Leadership
As my son went off to volunteer at the Samaritan Center Sunday to feed the needy men, women and children of Syracuse I said to him, “Make sure your perform your service with your eyes and heart wide open.” He said, “What do you mean?” and I said, “Don’t miss the opportunity to witness and understand the contribution you are making today by paying special attention to the people you are helping and how your gift of time and service will make a difference in their lives today.”
I have always felt entrepreneurship allows me and other businesswomen the opportunity to provide a service or product that makes a positive difference in the lives of our clients. Of course besides making an impact comes our desire to make money, create an economic impact, challenge ourselves to take risks and achieve our biggest dreams. But no matter how vital it is to create a sustainable and profitable business, it is important we perform our business with “our eyes and heart wide open” too. We need to be constantly aware to ensure our staff performs within our customer service guidelines. We must observe mistakes and fix them. We must reach out to our major clients frequently. We have to visualize and attract new customers. At the same time we are seeing and leading with the head, we need to make decisions from the heart. We shouldn’t focus all our attention on the bottom line that we forget why we are in business. We shouldn’t maintain old rigid policies if a new improved outlook can make more customers happy. We can’t ignore criticism from our staff or customers because they might provide us with great insight and incentive for change.Today is the day to lead with your eyes and heart wide open. I bet if you do you will leave work with more clarity about where you are, what changes you might need to make, and the important contributions you are making every day that positively impact the community.
Becoming An Expert In Your Field
In Jay Conrad Levinson’s book, “Guerrilla Publicity” he features hundreds of sure-fire tactics to get maximum sales for minimum dollars. One of the chapters is entitled: “Find Your Uniqueness and Capitalize On It.” He states, “Take inventory. Find out what’s unique about you and what special ingredients distinguish you and your product or service from the crowd. Then come up with a clever, interesting, and unusual way to tell the world about it.”
In every media outlet in the world, we see individuals who have discovered or created uniqueness and have become known as experts in their field. Martha Stewart, Suze Ormon, Mary Kay Ash and Debbie Fields are just a few. These women have created a brand around their expertise of home design, money matters, cosmetics and cookies! They all had to start somewhere. Each woman had to look at themselves and identify what made them different from the norm; and then they had to capitalize on it.
Trisha Torrey, EveryPatientsAdvocate.com
One of my Women TIES Advisory Board Members has done the same thing for herself. Trisha Torrey, President of EveryPatientsAdvocate.com, has created an amazing brand which helps patients become their own best health advocate. In five short years, Torrey has become an author, newspaper columnist, radio talk show host, About.com patient empowerment expert, blogger and dynamic healthcare speaker. All of these titles sprung from her personal story, unique position in the marketplace, and her interest in becoming an expert in her field. Next week at our Syracuse luncheon, she’ll share her tips on becoming an expert with women entrepreneurs. You won’t want to miss this dynamic woman and her excellent marketing tips. Any woman entrepreneur can make a reservation at Women TIES Events Page
Today’s blog is to challenge you to think about your own special insights, understandings and perspectives that make your voice unique. Consider how you can capitalize on your uniqueness today so you can position yourself as an expert in your field in the future.
Productivity Tips for Entrepreneurs
In today’s Syracuse Post Standard “Ask the Entrepreneurs” column I have written with two other women entrepreneurs for five years, we answered the following question from a reader, “As a small business owner wearing a lot of hats, sometimes it’s hard to stay focused. What are your best tips for being productive?” My blog entry today features the column for our blog readers who don’t receive this newspaper. I hope it inspires you to higher levels of productivity today.
Tracy Higginbotham
Tracy Higginbotham, President of Women TIES: I think most entrepreneurs today would say technology has increased their productivity as Theresa states below. It certainly aids in automating cumbersome business processes, increases communication response time and allows corporate files and information to be shared by employees more efficiently. Even though I use technology, the key to my productivity level has always been the daily, weekly and monthly planning timelines my staff and I use to keep us efficient every minute of the work day. We manage multiple regional events, promote and communicate extensively with over 350 women entrepreneurs state-wide and manage daily business operations. The best way to control our time efficiently is to list and track short and long term tasks. We update lists at the end of every day and week – deleting what has been accomplished and adding new responsibilities. This plan might seem time consuming for other entrepreneurs but I’ve always believed success is in the details. It’s the way I have been productive as an event manager and entrepreneur.
Theresa Slater
Theresa Slater, President of Empire Interpreting Services: Utilize technology as much as possible! The obvious tools are smart phones and laptops. Here are a few others that keep me on top of things: * A satellite card for your laptop ensuring internet connection regardless of your location. * Company database programs that allow offsite monitoring of business activity; office correspondence, staff calendars and customer information. * Internet-hosted accounting systems (and online banking) enable immediate access to financial information and reports. * An eReader or Kindle – keeping on top of professional journals and news media giving you instant access to the latest news. This is a great way to be productive while waiting for appointments, grabbing a coffee, etc. Lastly learn how to use the technology and software to its utmost potential! Tasks lists, calendar alarms, message forwarding, – all the best technology does you no good if you don’t understand it! Now take our advice to heart…this may be the most productive thing you’ve done all day! While I totally agree with Theresa on utilizing technology, it can turn into a distraction if you’re not disciplined. I just read a great article in “Entrepreneur” titled “Email is Making You Stupid”. It was about how as a culture we have become addicted to technology and multi-tasking – to the point where we are becoming less productive. I have long suspected this was an issue for me, so I’m taking steps to tame my inbox compulsion. We get a lot of our orders via the internet so I can’t ignore it completely, but I made a couple key changes. * I turned off the sound alert for new emails. This cuts down on distractions enormously when I’m sitting at the computer working on something. * I’m checking my email just once an hour. Let’s face it – there are very few gift basket emergencies. Being aware of the problem is half the battle, and just by making these small changes I’m already feeling more productive.
Julie Briggs
Julie Briggs, President of The Syracuse Gift Basket Company: While I totally agree with Theresa on utilizing technology, it can turn into a distraction if you’re not disciplined. I just read a great article in “Entrepreneur” titled “Email is Making You Stupid”. It was about how as a culture we have become addicted to technology and multi-tasking – to the point where we are becoming less productive. I have long suspected this was an issue for me, so I’m taking steps to tame my inbox compulsion. We get a lot of our orders via the internet so I can’t ignore it completely, but I made a couple key changes: I turned off the sound alert for new emails. This cuts down on distractions enormously when I’m sitting at the computer working on something; and I’m checking my email just once an hour. Let’s face it – there are very few gift basket emergencies. Being aware of the problem is half the battle, and just by making these small changes I’m already feeling more productive.
Success Strategies for Women Entrepreneurs
Tracy Higginbotham, President Women TIES
As Women TIES celebrated its fifth anniversary, I looked back at three major success hightlights that produced three general success strategies to help other women entrepreneurs. We wanted to share them with our readers today. We hope they inspire you to higher levels of entrepreneurial success this year.
Build It and They Will Come
In September 2009 at the opening of our Fall Luncheon schedule, 65 women attended the Syracuse event. This was our second biggest luncheon crowd but more importantly over 65% of the women who attended were from regions outside of Syracuse. The audience had members who traveled from the Mohawk Valley, Rochester, Ithaca, Cortland, Oswego, Canandiauga, Skaneateles and Auburn.
When I created the unique concept of a “Regional” Marketplace, the business community didn’t understand the concept. They didn’t believe women would travel between cities to meet each other. I knew if I created strong local events in regional cities, kept explaining the mission, and encouraged women to get on the road, it would work. In September 2009, the diverse regional audience of women, many who had already done business with each other, proved Women TIES mission was working!
Lesson: When you create a unique business, it takes time to develop it, to sell it, and to watch it grow. You have to be patient. It will take 3-5 years to build it and for customers to come.
Collaboration and Innovation Works
Erin McKenna, Bride Design
In June 22, 2005, Erin Nowak McKenna, Owner of
Bride Design, presented a program “Using Creativity to Grow Your Business”. In the audience was Jennifer Comfort the owner of She Takes the Cake. Erin delivered a fascinating presentation on creating 100 ideas for a company through brainstorming. One of the suggestions she had for her own company was the concept of putting her wedding designs on something other than paper. When the presentation was over, Jen approached Erin about the idea of printing her wedding designs and invitations on her home-made cookies.
Within a year Erin and Jen had created and launched their own “invitation cookies” as a joint venture. Today’s “Sweet Talk Boutique” produces edible invitations for all occasions. This collaboration was one of the proudest moments in Women TIES history because it brought two regional women together to not only network but to create additional revenue streams for their businesses. It is truly a glowing example of how Women TIES can benefit women entrepreneurs interested in collaboration and innovation.
Lesson: Sometimes the dreams you have for your business are bigger than you imagined. Sometimes being at the right event, at the right time, is a fateful decision that opens up economic “ties” that can change the course of your entrepreneurial venture. You have to be open to the opportunities.
Trust Your Gut
Fours years into our business, my board and I had the idea to plan a large, one day conference to bring our regional members together. With so many typical business conferences occuring locally and nationally, it was especially important to me as the leader of the organization to put a “signature” feeling on the day to make it unqiue. We set out to create an “inspirational retreat” instead of an educational symposium, annual business conference or networking trade show.
We made sure the Retreat was hosted in a casual, relaxed business atmosphere with experienced women entrepreneurs delivering key success strategies from an inspirational story telling, first person experience. Once again, staying true to the vision and feeling of the event was critical to its success.
One day after 130 women attended the first annual “Women TIES Retreat” Inspiring Success”, over 80% of the attendees sent glowing remarks via email to our office within 24 hours of the event! We did not prompt the response but they enjoyed the event so much they wrote the comments on their own.
Lesson: Be creative. Think outside of the box. Stay true to your vision and the atmosphere you are creating for your company whether it’s an internal atmosphere or one every client experiences at your large or small events. Be unique.
Simplicity and Honesty Grows a Business
International businesswoman and Skaneateles resident Patience Brewster, President of Patience Brewster, Inc., addressed one hundred women at last week’s Skaneateles Chamber of Commerce Women in Business Luncheon with what she believed to be the keys to their international and national success. She said, “Simplicity and honesty has really worked for our business.”
This beautiful and intelligent woman shared her entrepreneurial beginnings as a thirteen year old girl creating pincushions and purses from scraps from a weaving shop she worked at and by selling riding lessons for $2 to children in her neighborhood. Years later her business spirit and art background led her to create greeting cards for a national company which eventually spurred her own card line, Christmas ornaments and paintings for gallery exhibits. Her work is now known and recognized worldwide.
When Patience spoke about growing an international company she talked about the importance of quality control, “When we realized our product, which we take great pride and time in making, wasn’t being respected in larger stores we pulled out our orders and found stores who sold our products with care and in the conditions we expected. We came to value people who valued our product and sold our items the way we wanted them sold.” She closed her presentation sharing their customer service policy, “We treat Neiman Marcus the same way we treat the average customer in Skaneateles. We keep it simple and our customers like it.”
Today remember that growing a company means testing the waters in bigger markets but not forgetting to get so large that the quality of your product and image of your company gets lost in the process. Whether you are running a small company and growing it one person at a time, or watching your growing business get larger by the day, don’t forget your beginnings, your values and Patience’s words that “sometimes simplicity and honesty really work well.”
Calling Women – A Room Full of Sisters Invitation
Five years ago on March 3, 2005, I stood at the podium at “A Room Full of Sisters” in Auburn, New York and launched my new company, Women TIES, in the midst of 400 women. Five years later I am now co-producing the event with one of the co-founders Melina Carnicelli of Treble Associates and Joann Blake of Treble Associates. We are expecting a diverse audience of women and girls aged 10 – 90 from different ethnic and religious backgrounds who will gather together for one day to celebrate the sisterhood that exists between women.
Having grown up with strong female role models as a young girl, it’s the women of an older generations that inspired me to grow up, go to college, graduate and then do something special with my life. It’s my female friends from childhood who kept me believing in myself and my dreams. It’s been the women on my Women TIES Advisory Board that have stood by my side for five years helping me direct my growing state-wide organization for women entrepreneurs. Finally, it’s been the over 800 women who have come to Women TIES events the past year and over 300 regional members who motivate me everyday to promote, support and encourage them to become more financially successful individually and as a unit.
So on April 15th, when I look back out from the podium five years later, I will be thankful for all the “Room Full of Sisters” I have met the past five years. I encourage any women who are looking for an inspirational event to sign up today by going to www.womenties.com/roomfullofsisters to register. We have an amazing line-up of entertainers like Grammy Award Winner Singer and Songwriter Joanne Shenendoah, National Author and Life Coach Teresa Huggins, Auburn women entrepreneur Gwen Webber-McLeod reading Mona Lake Jones poem “A Room Full Of Sisters,” Laura Ponticello of Laura’s Book List for Women, and Erika Davis of Creekside Books who will conduct a Spring Book Talk, and Maria DeSantis of DeSantis Orchestra providing guitarist Kelly Birtcher for the day’s melodies. The day will also feature marketplace shopping with 50 vendors and a chance to win an exclusive $1,500 spa and lodging package by Major Sponsor Mirbeau Inn & Spa.
So if you are a woman anywhere in the Greater Central New York area looking for a unique and inspirational event, mark April 15th on your calendar and plan on joining 400 of your sisters in a room full of joy and celebration.
Challenging Business Lessons – Part II
Today’s blog continues the top challenging business lessons we faced over the past five years running our company. They are meant to help women entrepreneurs weather their own entrepreneurial storms. Running a business isn’t always clear sailing – we get alot of gusty winds, torrential downpours and obstacles keeping us from reaching the other shore many times in our business careers. The ability to make it through the storms makes us more committed to our dream and better prepared for the next crisis.
Asking For Help In a Crisis
Most women entrepreneurs see themselves as capable, independent and smart women able to face anything life throws their way. Sometimes life throws us unexpected curveballs that affect us personally and professionally. When that happens we can’t be stubborn or weak in seeking support.
Twice in my entrepreneurial lifetime I have faced two major personal crisis – the sudden death of my father two weeks before a major event and a major health issue that required me to take a four month sabbatical from my business. During those time periods I had to rely on the support of other women, clients, business associates and friends who recognized I was struggling and needed extra assistance. I couldn’t be too proud or too weak to accept their support.
We are women first and foremost. We require special care sometimes to get through a crisis or to heal. We can, and must, allow ourselves the time we need to take care of ourselves. If it requires other individuals helping us during difficult periods of our life, that’s what we need to do. Our businesses will be there. Our clients will be patient. We will come back – and in most cases stronger than before. Be grateful for people who want to help you and take them up on it!
Facing Failure and Starting Again
Instinctively people hate failure and all the emotions that swirl around it. But in business, just in life, we can’t avoid failure. It will happen to us either in small ways or big ways. Losing a major client can collapse us and our revenue streams. Starting a new business and not getting new clients for months can stop us in our tracks. Investing a lot of money in our enterprise and not being able to pay it back in economic hard times can make us question our business acumen.
The best part about failure is there is always the opportunity to start again. We can start again with more counsel, wisdom and education. We can start again with a stronger determination for success. We can start again because giving up isn’t in our vocabulary.
After promoting women entrepreneurship in Syracuse for nine years before starting Women TIES, I was really surprised when I had to cancel our first luncheon because we didn’t have enough people to attend it. It was a tough “first” failure. But I knew I had to try again, market harder, sell more and do everything it took to deliver an exceptional program for the people who came (even if the numbers were small), in order to prove our luncheons were valuable. In 2009, we had over 800 women come to our events. How could I have networked that many women together if I gave up in May 2005 because one program had to be canceled? Do it again I say. It will work.
Challenging Business Lessons – Part One
This is our third blog about the business lessons we have learned the past five years in business. Our last couple lessons were great lessons I have learned gowing my company Women TIES the past five years. But as we all know, business lessons aren’t always positive. The challenging ones are the ones that can rock our core, make us doubt our products or services and test us beyond comprehension. Like most entrepreneurs we survived some tough times and came out stronger! We hope some of our challenging business lessons inspire women entrepreneurs in their own endeavors.
Standing Up For Your Reputation No Matter What
There are times when success puts you in the limelight. You and your company start receiving recognition for your business achievements. Many times people in the business community applaud your successes – understanding the grit, determination and investment you spent to get where you are. Then there are others with big egos, insecurities and small-minds who somehow rejoice in attacking the reputation and hard work of people gaining appropriate recognition.
If this happens to you, stand firm in who you are and what you believe in. You know better than anyone where your intentions lie, the integrity of your mission and the focus of your hard work. Just like a racing horse needs blinders on her eyes to keep her vision focused on the finish line – look forward and not to the side where unpleasant spectators are unleashing their criticism. Keep your eyes on the prize and you’ll finish ahead of the rest – in style, in stride and earning every piece of reward you should receive because you’ve been dedicated to your entrepreneurial dream.
Re-pricing to Stay Alive
Every businesswoman should start her company doing market research, creating a business plan, establishing a sales strategy and pricing her product or service based on financial goals. We enter the market at a time when the price we offer is reasonable and affordable for our clients. But as economic times change, new competitors enter the marketplace, and our expenses increase, we have to re-price our goods to stay alive.
Re-pricing and then reselling our new price to repeat or new clients isn’t an easy task. A well thought out sales strategy and public relations statement needs to be created. We need to be firm in why our pricing changed and explain it honestly and succinctly to our customers.
Sometimes re-pricing isn’t the only thing we have to do – sometimes we have to delete products and services we offer that aren’t making us money. Remember to keep in mind that our business is not our “child” will can let go of goods and services we established to make us money. You must sell what works and brings in money. If not, re-price or remove it from your product line. Remember it isn’t business failure in making these kinds of decisions, it is good business sense.
86,400 Seconds In A Day
For five years I’ve been writing weekly inspirational enewsletters called the “Wednesday Wisdom”. Frequently I receive questions from readers on where the inspiration comes from. Honesty I never know what I’m going to write about until the day before it is published. The inspiration comes from conversations, client situations, feelings, program topics or relevant business issues. It’s a fun and creative process that balances my logical organizational strengths.
Today’s message was inspired by a new song from the 2009 American Idol winner Kris Allen. His popular song is my new favorite running tune. It’s called “Live Like We’re Dying.” My favorite line in the song is, “We only got 86,400 seconds in a day to turn it all around or throw it all away.” The line could relate to any part of someone’s personal life but the entrepreneur in me hears “You’ve been given 86,400 seconds in a day to make something happen for your business or you lose the day.”
Every day presents itself with an abundance of time to make big decisions to move our business forward or perform small tasks to get us better organized; opportunities to make sales calls or a chance to pick up the phone to thank clients; signing a new big client or firing a customer who produces too much havoc. We have a lot of time to work especially if you count it in seconds.
The rest of the song focuses on “living life like we’re dying.” My entrepreneurial mind sees those lyrics as “we have to run this business like there is no tomorrow with everything resting on today.” We must continue to push past our limitations and take risks while we enjoy what we do.
Since I am personally dedicated to the financial success of women entrepreneurs in my organization and to the women I meet at our events, I encourage you today to push yourself past any financial limiting thoughts you have right now based on the current economic climate, your personal financial risk- taking boundaries or lack of capital to make your business grow. If you need some help making “money work for you” join us in Ithaca next week at the Women TIES Greater Ithaca luncheon and learn from two experts who help women every day feel more confident about key financial decisions.
Today’s blog is to remind you that you have 86,400 seconds today to make important monetary decisions to shape your current and economic future. Live right now with a stronger focus on money and sales. Make all 86,400 seconds count!
Great Business Lessons – Part Two
Today’s blog is a continuance of the great business lessons I have learned running my business Women TIES the past five years. Today features three more great lessons we have learned that could be relevant for women entrepreneurs everywhere.
Ask for Help – You Need It!
Women are better than men asking for help. So when it comes to entrepreneurship asking for help from amazing women who make up my Advisory Board and women entrepreneurs who have wanted Women TIES to come to their region has helped me make this company more successful. With only part time staff support, there is no way I could grow this company without the guidance of my board and the interest and support of women in our network. Remember the size of your business will depend on the size of your team. You can’t do it alone if you want to grow. Seek and ask for help.
Ride the Roller Coaster of Emotions – You’ll Survive!
There are high entrepreneurial days when you land a large client, go over your sales quota, double your revenue in a year, or create a new product or service to aid your customers. Then there are low days when nothing goes right. You lose clients, you make big mistakes, you can’t hit your bills, and you are too tired to care anymore.
What I’ve learned is that every day is a new day. If you come off a high day or a successful period, it probably won’t last forever so ride it as long as you can. If you enter a low period and feel like you are going down the roller coaster towards the bottom with no end in sight – don’t give up! Just like a roller coaster, life is full of highs and lows and so is running a business. Nothing runs on a straight track.
I’ve said it many times before entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart! If you are someone who loves vanilla ice cream, predictability and knowing the sun will always shine, get out now! If you love adventure, change, craziness, fun, challenge, you are right where you are suppose to be – it’s what being your own boss and building your own company is all about! So enjoy the ride – the highs and the lows.
Never Underestimate The Power of Your Vision – You Have to See It!
Never, ever doubt the power of what you are building. It will come. It takes time. If you have a clear vision and a strong belief in the benefits of your product or service, you will succeed.
Keeping a clear vision is vital to success in the long run. You must believe in your mission. Remind yourself about your purpose when you think you’ve lost it. Encourage good friends to inspire you when you can’t seem to motivate yourself. But never lose the big picture vision and purpose of why you started this journey in the first place. It is the most powerful point of perspective.
Women TIES 