Owning It: Money, Freedom, and the Stories We Carry

Money has never been just numbers on a screen or in an account. For women entrepreneurs, it often carries the weight of survival: paying rent, covering bills, raising children, gaining and holding on to independence.

The moment you decide to leave the stability of employment feels like a jump into the unknown. Even if clients come in and money starts to flow, it never feels quite the same.

Money isn't only a sum that lands in your account. It's also the power to choose the right clients, to take creative risks, or to walk away from well-paid work that drains you or that contradicts your values.

In the beginning, it's a dance between survival and freedom, until you're finally out of the woods, with enough secured to feel truly safe.

Survival, freedom, and intuition

Working in survival mode is never easy. Every invoice feels like a lifeline, every late payment a blow. When the week ahead is uncertain, there's little space for long-term thinking. In that tight space, creativity shrinks and choices narrow.

And yet, even in difficult times, women often lean on something else: intuition. A quiet sense of direction that asks, “Will this idea take me forward?”, “Does this project feel right, or does it cost too much of me?”. Intuition doesn't erase the pressure, but it can be a compass when the ground feels shaky.

When the basics are covered, breathing room appears and with it a sense of freedom. A business owner can say no to a client who undervalues her work or she can invest in a new idea without fearing the ground will disappear beneath her.

Financial stability feeds ambition and makes space for courage.

Trusting yourself with money

Safety with money isn't only about how much comes in, but also about how much you trust yourself in the choices you make. Many women underprice their work, over-deliver to prove their worth, or hesitate to follow up when payments are late. These patterns come from doubt, from old lessons about not asking for too much, or from fear of being seen as difficult.

Think of the writer who lowers her rate before a client even asks. Or the consultant who spends hours preparing unpaid work to show she's "serious." These decisions wear down not only the balance sheet but also the sense of self.

Trusting yourself with money means standing behind your own value: sending the invoice without apology, asking for clarity when something feels off, following up when you're owed. These are the first signs that survival is giving way to safety.

The scarcity stories we inherit

So often, the reason we ask for too little isn't necessary the lack of confidence in our work but a mindset we've absorbed. Many of us grew up watching parents struggle, hearing that money was always scarce, never secure, never quite enough. We learned to hold on tightly, to be grateful for whatever came our way, and to fear that asking for more might make it disappear all in the first place.

These early lessons don't vanish when we start a business. They echo in the way we set our prices, the hesitation in our negotiations, the risks we avoid.

Some of these stories steady us, giving caution where it's needed. But others keep us tethered. Financial safety begins with noticing which ones you're still carrying and which can finally be rewritten.

Redefining abundance

Wealth has too often been reduced to the money sitting in a bank account. But real abundance is wider, quieter, and far more human.

It's health that holds steady.

it’s to love and be loved.

It’s all the mornings when you wake with energy and ideas.

It's the time to care for your body, mind, and soul and dear ones.

It's the strength of the relationships that carry you.

It's a night of deep sleep, free from worry.

It's the chance to do what brings you joy and to support the creators whose work enriches your life.

Money matters, yes. When it feels safe, it stops being a cage. It becomes a tool women can use to write their own timelines, build with freedom, and claim the power of what they've created. But abundance is measured just as much in how safe you feel, how fully you can show up, and how alive you are in your own life.

Protect your wealth

And yet abundance is fragile if it isn’t protected. The same tools that make life easier — the accounting platform that manages invoices, the app that tracks your health, even the ones we use to connect with others — are all tied in some way to money. They hold payment details, link to accounts, or sit just one step away. And they gather in the same places: our phones, laptops, and tablets, devices we rely on for both business and personal life.

This overlap has made us both more efficient and more vulnerable: fake invoices, impostor clients and scammers, links that promise payment but empty an account. Even an app meant to support your wellbeing that ends up leaking sensitive data.

To keep wealth steady today means paying attention to those everyday tools and the spaces where money moves. Secure devices, check before you share, set clear boundaries online — these small actions help keep what you’ve built intact.

Wealth is more than the money you earn. It’s the ability to keep it safe, so it can support the life you’re living and give you space to create the one you’re reaching for.

This article is part of our Owning It series, celebrating the legacy of the Women's Business Ownership Act and the women who continue to shape business today.

It is brought to you by Bitdefender Ultimate Small Business Security. We believe financial freedom also means digital safety, which is why we're offering a special 30% discount to female entrepreneurs throughout October. 

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