We at Advanced Wealth specialize in helping women manage money in their investing, for their retirement, and everything in between. When we came across these articles concerning both from business/investing giant Forbes, we felt compelled to share.

1. How to Give Yourself Permission to Succeed

What is the “confidence gap” and how does it apply to you? In short, this article reports that women tend to struggle when communicating in an effective, factual way that exudes confidence, while men excel at it. With the problems of competence vs. confidence looming in every area of your professional life, Elizabeth Grace Saunders offers these three key pieces of advice:

• Be yourself – Don’t fit the mold of what the model female is in your profession, whether it be tech, law, etc. Unless that is who you are. We agree when she states, “Unapologetically be yourself, and you will have the greatest capacity to thrive as an entrepreneur.”
• Pivot – Market demands, changes in technology, and even personal developments can all signal change in your profession. Give yourself permission to change with them. After all, just because something worked in the past doesn’t mean it will in the future or even present.
• Happiness – There is a reason pursuit of this is part of our inalienable rights. Happiness in your work is a sign that you are on the right path and your colleagues, supervisors, and clients can all note its presence or absence in your work. While everyone stresses from time to time, constantly being stressed can be a sign something more serious is wrong and needs to be addressed.

2. Easy Fix

Katrina Lake is the founder and CEO of Stitch Fix, a company dedicated to providing expert styling and practicality into clothing. We love that she took some time from her busy schedule to write this engaging piece with 4 great job tips:

1. Clearly define success (and timelines)
2. How to Capitalize on Mini-Volunteering
3. Pick a talent and offer it
4. Find a mentor.

We especially like 2 and 3 since they will instantly make you visible to the higher ups if and when they need someone with your experience.

3. EntrepreneHERship

According to this article, the rate of women starting their own business is booming at 50% higher than business startups in general. However, the success rate of these women funded businesses is about a third of those started by men, a statistic attributed to obstacles that are both internal (lack of confidence, not dreaming big enough) and external (funding discrimination, not having the right connections). The good news is however, that with small businesses and startups being the hope to lead the country into economic highs, women will be a bigger part of this than at any other time in our history.

4. Schedule for Success

Jordana Jaffe is the founder of Embarkability and an organizing expert for business owners. She also offers these great tips for scheduling to help you both manage your time better and get things done without feeling exhausted. While some tips are typical, such as maintaining a calendar, others are not, such as keeping a time journal to see which tasks are taking the most. She also offers great tips and resources for allocating those tasks you dread doing.

And if you are a woman or anyone looking to spend better and/or build retirement and need a Houston financial advisor give us a call 800-348-4221 or contact us today for a no obligation meeting.