The Freedom of Being A Woman Entrepreneur

I always loved freedom, be it the freedom of running aimlessly in the middle of a widening horizon, or the freedom at the workplace. After 21 years working at a leading media house of India, I realised that yearning for freedom is always a far cry if you are doing a job because whatever post you are in, and how much high up the ladder you are, there is always that ‘someone’ hovering above you, whose whims and fancies will always dictate your job life – be it taking leave, or be it what you exactly wish to do with your career.
Then why not turn into an entrepreneur, where you will be the boss of whatever you do? An idea that had been nagging quite ferociously within me for years. And finally, I had to take the plunge. I remember the day I resigned from my job, the very next day, offers from rival newspapers poured in. I was not tempted, for by then I had made up my mind, come what may, I shall henceforth be my own boss.

Well, there was a flip side to that too – the fat pay cheque that came at the beginning of every month, would be elusive henceforth. And there was the band of so-called well-wishers, who kept on discouraging me and pointed out what a phenomenal mistake I had done to my life and career! Thankfully they have been proved wrong after a decade of running my own company and the pay is fatter than before!

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More than 10 years down the line, with my Content and Creative Company TTW (Tales Talks Walks) making a name for itself not just nationally, but also internationally, I realised that I have done something on my own and chose my path, my dreams, and it clicked. Yes, the road was tough, but over a decade I survived on my own, created a fabulous editing and design team, both young, old, experienced and some even from my previous media house who joined me! The satisfaction of an entrepreneur being able to sustain a business started from scratch for more than a decade and maintaining a team, is by itself a feat.

And what more, as a woman entrepreneur it was double whammy. A mother of a very naughty boy, I often missed being with him in my job life. By the time I returned home, and needless to say they were odd hours, my son had had his dinner, or even went off to sleep. While I trudged up the stairs, with a sadness in me of missing a child’s growing up years. For a mother, believe me, that was a big let-down. But once I started life as an entrepreneur, time was in my sails and I could manipulate it as per my wish. Working from home office gave me immense closeness with my family, which in return, doubled my satisfaction as a complete woman.

Did I face gender bias? Well, not at all – on the contrary most of my clients, including big corporate clients, industrial leaders, poets, authors and even government officials who come to us for content, for editing books, newsletters, brochures, coffee table books, videos and much more, have always shown me immense respect. I always believed in hard work and honesty, far away from the usual perception that ‘a pretty woman gets clients for her looks or even because she sleeps around!’ Trust me, I had to hear that too, but I was not affected, I knew if you have the grit in you to do what you love the most, be it a man or woman, he or she will succeed in the end.

On this international woman’s day, I would love to say, that though for some women sisterhood works, for me the men have also been my greatest supporters. Be it my husband, my son, my clients, my team members – everyone stood by me and that’s needed to be a complete woman for sure. The rhetoric of a male free world is not what I dream or propagate. I believe a woman’s success in life or work can only happen when her counterparts make her life easy, yes, I too had difficulties, life can never be a bed of roses or a cakewalk. But as a woman the usual resilience that God has given us or even Nature has made us, we can overcome anything and still shine on!

(The writer is an entrepreneur; she is founder of Tales, Talks and Walks, a content creation, editing and designing enterprise)