Women entrepreneurs are considered cheap by many companies. When confronted by this accepted truth you could respond that if companies approach us with patronizing ad campaigns, unethical practices and products of poor quality we tend not to buy. When companies sponsoring large conferences complain that only corporate women attend you could point out that corporate women can pay for their registration out of company funds while the money for the conference comes straight out of your pocket making you more discerning. We could argue that we earn less and pay more for many personal and business services so we tend to be more cautious.
All of this is valid but -

Could it also be true that we tend to see money as a virtue rather than an asset to be used well to achieve goals? Is cheap an attitude unrelated to the amount of money in your possession? In the article on First Steps there is a comment about male entrepreneurs pulling ahead of their female counterparts by promoting themselves and their businesses more effectively. They know that you must spend money to make money. This does not mean that you must spend foolishly.
 
Here are anecdotes from my collection of cheap stories to make the point that cheap can be more of a vice than a virtue in the long term. You will notice that cheap is a characteristic of both genders.

CHEAP - The Cost of Everything & the Value of Nothing

The Queen

It is rumoured that Queen Elizabeth had apples removed from the menu at Buckingham Palace when the price of the fruit went up. She may now be only the second richest woman in the world but -

 
Family  

My aunt cooked dinner in the semi darkness in November because in the summer you would not have to spend money on hydro at 5 p.m.
 
My other cheap, comfortably off aunt took a job in a large department store. We assumed that she did it for the employee discount. That Christmas I was 20 and my gift was a child's poncho with the $1.00 price tag still attached. What was the employee discount on $1.00?

 
Neighbours  

The son of a neighbour was notorious for trying to get a discount on his restaurant bill for the peas he had not finished.

 
Friend
 
When getting married a friend was told by her wealthy almost mother- in- law that she could have anything she wanted as a wedding gift up to a $5.00 dollar limit. The groom's mother explained that she could not hold a shower for the bride to be as their home had no furniture.
 
The groom's parents drove from their home in a distant city to visit the newly weds and drank coffee from their thermos on the trip. Before leaving at the end of the visit the mother asked the bride to reheat the remaining coffee sludge for their return journey.

 
Colleagues  

A talented craftswoman I knew was participating in a prestigious art show. When I visited her booth she pointed out that the man across the aisle was the hit of the show.
 
Fellow participants believed that the sales of his carved wild ducks totaled nearly $70,000.00 so far. She could not believe that he had rented a double booth at the cost of $1500.00!

 
Employers  

I Don't Take Cream, Thank you
 
When I worked at the Fashion Week held at one of our biggest hotels my boss liked to serve coffee to the buyers who were about to spend large sums of money on his garments. He only called room service once to get a tray and cups. After that he made his own coffee and I had to wash the cups. The cream was the cause of my rebellion. Each morning I was sent out dressed in heels and an elegant suit with a tray to raid the breakfast trays placed in the hotel halls for pick up. When my tray was filled with cream pitchers I was instructed to use the back stairs so I would not be caught by hotel staff. I lived in terror that a bedroom door would open while I was bent down "harvesting". One morning coming up in the elevator operated by a bellhop I made a decision. I went out to harvest the cream as always but this time I took the elevator on the return trip. The bellhop was very cool about it all. He asked for the floor and then he asked what room number and I told him. By the time I walked the liquid filled tray from the elevator to the showroom my employer had been called by hotel management.

Sweet Revenge

One memorable modelling assignment came through a friend who had worked for the husband and wife sales team for some years. The prolonged discussion over wages let me know that cheap was in the air but I was unprepared for its magnitude. When we were not modelling we had to sit: no talking or reading was allowed. They stated that they were not paying us to read!
 
The wife served coffee and cookies to the clients so one day when we had worked through lunch I reached to take a cookie on my way to the changing room. My friend hissed a warning and pushed me away from the table. She said that we were not allowed to have cookies and the wife would know as she counted them before and after each appointment. I laughingly told her that I could not believe that she had worked for this couple for years missing lunch and sometimes dinner too without taking a cookie. I forgot about the incident not realizing that her pride had been wounded. Two days later she ran into the changing room and opened her hand to reveal a cookie. She offered to split it with me but we came up with a plan that seemed more Greek tragedy - like with nemesis or hubris or one of those just mechanisms. We kept the cookie for two appointments and then we put it back on the plate. We knew that our employer kept a little notebook just for recording the cookie count. We watched in delight as she missed half of the showing because she was checking her cookie notes to try to find the error in her calculations. The next day when we took two she asked if we had eaten any cookies and we "truthfully" said no. Then we liberated three cookies.
 
For the big appointment of the day, with a very important buyer, we put the cookies back. Instead of promoting the values of the garments the fabric, quality and design the cookie monster frantically consulted her notes and kept counting the cookies on the plate. Cheap can be expensive. Insert moral here.
 
If these cheap shots bring back memories for you please let us laugh and learn.