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He Said She Said: Men and Business

Sorry it's taken me a while to write another article but there have been a few ups and downs stopping me from doing what I love. So, with some of the issues that I have experienced lately, I decided to touch on this topic, MEN and BUSINESS. The question that I am going to pose is why is it that men find it hard to work with a woman in charge of business? Of course there are going to be men that say this isn't an issue for them but I've been through it first hand and I am going to point out the signs that show they have an issue with it even if they don't say it.

      Going back a year or more, I decided rather than always being a patron of clubs and events why not throw some myself? I had a group of girlfriends that loved to party and I kind of tagged along and quickly got tired of the nightlife. Not so much the partying but the whole process of buying new outfits and spending my money every weekend. It had even gotten so bad we were partying all through the week. If people aren't familiar with Philly, there is a party every night even Sunday, which happens to be the heaviest party night of the week. Anyway, the event promotion busy is mostly male dominated but I didn't see any reason why we couldn't do it. We started our promotion company and I quickly built business relationships for us with a lot of the other male promoters in the city. We started doing events and things were good for a while. Being the lead I did most of the communicating and I found that men most times don't really think, they just do and they definitely didn't like having a female running the show. I had so many arguments with different promoters because most of them weren't familiar with running a business and a lot of them weren't in it for the money but more so for the popularity. The women looked at them like inner city celebrities but what a lot of the women didn't know is how things would fall apart at the end of the night. Money wasn't right, people weren't paying, people weren't carrying their weight, their were too many egos and ultimately I got tired of the end of the night feuds and called it quits since my friends had quit a long time before I did.

      So this should have been a warning sign for me as far as dealing with men and business but I'm hard headed at times. Recently, I decided to start a publishing company of my own. Being an author is definitely something that I love but I also love the thrill of having a business and being successful at it. I began talks with an acquaintance and partnered up to start the company from the ground up. Things were going good at first but I quickly realized again that men don't always think first. Things began to go wrong and I was always left to clean up his mess. Now, in business sometimes there will be pitfalls and you have to work to fix them but he was never meeting me half way. When the lack of work and finance was brought up instead of picking up the slack he'd always try to find a reason why I should be sympathetic to his situation. As a man, I guess it's just a trait sometimes to try and impress a woman and prior to actually starting the business he'd made it believable that he shared my passion and drive and could fully put in financially. This wasn't the case and was all a façade. In the end, I had to make a decision to cut the business ties and start over but not before I'd be stuck paying back money on things, late fees and checks that he'd bounced amongst other things. After all of that, he still hadn't apologized and wanted me to feel bad because he missed out on a chance to be a successful publisher. Talk about pride. Was I wrong for not caring about his feelings?

      All of this is to say that I find it extremely hard to work with men in business. Not to say that all men are poor business men but I believe that the act first think later mentality that men carry can sometimes be the downfall of a business. I have found a new partner and yes he's a man but he's much more professional in the business sense than any one I've come into contact with. I believe that having a man on a team with a drive and go getter mentality is the balance between the two. It can definitely work it just takes a special kind of man to work with a woman who knows how things should be done.

      I know that this article will put a lot of men in an up roar before they actually sit and think about what I am really saying. I am not bashing men by a long shot just the mentality that most of them proudly carry on their backs. I know most women will agree.

      This article isn't to preach to any choir, it is simply my opinion. The meaning of the title He Said, She Said is to show a woman's opinion vs. a man's opinion on many of today's issues. Feel free to comment or email me you opinions, suggestions or questions. I enjoyed writing this and I hope my readers enjoy reading it. Next time I'll be back with another issue that I'm sure everyone can relate to.  

Brittani Williams is the best-selling author of Daddy's Little Girl, Sugar Walls, The Cathouse and the upcoming novel Black Diamond. She is the CEO and President of Trendsetters Publications, which will release its first novel in January 2009. Visit her website at www.Brittani-Williams.com or www.myspace.com/msbgw  for more information or you can also email her at hesaidshesaidcomments@yahoo.com         

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