I’ve had family and friends say to me that I’m independent to a fault. Is there such a thing as being too independent?

I left corporate America six years ago to start my coaching business and I’ve never looked back. Sure, there have been challenges; plenty of challenges. I would be dishonest if I said running my own business is a piece of cake. It’s not. It can be stressful and even scary at times. Why? Because YOU are the business and though you can occasionally take time off (as difficult as that is for me personally), at the end of the day, it’s YOU who makes all the decisions and charts the course for the direction of your business.

In the beginning, I would stress over every decision. It seemed to me at the time that every decision was a monumental one. What should I name my company? What should my website look like and say? What is my niche? I have to say now I make my decisions quickly and they are often based on my intuition. Sometimes I make good decisions; some aren’t so great, but I’ve come to realize that this is all part of the evolutionary process of becoming an entrepreneur. I celebrate the fact that I have the ability to make these decisions and chart my own course; to make some mistakes and hopefully learn from them and move forward. That’s what is means to be independent after all.

That being said, I think it is possible to be independent to a fault as an entrepreneur. You can’t build and run a successful business in a vacuum. It’s important to surround yourself with a network of supporters and mentors that you can tap into for advice.

I read recently that every business owner should have an advisory board for their business; a group of like-minded business people who can act as a sounding board when you need it. This advisory board can be a formal group or an informal relationship with colleagues who have the experience and expertise to help guide you.

Who should be on your advisory board? For my coaching business, I look for advice and support in finance, marketing, technology and design and often use a coach myself to keep me on track and move my business forward.

So, it is Independence Day and I am celebrating my independence! Being an entrepreneur is an amazing experience to me. Because I am following my passion to help other professional women be successful, it never feels like work. I love it and every day is a celebration of my independence. That being said, I think as an entrepreneur, it is possible to be too independent and we need to seek out the advice and expertise of others to help us grow. In the end, this gives us the ability to maintain our independence and flourish.

Happy Independence Day!

Here is a great opportunity for women business owners to get expert advice. This announcement was posted today on Women on Business.

I’m very happy to announce the new Women On Business Roundtable, which will provide a great opportunity for business women to increase their online profiles, access expert advice and guidance, and encourage business growth.

The team of Women On Business authors (including myself), who are all experts in various fields such as marketing, coaching, finance, management, and technology, are launching a “roundtable” discussion to focus on our readers.

Here is how it works:

1.  Women On Business readers are asked to submit a profile of their companies and list any specific issues they might be having with their business (submission instructions are included at the end of this post).  Are you wondering how to market your business on the social web, having trouble with an employee, struggling during the economic downturn?  Submit your profile and issues in order to be considered as the subject for the Women On Business Roundtable discussion.

2.  Each month, one profile will be chosen to be featured on Women On Business as the subject of the Women On Business Roundtable discussion.

3.  The Women On Business writing team, using our collective brainpower and experience — a combined 150+ years worth! — will provide targeted analysis, valuable advice, and next steps to grow the business and meet the challenges it faces.

4.  Women On Business readers are also encouraged to join the conversation and offer their own experiences and expertise.  We look forward to tapping into the advice of our team of experts and into the minds and hearts of our readers to help our participants.

5. Throughout the month, the goal is for the conversation to continue and grow, and for the profiled business woman to ask additional questions, clarify suggestions and end up with actionable, useful advice and guidance, which should benefit many other readers as well.

Please join us! It’s a great way to gain some hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of consulting from a group with deep knowledge in their respective fields — for free!

Submit a one-page description of your business, and three issues you’d like the team to address here, and we’ll choose each month from the available submissions.  You can send an email directly to susan[AT]womenonbusiness.com (replacing the [AT] with @) or use the contact form.  Note that anonymous submissions will be accepted but identifiable business submissions will be given highest priority.

Please spread the word – email, Digg, Stumble, Tweet and so on!  Let’s get the conversation going and start helping each other!

It is a well known fact that many of us, especially women, have reservations about promoting ourselves. We find it extremely awkward to talk about ourselves in a positive manner. When we do make the push to “sell” ourselves,  we are so self conscious and apologetic that the message doesn’t quite have the impact we desired.

The implications for professional women to NOT promote themselves have many far reaching consequences. Perhaps, you were passed over for a promotion you rightly deserved. Maybe, you didn’t receive the venture capital you requested for your new business venture. Or is it possible that your business is not growing at the pace you anticipated because you are not comfortable selling yourself?

The good news is that you CAN learn to promote yourself effectively and comfortably with practice. However, the first step is to figure out what is holding you back.

This is the first of a three part series on self-promotion. This article focuses on the CULTURAL reasons that contribute to our reservations and fears about selling ourselves.

Take a good look at the following statements. Are they part of your belief system?

• “Nice Girls” don’t promote themselves
• People will think I am pushy and aggressive if I promote myself
• Bragging is “unbecoming” for a woman
• Women should be modest and humble
• People won’t like me if I brag about myself
• Talking about myself is uncomfortable

How do you relate to these statements?

Are holding on to these beliefs doing you any good?

Ask yourself: How would my business and/or career look if I were confident promoting myself, anything was possible, and I could NOT fail?

In order to move forward and learn good self-promotion, you need to let go of these limiting beliefs that are holding you back. Think of them as major roadblocks to your success and banish them from your belief system. Focus your attention to, what if the opposite were true? What would be possible?

The second part of this series will focus on the PERSONAL reasons that hold us back from self-promotion.