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What’s the greatest gift we can give during the pandemic?

January 30, 2021
gold gift box with red ribbon
Photo by Sydney Herron on Unsplash
Deidre Wallace

Right now in 2021, we are being urged to reflect upon our lives, via our relationships, our friendships, our communities, via our losses or gains, and with regards to how we work or how we do business. It is a valuable time and one that should not be taken lightly. Herein lies a gift.

Whether people recognise this or not, since childhood, many have had to adapt their feelings and emotions to fit the environment or situation they find themselves in. This may have occurred within the family of origin, at school, at college or university, at work and so on. Doing so does not mean that the deep-seated or heartfelt emotions have gone away. Usually, they just get suppressed and over time, even forgotten. However, suppressed or repressed emotions can suddenly explode, and when they do, it's often at the most inconvenient time.

It is often when people are under enormous stress or pressure, or sadly, it can also be when they're under the influence of alcohol or drugs. And it could leave a person feeling shocked, guilty, ashamed, or even embarrassed. Sadly, when these negative or destructive feelings suddenly emerge, they can have ripple effects on families, relationships, friendships, colleagues or work that are not always healthy. Although it may be exactly what those around you may need to see or hear, it may actually be YOU that needs the wake-up call.

Most people operate from having been disappointed, rejected, abandoned, and some have even lost loved ones at some point in their lives. How they will have worked through the difficult and painful emotions often depends on the level of self-reflection they have allowed themselves to achieve.

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Relationships are risky. Getting to know a prospective partner and asking the right questions early on is crucial to reducing this risk – especially when we all know love can be blind, and it doesn't always recognise the pitfalls.

But also, many don't realise that on a daily basis, you take who you are, with all your unaddressed issues, along with your belief system, what you say, the decisions you make and so on, via your body language and your personality - with you to work every day. No matter how hard you try, you cannot conceal or leave part of who you are at home. And this could affect not only your relationships; it could also affect your career.

Those around you who are sensitive enough will pick up on things. They will sense when something is wrong, even though you may refuse to talk about it. But when things go wrong and you fly off the handle or don't manage things constructively, you may not realise, that this can be a direct result of your past unaddressed issues.

And sometimes it can be uncanny how certain situations will repeat and repeat, or appear out of the blue, to mirror or force you to see what still needs to be looked at or healed. Sometimes repeating patterns can be subtle, but with devastating consequences nevertheless. However, there is a gift that we can offer one another.

By addressing what may have been left simmering for years, or by just becoming more self-aware, you can create a positive shift in your relationships and your career. People are more attracted to those who are relaxed, confident, and emotionally open. Why? Because it's hard to be around people who are continually anxious, stressed, or emotionally clogged up. And it's also hard on one's family - and this includes your children. If your heart is closed, it's hard to be creative, and it's hard to support those around you.

This can be more challenging if you're sitting on a bunch of emotions hovering from the past. It doesn't bring anyone any joy or happiness. But also, remember our body's immune system drops when we are stressed and our hearts are closed. And right now, as Covid may still be with us for quite a while, this isn't something we should ignore.

Years ago, Napoleon Hill suggested, "If you do not conquer yourself, you will be conquered by self." And he was right.

We now all have the opportunity to consider who we are becoming, and if you don't like what you see, there are many ways of doing something about it. And it doesn't have to be expensive. The Internet is a useful tool offering all sorts of knowledge, advice, wisdom, and help, which is free. You just have to make the time.

The greatest gift we can now give not only to ourselves but also to our loved ones, and others who we connect with daily, is our own self-development. And if we set about doing this - we will all benefit as will our families and children.

Deidré Wallace is a relationship coach and educator who has owned and operated a private practice for the past 20 years. For more information, visit her website here.

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Can tech help female entrepreneurs break the bias?

Women founders continue to come up against common challenges and biases
Photo by Christina @ wocintechchat.com on Unsplash

Written by Kelly Devine, Division President UK & Ireland, Mastercard

Starting a business may have historically been perceived as a man’s game, but this couldn’t be further from reality. Research shows women are actually more likely than men to actively choose to start their own business – often motivated by the desire to be their own boss or to have a better work-life balance and spend more time with their family.

The recently published Mastercard Index of Women Entrepreneurship 2021 found that in the category of 'Aspiration Driven Entrepreneurship’ – capturing those who actively choose to start their own business – women in the UK surpass men: 60% vs 56%. And Mastercard research from February 2022 found 10% of female business owners started their business in the past two years compared to 6% of men – meaning women were 67% more likely to have started a business during the pandemic.

Yet, there are common challenges that women founders continue to come up against - not least the gender imbalance in the household and long-held biases which are still prevalent.

In the UK, women are almost three times more likely to be balancing care and home commitments than men, and this was exacerbated during the pandemic as the additional barriers of school closures and lockdowns meant that the care time of dependents rose significantly on a day-to-day level for women. In addition, women were less likely to have access to a home office, greatly impacting the work they were able to accomplish when working from home was the only option.

It's also widely known that female business owners are still more likely to struggle to access funding for their business ideas. According to Dealroom, all-women founding teams received just 1.4% of the €23.7bn invested into UK start-ups in 2021, while all-male leadership teams have taken almost 90% of the available capital.

Without financial support, and when juggling significant time pressures both at home and at work, how can women grow their companies and #BreaktheBias (as this year’s International Women’s Day termed it)? What tools or support can save them time and money, and give them the headspace they need to focus on building their business?

With female owned businesses collectively estimating revenue growth of £120 billion over the next five years, solving this problem is bigger than supporting women – it’s about supporting the national economy.

Using tech to level the playing field

There are clearly societal issues at play that need to be resolved. But when we look at the rise in technology businesses during the pandemic, we can plainly see an alternative source of support critical for business growth: digital tools.

A third of female business owners say new technologies will be crucial to the success of their business in the future and one in five say it is the most important thing for business growth.

With new technology comes new ways to pay, create, and work. And yet there are barriers that prevent business owners accessing this technology. Women are significantly more likely to say they want to use more digital tools but don’t know what is best for their business and also more concerned about the security of digital tools.

When technology is adopted by businesses – whether using online accounting solutions or messenger services for communicating with staff – it saves them time, allows them to maintain and grow their customer base, and ultimately increases cost savings and profit.

By drastically improving the training and support that is available to women-owned business to access and utilise technology we will allow these businesses to grow and succeed. And we know there is demand for it.

Research done by the IFC and Dalberg shows that female entrepreneurs are more likely to invest time and money in business development. This includes product development, customer base expansion, and digital tools and training and there are plenty of services available offering this type of support – many of them for free.

One such programme is Strive UK – an initiative of the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth – which aims to reach 650,000 micro and small business owners across the UK and empower them with the tools they need to thrive in the digital economy through free guidance, helpful tools and one-to-one mentoring.

Working together with small business experts – Enterprise Nation, Be the Business and Digital Boost – we hope to ensure hundreds of thousands of UK female business owners have the tools they need to succeed and reach their ambitious goals. Because this ambition remains strong in the UK, with female business owners largely optimistic about the future despite the multitude of challenges they are facing. Four in ten say they will grow their business in the next five years – compared to only a third of male business owners – and they’re also 35% less likely than men to say they plan to downsize or close the business.

But if we do not empower female entrepreneurs to access the tools and technology they need to grow, there is a risk this optimism could be misplaced. Support programmes that provide business owners with guidance and mentorship can help ensure this isn’t the case, allowing female entrepreneurs to not only survive but thrive in the months and years ahead.