The #1 Predictor of Success in Business

Read below to find out and get 3 quick tips to stay focused as a successful businesswoman and female entrepreneur.

By, Esther Spina, Business Coach for Ambitious Women

Inspired by Chapter 5 of my Amazon Best-Selling Book, 

The Ambitious Woman: What It Takes and Why You Want to Be One,

LIVE A DETERMINED LIFE!

I believe determination is the single most important predictor of a business owner’s long-term success. You could have the best business idea in the world, the most ingenious invention, but if you don’t have the drive to see it through the inevitable pitfalls and mishaps along the way, it won’t make it to the finish line. And the world needs your vision and innovation!

So, what does determination mean anyway?

Merriam Webster says the definition of “determination” is “the act of deciding definitely and firmly,” and, “the firm or fixed intention to achieve a desired end.” Notice the common term — “firm.”

Practically speaking, being determined means you’ve made up your mind about what you want and are unwavering in achieving your end goal.

Not that even the most successful businesswoman or female entrepreneur hasn’t struggled with self-doubt or fear along the way. As a business coach for women, I know we all have moments in our journeys as entrepreneurs where we question whether we have what it takes.

Determination doesn’t mean a lack of doubt, it just means you keep going despite your fears.

In this blog, I give you three simple tips for staying determined no matter what happens in your career or business. And a lot of it has to do with goal setting for success.

My hope is to empower you as a career-focused woman to stay on track with your goals and to eventually reach your dreams! 

Below are three simple but highly effective ways to stay determined and stay the course for long-term business success:

1. Set a Timeline for Your Goals & Stick To It

One mistake I know I made early on as a  female entrepreneur was not setting a timeline for when I would achieve my goals. Without a set end date in mind, your dream is just an ethereal idea somewhere out there in the future, instead of a real concrete plan that forces you to set realistic steps into motion.  

It can be a year from now, two or even ten, but fixing that date in your mind gives you something definite to plan towards. Then you just need to break down smaller steps for how you’ll get there. 

Take a moment to brainstorm, how long will it realistically take for you to get to where you want to be?

Every business will be different — for example owning a brick and mortar store will take much longer than a virtual online store.

The good news is that, according to these stats on entrepreneur success rates, the number of businesses started by entrepreneurs that fail in the first year has never been lower. Only 20% of new businesses, in fact, close in the first year currently, and that’s a 30% decrease in failure rates since the ‘70s.

So be encouraged! This means, you are statistically far more likely to succeed than fail as a business owner or entrepreneur!

The above article also mentions that the #1 reason most businesses fail is not because the entrepreneur or founder failed, but because there was “no market need” for the business.

This is proof that if you stay focused on your goals and refuse to give up, success IS possible!

But as a business and leadership coach, I also know it’s important to realize that things don’t happen overnight either. As we know, Rome wasn’t built in a day, and impatience can also be a dream killer.

To be successful as a female entrepreneur or businesswoman you have to stay focused on the end goal, but give yourself time to get there too.

You wouldn’t expect a flower to bloom the day after you plant the seed right? You have to water, nurture and tend to your dream, but know that when you do you’re setting yourself up for business success.

2. Make One SPECIFIC Goal You Most Want to Achieve

It’s easy to get overwhelmed when you put too many objectives on your plate at once. As a business coach for women, I highly suggest setting one big goal and working towards it. And NEVER giving up.

As Tommy Lasorda, former manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers famously said, “The difference between the possible and the impossible lies in a man’s determination.” And in a woman’s determination, I would like to add!

So, what is that ONE THING you really want to do? Once you’ve spent some time pondering that or journaling about it without restriction as to what’s “possible” or not, then ask yourself — why not? That big dream is just as valid as any other idea you have that you’re not as excited about, so why not pursue your ACTUAL goal?

Sometimes we talk ourselves out of the one thing we want most because it is “too big,” “too hard,” or we “don’t have enough money.” But what if you just said you were going to go for it no matter what it took? All of the rest will sort itself out when you get on the determination train and refuse to veer off course.

3. Network with Other Successful Businesswomen to Stay Determined & Focused

Not only does networking give you much-needed moral support, but it also helps you learn from other perspectives and allows you to stay positive, especially during difficult times. Finding a supportive network of other like-minded businesswomen and professionals in your field is crucial for surviving the normal challenges of running your own business.

When you expand your network, you’ll  find other women in business who have been through exactly what you’re going through. They’ll give you helpful business advice to keep you from giving up right when you need it the most. I know, as a long-term entrepreneur, how important it is to have a circle of successful businesswomen that I trust around me to keep me strong when the chips are down.

We all have those times when things are just hard, then we start getting discouraged and wondering if our dream is EVER going to happen.

This is why I started my Ambitious Women Conference so that like-minded career women could come together and lift each other up. I can’t wait to get started with these in-person meet-ups again and help empower women to stay determined and on track for success! Stay tuned to my new website above for the latest updates on these exciting networking and business woman empowerment events.

If you want to read more about staying determined, grab a copy of my book, The Ambitious Woman. Get it at a discount on my site here before it goes out of print.

Read inspiring stories of women who gave it their all and overcame great adversity to realize their dream business against all odds. These were determined, Ambitious Women, and I know you are too!

***FREE BONUS JOURNAL OFFER***

For a limited time when you order my book, you get the accompanying Ambitious Woman Journal for free! Keep track of your favorite highlights from each chapter in one handy place and reference them whenever you need inspiration. Get one for yourself or gift one to another Ambitious Woman today.

5 Empowering Mindset Tips for Successful Female Entrepreneurs & Businesswomen

Guidance from a Business and Leadership Coach for the ambitious woman who is ready to take charge of her career and scale her business towards greatness.

Inspired by Chapter 3 of my Amazon Best-Selling book,

The Ambitious Woman: What It Takes and Why You Want to Be One,

LIVE AN ACTION LIFE!

By, Esther Spina, Business Coach for Ambitious Women Entrepreneurs

1. Write Your Goals Down to Focus Your Mind on Business Success

According to this article, you are 42% more likely to achieve your goals if you write them down. This will help you pare down what you want to achieve so you can prioritize. 

What is your big picture plan? Start there and then break it down into smaller steps you will need to achieve the long-term goal.

We tend to be perfectionists as businesswomen. This process will help you stay focused on what you need to do in the short term, without losing sight of the end goal. Lower anxiety by getting all of those ideas out of your head and onto paper where you can see them clearly.

Once you do this you will be better able to make day-to-day decisions by making a schedule you can stick to. And this doesn’t have to be a boring process. Make it fun with a cute planner that keeps you motivated like one of these.

This will help you narrow your focus so you can level up and stay on track for your goals. It also grounds them in reality and allows you to see them as possible, not just abstract thoughts in your head.

2. There is No Such Thing As Failure – Only Lessons Learned and Times to Pivot

Some of what you may consider your biggest failures are just springboards to a better future. If you take the trying times as lessons and an opportunity to pivot your business instead of ruminating on what “went wrong,” it may open new doors of opportunity for you to an even better career than you could have imagined before.

I give an example of this in my book, The Ambitious Woman, from my personal experience as a businesswoman. When the recession hit in the ‘90s my once-booming construction business completely tanked.

I went from running one of the top 5 tile companies in San Diego and a successful upscale baby business, to completely bottoming out and having to start over.

I took my success for granted and it was a devastating time that shook my faith to its core. It felt like I had lost it all and I never expected I would have to start over from scratch after having two thriving businesses. I started selling solar pools to get by, which I had no experience with at all. 

Little did I know that this early experience would prepare me to be a top earner in a B to B sales career, as well as in a direct sales company. 

Everything happens for a reason, even if you can’t see that at the time. The trick is not to get stuck in feeling like you’ve failed or like it’s never going to get better when the unexpected happens. As a business coach for women, I know that every stage of our careers, even the scary ones, allows us to course-correct and get one step closer to a brighter future. 

3. Release the Pressure of Perfectionism and Take Charge with Positive Thinking

As a business coach for women, I know we put a lot of pressure on ourselves. It’s important to stay in the present and not to overthink everything too much. Most female entrepreneurs or businesswomen I work with beat themselves up if they don’t get things right the first time.

But, as the example above shows, you can’t always control everything that affects your business success. The 90’s recession was not something I could have avoided even if I tried, and the pandemic has made us all aware that some pitfalls are just not avoidable.

The only thing you can control is how you choose to react and adapt to unexpected challenges.

So how do you stay successful in business no matter what happens?

By maintaining a positive mindset and staying flexible. You will always land on your feet when you release the pressure to get everything perfect the first go-round. Stay open to bending with the times, practice flexibility, and you will always prevail in the end.

Success isn’t always a straight line to the top. We learn the most from our mistakes, failures, and disappointments. Sometimes we have unexpected twists and turns on our path, that is to be expected. You just have to be open to adapting and refining as you go.

Our ability to adapt and change with the times often comes down to one simple thing —

Are you doing what you love?

Journal your wildest daydreams and take some time to visualize every day what you would feel like if you were living your dream life. Visualization is a very powerful tool to manifest business success. Many successful women entrepreneurs and female CEOs cite this as a tool they have used to dominate their industries.

Studies show that visualization has been proven to lead to success in business. According to this study, 76% of business owners who used a vision board eventually realized the dreams they put on their boards. How amazing is that?

This shows us that when we focus positively on the future and picture ourselves winning, we position ourselves to achieve all the business and life goals we dream of.

4. Make Short To-Do Lists to Limit Overwhelm

I recommend writing 2-3 things max on your to-do list. This is less overwhelming than a lengthy checklist, which can just stress you out more when you look at the seemingly endless list of tasks you need to accomplish.

This way when you finish each thing and check it off, you will have a sense of accomplishment. Then you can create another short to-do list until everything is completed.

It’s easy to panic when we focus on too many things at the same time. Breaking it down into smaller steps helps a lot to keep that feeling of being swamped to a minimum. Otherwise, you run the risk of being discouraged when it seems you aren’t getting to where you want to be fast enough.

5. Take Breaks to Save Your Sanity and Stay In It for the Long Haul as an Empowered Business Woman

Where is your happy place? You know that place where you just feel “awwww, I can relax now,” where you take a deep sigh of relief the second you get there. Take a moment to think of where that is for you. I love to go to the beach when I need to recharge and relax to get my mind off things

Is there somewhere you are thinking of right now that heals your soul when you need a time out?


The next time you are starting to feel frazzled, put your work down and go to your special place to clear your head and get re-inspired. Nature has an amazing way of helping us to declutter our thoughts and gain a fresh perspective. Yoga or meditation can also help with this.

As ambitious businesswomen, we often work too hard and don’t give ourselves enough grace. We don’t acknowledge how far we’ve come enough and tend to over-focus on our “mistakes.” Perfectionism is something all overachieving businesswomen deal with when we are striving to reach the top, but we don’t want it to rule our lives and destroy our mental health.

When it all gets to be just too much, go to your happy place (even if it’s just in your mind) to recharge instead of giving up.

As a business leadership and mindset coach, I know how important it is to stay focused on action and to take responsibility for any challenges that come our way.

Grab a copy of my book to learn more about inspiring female entrepreneurs like Mary C. Crowley, founder of the multimillion-dollar home decorating company, Home Interiors & Gifts. You may be surprised to hear who her sons are and how she created such a successful national company despite many personal struggles.

Get empowered to take charge as an ambitious woman!

You can get your copy of

The Ambitious Woman, What It Takes and Why You Want to Be One,

1st edition, at a discounted rate for a limited time here:

I hope it inspires you to take action and take charge for the ultimate success in your career!