Woman Entrepreneur Karin Abarbanel Helps Other Women Learn How to Start Their Own Business

Karin Abarbanel is a woman entrepreneur who will stop at nothing to help other women learn how to own their own business and succeed. Her new book, Birthing the

Elephant, is the What to Expect When You´re Expecting for aspiring women entrepreneurs. Packed with inspirational frontline advice from cosmetics company

founder Bobbi Brown, maternity-wear pioneer Liz Lange and more than twenty other entrepreneurs and experts, Birthing the Elephant also offers quick tips, checklists, action steps and is a helpful resource guide.

I interviewed Karin just before her virtual book tour in April and asked her more about her book and her philosophies on owning your own business from a woman´s standpoint.

Thank you for this interview, Ms. Abarbanel. Why is starting your own business is tough and how does your book help those who are fearful about starting a new business?

Most of us who start new businesses have spent many years working in traditional jobs. Shifting from employee to entrepreneur is one of the toughest transitions to make because you're not just changing jobs or changing careers, you're changing your identity. You need to give up a "paycheck player" mentality and begin to think and act like an entrepreneur. You need to learn how to substitute brains for bucks. You need to master marketing. You need to learn how to innovate your way out of problems. Winning the small-business mind game isn't easy. One third of all new businesses don't make it past year two; more than half don't survive through year four. Beating the odds takes courage and motivation.

Part portable success coach, part step-by-step guide to the launch cycle, Birthing the Elephant is designed to help aspiring women entrepreneurs manage their fears and deliver on their dreams. It takes women by the hand and shows them how to navigate the rocky emotional terrain of the first 22 months of a launch, when every decision counts and mistakes are magnified. It gives women smart start-up strategies and shows them costly pitfalls to avoid. By helping women understand predictable problems and patterns, it demystifies the launch process and makes it less mysterious and frightening.

The statistics on new businesses failing in the first year are astronomical. Karin, in your own opinion, what mistakes do you think they are making so that new business owners might take your advice and avoid the pitfalls?

During our interviews with successful women entrepreneurs in Birthing the Elephant, we identified a number of costly mistakes that new business owners will want to bypass during their start-up phase:

The first is overspending due to image anxiety. New business owners often invest much more in their infrastructure than they need to. They get carried away with buying

state-of-the-art equipment or building websites with all the latest bells and whistles, instead of zeroing in on what clients really want, which is great service and results. It's a smart idea to keep your operating structure very lean in the beginning and then upgrade it as time goes on. You don't want to pour precious start-up dollars into equipment when you should be channeling them into income-generating activities like marketing.

A second big mistake is under pricing. This is a big issue for women! Research shows that women consistently undervalue their experience and expertise during negotiations – and this can really make it hard for their businesses to operate profitably. Getting pricing right isn´t easy, but it's very important. So new business owners need to get help by talking to industry experts, finding mentors, or tapping resources like SCORE advisors to get solid advice on pricing. Otherwise you´re constantly playing catch up.

A third mistake is spending money on advertising instead of doing "guerilla marketing." Many of the women we spoke with advised new launchers against using advertising as a

tool too early in their start-up. It's very expensive and often it doesn't reach the markets you really need to attract. A much better strategy is to focus your energy on doing

"guerilla marketing" -- promoting yourself, telling your story, and coming up with creative ways to get the word out about your product or service.

Birthing the Elephant´s target audience range from younger women who are opting out of corporate life early in their careers to mothers seeking more flexibility to midlife

career changers who are reinventing themselves by launching new businesses. Do you see a rise in women who fit into this mold?

Yes, definitely! A recent study on small business by Intuit, a software developer, found that there has definitely been a rise in the number of younger women launching

small businesses, in the number of "mompreneurs," and in the number of midlife career changers who are opting out of corporate jobs and launching new enterprises. Every month, more than 200,000 women launch new ventures -- that's 2.5 million women a year. Incredible, isn´t it?

Karin, you say that other guides focus on the 3Ms: money, marketing, and management and that only Birthing the Elephant focuses on the 4th M: motivation, which lies at the heart of small business success. Can you explain more about this 4th M?

Emotional stamina, resiliency, and passion -- these are what I mean by motivation. Mobilizing all of these inner resources is vitally important in a new business start-up. Launching is daunting! You run into so many problems and unexpected obstacles that it's easy to become discouraged and feel you've made a wrong decision by choosing to pursue your entrepreneurial dream. So staying motivated and focused is absolutely essential for success. If you run out of gas emotionally, the best marketing plan or a fat budget won't be enough to keep you afloat when the going gets tough. And as any road-tested entrepreneur will tell you, it will get tough at some point.

In your book, you say that the first 24 months of new start-up businesses is very critical where every decision counts. Why do you think this is so?

There's an old saying that contains a lot of truth: "Well begun is half done." If you get off to a smart start when getting your new business off the ground, then your chances of success are so much stronger. And if you can stay motivated and on track in the first 24 months of your venture, you are much farther up the learning curve – and better equipped to keep going and growing.

You include real-life stories of women entrepreneurs who have become successful. Can you name a few?

There are so many wonderful, inspiring stories in Birthing the Elephant! This is what made it so enjoyable and rewarding to write. We interviewed Bobbi Brown, the cosmetics company founder, who shared her ups and downs with us in launching her business. We also spoke to Liz Lange, who had a very rocky start and came up against many naysayers who thought her idea of stylish maternity clothes was a nonstarter -- yet she persevered and stayed true to her dream and built a tremendous business.

We spoke to Ronnie Fliss, who was axed from her job at 51 and rebounded to start Fat Murrays Doggy Treats -- and is having a ball! We spoke to Cathy Kerns, who's battling multiple sclerosis (MS), but has found the courage to create Style Sticks, an Internet-based business that offers customized walking sticks. The list goes on and on. Women entrepreneurs are fantastic -- so creative and willing to share not just their smart moves but their mistakes as well.

Besides authoring this fantastic book, have you ever been a new business owner yourself?

Oh yes! I started my own home-based marketing communications business about 15 years ago. I found making the move from employee to entrepreneur was much more emotionally demanding than I realized and this is one of the things that inspired me to write about this area, which is almost totally ignored in most small-business books.

Can you tell us about the many media appearances you have appeared on?

I've appeared on "Good Morning America" and been a spokesperson for Avon's "Corporation to Cottage" initiative. I've appeared on numerous TV and radio shows and have spoken to many women's organizations. I really enjoy getting out and sharing what I've learned in this way. It's fun!

Thank you for this interview, Karin. I´m sure this will help other women entrepreneurs who are longing to start their own business become successful.

Thank you for giving me the chance to share some frontline start-up advice!

For more information, please visit: www.birthingtheelephant.com.