Karen A. Koenig, a financial advisor based in Mukilteo, Wash., has written a book that is part memoir and part pep talk for women seeking to succeed in business.
Koening, 53, dedicates her book, “Woman on Top: How to Win in a Woman’s Way,’’ to her mother, Kathleen Koenig, and to women who struggle for recognition and parity at work.
Koenig served in the United States Air Force, where she reached the rank of major before she retired; followed by a management position at the Boeing Company, and since 2015, as a financial advisor.
“My niche is women business owners. I tell them they don’t have to be 100% perfect in every area! Learn to delegate, learn to relax; learn to accept mistakes, and find a mentor. Men do,’’ Koenig said.
“Men do get mentored, they have a handler, an advocate for them, somebody within the firm they work for. Women tend not to have that.’’
Koenig finds that professional women often need information on how to reap the tax benefits of business ownership.
“Some think they have to put all the money back into the business first, so I try to educate them that no, you don’t. First, you need to set yourself up for retirement. There are business owners who think they can sell the business and get the income out of the sale but there’s no guarantee that will happen.’’
The women Koenig advises own marketing and boutique type businesses, including the woman who spent 25 years in human resources for an insurance company, retired and decided to open her own insurance agency.
“I ran the numbers and she would be losing money if she did that. So I asked her what she liked to do, and she said quilting! She’d always wanted to quilt fabric. So she became the owner of a fabric quilting business. She took a bit of a loss in the beginning, but now she’s ahead. I tell people, if possible, find your passion, and then build a business around it.’’
Koenig says that women clients will recommend her to the men in their lives.
“One of my women clients said her husband should talk to me because he owns a roofing company and he had no advisor. I target women but then I end up getting men clients; it’s crazy. Women tend to want to have women advisors and men can go either way.