The Joys of Being a Woman Entrepreneur
Business Advice for Women Entrepreneurs
I know I’m not the only woman who’s waiting for a major change to occur in her life. I know other women sending their last child off to college this week and entering the empty nest syndrome. I know women trying to accept a parent battling with the beginning stages of Alzheimer’s. I know women moving from their comfortable homes of 20 years to new abodes. Time passes slowly during these time periods.
Biking, running and writing have always brought me peace during challenging times. Yesterday as I ran along the beautiful Erie Canal pondering the task of packing up my last son to bring to college on Thursday, I realized this time of anticipation has given me a gift – the gift of living in the moment. For the past three months, I have relished every single moment in my life – whether personal or work related – because of the upcoming changes. The now unwrapped package revealed this simple gift to me this weekend – I can make time slow down if I want by relishing every moment of every day I’m given.
As women entrepreneurs we need to realize this same gift should exist in our business life. We start every Monday with a big to-do-list, hyped over the tasks and duties ahead, we rush through each day hoping to accomplish everything possible until its Friday and the work week is a blur. Weeks become years and years become decades before we realize we have missed the joy of running our company or missed much of our personal life.
I hope today’s post inspires you to contemplate the joys your business has brought you and continues to bring you; and to slow down. Here are just a few of the joys I’ve experienced as an entrepreneur the past two decades. I hope they provide you with some wisdom today:
* The vast amount of friends, trusted advisors and warm relationships I’ve developed. If I never opened the door to becoming an entrepreneur and walked through it, I wouldn’t have met the hundreds of members I’ve met the past 8 years running Women TIES, the 1,500 women who have attended my events annually or the thousands of women I’ve had a privilege of meeting across the state. Life indeed would have been less colorful and rich.
*The money I’ve needed to sustain myself as an entrepreneur for two decades helping to pay for my son’s college tuitions, my own retirement and reinvestment funds to add more services and benefits to my company for my members.
*The wisdom I’ve learned from hearing countless female speakers present at my events and conferences or reading their words in blogs and social media. I’ve learned more from other women’s words than I could have ever learned reading books.
*The ability to “fail forward” and to take more risks than I ever wanted to take. Entrepreneurship has a way of making a person push past their comfort level time and again building their strength and resilience. I know I couldn’t have learned that in a paid corporate position the same way.
I hope you decide today to enjoy slowing down for a bit. Savor every moment of your business and personal life until time feels like it is standing still so you can soak it all in. It’s more than okay to do this – it’s essential for a darn good, perfect life.
“Once Upon A Time” Marketing
Business Advice for Women Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Once upon a time…..there was a 7 year old girl that decided to plan a fundraising event in her garage. Little did she know that event sparked a flame in her spirit that was unrecognized until 23 years later when she started her own event management company. This is the beginning of my personal entrepreneurial story.
Once upon a time….I was your age and about to do what you are trying to do so let me share my experience so it might help you. This was the beginning of my personal family stories when I wanted to share life lessons with my 7 younger siblings to help them navigate challenges they were facing growing up.
It’s not only me using stories to help others, it’s all women. Women love using narratives to communicate with others. Whether it’s with our siblings, best friends, or other business owners, we tend to converse in tales. Every client meeting I held with female event planning clients always started with a personal update before proceeding to business. Conversely my communication with male clients always focused strictly on business matters. Women are different than men in many ways and one of them is our interest in sharing stories.
When I asked Linda Lowen, an accomplished local and national TV and radio personality and national writer for MSN Living.com and MSN.com to become this year’s annual Retreat keynote speaker and I asked her the topic of her speech, she said, “I’d like to share with women the power of their personal story and how it can produce more business success then a 15 second pitch.” In this 2013 fast paced world, I was intrigued by Linda’s idea of women using their stories to land business. It started me thinking about my own 19 year business story too.
Today’s post is to encourage you to think for a moment about your personal business story and how it relates to where you are today. Do you share your story with your customers? Could your story become compelling enough that it lands you more future business? What might your story say to current customers that keeps them more loyal? These are intriguing questions to ponder.
Just think your “Once upon a time” story might just be the way to attract more customers to your business while maintaining more of your current clients. I hope you choose to use your story to produce more fairy tale business endings for yourself starting today.
Celebrating Your Business Anniversary – Words of Wisdom
Business Advice for Women Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
It’s hard to forget important dates in one’s life – your birthday, the birthdates of your children, the day you got married, and the day a parent dies. 365 days a year particular calendar dates hold significance for millions of individuals. The two dates that touch my entrepreneurial heart are 8/8 and 3/3. August 8th was the date I became an entrepreneur for the first time creating my first company Five Star Events, an events management enterprise in Syracuse. March 3rd was the birth date my second company – Women TIES – with a mission to help women entrepreneurs expand their local, state and regional marketplace in New York.
I’m not sure how many entrepreneurs remember the “birth” of their businesses from a date perspective solely but I do. On those two dates, and every anniversary of those dates, like today, I celebrate the choice I made to take my professional life in my own hands. Little did I know signing my DBA paperwork would be an exciting gateway to a world of extraordinary people, experiences and opportunities. I can’t imagine what I would have missed and more importantly who I wouldn’t have met if I never opened the gate and walked into my businesses.
Today as I celebrate the start of my 19th year as an entrepreneur, I wanted to share with my followers, my top three lessons learned that might provide you with inspiration today.
* “If You Don’t Try, You Can’t Fail….and If You Fail, Get Right Back Up and Try Again” This quote has been my motto for the past 19 years. Nothing in business works out perfectly in fact there are times you are rocked to the core but one thing I know for sure is the lower you get, the higher you can bounce back.. Failure is okay! With every failure come lessons and more determination to revise, start anew and fight harder. Fail forward as often as you can.
* “Truly Love What You Do” and you’ll find getting up every morning is a blessing. You must find and live within the passion of your business so it can sustain and propel you forward. If your business becomes a source of too much heartache or struggle and you don’t love what you do anymore, stop and change paths. The only way to work for decades as an entrepreneur is to love what you do, who you serve, what you offer and the benefits your company brings to the community. Make sure love is built into your business plan.
*”Support is the Backbone of Success” for any entrepreneur. It starts with the support of your personal family and friends, then the counsel of trusted advisors, the advice of other entrepreneurs, work done by trusted staff and warm relationships with clients and vendors. It takes a village to raise an entrepreneur. You’ll succeed quicker with support at your side.
Curbside Business Decisions
Business Advice for Women Entrepreneurs and Business Owners
Garage sales, estate auctions, and Ebay all have something in common; they are places where individuals have selected prize possessions to discard. At some point in their lives people assessed their material possessions in order to know what to keep, discard, sell and let go.
I’m not sure women entrepreneurs conduct the same type of assessment within their own enterprises on an annual basis. I’m not referring to looking through and cleaning out file drawers or storage cabinets and de-cluttering space but instead taking a measurement of every corporate product and service offered to see if each is worth the time and effort to keep selling.
I remember five years ago hosting an online store of personalized Women TIES products on my website certain that members would want to purchase business items with our logo on them to use within their companies or identify them as a member of our organization. The store was open for a year not costing any money and only taking up space on my website. I realized after a year of having the online store it was bogging me down because I wasn’t getting the financial results I projected. I had to make the assessment to either keep this part of my business going or discard it and let it go.
Today’s post is meant to inspire you in the next few weeks to analyze the parts of your business whether they are products, services, or new ideas that haven’t gotten off the ground and make the assessment to either keep holding onto them or discarding them. Did you establish a division of your company that is taking too much time and producing too little income? Have you purchased items to sell that just haven’t sold? Do you have a page on your website that is irrelevant now? If you do, make a decision to let go of what’s not working.
Only in discarding once valuable pieces of our company will we set free the space, time, energy and revenue opportunity so we can fill that space up with something better and more financially productive. I hope you are inspired today to kick those unproductive parts of your business to the curb this month!
Brand Loyalty
Business Advice for Women Entrepreneurs
As I prepared for a new business day, I brewed a fresh cup of Starbucks coffee, grabbed my Apple I-Pod to listen to the Dave Matthews Band, dressed in Nike running clothes and put on my favorite Asics shoes for a morning jog before heading to the office in my Lexus. Like most Americans, I’m a brand loving girl who relies on time-proven trustworthy companies to start my day. I’ve considered switching brands over the years due to cost but never enjoyed the experience of drinking, listening, wearing or driving anything else. I’m loyal to the brands I love.
As business owners don’t we want our customers to feel the same way? Don’t we want them to crave what our companies promote, refuse to bargain down in cost for another similar product, and keep them from moving over to a competitive brand? I know we do, why wouldn’t we?
I think we get so busy looking for the next group of clients to impress or new markets to explore before we truly appreciate the consumers we have and figure out why they love our brand so much. What specifically makes them return time and again or makes them advertise our company to others?
After spending time last week with two of my elementary school friends who were home from Dallas and Salt Lake City, I realize lifelong friends are like long lasting customers, they love us for who we are, how we make them feel and what we bring to the relationship. We must not get so focused on claiming new business horizons that we forget the most important component of our business – our brand loyal customers.
Today’s post is to remind you that you have created a brand for your company whether you’ve tried or not. Do you feel your brand is strong? Do you think your customers understand what your brand is? Do you really know what your brand is? How can understanding your brand better or improving help your business? If you don’t understand fully what branding is about, take the month of August to read up on the subject or work with a marketing specialist to help you understand your unique brand. It is a good investment in your company’s marketing future.
I hope your business day is full of brand-loving products that make you happy. There is value in all types of relationships even the simple ones like the perfect cup of coffee that makes you feel good every day. Make sure you are bringing a smile to your customers’ faces every morning with your unique brand.
A Summer Business Timeline
Advice for Women Entrepreneurs and Women Business Owners
As you open your business doors this morning, turn on your fans, start your computer and settle into work, you are greeted by one of those so called “lazy, dog days of summer.” The dense humidity in the air, a lack of a morning breeze and the rich blue sky makes you start your business day feeling relaxed and peaceful.
The problem during this exceptional time of year in Upstate New York is finding the right energy and focus to do work, make sales calls, and maintain an even revenue flow. Conducting business in the summer tends to make us lazy and unmotivated just as a cool, fall day can stimulate our vigor.
I have found the best way to stay motivated during this time of year is to not abandon how you run your business the rest of the year. If you can stick to a regimented to-do-list September through June, why can’t you revise it and be committed to a disciplined set of responsibilities during the dog days of summer?
This blog post should inspire you to enjoy the beauty of this season while sustaining a strong business at the same time. You can do this by adjusting your hours to an earlier time of day (ex: 6 a.m. – 2 p.m. work day), creating a two month timeline to ensure you attend to vital business details and perhaps adding part time summer help to pick up extra business duties. Just because the air outside makes us feel lazy, doesn’t mean we can relax too much as the CEO of our company this summer or we’ll be panicked when Labor Day is here and two months have flown by without conducting important business.
I hope after reading this editorial you construct a summer timeline from now until September 2nd that includes one day a week of sales calls, making appointments with key business partners to plan for the fall season, brushing up on new social media or general marketing skills, and attending events where you can conduct summer sales business. There is definitely a way to enjoy the lazy, hazy days of summer while keeping our businesses and motivation vibrant and effervescent. I hope you enjoy, plan and prosper today through Labor Day.
Choices and Purchases
Business Advice for Women Entrepreneurs
As I glance at the rolling waves of the gulf almost hidden by the lush palm trees on Sanibel Island, I was inspired to borrow my son’s laptop and at least write a quick blog post. I am suppose to be on “vacation” from my office but sometimes when you love what you do so much you have to sneak just 30 minutes of work in to settle the soul.
As I contemplated renting bikes for our family today, I ran past 2 different bike rental stores on my breathtaking morning jog. I recognized one of the stores immediately because their advertisements are in every promotional piece on the Island. Big ads and hundreds of multi-colored bikes line the main street of the quaint vacation destination. The other bike store I barely noticed as I ran by it due to its smaller sign and location on a side street. I remembered the name because our condo owner told us about them. I would have never paid attention to the smaller store if someone didn’t promote them through word-of-mouth marketing.
Women entrepreneurs need to remember that customers are always looking for us. They search for our business as they look at billboards, in promotional pieces, on the news, online and through word-of-mouth referrals. We can’t forget that it’s important to let potential buyers know we exist and where to find us. We might not have the money needed to have our products displayed on the best corner of town or to have the largest inventory, but we do have the wits to ensure we are marketing our companies well enough for consumers to find us.
Today’s blog post is to inspire you to look at your marketing plan and see if you are promoting your business the right way so consumers can find you. We assume because we’ve been in business a few years or because we have a steady clientele that we are popular. But think of the thousands of transactions you are missing because you aren’t marketing your business enough. This week create a list of ways you could be promoting your business differently to attract new customers.
As I head off to rent bikes from the smaller business today, putting my money in the hands of the company that could probably use my business more, I wish you a productive marketing week. I hope you’ll join me at one of the multitude of business events we have lined up this month and next to help you market your products and services to more people who might just be looking for your type of business to work with but don’t know where to find you.
The Fourth of July Meaning for Women Entrepreneurs
Business Advice for Women Entrepreneurs and Small Business Owners
The American flag has been a symbol of American freedom since July 4, 1776. According to historians, the recognizable colors and symbols have meaning. The white in the flag’s design signified purity and innocence, the red stripes represented hardiness and valor and the blue signified vigilance, perseverance and justice. The stars are a symbol of the heavens and the divine goal to which humankind was aspired from time immemorial; the stripes are symbolic of the rays of light emanating from the sun. As I pondered these colors and symbols, I feel they have meaning for women entrepreneurs as well.
Our entrepreneurial goal began as a pure light beam connecting our mind and heart. We are inspired to start something new, to take a fresh idea and breathe life into it. The red is the color that penetrates our entrepreneurial journey as we struggle through disappointments and setbacks. Blue is the shade we rest in when we have persevered to a new level of success for what we’ve accomplished.
Throughout our business journey we are led by the stars and divine goals to set the world on fire with our passion and purpose. Individually blessed and gifted we bring a significant meaning to what we do and who we help. The stripes of entrepreneurship are the rays of hope we rest our eyes on knowing with hard work and valiant effort we will achieve the financial rewards we seek.
Today’s blog post is to reignite the entrepreneurial spirit within you that was created from a pure light and purpose, which has stood the test of time and tribulation and has been rewarded for perseverance and vigilance. On July 4th in 1776, not only did we gain independence from the British, we ultimately gained freedom of choice.
I hope you look at the beautiful symbol of freedom flying high everywhere during Independence Day celebrations and see how it reflects on the career path you have chosen for your life. May you remember the purity of your deepest goals, the hardships you’ve been through and the peace that comes from all the big and small success you have achieved over the years. We are blessed to be Americans and we are blessed to be women entrepreneurs.
An End, A Beginning – A Good Entrepreneurial Life
Entrepreneurial Wisdom for Women Entrepreneurs and Female Business Owners
In the past week I have shared my favorite quote with a number of women entrepreneurs who are starting new beginnings with trepidation. I think it’s impossible to step into the unknown without being nervous. It’s normal to feel abnormal when faced with change. Big or little change, it doesn’t matter. It’s new and what lies ahead is unfamiliar.
I understand how some of these women feel completely as my youngest son heads off to school in the fall. I remember 21 years ago saying to my husband, “I know I can take what I do for a living and make money with my own company while being a mother at the same time!” I loved working around the clock to hit customer deadlines because I knew two sweet faces would greet my exhausted soul restoring my light and energy every morning.
I’ve been an entrepreneur since my youngest son was 3 months old. He hasn’t known me working anywhere but within my business. I don’t know entrepreneurial life without it being peppered with fitting my workload into bus schedules, lacrosse games and parent-teacher meetings. I always said to my clients, “You have my 100% attention and I’ll complete every project you need me to complete but you need to trust me and let me be flexible with my work schedule.” To all of them who understood and trusted me the past two decades – “thank you!”
The favorite quote I’ve reiterated to other women is, “A New Beginning is Another Beginning’s End.” If you have a hard time ending a major contract, moving from one location to another, leaving clients to secure bigger ones, remember the phrase. If you have a hard time with endings but rejoice in beginnings, remember the phrase. Wrap yourself in the meaning and go forth embracing the next phase of whatever it is for you.
I look back with deep gratitude for the blessed personal and entrepreneurial life I have lived for two decades. I must admit I’m apprehensive my “new beginning” won’t be nearly as fulfilling as the past since I won’t have two beautiful sons to look at every day. Instead I’ll rely on the spark and passion I feel when I wake up every beautiful, joyful morning with a heart full of resolve to help as many women entrepreneurs as I can become more financially successful through my company. Life will remain good – I know it! I hope your entrepreneurial life is as rewarding!
The Tale of Two Speakers
Business Advice for Women Entrepreneurs
I got off the phone with a prominent woman who graciously accepted the offer to be the keynote speaker at my annual conference. I was amazed at her generosity and willingness to say “yes” immediately understanding that women entrepreneurs would benefit from what she had to share. She declined an honorarium knowing the sponsorship money wasn’t secured yet.
30 minutes later, I received a message from another potential speaker who informed me she didn’t have time to talk any further about the speaking gig since it didn’t pay a stipend. She was about to land a “big” speaking event that would bring her the money she deserved. What bothered me wasn’t that she shouldn’t accept an offer that pays well; it was the way she communicated and stated her decision in an email and on my company’s facebook page.
The first woman truly had better credentials and a bigger vision for helping the world. She is the kind of woman I want speaking at my events. I know women entrepreneurs need to make money. I would never begrudge a woman the chance to turn down an offer to receive a better one. But it doesn’t have to entail posting the fact on my social media sites to make a point.
Here are a few universal business lessons I was reminded of today to help you in your business:
* Make sure you align yourself with the right people in every aspect of your business endeavors. Who represents you and who you are affiliated with – large and small – can have a major impact on your image and brand. Just ask Paula Deen how her clients feel about her now. Unfortunately she no longer is the person they want representing her. Be careful in every selection you make.
*Realize the world is made up of good people with good intentions and not so great people with poor intentions. Good ones surface. When choosing clients or selecting vendors make sure you pick the right people, who understand your mission, purpose and perspective, so you don’t waste time giving opportunities to the wrong people.
*If you have an uneasy feeling in your gut or a red flag appears as you try to work with someone, walk away from the potential relationship. It’s better to end something before it begins than to begin something at all.
*Be thankful for the people in your business life that offer to give without expecting anything in return and then be that same person to others.
Women TIES 