it all – or else we'll be seen as incapable of handling anything,” says Rachel Brune, a project manager and defacto den mother at Adaptive Path, a strategic design firm in San Francisco.

So, how then to shift this ingrained impetus toward hoarding responsibility? It starts with building a trusted support network. Rather than going it alone, Adelaide advises women not to underestimate the importance of relationship-building and to “talk with everyone they can to exchange ideas, news, information, best practices, clients, resources, feedback, etc.”

How do you balance the multi-tasking required to run your own business and be a leader with the necessity of working within your core competencies? I’d love to hear more thoughts in the comments.

*** This article is based on the research and writing of J.K. Glei. She regularly collaborates with Scott Belsky and the Behance Team, who run the Behance Creative Network, the 99% productivity think thank, the Action Method project management application, and the Creative Jobs List.