Enjoy, Enjoy, Enjoy
As the snow swirls around outside and the hustle and bustle of the fast approaching holiday fills women entrepreneurs minds with last minute preparations, I hope today you take a few minutes to reflect on the spirit of this season as you prepare to take some well deserved time away from your business.
As entrepreneurs it is hard to slow down, to give ourselves permission to stop and enjoy any down time. It’s not in our nature or in our business plans to take time away from our enterprises worrying that our clients will need us, new contracts will go to a competitor, or our momentary lapse in hyper-activity will be the end of our motivation to succeed. It is hard to cut ourselves a break from the plans, activities, goals and vision we set to just stop and relax.
I try to remind myself that from December 24th to January 2nd the entire business world slows down too. I’ve witnessed it for the past fifteen years as an entrepreneur. Business crawls during this week. Don’t take it personally because everyone takes a break. Since time is so precious, most people realize and value this special week to be with the ones they love, to travel to warm destinations to enjoy a vacation, and to simply slow down to refresh their souls. It’s okay to relax, it really is.
So today’s message is to simply remind you that you have worked really hard this year, giving your all, reaching for the stars, trying to move mountains, striving to be the best in order to achieve personal and entrepreneurial success. You’ve done enough and you’ve done it well. Enjoy, enjoy, enjoy this week when the world slows down to celebrate the season of peace, family and good friends.
2010 is only a week away and before you know it you’ll be back in the hustle and bustle setting even larger goals for the New Year. Women TIES will be right here ready to help you achieve them. But until then, I personally wish you a blessed and joyful holiday week where you bask in the love of your family and friends and remember the fantastic job you did this year to be the successful woman entrepreneur you are.
Transitions & Tracking
As another year draws to an end, transitions take place in buying cycles, management tasks, and our mindsets. The change and shift in consumer spending alters our production schedules. Evolution in technologies and new data systems force us to relook at our systems. End of the year financials alter our perception of success over the year. Without transitions in seasons and cycles, we might not give proper attention to statistics that showcase our achievements or shortcomings.
Recently the founder of Facebook (http://www.facebook.com) was in Syracuse speaking about their company’s success. The one key factor in their achievement has been their focused attention on quantifying success by looking at hard cold figures and adjusting them based on new projections. If you look at the statistics long enough, they’ll tell you the true story of how your company did this year.
As women entrepreneurs we don’t dedicate enough time to analyzing our financials, but it’s imperative to carve out time at the end of a business year or during a seasonal business transition period to review the figures and see if we hit our corporate goals. If we did, it’s important to appreciate and recognize how our hard work has paid off. If we didn’t, we must evaluate the reasons why in order to move ahead stronger the next year. We cannot afford to put our head in the sand or walk down the same path without analyzing our business year and make key adjustments based on the figures.
Today’s blog is to remind you to set a date on your calendar to review your financials and set an appointment with your accountant so you can understand how profitable you were or weren’t this year; and to set a course of action to make 2010 a better financial year. Remember we created our entities knowing there was an unlimited earning potential. It is up to us to set the right goals and work consistently towards them. This crucial task will help us transition into becoming more financially successful women entrepreneurs.
Running a Business During A Personal Crisis
Over the past few weeks severaly women entrepreneurs have contacted me about feeling derailed from running their businesses to take care of personal health issues for themselves and their parents. They asked me for advice on how to take care of their family situation and their business simultaneously.
I believe creating a weekly management timeline is a must for entrepreneurs running businesses in the midst of a personal crisis. Entrepreneurship requires mental energy and focus so when personal situations develop it can be overwhelming to divide time between corporate and personal responsibilities. Utilizing a management tool can ease stress.
Since I’m probably best known for my organizational skills as an event manager and entrepreneur. Daily I create and update a task list for the upcoming week. Layered in it are large and small tasks for both of my companies. When personal situations occur, I layer in private appointments too which gives me a comprehensive “plan” for seven days. By revisiting and updating this list each morning and night, I am able to continually manage my time effectively and feel in control of all of my responsibilities.
A weekly management timeline allows an entrepreneur to “dump” the stress and myriad of details from their mind to a document and gives a sense of control over family and corporate obligations.
Buy From Women Owned Business This Holiday
As the cold envelopes the morning air and the beauty of the season settles in upon us, doing business this time of the year can be invigorating. Women entrepreneurs are hopeful for increased holiday sales, we can relax and catch up on end of the year work, and we are able to create opportunities to thank valuable clients for their business. Cold and snow may make us feel chilled on the outside, but this is the perfect time to feel warm on the inside.
All year long I work to spread the message of “good cheer” about doing business with women entrepreneurs in hope we will individually and collectively become financially stronger each day. When I glance at the holiday wreath adorning my window, it makes me think about the strong, beautiful circle and network of women entrepreneurs who believe in our mission – buying from each other, working together on projects, referring others – in a continuous and beneficial loop.
Customer Service Success Strategies
Today’s success strategies come from insight from 
my recent appointment on the right way to treat your customers to keep them confident and content in doing business with you. Remember it doesn’t matter if what we sell is medical advice, building supplies, marketing services or holiday gift items, what matters is we understand the value of the customer experience and do all we can to make clients coming back for more.
* Taking the time to have conversations with customers can help create a bond that makes them feeling important, appreciated and grateful for doing business with you. Never underestimate the significance of giving your full attention and time to your clients.
* Understand that any customer feedback can be seen as a way to improve the next customer’s experience with you – helping you to improve each time. Value what they say, what ideas they generate and make sure they know you appreciate the thoughts.
* Remember each employee has talents and personality that adds richness to your company. Allow your employees to incorporate their own unique style and personality into their customer conversations. As long as they understand the company’s overall message and customer service policies, they can make a unique difference with clients.
* Make sure your company mission and customer service policy is displayed somewhere in your office, on your website or in marketing documents. Make your clients aware of your exceptional efforts to treat them well and respect their business.
Compassionate Entrepreneurs
As I walked out of the office of my internist, their corporate motto struck me, “Compassion. Quality. Experience.” Coming from a family of doctors, where I was always treated with non-rushed compassionate care and intelligent solutions to my small and big medical issues, I grew up thinking this was the only way patients were treated. Knowing they were entrepreneurs as well as doctors made me appreciate their bedside manners even more.
Once I was away from home and had to find other doctors to see, I sometimes came across cold, impatient, frantic physicians with little time, talent or personality to make me comfortable with the visit or diagnosis. Yesterday as I left my internist’s office after a 30 minute face-to-face discussion with her on a reoccurring medical issue, I realized the true value and extent of doing “business” with the right people – whether they are doctors, dentists or traditional business professionals.
Compassion, quality, and experience is exactly what I receive every time I visit their office; leaving me grateful for the appointment. It made me think as women entrepreneurs we have the quality and experience in our field, but do we have the compassion for our customers? Are we kind, considerate, and caring all the time, not just when we need to be? Are our employees compassionate dealing with clients when we aren’t there? How much better could your company be if every person who came in contact with it received “compassion, quality and experience?”
Today’s blog entry is to remind you that as women we have the ability to infuse a compassionate philosophy into our companies to make sure our customers experience a kindhearted sincere experience meant to make their conversation or transaction with us valuable and pleasurable.
Not only in this more heartfelt month of December should we treat our customers with extra care and kindness, it is something we must integrate all year long so when our customers walk out our doors or hang up the phone they can’t wait to come back or to talk to us again.
Social Graces
Before becoming an entrepreneur I worked as the Assistant Alumni Director at Le Moyne College (http://www.lemoyne.edu), a wonderful Jesuit institution in Syracuse, New York. One of my duties involved coordinating and attending alumni receptions around the country. I typically accompanied the College President, Vice President of Institutional Advancement or a favorite professor. One particular event I was asked to escort one of the college’s most popular past presidents, Father Reilley.
On the car ride to an alumni event in Binghamton, Father asked me a number of questions about my education, career and role as a mother. We discussed his belief that everyone’s social graces were learned by the time they are 7. He felt if someone didn’t master politeness, respect and manners by that age, they never would. Coming from an upbringing where I was taught early to keep my elbows off the table, not chew gum in church, be respectful of elders and say thank you every time I should, helped me in early leadership roles and in my career. I agreed with Father Reilley and never forgot the statement from this wise and gentle priest; especially as I raised my two sons.
Today’s message is a simple one, it’s to remind you that as entrepreneurs we must remember our social graces – especially the grace of thanking our clients, employees and business associates for their involvement with us and our companies. Being grateful for our lives, in a world filled with so much hardship for so many people, is an easy choice. We mustn’t get caught up in the small and large frustrations of running a business that we forget to be kind and appreciative to those who work for and with us.
On Thanksgiving I hope you’ll take time to look inside yourself and be thankful for your intellect, your passion, your belief in your life’s purpose; look outside of yourself and recognize the people who have helped you along your journey; look above and recognize the importance of faith, grace and guidance leading you forward; and look below you at your healthy feet, legs and body that support you every day and help you walk down your destined path.
Holiday Selling Tips
How much selling have you done lately? With the holiday approaching your business might be experiencing it’s high or low season depending on what you sell. If this is a typically low selling season for your company or if you are interested in generating more revenue in December for your busiest time of the year, read today’s success strategies on selling.
Selling Multiple Services or Products at One Time:
When selling multiple services or products to prospective clients, focus on delivering the information in a “menu” effect. List all the services or products you have, their features and most importantly the benefits they offer to the client. By having a “menu” approach, you are able to list everything you provide without bombarding your client to buy everything all at once. The “menu” creates awareness. Schedule an appropriate time after the information has been presented to follow up with them on one item or service at a time. Don’t overwhlem them with too many options.
Warm Calls Are More Effective Than Cold Calls:
When you make cold calls, 3% of the individuals you contact will buy from you. When you make warm calls (to individuals who know about your company, who are familiar with you, who have purchased from you before, etc.), you have a 30% success rate. Create a list of warm prospects for the next time you need to generate sales for your company. Remember when you attend Women TIES luncheons, we give you our signature sales tool which is the perfect “warm sales tool” to use to make sales calls.
Schedule Your Time Wisely:
An entrepreneur should split up their daily/weekly efforts into four categories: 25% of their time focused on adminstrative work; 25% of their time planning for growth and direction of the company; 25% of the time focused on top clients who bring in 80% of their company’s revenue; and 25% networking in the community. Paying attention to your top clients and networking in the community can also be seen as a vehicle for future sales.
Leading By Principle
A recent entrepreneur said to me, “I’m having a hard time keeping up with the promises I’m making to my clients. I feel like I’m failing to lead on integrity and principle. Do you have suggestions on how to be a better leader?”
I told this individual, whether you are a leader of a business, community organization, athletic team or non-for-profit agency, you must lead with integrity and principle. It doesn’t matter if you are making guarantees to individuals who are clients, associates, players or board members, what matters is you deliver on what you promise.
It’s not always easy to carry out guarantees when there is internal or external pressure. But the sign of a strong leader is standing by promises and following through no matter how hard the situation gets. In the end, an organization’s reputation depends on the integrity of its leader.
Bottom line, this leader shouldn’t make any more promises she can’t keep. She needs to take a long hard look at the decisions she has made and the issues that caused the lack of commitment and see if there is a trend. By establishing new policies to address the issues and absolutely abiding by them, she will slowly regain her reputation. It might take time but at least she’ll be heading in a new direction.
Publising For Passion and Profit
For the past three monts, I have been communicating with one of Australia’s successful women entrepreneurs, Lisa Messenger, Managing Director of Messenger Marketing (http://www.messengerpubishing.com.au) and Messenger Publishing and co-director of Anchovy Publishing. She has worked globally in events, sponsorships, marketing, PR and publishing. She recently sent me one of her books entitled, “Maverick Marketing – Publishing for Passion and Profit”.
If you’ve been wondering about publishing for passion and profit, look at Lisa’s list of what you’ll need to begin:
Women TIES 