3 key tips to help you decide if the space of feminine business is right for you ~ an article for the woman who is exploring if feminine business is the correct approach for her creative talents.

Something I wish was more commonly known in the space of success and ambition is that not every person is meant to go into business. A part of us can find this difficult to believe especially if our media spaces are filled with stories of millionaires at 21, business owners making 6-figures in 6 months time (most of these stories not being transparent and quite misleading, to add) 

Reading and listening to these tales makes those of us in the corporate leading peaceful 9-5 jobs develop dissatisfaction towards the sustainable success we already have. And those of us with evergreen businesses with an existing ease of income start doubting our enough-ness when we come across these distorted stories of success.  

I can speak from my experiences of working with women, is that not every woman out there feels the inner call to go into business. And that is completely okay. 

A woman can still have a fulfilling career while doing a 9-5 job. She can still have a full life outside her workplace that’s protected by her boundaries around time and availability. She can still become wealthier by not getting influenced by every consumer trend and instead putting her money in long term investments. She can still grow her career by upgrading her current knowledge to attract brighter opportunities in her field of work and move forward and upward.

When I look back on my own corporate life, this is the vision I deeply related with and was embodying at the most micro level. 

For me, things started shifting when my feminine body started screaming for safety from the hustle-oriented ways I was moving her in the pursuit of success in my career.

Beneath all my material and financial success, was a body pleading me to slow down and honor her needs ~ asking me to eat on time, sleep on time, move her just enough so she feels regulated and alive. 

I ignored this voice for the longest time until she gave in, landing me in my fancy hospital ward for an unexpected surgery. In the blink of an eye, I was forced to slow down and pay the overdue attention to her needs. From there onwards, began the long journey of setting boundaries within and around myself so I would never again abandon my core needs.

When I set upon that pursuit, my simple assumption was that it was only me who needed to shift the way I was showing up in my life and work, that it were my own blind spots that had led me to undermine what was needed to live a both nourished and a fulfilling life. Soon enough though, I came to learn that this was a result of a deeply embedded conditioning that had led me to believe that the only way to success is the masculine-focused hustle approach. That ingrained in me the beliefs that if I slowed down even by a little, I’d lose in the race of life. That if I took breaks, someone else will take over me and all the work I had poured my time, energy and bodily resources into would be taken away from me. 

It was when I peeled back the layers of this conditioning one after the other that I started seeing how the industry and the workplace I had chosen to grow a career in, was deeply imbedded in these extractive and heart-hardening ways of operating. As a result, even after I had made all the possible shifts in my own ways of being, living and working, I could see that this was a mismatch at a deeper level, that I was choosing to slow down in a work arena that was founded on the fast-paced striving and forceful ways of working. 

From that point onwards, it was a choice for me ~ to either move to another industry by upgrading my skills or to completely exit the corporate space and build something of my own. The latter idea seemed scary, especially at a time when I was at the peak of a career I had built by pouring myself into it completely. And yet this was calling me very loudly. It made sense to something deeper in me, that wasn’t very logical and rational for most around me. 

Years later, having cultivated a skillset that not only pays my bills but also fulfils me so deeply, I know I made the right decision for myself. A decision that I arrived to after infusing my logical awareness about the practical realities of my world with my deeply wise intuition that was able to foresee my future without me being even slightly aware of it. 

I didn’t have this level of mastery in the work I do today when i began this journey years ago. But I felt a deep conviction in this decision that led me to that one right step, one right action, one right decision at a time slowly forming the path that I covered to create a truly rich business for myself, one that nourishes and enriches not only my soul but also my bank account today (a journey that I also guide women on in my upcoming feminine business course, more details shared below) 

In today’s blog, I want to share with you 3 snippets from this journey, pieces of advice that I wish were offered to me when I began walking on this path of birthing my feminine business.

These tips will help you assess where you might be on your career journey and will help you make a sound decision if you’ve been feeling the pull to translate your talents and passions into an emotionally fulfilling and financially sustainable business. (in a previous article, i have shared in detail about what a feminine business really is. If you’re new to this concept of doing business, then I recommend having a read of it first)

1 | determining what kind of a business is right for you. 

The first question that a woman is faced with when she starts re-evaluating her career is whether to go into business full time or part time. This push and pull is very natural considering we don’t always have all the answers right at the start of anything. Which is why I want to reiterate here that it is very easy to watch the highlights of someone’s independent career on our mobile screens and assume that the grass is greener on that pasture.

What the same people won’t and can’t always share with you is the amount of disappointment, patience and resilience that may have gone in the process of reaching where they are today in their business. So instead of blindly following someone else’s journey in business, give yourself time to assess what would the right model of business look like for you, if you’re feeling called to walking on this path.

As an example, when I look back upon this time in my life, I didn’t care about the money or growth I had in my corporate career. I needed so much more from my life back then, that looked very different from my blingy life in Dubai. I yearned for my lost inner peace, I craved slowness, I needed a routine that didn’t involve me rushing through the most sacred part of my days that were my mornings. I wanted to wake up without alarms, I wanted to stay in bed for a few more mins without the rush or pressure of getting anything done, I wanted to spend my mornings meditating sometimes for more than an hour, I wanted to enjoy a slow and nutritious breakfast, I wanted to sit out in the sun for some time before I started my workday, and then sit down to work feeling truly inspired. This was my most heartfelt vision when I started this exploration, a vision that’s grown deeper and richer over the years where my most magical creativity flows from this part of my daily routine. Wherein the more time I allow myself to rest, the more inspiration I receive to grow my business creatively and financially.

Having supported so many women with their feminine softening & embodiment, I can tell you that..

deep within, you too know what you truly desire when it comes to expressing, working and serving the world with your energy and time. You too know what would make work feel truly fulfilling for you. 

In my 1-1 work with women, more often than not, this is the first step I help them develop clarity around. Because I truly believe that we don’t need to succumb to the pressure of going into business full time if we already have a job that can allow us to slowly build a business on the sidelines. And I also believe that if the time has arrived where we are (emotionally and financially) ready to go full time into business, then it’s a disservice to our soul if we force ourselves to stay in a career that we don’t feel any fulfilment in. 

This step requires the most care in my opinion, which is why it also requires us to turn down the noise around us and tune into the deeply powerful inner wisdom we women hold in our bodies. In both my private as well as self-study feminine business offerings, I help my clients learn how to understand the language of these inner cues and develop a solid understanding of what would truly serve them on this path of creating a business for themselves. So that this decision stays truly theirs and they’re not met with any regret in tender moments that will arise on the path of deepening and growing their business. 

(there of course is another layer of decision making in this step where you need to have clarity around what is the business idea that’s inspiring you to take this step. A step I cover in the first module of my feminine business course, if you need support around this)

2 | the essential masculine-feminine integration when starting your business

In a lot of spaces that teach about feminine energy, there’s a sneaky resentment that is projected for our masculine essence that makes us see our rather integral masculine energy as something undesirable and unhelpful. I personally view this as almost a malpractice to be telling women to soften in their feminine essence especially in the process of building a business and not acknowledging the need for the masculine support they will need on this journey.

What I mean by this is, if someone today decided to go into independent work following the feminine business philosophy and didn’t have any kind of masculine support around them, they’re bound to fail miserably. When I use the term masculine support, here’s what it can look like for us women in the practical sense~

Having a decent savings net to protect us if the business doesn’t start growing immediately. Having a family, partner, a part time job, or a full time job that can support us financially as we slowly and naturally develop our feminine business. Having a plan B to pivot if by any chance the chosen business idea doesn’t take off. Having some kind of long term investments that you can cash out on if needed to, to support your business expenses temporarily. 

These practical assessments are often reduced to labels like financial privilege, which is true to some extent. But if a woman is longing to go into business and leave the corporate path that feels suffocating to her, it is absolutely okay to receive this privilege, to make use of what’s available for her. This is a step that requires one to be wise and understanding of where they currently stand in terms of their financial well-being. 

Growing a feminine business doesn’t happen in vacuum.

You will still need to pay your bills, you will still need to provide for your daily needs while growing the roots of your business. And all of that will require money. Which is why there shouldn’t be any shame whether you do or do not have the privilege of financial support.

As an example from my life, around the time when i was completing my MBA I knew that my life’s path will involve entrepreneurship one way or the other. Coming from a rather humble background, I didn’t have the courage, the knowledge or the resources to go into business soon after graduating so I knew that I will have to reach my destination through a temporary stint of corporate experience. During the placement season at my business school, by a mysterious wave of grace, I attracted an international job opportunity with the Dubai franchise of a Fortune-500 multinational company. From day one, I was earning in a foreign currency an amount that was many times higher than what my peers were earning back in India. By the time I reached the point where I was ready to exit the corporate fully, I had a large savings net of cash as well as investments that would go on to give me the peace of mind needed to build my business as slowly as I desired. (this was despite some grave money mistakes i made on this journey leading me to go deeper into healing my relationship with money, that I quite tenderly share in my money magnetism course) 

If I hadn’t had this savings net, I can assure you I wouldn’t have had the peace of mind I felt on this journey of birthing my business. Because I had the masculine support of financial resources (that I wasn’t born with the privilege of, but earned through a lot of hard work in my corporate life), I was able to create and grow a truly feminine business that fulfils me emotionally and takes care of my needs financially, to this very day. 

This is why I believe it is important to consider these factors practically when deciding whether to go into business full time or part time. If you hold the desire in your heart to truly take the path of building a feminine business, a path that adds meaning and fulfilment to your life as well as your career, please know that you will need the masculine-providing support of money, people, resources, and other alternate opportunities, along the way. I’d advise you to consider looking away from the glamorous business success stories flashing on your screen and make decisions that are true and right specifically for you. (if you need deeper support in tuning into your embodied wisdom, I offer support around this in my upcoming feminine business course)

3 | honest assessment of the sustainability and longevity of your business idea and the chosen growth approach 

I get a special kind of ick from people who without any kind of qualifications claim themselves to be experts in a field. I think this might be because I come from a background where academics and some sort of skill-training has always held some value. 

This is not to say that one has to go through the rigorous and often the long and tedious approach to cultivating mastery in their choice of work field before they create a business around it. May be they’re naturally skilled at the talent they want to translate into a business, may be they grew up learning that craft from role models in the family, may be they developed this skill through the day job the were doing for all these years. 

In my work, I advise women to develop some level of a sound understanding around their craft, so that the advice and the service that they offer to people doesn’t end up doing more harm than good. Especially if they’re desiring to increase the longevity of their business, doing this also naturally makes them less susceptible to the imposter syndrome that many of the most sincere businesswomen feel from time to time.

As an example, when I decided to translate my personal journey of feminine embodiment into a business, I had two choices ~ to either go through the long and tedious PhD route or to find a coach certification that could offer me the same knowledge in a simpler way. Having spent years mentoring people in leadership roles in my corporate life, I knew that coaching was the path I wanted to take despite the stains on its general reputation. And I think it was the magnetism of this heart-felt desire of mine that led me to a certification founded in scientific and embodied wisdom, that helped me develop a very sound understanding of feminine embodiment (and feminine softening, now that i have pivoted and deepened my business further in this domain based on my personal experiences).  

Another thing that is important to remember when going into business, is that the world is a smaller place now thanks to the internet. Sooner than later, people will form a perception of your work and business, a negative one in fact if the business is indeed founded on the intention of extracting from people in the shortest time possible. I share this from the common feedback I receive from my clients about how there are so many souls in business who don’t actually care about the ethics of their business practices. Which is okay if that works for them. The question we need to ask here is, what kind of a business are we here to build? 

The women my work attracts share similar values with my business in the sense that as sensitive-hearted women, it matters to us that we deeply honor the integrity of our businesses. It matters to us that the income we receive from our work is through deep and meaningful service to the world.

Doing business this way also creates a natural sense of sustainability in our business because even when we evolve on a personal level and want to pivot, there is an underlying skill that we have already developed and mastered over the years that will support this business shift.  

Now that we have covered the ethics and integrity piece of sustainability, lets finally cover a little about the marketing and growth aspect of it.  

So, when we decide to birth a business (part time or full time), we will need to find ways to share it with the world. That is a very integral part of doing business. And yet many sensitive-hearted women tend to feel a lot of shame and hesitation around selling and marketing especially because of the historical ways this has been done in the past. That “in your face, cold calling, forceful selling, penetrative marketing approaches” that can feel very intrusive to our system.

But it doesn’t have to be this way at all. There is a softer, more easeful approach available to share your craft, your passion, your skills, your artistry, your wisdom with the world.

In my work, that is through the approach of gentle marketing ~ a very feminine philosophy in nature, one that is also surprisingly supported by our inner masculine wisdom. This approach not only feels good to our inner feminine sensitivities but also help us create a sustainable flow of cash in our businesses. In fact, this approach to marketing is the complete opposite of all the ways we have seen businesses being marketed on platforms like Instagram with those undesired ads disrupting our feed, the cringy Youtube ads that make our feminine souls wither just at the mention of them.

I still remember how back in the day, so many of my past colleagues from my corporate workplace would offer me suggestions to make Instagram / Youtube ads selling my feminine embodiment business services. I eventually lost count of the number of times I would go on to say ‘no, thanks’ to these invitations. I could very clearly sense that none of these ways resonated with my inner system. And I also knew that this ‘wasn’t my fear of being seen’. Despite this being a tender time in my business birthing process when I was feeling very alone in exploring a gentler way to market my business, there was a consistent and resounding refusal to adopt these kind of selling strategies and tactics. 

On this long and winding journey, I did end up discovering quite a few ways that feel more than enough to grow my feminine business today. Instead of feeling coercive or salesy in nature, they feel like a natural expression of what I have to share, and always end up attracting the people who are the right audience for my work ~ people who are out there actively looking for what I am offering in my work. This feels reassuring and calming to my nervous system and also helps me grow my business in a way that honors my feminine sensitivities (which was my whole point of going into into business!) 

I have seen this in my 1-1 work with women as well wherein the more they can tune into their inner wisdom and let it guide them towards their personal best marketing strategy, the more confident they feel in using it for their business on a long-term basis. There is a very deeper sense of sovereignty they start cultivating in the way they manage their business as a result, and this ripples out in all the other areas of their business including their creative expression. There is a very powerful embodiment process that I share around this in my feminine business course, if you’d like support around this area in your business. 

To conclude, the feminine way of doing business can feel deeply fulfilling for you if you’re a sensitive and high-achieving woman who holds big desires in her heart for her life and work but is not willing to extract from herself anymore, and is not resonating with the traditional ways of marketing that have been founded on a very unhealthy hyper-masculine foundation of working and operating in life and business.  

If you have been feeling hesitant, overwhelmed or even intimidated by the idea of doing business in a way that is different from the usual, I want to tell you how normal this feeling is. I still remember the fears I had when I decided to leave social media for instance, and started exploring more magnetic, softer and easeful ways to share my business. 

But like I discovered it in me (and so have so many women who have chosen this path), you too hold a deep reservoir of creative wisdom in your body as a feminine-essenced woman. 

That holds so much power in it that you’d be delightfully surprised at the ways it helps you grow and deepen the roots of your business in the world.

This embodied way of tuning into our inner wisdom is what helped me grow my business so wildly and so far away from the traditional landscape of business marketing. And if I had to do it all over again, I would still choose this path.

If you’re at a point where you know at the core of your being that birthing a new business or growing your existing business in a different and softer way is the next right step for you, and all you need is a little more support towards being able to trust your inner feminine wisdom in this process, I currently have two resources that can support you ~ 

One is my private coaching offering called Feminine Business mastery, that is a 8-weeks deeply intimate space for women who need a little more personalised and time-efficient support. 

And the other is my feminine business course that’s launching on 15th May (with the add-on option of live support) and is available for purchase now at a super early bird price. It is called Birthing a Rich Business and you can learn more about it here. 

If needed, please feel free to explore and see which of these resources can support you in the current season of your life and let me know if there are any questions for me. 

Navdeep 💗

P.S. read more article on feminine business here.