Tech Entrepreneur Shares 5 Pieces of Advice for Women Looking to Start Their Own Business

Working in tech can be intimidating for women, but it doesn’t have to be. All it takes is a really good idea, a bit of risk-taking and hiring really good people to execute it, according to Barbara Soltysinska, CEO and co-founder of indaHash. With no prior education in tech or experience with coding (she started out working in public relations), she was able to build one of the largest and fastest-growing influencer technology platforms in the world. Here, Barbara shares some of her best advice for other future entrepreneurs trying to claim their stake in the tech industry.

• Expect the best, but be prepared for the worst every single day.  If you analyze the worst possibilities, you’ll see that it’s not so terrible. It’s good to confront yourself with that because it makes fear disappear. Don’t be afraid of anything, have strong faith in yourself and your ability, and keep doing new things and improve on them endlessly.

• I work in tech, but do not know how to code. I hire people who know how to execute my ideas through technology. My biggest piece of advice is a risk-taker and know that you can run a business, even if you don’t know how to physically create the product.  Being a business owner, you have the ability to hire people who know how to turn the wheels – so hire smart.

• Hire slowly, fire fast. Type A people attract Type A people, while Type B people attract Type C people. As an entrepreneur running a tech business, I always try to find Type A people to keep the engine moving smoothly.

• Plan ahead. For me, good planning has been the key to success. Very often, urgent things come up and it’s easy to focus on them and get distracted from our main objectives. I’ve learned that urgent things are usually the easiest to resolve, but careful planning and strategic thinking are what brought us to another level, and these things are almost never urgent. Focus on your long term strategy.

• Always be straightforward and keep things simple for yourself and everyone else on your team. Never overthink and overcomplicate things. Your employees will appreciate this type of leadership, and having this mentality will make your life much easier.