10 Reasons Single Women Entrepreneurs Deserve An Extra Pat On The Back

Single life has its advantages: You don’t have to share that bottle of wine. There’s always plenty of hot water. You can leave your bra on the floor and no one side eyes you when your armpit hair rivals that of a high school football player.

As enticing as that sounds, there really is something to be said about single women entrepreneurs. I was just telling a friend the other day how lonely it can be. Startup land kicks your ass and our peers who are married or coupled-up should really shout from the rooftops that they have someone to go home to (and put up with them).

It’s a cold world, kids. Those of us in singledom, who live alone and not in our parent’s basement, should definitely get a hefty reward for battling entrepreneurism alone. Okay, maybe not cash, but surely a pat on the back. Here’s why:

1. Most startup founders are broke. We don’t have anyone to bring us home a doggie bag or put $50 toward the next electricity bill. We are responsible for all costs – both our startup and our living expenses. We’d gladly give up our favorite pair of shoes for a partner to lend us $5 for a cup of tomorrow’s courage aka caffeine.
2. We cry in our pillows. Our friends probably get sick of hearing all about our prototype woes, failure to reach our monthly user numbers or SEO issues. At least with a significant other there is someone to have the obligatory listen and offer the coveted foot rub.
3. We can work ourselves to death. With no one fighting for our attention or quality time, we can literally go all night long (and not that good kind of all-nighter). If our family or friends don’t force us to come up for air, many of us are perfectly capable and OCD-wired to work without end.
4. Networking events turn into a real social hour for us. We came alone, we’ll most likely be leaving alone, and so we use this time to make business connections as our time to have fun and bug most of our coupled-up friends to hang around for just “one more” cocktail.
5. We are usually the ones at meetings who want to add “one more cool idea” to the pile of things to do. Because, well, we live for work and we could care less that our married peers have family or weekend obligations. Lazy bastards.
6. In most cases, that one girl friend who is always with us is really not our girlfriend. It’s just that she knows us so well, is used to being dragged everywhere because we need a plus one and can do a 30-second elevator pitch of our startup almost better than we can. She also doubles as our assistant, wardrobe approver, hairdresser and speech feedback giver.
7. Our parents make everyone think we are the next big mogul. They have to brag about our startups to their friends because we damn sure haven’t given them cute grandchildren to boast about.
8. We can be awkward first daters. We don’t want to tell our dates too much about we do, because it might make them think work is all we do (which is partly true) nor do we want to control the conversation like we are executing agenda items with our staff.
9. We DVR the shit out of everything. We’re busy.
10. Don’t be fooled by the glitz of our fast-paced lives. Despite all of the events, conferences and meetings, we are often stressed and in a state of “what needs to be done next.” When we get back to our hotels or have free time on a Sunday, we are actually quite lonely.

This is not a pity party. This is a testimonial to other single entrepreneurs that you are not alone. Everyone always wants to talk about the benefits of being an entrepreneur and not so much about the downside. Your other single startup sister is experiencing the very same thing, often without voicing it. We may be super, but we are not super human.