Thursday Thoughts: No More Bootstrapping to Grow
Thursday Thoughts on Money, Investment, Growth for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners
I remember the tipping point clearly. The point when I decided to look into finance options to grow my company staff to keep up with business demand. I had pushed away the thought of getting a loan or credit line because I was worried about strapping myself financially. If I could just squeeze it all out on my own – the money, time, commitment – then I would make more money faster and succeed.
Little did I know that as soon as I committed to hiring my first part-time staff person, who focused on all the non-revenue producing tasks on my business’ to-do-list daily, I would be free to make more sales calls and entice sponsorship dollars to fund her position and my own. Little by little, the revenue grew, and we worked out the path to growing the company until she left for a better career position after a year.
What happened next is a common tale, I reverted back to the old ways and along with it revenue decreased, and I became comfortable again doing all the work myself, content to just keep the business at a certain growth plain. I was burnt out on sales and seemed content to spend more time with my sons who were leaving for college. It was another choice, most women entrepreneurs tend to make, choosing family over business growth. Again, not a bad choice, just a personal one, and one I never regretted.
Could I have been a million-dollar revenue business like other women I watched grow their businesses, adding staff, and expansion offices along the way, sure I could because I had the drive, marketplace interest and reputation but in the end, I settled for a more manageable way to live my life and be a woman entrepreneur.
As yesterday marked the beginning of another Women’s History Month, the conversation on most online programs I saw were focused on pay equality and advancing women in business and careers. When it came to discussion on the obstacles facing female business owners growing their companies as fast as men, the factors discussed were:
· Women were proud they can bootstrap their own company’s growth.
· Women were not as well educated on the financial options to grow their business.
· Females didn’t realize how much more they could accelerate their growth with financing
So, if you are reading this post today and are trying to grow your business or are burned out from doing too much because you can’t add staff, equipment or services due to financial constraints or bootstrapping, consider talking to your banker, the SBA or other financial programs to learn and take action.
Women won’t advance like men financially in business, unless we take some of the same steps they take to grow and accelerate.
Wednesday Wisdom: Women’s History Month Inspiration
Wednesday Wisdom, Women’s History Month, Inspiration for Women
According to the National Women’s History Alliance (NWHA), as recently as the 1970s, women’s history was virtually an unknown topic in the K-12 curriculum or in general public consciousness. To address this situation, the Education Task Force of the Sonoma County California Commission on the Status of Women initiated a “Women’s History Week” celebration for 1978. They choose the week of March 8th, International Women’s Day, as the focal point of the observance. The local Women’s History Week activities met with enthusiastic response.
In March 1980, President Jimmy Carter’s Message to the nation designated March 2-8,1980 as National Women’s History Week with this quote, “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.”
By 1986, 14 states had declared March as Women’s History Month. This momentum and state-by-state action was used as the rational to lobby Congress to declare the entire month of March 1987 as National Women’s History Month.
Why is Women’s History Month so important? According to NWHA, history must tell the whole story. For girls, knowing women’s achievements expands their sense of what is possible. For all of us, knowledge of women’s strengths and contributions builds respect and nourishes self-esteem — crucial to all children and adults now, and in the future.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom, on the first day of March 2023, is to encourage you to learn more about events and programs occurring this month that you can get involved with or share to help make women’s history more well-known and talked about. Begin by visiting https://nationalwomenshistoryalliance.org/2023-theme/ to learn about this year’s theme and events happening in our country. Governor Hochul will also be listing women’s history events and asked me for our events to share with their audience.
I also encourage you to share personal and business stories of women in your past that have made a difference in your life or community because this year’s 2023 theme is “Celebrating Women Who Tell Our Stories”. Let’s share their names and stories so others know more about them.
Planning for a Better Business Year
Tuesday Thoughts and Wisdom for Female Business Owners, Women Entrepreneurs, Small Businesses
As a woman entrepreneur, the question you may ask yourself is “How can I gain an internal and aerial view of it is strong, vibrant and relevant in today’s marketplace. Here is some quick advice to help you see your company more clearly from both an external and internal standpoint.
Conduct Semi-Annual Reviews: Twice a year a woman entrepreneur should spend a half a day or more to do the following:
* Get quiet and list to your deep gut feeling on how your business is doing. Is it developing the way you envisioned it to develop? What feels right and what doesn’t.
* Write down the top ten successes and top ten areas of improvement you’ve experienced in the past six months. List what you want to continue to do and what needs to change to make you more successful.
* Contact five customers and quickly ask them for the top reason they do business with your company and something they think would improve the company. Remember their comments, keep doing what you are doing well, and make adjustments where you need to.
Take Three Women Associates to Lunch:
In the next two months, contact three women in diverse fields who are affiliated with your company, ask them out to lunch to discuss your business. Tell them why you appreciate their opinion and why their feedback will give you a better perspective on how to develop your business. Choose women who know you in different ways, have diverse backgrounds, and who will bring constructive advice to the table. Their ‘aerial’ perspective will help you see your company from a higher ground.
Discuss Your Vision with a Business Advisor:
After you have gathered information from your own perspective and others, make an appointment with a business advisor (someone from the SBDC – a government funded organization in your county that provides free business advice) to discuss core changes to your business plan to keep you on track, to make adjustments in this changing economic climate, and to enhance or change parts of your business from those customers and associate suggestions. Revisiting your business plan can help you maintain your core services and make adjustments to give your business a boost.
Don’t let this important exercise get away with you especially as a new business year begins to unfold.
Monday Motivation: Female Activism Icons to Inspire You Today
Monday Motivation for Women, Female Business Owners, Women in Sports
Most days the television isn’t on until 5 p.m. when I tune into my favorite show “Around the Horn,” featuring sports writers from around the USA. Always hoping my favorite person Sarah Spain is on, I look at the faces and smile if I see she is commenting on important sport topics of the day. Always leave it to Sarah, to say something about women in sports, inequality issues, or just a female take on a story.
Yesterday feeling under the weather after getting bronchitis from running in 32 degrees, without my inhaler, as I train for a “Try a Tri” event in thirty days, I turned down an invitation to go to “Green Beer Sunday” in Syracuse where people of all ages, nationalities and drinking abilities gather to welcome St. Patrick’s Day month arriving mid-week. I am not Irish, but I know a great time the dead of winter when I hear it.
Instead, I turned on Netflix to find Archewell’s “Live to Lead” series featuring some of my favorite female icons speaking about their lives, beliefs, how they have/are changing the world, and their hopes for the future. After listening to Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Greta Thunberg, and Gloria Steinem, I realized no amount of green beer could inspire me the way these women’s words did.
It is hard to be motivated when you are sick, but somehow these three interviews perked me up to think about where I am in my career trying to get more women to buy from women first and foremost through my business platform Women TIES. It’s been almost three decades of talking, cajoling, displaying, explaining, and motivating women to rethink where they spend their money until we get a pay equality law. My answer is always,
“Women must buy from women first and foremost, putting money in the pocketbooks, bank accounts, and Pay Pal accounts of women any time they can to help with pay inequality to help them earn more and strengthen the financial future for females.”
I’m not a bank looking for business or mad at men for getting paid more, but a passionate female moved by the monetary injustices still facing women today. From corporate offices to professional athletic playing fields to even summer job holders – teenage girls like my nieces – trying to earn the same amount of hourly pay as their boy counterparts, I want women to be the benefactors of other people’s spending until a pay equity law exists.
Like Gloria and Greta, I have marched for change many times. I write about and speak about this particular change. I’ve been in the media sharing my views, written articles, and blogs to shed a light on the subject. Like them, I won’t stop. It’s impossible to stop when a deep passion wakes you up, and moves you, every day.
The only question facing me know is, how much bigger can I go, what else should I be doing to make this change happen, who else must I connect with, what media outlets do I need to be noticed on, what platform is large enough to help, and who else will help me?
Meaningful work fueled by deep passion and purpose is typically not accomplished in an activist’s lifetime. It does rest. It stirs inside until action spills out in words, actions, progress, and hope. What can you do today to help me with my lifetime mission and how can I help you with yours?
Wednesday Wisdom: Social Entrepreneurship is a Win
Wednesday Wisdom, Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners
As one of our members travels to a dangerous country to help build a house because her company gave enough money to sponsor a 4 Walls Project House, which will change the lives of a family in Nicaragua, another woman in 2015 created a secret marathon in Afghanistan because there are still places in the world where women are not allowed to run or walk outside. In both cases these women are carving out ways to support the next generation.
For the most part, women reading this Wednesday Wisdom blog post today don’t work or live in dangerous locales, but others do. Sometimes we take for granted our dwellings, fortunes, and freedoms since they are naturally gifted to us because of where we live and who we are. Most of us didn’t start our businesses to be social entrepreneurs but we may or could develop into one.
According to Wikipedia, social entrepreneurs are people who develop, fund, and implement solutions to social, cultural, or environmental issues. The concept of social entrepreneurship emerged in the 1980s. Entrepreneurship becomes a social endeavor when it transforms social capital in a way that affects society positively.
I’d like to think pleading my message the past 30 years of “buying from women first and foremost to help with the pay inequality” is my way of being a social entrepreneur through Women TIES, because I care more about the women in my organization making money over the amount of money I earn. My company isn’t a non-for-profit but has operated close to one for many years. I do it because I believe women need to make more money and my voice and marketing platform help to shine a light on it and make that difference.
So, what can you do if you are interested in morphing your business or programs to a more social entrepreneurship model? Well, today’s Wednesday Wisdom suggests you consider: what about the status quo are you not satisfied with, what bothers you, what is important to you, what lights you up more than anything else, and what values guide you? These questions can lead to the beginning of envisioning and planning. Don’t get overwhelmed by the big picture, think just about what you can do today and get started.
When our member returns from her trip, we will host her as a speaker to inspire more social entrepreneurs in our organization, but until then you can join me and global women on March 8 in running “The Secret 3K,” an offshoot of the Secret Marathon, to support organization that helps women run freely and fearlessly. One step forward is all it takes sometimes. Join me in taking this small but mighty step, by clicking here to join my team or donating or starting to morph into a social entrepreneur yourself.
Wednesday Wisdom: Becoming a Favorite
Wednesday Wisdom, Wednesday Morning, Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners
“What kind of food do you want for your birthday?” asks my son. “Well my favorite food, of course,” I reply.
“Are we seeing Dave Matthews again this summer? my husband asks, “Well yes, he is our favorite,” I reply.
“Your group is my favorite woman’s group,” a woman says to me. “I’m glad, thank you.”
How did “our favorite” in business or life become the best to us? Whether it is food, music, a business group, vacation locale or family member, how did it develop? Why is it we always want to be around our favorite things?
As entrepreneurs shouldn’t we be asking ourselves then, “How can my company become my customer’s favorite?” What does it take and how often does someone have to visit to learn quickly you want to be their preference? How do you build the culture? What do you and your staff need to do to develop this type of fan base?
Isn’t this what we strive for? To be the name on the end of someone’s tongue or referral as a favorite? And when asked why are they your favorite, they can easily list off more than five reasons why.
This Wednesday Wisdom is very quickly to have you think of the things, traits, services, offerings, or intangibles that make YOU someone’s favorite. Then hone in on making sure you deliver every time you meet or greet someone, do your marketing, sell, refer, connect, and communicate.
Soon enough, being someone’s favorite might turn in to a whole lot more customers.
A Salute to Rainy Days and Burt Bacharach
Thursday Thoughts, Inspiration, Motivation
So, it is one of those days when the sun can’t be found, the sky is dark grey, and ‘raindrops are falling on your head’ reminding you of the song Burt Bacharach composed especially because we were just notified, he died this morning. As much as yesterday was sunny, warm, and a good day, today is the opposite locking me inside my office to work, which isn’t a bad thing really. What can you do if days like today get you down?
The subject was popping up on my Twitter feed along with cute photos of coffee cups with the statement, “my coffee didn’t see his shadow today,” and “counting the days until spring arrives.” I subtly suggested – or perhaps bombed them with an image of me dressed in pink – saying, “wear a bright color today to bring some light into your life.” I always want to remind people they have the power to think positively when I can.
On my own Facebook page, I showcased my pink profile reminding my followers on a dreary day like today, I wear pink to remind people to buy from woman-owned companies helping to put money in their purses, Pay Pal accounts or bank accounts. A couple days ago I wrote how my brand colors opened a business connection, and today I wear my brand to remind women to buy from women. We don’t need Garanimal Clothing to mix and match our favorite colors – just throw them on.
Life, business, and moods all have something in common – sometimes the outlook is light, airy, and optimistic, and other days its dark, heavy and negative. What can you do about it, seeing as you only live once?
I suggest write about something you love, wear your favorite clothes, call your favorite person, buy yourself a gift, eat some really good food, take your beloved pets for a walk, dream up a new business product, brighten up your marketing, reach out to an old friend, sign up for a course, turn on the lights, carry a bright colored umbrella with matching rain boots, jump in the puddles, and sing Burt’s song and realize you are alive and well and tomorrow will be a new weather day.
For me I will remember my dad today who always sang the song “Raindrops Keep Falling on My Head” to me bringing a big smile to my face and turning my heart even more pink than my clothes. Look for the GOOD in the bad and you’ll be a happy person.
Wednesday Wisdom: Wear Your Brand, Spark a Conversation
Wednesday Wisdom, Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses
Standing at my small local post office in my signature business brand colors of hot pink and black, a woman walked in behind me saying, “I love your colors!” I recognized her immediately. She was the daughter of the iconic Carol M. Baldwin, known best for her breast cancer foundation and as the mother of her numerous acting sons. Outside the window, was Beth Baldwin’s car – a black and pink detailed one in brand colors advertising their foundation’s name and work.
“I am sorry your mother passed away, she had such an impact on breast cancer awareness and research,” I said although I only knew Beth Baldwin from a few chance encounters at our post office. From that first simple statement about what I was wearing, our conversation lasted 20 minutes including discussion on breast cancer, fundraising, writing, and alopecia. Since so many women lose their hair during chemotherapy, her and her family are campaigning alongside alopecia advocates to get wigs paid for by insurance. As I took off my black and pink hat showing her my alopecia status, we exchanged numbers and names promising to reach out to each other if we could help in each other’s causes.
You might not suspect to network at a place like the post office, but it happens. It might not have happened if I wasn’t wearing my business brand’s signature colors which sparked our discussion. If I wasn’t up on local news, I might not have mentioned her mother’s name which lead to Beth also giving me a pink pin in her mother’s honor or the fact I can call Beth if I find out about women in my organization just being diagnosed with breast cancer so their foundation can mail out a care kit including a pillow to use during chemotherapy sessions.
Beth and I are both in the business of supporting women but in different ways and yet we can help each other and our customers or friends if there is a need. Make sure you aren’t forgetting about meeting with collaborative based companies to see how you can help each other.
This Wednesday Wisdom is to remind you that how you dress, what you read and know about your community members, and how you represent your business, can all lead to the right type of conversations that open doors and connections to new people. Marketing isn’t always about sales; it can be about promotion and publicity that trigger conversations to educate others about your enterprise or personal business mission.
Next time you walk out the door, consider branding your image, bringing along business cards, and being aware of who is around you so you can have a chance encounter that lifts you up and connects you unexpectedly to someone you could work with or collaborate with in the future.
Tracy Higgs Takes on Professional Wrestling
Friday Vibes, Women in Sports, Motivation for Women
I couldn’t imagine how I was ever going to try wrestling as a 58-year-old woman, one slightly past her prime wrestling starter age, but I was pleasantly surprised when a 27-year-old co-worker of my husband, who started professional wrestling a year ago, offered to “show me the ropes.”
Admitting that I was a bit unsure of myself, I walked into the Institute of Professional Wrestling doors, wearing blue, not my traditional pink, to blend in with the dudes I’d be with. I was greeted by my friend Mark, his coach and four other guys there for the evening’s workout. I started by sharing my sports background to show them I wasn’t there as a joke but rather as someone truly interested in learning their sport and trying it out.
Immediately we began warming up with footwork, running in and out of ladders on the ground, in different ways. “Footwork is most essential in wrestling,” our coach Isys Ephex, a long time wrestler and coach stated. A good twenty-minute running of the ladders got the heart rate up. Next, the men went into the ring practicing different moves as I watched and asked questions. Before I knew it, I was in the ring to learn some necessary beginner moves involving multiple rolls crisscrossing the four corners of the ring. I hadn’t done somersaults in forty years but it came back to me sort of, if not as gracefully as wished.
Then the guys got into doing more individual work while I watched and talked to each man waiting for their turn in the ring to learn why they do pro wrestling. Soon enough, it was my time to get in the ring to learn specific ways to run into the corner of the ring, throw your body up and then feet out, propel yourself off, and then do it again in the opposite corner. There are ways to use, not only your body but the apparatus, to your advantage in doing this.
Next it was time to watch the guys spar, or wrestle, each other performing specific choreographed moves with sounds and “acting” – thus theatrical athletics. You just don’t go into a ring to compete with someone without knowing what you are doing, if you are the “good” or “bad” guy and how your choreography sells the crowd. Sometimes there are hits and punches that land, but good wrestlers know how to move so it looks and sounds like it authentically, thus the practice.
One last call into the ring for me so I could learn the most basic technique of “locking up,” a technique when a pro wrestler has their first contact with their opponent. It is usually a collar and elbow tie-up where each wrestler grabs their opponent behind the neck. Oh, I was ready for this one. As Coach Isys and I did a number of lock-ups, I told him it felt like waltzing with him, which created a chuckle, but that is what it felt like at least for this beginner. Movements back and forth, following his lead, around the ring and into the final corner. I liked it!
After two and half hours which, went by quickly, we all gathered in the ring for a photo. I told them about the name contest for my WWE name – the Savage Suffragette – to which they all said, “that’s too long!” so they asked my full name and they all said, “Your name is Tracy Higgs!” So there you have it, my official WWE name if I ever go into pro wrestling officially.
What I learned from these awesome guys and the sport, is it is way harder than you think it is so the professionals on television or in the rings have put in tons of training. It is very athletic so you need muscles, strength and also a good memory for choreography, along with some vocal prompts and noises to sell what you are doing. I can easily say, I had fun and learned a lot as well as having some aches and pains now as I type, which I expected, and hold in great honor for my attempt.
You can find out more about the Institute of Professional Wrestling on their Facebook page. Go try it out one night and you might like me, wish you could go back.
Note: Professional wrestling is a dramatic enactment of wrestling as a spectator sport. “Promotions” are the way wrestling federations create events featuring pro wrestlers. In the United States currently there are four professional wrestling promotions: WWE, Impact Wrestling, Ring of Honor, and All Elite Wrestling (AEW). In 2015, WWE revamped its women’s divisions by hiring mainly independent wrestlers opposed to models.
Thursday Thoughts: Women in Sports
Inspiration and Motivation for Women, Female Athletes
Under the clearest blue sky you would ever find in Syracuse in the middle of winter, gathered three women who never met before. The brisk 20-degree air temperature didn’t stop us from getting together to cross country ski, network, talk about our companies, and share our love of sports.
We were inspired to gather because it was the 37th Annual National Girls and Women in Sports Day (NGWSD), as earmarked by the Women’s Sports Foundation founded by Billie Jean King. The Foundation was created to unlock the possibilities in every girl and woman through the power of sport. Their NGWSD is held every year on February 1 and inspires women and girls to gather around the love of sport.
As a child of ski shop owners and ski instructors, gliding on snow in downhill or cross country skis were easy for me, and for one other woman, Jennifer, who cross country skis a lot, but for one woman, Janet, with brand new skis, it was a first time attempt on slightly ice and cold conditions.
The three of us began together but soon decided Jennifer should take off on the 3-mile lake loop while I stayed with our Janet and help her if she needed it. I was able to use my parent’s teaching tools and 50- years of experience to “glide” her along, giving her pointers on movement, how to go up slight hills with slipping backwards, and even how to get up when you fall – as evident by my own tumble – which made us both laugh! Hey, even old-time skiers fall sometimes.
As the two of us slid gently, up and down, the path weaving in and out of tall pine trees, I said to my new friend, “even the tallest trees have to start somewhere” trying to make her feel better as she started off. She smiled, continued skiing, and once-in-awhile on my suggestion looked up to see what glorious woodlands she was playing in today. As we ended our shorter path, I gave her applause and a high five for trying this sport for the first time in her life at the age of 61. “Not all of us are born to parents who ski,” I reminded her.
As Jennifer joined us in the lodge, we sat in beautiful wooden rocking chairs getting to know each other’s businesses better and sharing our areas of expertise. As you suspect, the conversation centered on health, wellness, sports, holistic practices, and eating well. Thyroid function, stem cells, alopecia, and living a gluten-free life arose in our talks. Jennifer gave us a X-39 patch which is used for light therapy since she is a 25-year practitioner of acupuncture and light therapy. Janet shared her new written works and aspirations for a published book one day. No matter what woman I meet, there is always something positive to glean from the meeting.
On the way out of the lodge, we hugged, promised to stay in touch and get to know each other better. Both of them want to try some other sports with me – one parasailing, and one the biathlon. I promised to keep in touch and tell them when I had those sports booked to try. If it wasn’t for this special once-a-year recognition of women and girls in sports, we wouldn’t have gathered and shared the morning together.
The next time you are lonely, call up a girlfriend, another woman in your community, or a woman with an interest in sports, and get together to enjoy the day, learning, stoking your energy, and taking in a bit of nature along the way. Office work can wait sometimes, especially on a sunny, cold day in February.
Women TIES 