The Ying and Yang of Business
On this foggy spring morning in Syracuse, the opening paragraph in a favorite book related to this morning’s atmospheric conditions,
“Some parts of our lives appear like a long, paved highway. We can see exactly where to go; we have a panoramic view. Other times, it may feel like we’re driving in the dark with only one headlight on a winding road through the fog. We can only see a few feet in front of the car. Don’t worry if you can’t see that far ahead, if you only have a glimmer of light to guide your path. Slow down. Listen to your heart. Guidance will come. Trust what you hear. Do the small things. Take the one step. Go as far as you can see for now.”
Being an entrepreneur requires balance. There are times we move forward at warp speed launching new ideas, entering new domains and marketing our companies. We have abundant energy, time and money. Then there are times we stutter, stumble or stall. Making decisions, taking financial risks and pushing into new arenas are difficult. It’s like the fog that rolls in on a spring morning obstructing our vision, challenging our perspective and slowing our advancement. Surviving entrepreneurship means understanding the ebb and flow of our business progress and mindset.
“Awareness doesn’t make change possible. Awareness makes change inevitable,” is another quote sitting on my desk this morning. Being aware of whether we are in warp speed mode or take it slow mode is important for setting priorities. As a business owner for 18 years, I have allowed myself permission to move at the right speed at the right time and it’s served me well.
Today’s blog post is to tell you that moving as fast as lightening towards new goals is as important as slowing down to change course. The Ying and Yang of business means contrary forces and feelings are interconnected and naturally give rise to each other in turn. We can’t move forward without standing still sometimes; and a respite can sometimes be the only thing that shifts our focus and gives us an energetic new purpose. Trust and act on the guidance, vision and energy you have right now and more will come your way.
Handling Difficult Client Situtations
“Learn to feel and show empathy for your client’s situation in a non-judgmental way,” is the quote on this morning’s business calendar. The quotation resonated with me this week after speaking with a few women entrepreneurs about their struggles to collect revenue from customers.
One woman in particular has been challenged the past year to collect payments from a long time client who produces 30% of her annual revenue. With a soft market, this entrepreneur doesn’t want to lose this vital income yet her impatience with her client is increasing. After calling me angry and in need of advice, I suggested she step away from her irritated thoughts, pick up the phone and set a date to take her client to lunch. I advised her to use the luncheon to discuss the issue in person displaying a non-judgmental attitude during the conversation. Sometimes there are unknown circumstances about clients we aren’t aware of until we embark on a discussion with them. An honest face-to-face talk is the best way to gather information and communicate our needs..
As easy as it is to send a text, email and voice mail message, those communication methods don’t repair short or long term tension that needs to be rectified. It takes a more assertive and personal approach. But a tough client meeting should always be handled with diplomacy for the sake of the relationship. Being empathic about a customer’s reasons for consistent late payments is the best approach if maintaining the relationship is of utmost importance to the entrepreneur.
Today’s blog post is to encourage you to set a personal appointment with vital customers when an important situation needs to be discussed. The meeting might be because you need to increase fees, address late payment issues, discuss miscommunication or hash out an ongoing problem. We owe it to ourselves and our clients to handle big problems in person. As tough as it can be, it’s the right way to resolve issues.
Being empathic means we have the ability to identify with and understand somebody else’s feelings or difficulties. Don’t forget the periods when others have been empathic with you and set up a time to deal with customer problems honestly and in person.
Wild Marketing Imagination
Last week was full of lofty dreams if you bought into the Mega Millions lottery craze. As I walked in the grocery store to purchase five tickets, I joined a line of five other people. My line was short compared to most lines in other stores across the nation. Of course as an entrepreneur who loves marketing and sales I thought to myself, “How could I get millions of people to wait in line to buy a lucky ticket from Women TIES and earn insane amounts of marketing and sales at the same time?”
Since the drawing I have contemplated my own wild corporate contests to help my company this year. Should I implement a wild, over-the-top pink contest? Should I create an addictive business promotion that multiplies the more someone buys from my company? Should I put the names of my member’s companies on round lottery balls and give a big financial prize to the lucky winner? My brain spun just like the big lottery machine did trying to envision an effective and addictive business promotion.
Before the lucky numbers were identified last week, I posted on Facebook I would take the $640 million dollar jackpot and fund every single one of my paid member’s businesses with a set amount of money. I was serious about it. What in the world could one person do with $640 million? I know I would have carried out that promise if I was the winner. It was fun envisioning the gift giving and rocking the future of women entrepreneurs in my organization.
Today’s blog post is meant to have you dream big about what you could be doing with your company and for your customers. Should you be using your creativity to produce dynamic customer orientated contests to attract attention? Could you give away a certain amount of money to one new lucky Facebook friend? Could you give an all expense paid trip to an industry event your customer would love to attend? Today take a few more minutes to dream beyond your logical mind and see if you can produce an exciting contest or reward for your company and customers.
We were all blessed with imagination but we don’t draw on it as often as we should especially if we aren’t a “creative type.” But being a logical person doesn’t mean we can’t have fun with our companies and clients. Pick one of your favorite creative businesswomen, go out to lunch and brainstorm some fantastic promotions for both of your companies. Have fun and dream up something big!
Hard Core Business Plan Revisions
I ran into a woman entrepreneur I hadn’t seen in a year. As we discussed changes in our personal lives, the conversation led to changes in our business lives. When I inquired how she had substantially grown her company in the past year, she admitted it was due to revisions – hard core revisions – to her business plan..
Two weeks later I was at an event speaking to another woman entrepreneur who informed me she had just spent $150,000 to add new space to her existing rented office area so she could bring more services to her clients and expand her company. When I asked how she knew the investment would pay off, she said she projected it in a revised business plan.
This time of year reminds me of revising my business plan because it’s the same time I remember crunching numbers, staying up late and studying days on end to take final exams in college. I’ve always associated working on my business plan as an enormous, time intensive project due in my final class at the end of an exhausting college semester. It’s a lot of work!
When women entrepreneurs are already so busy trying to bring in new clients, keeping current customers happy and collecting revenue, it’s hard to find the time to revise our business plan to make our companies more successful. If we could take off 3 months from entrepreneurial life to revise them, it would make the process bearable.
But we won’t find corporate success ignoring this vital work. We have to make revising our business plan a priority. We shouldn’t need an instructor to motivate us to do the work; we should be able to motivate ourselves.
Today’s blog is to encourage you to set a time in the next three months to revise your business plan. If you need help you can find assistance with the Women’s Business Center of New York State or at your local Small Business Development Center. Both are resources on the Women TIES website. Make an appointment today with yourself and with a counselor to get the process rolling.
I hope by tackling revisions to your business plan you are enlightened through the process to create and sustain an even stronger business with long lasting potential. Here’s to the work we need to do!
The Next Stage
“Leave emotion behind and make important business decisions based on the facts,” is a quote sitting on my desk today. As soon as I read the quote I flashed back to an employee evaluation in my early 20’s when my boss told me I needed to be less emotional about the ups and down of my position and just focus on being “all business.”
I remember trying to check my emotions at the door anytime anything rattled me. I was young and it was my first job so I wasn’t quite prepared to handle job stresses. I was green. I needed to mature as a working professional. I tried to imitate older employees who were “grace under fire.” Soon the green wore off and I was a wiser person.
A week ago I met a woman who runs a 4 year old company. Although she’s made it through the first four years in business, she still feels green. She expressed doubt in herself because she makes business decisions based on emotion. I told her about conversations I’ve had with financially successful women entrepreneurs who remember when the critical time came for them to stop running their businesses purely on emotion. They learned to put emotion aside and make logical, practical, tough decisions based on facts and statistics. In the end, it served them well.
As I watched my niece try to crawl for the first time yesterday, it reminded me of this woman again. We all have stages to conquer in life. When we were young, we didn’t know how to crawl; but we had to crawl before we could walk. Then we needed to know how to walk well before we could run. We had to be physically and emotionally ready to take on every next stage. So no matter how hard my niece tried to crawl yesterday. She just couldn’t. She wasn’t quite ready.
Today’s post is to remind those of you who feel pressured to move to the next stage in your business and simply can’t do it yet, that maybe you aren’t quite ready. Maybe there’s something more you need to learn. Maybe you need to get financing or personnel in place. Perhaps you need a better plan, an advisor or legal advice. You know if you are ready but just avoiding the step or if you’re simply not ready.
Time matures us. It turns our green ways into golden days. Be patient and proactive at the same time if you feel you need to take a few more steps to get to that next stage.
Women Leading the Way
In 1980, President Jimmy Carter designated March 2-8, 1980 as National Women’s History Week. In his address he said, “From the first settlers who came to our shores, from the first American Indian families who befriended them, men and women have worked together to build this nation. Too often the women were unsung and sometimes their contributions went unnoticed. But the achievements, leadership, courage, strength and love of the women who built America was as vital as that of the men whose names we know so well.”
In 1980 I was in college at SUNY Oswego and led there by Olive Spargo, the first female alumni association president, who reigned from my hometown. Olive believed young women should embrace leadership roles so in 1980 she asked me to start hosting receptions with her to encourage other students in our hometown to choose SUNY Oswego as their higher education choice. Not only was that experience my first “sales” job, but Olive’s belief in my abilities gave me confidence to be a leader the rest of my career.
When I look around New York today, I am very proud to see Joanie Mahoney leading Onondaga County, Deborah Stanley leading SUNY Oswego, Nancy Cantor at the helm of Syracuse University, Debbie Sydow transforming Onondaga Community College, and Senator Kirsten Gillibrand representing women in Congress. These women weren’t in these positions in 1980. Could Jimmy Carter’s message, the brave women of the suffrage movement and even individual efforts of female mentors like Olive Spargo help these women believe they could lead and change their communities someday?
Today’s post is to encourage you to recognize the women throughout history and involved in your personal history who inspired you to be courageous, strong and built to lead. This is the month to pay homage to the women in our lives who have helped us arrive where we are today.
Enjoy March. Enjoy Women’s History Month. Enjoy the fact you are a woman entrepreneur because of the women you know, and don’t know, who have led the way. Take time this month to encourage a younger woman to become a leader. Invite her to one of our programs. You never know she might just turn out to be the next billion dollar woman entrepreneur or the President of the United States one day.
The Path
A wise woman once said to me, “A person’s career is made up of a series of stepping stones. Only by looking back can you see how each step has created a path to where you
are today.” The image of the stone path winding its way up hills, around unexpected bends, in the sunshine, through the rain and where it ends today is a great illustration how each step we’ve taken has guided us to where we are this moment. Small steps, big steps, small decisions and big decisions created our unique career path. Each footstep has counted.
For Theresa Slater, a woman who now runs a multi-million dollar company called Empire Interpreting Service; it took million dollar stepping stones to get her where she is in 2012. Small risks, small decisions, big risks and big decisions created her extremely successful Central New York corporation. Although Theresa has achieved great success, she understands the importance of sharing the milestones – the steps – along the way with other women entrepreneurs. It’s the reason I have asked her to speak at our regional Women TIES Rochester luncheon during Women’s History Month.
I am sure we wish our entrepreneurial path was always a sunny, straight and flat one, but it isn’t and won’t be. Understanding our journey to corporate success will be full of good and bad days, poor financial periods and richly deserved rewards, helps us march forward. Only by looking over our shoulder can we truly see the positive progress we’ve made. Even though looking onward is important, so is looking backward.
Today’s post is meant to encourage you to keep taking the next progressive steps in your journey – whatever those steps are for you. It could be adding staff, taking bigger financial risks, recreating your brand, marketing more extensively or simply going in a different direction. Today you are taking a step that someday, when you look back, will make perfect sense.
I hope to see you, and other women entrepreneurs like you, throughout my business travels always moving forward on the challenging turf that will eventually lead us to our own golden monetary horizon. Onward we go together.
Your Name in Lights
The arena was packed and the energy was through the roof at the Boston College Conte Forum as fans came to watch their team compete against basketball powerhouse Duke. The crowd roared as both teams entered the court. All the players and coaches were present except for all-time winning men’s basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski of Duke.
I have to admit I was there because Coach K (as he is known) was my father’s favorite basketball coach. Seeing Coach K in person was going to fulfill one of m
y father’s personal dreams. So you can imagine the excitement pulsing through my veins waiting for Coach K’s arrival. What I discovered the moment he walked on the court sent chills through my body and entrepreneurial spirit.
Coach K had presence – big powerful, arena shaking presence. Everyone felt it, saw it and understood it. You couldn’t miss it. He commended attention. It wasn’t because of anything he said or did as he walked on the court; it was his persona. The years of hard work and accomplishments on the court had created it. 
So I wasn’t surprised the next day to discover a website address in his name – www.coachk.com I looked it up because one of my marketing advisors had recently suggested I purchase a website address for my own name. My name, more than Women TIES name, accompanies the increasing number of articles, columns and national blog posts. I listened to my advisor but didn’t understand the power of owning a personal website until I saw Coach K and understood he was his own brand.
Today’s blog post is to encourage you to think whether it’s time to purchase a website in your personal name. Are you an accomplished writer? Are you known as an expert in your field? Do you have a recognizable name? Are you trying to brand yourself and your name as an authority within a field? If so, now might be the time to buy “yourname.com.”
Sometimes women don’t like focusing attention on themselves. But becoming your own best advocate and PR agent is vital to future business success. While we are busy building a corporate brand, we are also building a personal brand.
So today might be the day to put your name in lights. It doesn’t have to be under the bright lights of a nationally televised basketball game, but it could be under the lights of a new personal website to promote your own personal brand.
Business Love Letters
By the middle of the 18th century, Valentine’s Day was a customary day for friends and lovers of all social classes to exchange small tokens of affection or handwritten notes. Handwritten notes and sentimental thoughts were converted over time to a billion dollar industry. According to today’s statistics, Valentine’s Day has become the second largest card sending holiday with an estimated 2.6 billion cards sent.
As I review these statistics, I wonder how a simple idea like creating Valentine’s Day cards could translate over time to a billion dollar industry. Is love what really fuels business success?
It’s hard to be innovative in a world of a billion business success stories. I’m sure most women entrepreneurs wish they were creating the next best concept to launch them into the ultimate success stratosphere. But original ideas are hard to come by. If you just figure we are living in the 21st century and it took 3 centuries for the Valentine’s Day card industry to become a billion dollar enterprise, you’ll see how challenging it can be for an idea to really take hold.
So the lesson today isn’t so much about what it takes to create the next best ground-breaking concept because honestly the fruition time for success could outlast an entrepreneur’s lifetime. The lesson is about love. Yes, love.
People love to know other people care. Customers in particular love to know their vendors care about them. In the automated, super technical world we live in, a simple gesture of affection – a card, a flower, a gift, a thank you note can have more impact on your current customer base than a new splashy ad campaign can do to attract new clients. Business is about love isn’t it?
Today’s post is meant to have you stop and think about the most important people who make your business successful. Who are they – vendors, partners, sponsors, advisors or friends? Have you taken time lately to tell them they matter? Can you find 30 minutes this week to send a few handwritten “love letters,” like they use to pen in the 18th century, to a few really important people connected with your business?
I think you’ll find as corny as it sounds, displaying love and affection in your entrepreneurial life will reap you a billion seconds of clients remembering who you are.
Entrepreneurial Lessons from a 5th Grade Girl
This is from a speech I delivered in 2009 to 125 Girl Scouts at “Cookie College”. My speech was about 5th grade lessons I learned that helped me be an “adult” entrepreneur. I hope this speech inspires you today to think back to who you were in 5th grade and how lessons you learned are still helping you today.
Hi Everyone – Wow, am I so glad to be here today! Besides being a women entrepreneur and running two businesses, I am also the mother of two big, stinking rotten boys! When I left the house this morning to come to this great event surrounded by 125 girls, they said “Bye see you later – We are having a boys rule the house party when you leave”. I said oh yeah, “I’m going to a Girls Rule party when I leave and I bet you we have more fun than you!!” I can tell by all your happy faces and the program the Girls Scout Council has planned for you, that you will have a wonderful time today and learn a lot.
When I thought about what to talk to you about today I thought back to when I was in 4th and
5th grade. I also thought about the new show on TV called “Are you smarter than a 5th
Grader?” I realized when I thought back to being a fifth grader, that I was doing some things
that really helped me grow up to run my own business and to help others run their own
businesses. So I’m excited to share with you some of the things I did at your age which helped
me be in front of you today. I hope you like what I share with you.
First – “Raise Your Hand Often” – How many of you raise your hand to be selected to answer
questions in school? Or to be in charge of something in your girls scout troop? Or to do
something extra that a teacher asks you to do? While, I was like all of you who raised their
hands. I always raised my hand. I always wanted to be in front of the class, help out a teacher,
or do something that required some leadership skills. By raising my hand often, it gave me
other new opportunities I wouldn’t have been able to do or experience if I didn’t raise my
hand to begin with.
Here’s an example of how raising my hand helped me to be an entrepreneur. In
sixth grade (my elementary school went to 6th grade not 5th grade), I always raised my hand to
go up to the chalkboard, read to the class, present my homework. I never shyed away from it.
So when it came time for the 6th grade class to pick one student to read the 6th grade
graduation speech, guess who was chosen? You are right – it was me! Do you know why?
Because they were use to seeing me in front of the class, taking chances, and being brave
enough to stand up and speak. It was an honor to be chosen to write and deliver our
graduation speech.
When I left elementary school, I never stopped raising my hand – I raised it in High
School, in College, at my first job, and when I started my own business. I remembered from
sixth grade that by raising my hand and demonstrating interest in being in front of the class, I
would be noticed and it would open doors for new fun and challenging experiences. So I
encourage you to raise your hand the next time you are asked to do something you might
want to do or maybe not want to do. It will be a lesson that will always help you as you grow
up; and especially if you start your own business. You’ll be ready to take the biggest challenge
of all – which is beginning a company.
Second – Pay Attention to What You Like or Do Well Now – When I was 7 years old, I decided
I wanted to raise money for the Jerry Lewis Muscular Dystrophy Drive. I decided to host a
carnival in my garage to raise money. I got my sister and my neighbors to work it; I created all
the games and prizes; I made jello and milk for food; I rang door bells to get my neighbors to
come to it. I raised $150 dollars and got a gold metal for raising that much money!
I remember loving it so much, I planned events in high school and college. So when I got out
of college I knew what I wanted to be – I wanted to be an event planner. So I worked at two
colleges planning events until I started my first business in 1995. Guess what type of business
it was? You are right if you said an “event planning company” AND my first big client was
planning a carnival like festival in Cicero! It wasn’t too different than planning my carnival
when I was 7 (except we had better food than jello and milk)!
I bet if some of you think about it really hard – there are things you already love to do or are
really good at which might become a career for you when you grow up or even a business to
start. So pay attention to what you love to do now, and what you are good at doing now as
you grow up. Trying doing more of it and then eventually see if it should be something you
should learn more about in college so you can start your own career or own business today.
Third: Be Effervescent – How many of you know what the word effervescent means? Don’t
worry I didn’t know it either when I was your age. When I was in sixth grade, my teacher sent
home a report card that said “Tracy is very effervescent”. I was worried it meant something
bad. But instead it meant that I was bubbly and had a lot of positive energy. I’ve always
remembered that word and tried to live up to it. All through my life, I have been
complimented on my positive personality. It is important not only if you want to do well in
business but also in life. When you are selling cookies, are you “effervescent” or “grouchy”?
Do you think you’ll sell more cookies if you are positive and happy, or negative and grumpy?
People like buying from happy people who believe in themselves and what they are selling.
Sometimes it is hard to be happy if no one is buying your cookies. But my father who sold
coffee and was pretty effervescent guy himself, said to me when I started my business,
“Tracy you are going to have to knock on a lot of doors to sell and to make money. You are
going to get a bunch of nos. Don’t ever get discouraged. Because you never know when the
last no, will turn into the next yes. Be positive, be happy, keep selling. “ And I can tell you one
thing – he was right!
Fourth: Be Entrepreneurial Now: How many of you like working? How many of you like
earning money? Well I was like all of you who raised their hands. When I was your age, I had
a job helping my aunt clean her silver, pulled weeds from the bricks at my neighbors house,
babysat for another neighbor up the road, and ironed cloths for my other aunt. I wanted to
work and earn money when I was young. I loved the idea of helping someone with tasks
around their house. I loved filling up my spare time with something different than sports or
school. I loved making money and putting it my college savings account.
The best part about doing some work when you are a 5th grader is it helps you create an
interest in working later in life and the importance of how working hard can help you make
money. When you own your own business, you have to work hard. You have to work late at
night, sometimes you have to work on weekends, sometimes you can’t do fun things when
everyone else is doing them. But you know if you work really hard, you are rewarded for your
efforts. You get paid not only with money but usually with people who appreciate the work
you have done for them. I love working because I love helping other people plan events or
helping women promote their businesses, and I love making money. But I KNOW you have to
love what you do first to be really happy; money doesn’t mean a lot unless you are happy
doing what you do every day.
FIFTH: Talk To Your Girlfriends About Your Dreams – Even though I’m much older than a 5th
grader now (in fact my youngest son is in 8th grade), I still have one girlfriend from elementary
school who is still my best friend today! She lives in Salt Lake City, Utah and we are still great
friends.
Two years ago when I was wondering if I should do something different with my career, she
was the only person who understood what I was trying to do and in a few simple sentences
helped me see what I wanted for my future. This is the same girlfriend I was in Brownies
with!! She has been my friend for all my life and sometimes only girlfriends understand
everything about you, your hopes and dreams for your future.
I can tell you that the power of friendship is something you need all through your life even if
you don’t want to be an entrepreneur. But if you do want to run your own business someday,
your girlfriends will be the ones who cheer with you when you get a new client, they’ll cheer
you up when you have a bad business day, they’ll tell other people about you and your
business, and they’ll stand by you through it all.
So pay attention to the special girlfriends you have around you today. When you are wicked
old like I am right now, they might be exactly who you call when you need someone to talk
about your business and your dreams. They’ll always believe in you when you might have a
hard time believing in yourself.
FINALLY: Always Be Proud To Wear Pink- Who loves the color pink in here? Who loves the
color brown or grey, or black? When you get older, and you are in business – don’t forget to
wear pink so people know you “You’re proud to be a girl”.
Last summer my oldest son who plays lacrosse for West Genesee High School had six of his
friends over to our house. Because I’m not too scared to try anything (as you’ve heard from
my stories today), I told them I could beat their JV lacrosse goalie in a one on one challenge.
Well, you know boys, they thought that was not possible. So they took me up on my challenge.
I told them before we started, I needed to go put on my pink shirt. They thought that was
funny but I didn’t – I knew I needed the “girl power” energy to beat them. So there I was a
44 year old mom, with a pink shirt on that said “Girls Rule” and a big old orange lacrosse stick,
taking on a 16 year old boy from one of the best lacrosse schools in the country. What do you
think happened? Did I win or did I lose? Well, I lost technically but only by alittle and guess
what THEY learned….they learned girls can do anything boys can do because girls believe in
themselves and have the courage to try! My favorite picture on my office desk is taken of me
holding my lacrosse stick with my son, and his six friends (with big smiles on their faces)
because it proves that girls can do anything boys can do! So more importantly than anything
else you learn today, remember girls can do anything!!
So here again are the things I want you to remember from my talk:
- Raise Your Hand Often
- Pay Attention To What You Love to Do or Are Good At Doing Now
- Be Effervescent
- Be Entrepreneurial Now
- Talk to Your Girlfriends About Your Dreams
- Always Be Proud To Wear Pink
Thank you so much for letting me be here with you today. Your happy, smiling faces will be
with me all year long as I help other big girls who are my age try to achieve their own dreams
running their own businesses.
I know my sons didn’t have nearly as much fun as I have had with you today at this special
“Girls Rule” party! All I want you to remember to be is to stay positive, be happy, be
hardworking, and of course be effervescent!
Women TIES 