Business Wisdom: What Button Are You Pushing for 2022
Business Wisdom, Tuesday Thoughts for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, and Small Businesses
Over my small business career, looking to long-time entrepreneurs for advice has always helped me hurdle an issue, consider a different decision, or lead me down a better path. If wise people can’t share what they’ve learned with others, they waste opportunities to aid other people.
One of the women I’ve always turned to for sage advice was, and continues to be, my 84-year-old Aunt Elaine, who started dabbling in real estate in the 1960s investing extra income into houses and restaurants to flip. She became a millionaire with her actions and thus, a role model to me as I contemplated entrepreneurial life at age 30.
Recently we had a heart-to-heart talk about decisions in her business life that spoke to where I am now, continuing my 27th year as a woman entrepreneur. Over the years, some of her businesses have come and gone based on a plethora of economic decisions. I asked her how she could let go of a business, since I have held on to mine for so long, her reply, “When you know it is time, it is time. Most people hold on too long and can’t let go even though they should.”
If making a decision about ending or continuing a business is based on purely monetary figures, then a decision to close a business or try to sell it, can be easier to make. If a passionate small business owner is emotionally attached to their company and the people they try to help, it may be harder to make a decision. Someone once said to me, “A business isn’t your child, it isn’t an extension of you personally, so let it go when it is time.”
The beginning of any new year brings with it contemplation of changes to be made. For some reason a new year provides a reset button along with an eject and replay button. As entrepreneurs we need to take a look at our console and decide which one, we want to push for 2022. The clarity of a new year gives space and wisdom to make year-long decisions that maybe should have been made sooner. What button are you going to push?
Business Inspiration 2022: The Year of the Tiger
New Year Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses
For the Chinese culture their New Year revelry originated with end-of-harvest celebrations when people would offer thanks to gods for good harvests and entreaty for a good crop in the following year. Traditionally, this holiday encouraged families to thoroughly clean their homes to sweep away any ill-fortune in hopes to make way for good incoming luck.
Each New Year is named after one of the twelve zodiac animals – for example on February 1, 2022, the Year of the Tiger will begin. As women entrepreneurs plan for the start of a new business year, they have an opportunity to name their own year. What one word are you going to choose?
For the past two years we have been living in an upside-down world of the Covid-19 Pandemic, having the rug pulled out from under our solid business foundations, masks replacing smiling faces, and working alone to stay safe. Most women entrepreneurs I know have survived this period but not with a lot of gain.
While staying in a conservative, holding pattern can keep a company afloat; it can’t stay that way forever. Being static eventually produces feelings of failure. Being too conservative in business for too long is like having the flu, if you lay in bed too long waiting out the pain, you lose the strength you need to get back on your feet. The longer you stay down, the harder it is to get up.
I believe it is time for women entrepreneurs to make 2022 reviving the old successful ways of entrepreneurship that worked for them pre-pandemic. Past proven strategies, positive business planning, expansion of safe, live events, and re-establishing old relationships that might have fallen through the cracks the past 18 months, are where we should begin.
The Chinese say people born in the year of the Tiger possess strong self-esteem, are most likely optimistic and enthusiastic by nature, and always seem to have endless energy, especially at work. Even if you weren’t born in the year of the Tiger, I believe we can claim these Tiger personalities to venture into 2022.
We can’t be in a holding pattern forever and either can our businesses. Maybe we need to do what the Chinese do and thoroughly clean our “house” sweeping away ill-fortune and worries in order to make the way for good incoming luck, riches and opportunities as well as acting as fierce as a tiger in accomplishing our new goals.
Wednesday Wisdom: Go Beyond Standard
Wednesday Wisdom, Business Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses
Just past the quaint West Village of New York City rose The Standard High Line Hotel, where we rested for one night, after ubering our youngest son and his girlfriend back to Manhattan unexpectedly after their transportation back to the Big Apple was altered. The hotel was anything but “standard” starting with its cocked position on the street, kitty corner to the river in front and Empire State Building in back with its bright yellow entrance way.
Their motto “We are anything but standard” was easy to notice with their red logo upside down on their marketing, movies playing in dark elevators, and huge door numbers on the fronts of all hotel room doors. You might also figure out they aren’t standard when you notice the tub, surrounded by all glass walls, sandwiched between the king bed and bathroom sink with the toilet in the closet. It might sound strange but it was quite interesting.
How many average hotels have you stayed in or partied in on past New Year’s Eves? Do you remember them? Where they standard or special? If you looked at Manhattan’s Standard High Line Hotel, you’d notice by their white lit holiday trees on their large patio surrounded by movie screens and tables to fight Covid-19 spacing, and a festive attached Biergarten that they went out of their way to be unique and memorable and attract customers to them.
So my wish for you on this last Wednesday Wisdom blog post of 2021, is to step out of your own standard way of thinking about design, packaging, marketing, and philosophy and take a clue from this West Village’s creative hotel to get thinking about rebranding, updating, rethinking, redoing, or being ultra-inventive yourself working on 2022 marketing ideas and design of all your visual materials, and maybe even business philosophy.
Wouldn’t you rather have someone like me sharing your unique business twist with their friends or not mentioning you at all because you didn’t catch my eye? Make 2022 a new, vibrant, “standard” type of year and see what new rave reviews you gain and who’s head you turn.
Clear Away Your Blocked View for 2022
When women ask me how I come up with my creative writing posts, I simply tell them, sometimes it comes from very simple things – like conversations with others, bike rides by myself, or even snow banks, as witnessed in this favorite blog post of 2010. I still remember looking out my window with nothing on my mind to write about until the snow bank basically hit me in the eyes and fueled my writing. I hope you enjoy this old time post from eleven years ago. It reads like new, except there is no snow outside my window today.
Original Blog Post:
Every once in a while we need to lift our eyes from the work on our desk to look at the horizon to ensure we are heading in the right direction. Sometimes looking up and out to see where we are going is difficult, especially on a snowy Central New York like today. In order to catch a glimpse of the horizon this morning, you might just have to stand up and glance past the 36″ of fluffy lake effect snow that has accumulated outside your office window.
But the snow is a good reminder that sometimes our view gets blocked; either by something physical or something mental. Often the hectic pace of a woman entrepreneur’s business cycles can block the view as she focuses on immediate work and issues. Other times relationships or circumstances have clouded the crystal clear view of ourselves, our work and our future and only by terminating those relationships can we regain clarity. Many times we simply forget that although today or maybe next week’s work demands the most attention, we need to focus on the future to lead us forward.
Cold snowy days like today, when you might not be able to travel too far due to hazardous road conditions gives you the perfect opportunity to think about what blocks your view and needs to be removed. It might require ending unproductive business relationships, hiring a business consultant to help fix corporate problems, restructuring your pricing, or focusing on additional education to make you more knowledgeable.
The view may have also gotten cluttered if you haven’t paid attention to your business plan, financial situation, or the marketplace in awhile. Often times we really don’t want to see what is standing in our way, we want to just keep trudging through.
Today’s inspirational blog entry is to make you realize that 36″ of snow sitting outside your front door, in your driveway or on the roadways, can be a reminder that your business view may be barricaded and you must take time to remove it. You know what’s been impeding you. It’s been there for awhile.
Remember life’s limitations are the ones we make. Grab your business snow shovel and clear the path right now. Look beyond the shroud of white and make concrete plans to get to where you want to go in 2011 (or 2022). If you can’t see the horizon from where you are seated, stand up, seek support, motivate yourself and do what you know you have to do. I promise a crisp, clean exhilaration and sense of direction will guide you to the horizon.
Wednesday Wisdom: Just Plain Love
Wednesday Wisdom & Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses
For many of us, the last few peaceful days before our houses are filled with children, grandchildren, parents, in-laws, and siblings, can provide the gift that doesn’t come wrapped – a deep breath here, a cup of hot tea with cinnamon toast near the beautifully lit pine tree, and reading old recipes in the handwriting of ones we loved who aren’t here anymore.
As I walked out the door in my light blue jacket to go to daily morning mass, I grabbed my bejeweled “LOVE” hat that had some matching light blue gems in it. Typically trying to hide my bald head discretely in church, it felt right to wear this one not knowing our priest’s sermon was going to be about “love” matching the readings’ theme.
As I got out of my car, I noticed the priest looking through the window at me for longer than normal. I assumed he wondered if I have cancer since so many strangers do, but after listening to his homily, I realized my hat, as brilliant as a billboard, might have been the reason. For once, I felt divinely blessed to have that hat on my head to be extra aware of the homily’s message.
It’s amazing that every time I wear that hat, strangers talk to me more or comment on the hat. I’m not sure if it’s the bling or the word, but it gets noticed and I receive the pleasure of nice conversations and acts of kindness. If only everyone had a “Love” hat to wear around every day, than perhaps the world would be a kinder, more lovely place to live.
Today’s Wednesday Wisdom is to inspire you to see everyone you meet with a “Love” hat on their head this week and weekend as you hustle around because sometimes in the madness of our to-do-lists, just like everyone else, we lose perspective of the season. If you end up in a long line, consider saying a blessing for those you love instead of being angry. I bet you can’t get through your entire list before you are at the cashier. Or bring your focus on what makes you happy, transporting yourself out of the literal commercial world, into a favorite, old-time peaceful one. Or rock a little, like you used to when you carried your babies or your pets, bringing you calm (other mothers in line will understand this one).
One of the best gifts to give ourselves, that no one else can wrap for us, is the gift of calm emotions, peace in the frantic moments, and gentleness accompanied by self-love. Please know I wish you a Merry Christmas with an abundance of love.
New Mint Business Ideas
Tuesday Thoughts, Holiday Ideas for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Businesses
A mint Hersey kiss sits on my desk a sign of business ingenuity. This season the shelves were lined with a multitude of choices from this candy icon – kisses filled with almonds, raspberry filled options, sensational peanut butter varieties, and white chocolate too. Next to this shelf of chocolate varieties were assortments of multi-colored, multi-flavored candy canes. I wonder why and when the producers of these two traditional confectioneries decided it was time to change it up. The change in color and flavors of these staple holiday candies didn’t stop me from buying the brand; it just gave me scrumptious new options.
Every year, women entrepreneurs were announcing additional service or product developments, even in a continuing Pandemic year. A cookbook producer added an exquisite line of cookie products shipped in a beautiful golden tin to capture a corner of the gift buying market. A woman who sells coffee, started offering other coffee products from other businesses, for additional sales. The creator of a personal organizing business added new services and workshops to capture a corporate audience. Why did these female business owners decide to change it up?
There are diverse reasons for sprucing up or adding on to one’s business staple offerings. The top reasons are to create additional revenue streams, to answer consumer needs, to expand into a new market, to utilize existing resources in a new way and maybe even to delight customers with scrumptious new varieties of a popular product they didn’t even know they wanted yet. Entrepreneurs must be inventive to begin their ventures, it only makes sense they remain ingenious during the life of their enterprise.
Today’s post is to encourage you to remain inventive in your entrepreneurial endeavors. Make sure you are tapping into ways to keep your company fresh and interesting not only for yourself but for consumers. Before this year draws to an end, contemplate additional products or services you could add in 2022 or twisting a current offering into something a little more exciting to market and sell. Look around and notice what others are doing and spin off something unique of your own.
Scrumptious new offerings aren’t always found wrapped in mint green coverings, they can be draped in our own ingenuity and creativity and offered as a delightful new revenue source and creative new spark for ourselves and our customers.
Monday Motivation: The Entrepreneurial Gift of Flexibility
Monday Motivation for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners, Small Business Owners
Looking out over William Penn’s statue, high above the street, as light snowflakes dropped from the skies, I contemplated my first Christmas as a 21-year-old working woman. Having joined a Philadelphia Investment Banking firm in August, there wasn’t enough vacation time accrued to allow me a trip home for the holiday. Long before computers and phones gave flexibility for staff to work from afar, being tied to a desk as a recent hire, meant traveling to my hometown for Christmas wasn’t possible.
When I think about the entrepreneurial life I choose nine years after that sad holiday, I wonder if the big lights of a city I loved, wasn’t enough for this sentimental girl from a large family where holidays were truly special? The buzz of Wall Street figures, planning events at the Five Seasons Hotel, having international clients grant me gifts, and being treated to the Opera, were pretty exciting for a 21-year-old business professional looking to climb the corporate ladder. But home always tugged at my heart.
Most women start their own businesses to make more money than they could corporately and not to answer to a permanent boss, but what they also love is the flexibility that comes from this type of career. Flexibility to set their own holiday hours, take off time if a child is ill without using their own sick time, attending holiday school musicals, and bringing cookies to their kid’s classrooms. Yes, we have to be able to maintain work commitments during the holidays, but we have the choice to set the boundaries.
As you start, or even take off, this bustling week for holiday shopping, cooking, and parenting as a female business owner, remember one of the gifts you give yourself is the gift of working whatever hours you choose, 24 hours a day, seven days a week to accomplish your work and goals. If you have planned wisely, and your business industry allows, put those feet up on your desk, peer out the window for fresh falling snow, bake those holiday cookies, attend those musical performances, and pat yourself on the back for creating an entrepreneurial work gift for yourself.
Wednesday Wisdom: Make Change Your Friend
Wednesday Wisdom, Hump Day Inspiration for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners
A recent survey on LinkedIn revealed that 9 out of 10 people believe their lives will be very different in five years. In that same study, 1 in 3 people said they would avoid change if they could. These statistics leave us assuming most people understand modification is necessary in life, (and also in business) and we might not like it; but transformation in any area of life can be perceived as good or bad depending on the circumstances combined with your mental outlook and preparation.
If most of us believe the LinkedIn survey statistic that life is going to be very different in five years, how prepared are we for those changes. Do we have a flexible mindset or life plan? As women entrepreneurs we know in business, it is advised to revise our business plans at least annually. We can do that by beginning with an old plan and revising it or starting fresh. Talking to customers, reviewing your value proposition, seeing how the market has changed, and understanding what problems you are solving for clients, is a good place to begin.
Another way to confront change, is to create the change by shifting offerings, segmenting the market differently, creating different pricing, or even starting an exit strategy. Nothing lasts forever, so for those of us who don’t like change, ending an entrepreneurial endeavor might not feel good, but necessary, especially as the Pandemic lasts.
So, today’s Wednesday Wisdom, a couple weeks before 2021 ends, is to remind you that change doesn’t agree with most of us but its necessary. To be prepared for any change, you need a plan and the right attitude. Grab the bull by the horns for once if you are a procrastinator and do the necessary work to get moving onward. Strike out boldly knowing you aren’t alone in the process. Call a sister or sister entrepreneur to help or get a professional to advise you.
If you need true belief that change becomes adaptable in life, just look back personally 5 years ago and see what transformations you’ve gone through and how well you eventually did after the changes were done. You survived and modified plans to be where you are today. The same will happen for you again. Believe it and make change your friend.
Assertiveness Necessary Over Contract Questions
It happened again and I knew without a doubt the discussion would be difficult. An annual event I managed for nine years had increased in attendance, for the third year in a row, forcing my client to move the venue to another facility. With the event less than four weeks away, every logistical detail had to be revisited and vendors brought in to re-evaluate the site and their contracts as they added more services, equipment and staff. In the height of trouble shooting an event, I don’t remind my clients of a clause in my contract that states extra work beyond the original contract will be tallied and billed. In the middle of a crisis, I only want to support my clients and keep the event boat floating.
Within days of the special event’s completion, I contacted my client to tell her an additional invoice for extra service hours was being compiled. Like the past two years, I was questioned for the additional billing. I pointed out the contract clause and the fact we didn’t question other event vendor’s extra bills. The conversation was stressful as I defended added service hours. In the end, a detailed account of my hours and a well written letter to my client helped solve the situation. But the situation was unpleasant.
As women entrepreneurs, especially for those in service businesses when our time is money, it can be difficult to predict and plan the perfect service contract. We might not bill for all the hours we know we’ll perform or we might not want to bill our clients when extra work is requested. We may lack the confidence or nerve to ask for what we deserve. There isn’t a perfect science to projecting hours for a lengthy project; often times as great customer service providers we lose.
But sometimes we have to be assertive, watching out for ourselves and our bottom line. It can be uncomfortable to have a tense conversation with a favorite client or to ask for what is fair, but we need to do it and we have to be confident in the discussion.
Today’s blog is to remind you that being an entrepreneur requires a self-assured approach to handling difficult situations or complicated billing issues with clients. If we know we performed our duties as promised, have a record of the time spent, and a contract that outlines the situation, we must solicit for compensation no matter what.
If today’s the day you have been waiting to collect on past bills, now is the time to secure them. If you realize you need a stronger contract for 2022, add it to your must do list for January. Seek counsel or advice from other women entrepreneurs who have similar businesses and see what content is in their contracts. Only by being confident and assertive can we get what is just.
Remembering What’s Important 2 Weeks Before Christmas
Monday Motivation, Tuesday Thoughts for Women Entrepreneurs, Female Business Owners
In December 2012, I witnessed one of the dearest moments in my life. It took place a week before Christmas in the midst of the holiday hustle. More bright and clearer than any other memory, this one stands out as the holiday approaches and inspires me to share it every year.
Not too far away from the Christmas Carol script or any Hallmark Holiday movie sentiment, was the love of 40 people joining around a woman battling her last days of cancer at Francis House in Syracuse, to give her a special holiday moment that would last for eternity. Every year, just like the worn-out, yellowed pages of some favorite holiday stories, I share this memory on my blog to remind people what’s most important this time of year.
Before I share the original blog post below, stop and think of all the people you know who have battled with cancer this year or lost their lives to the Coronavirus, or dealt with other sufferings, and pray for them and that they receive as much peace and joy as this event brought our friend Debbie. Read on….stay blessed and be a blessing to others…
Original Post:
A good friend of my husband and I who battled ovarian cancer for five years was admitted to Francis House in Syracuse. Understanding the Francis House provides a beautiful home and an extended family to people with terminal illnesses so they can die with dignity and experience the unconditional love of God, I knew our friend had a week to live. The news came as a shock although we knew she was still battling the disease.
Debbie was a woman who had a very large spirit and joyful personality. She was tenacious about beating the disease and not letting the disease beat her. So when we received a special invitation from her husband to join him for a surprise “celebration” at the Francis House one evening we accepted immediately. Knowing how much she wanted to see all the people she loved, he threw her one last party and invited 40 of her closest family and friends.
I’ll never forget the smile on her face and the joy that radiated from her as she entered a room full of loved ones. She had the grace and dignity to thank everyone with a powerful speech that couldn’t have been written better by Hollywood writers. Everyone had a chance to celebrate with her one more time and with each other, to take a photo with her, to say good-bye to her when she was alive and not at a funeral home, to say all the things that mattered, and to leave with a lighter heart than when they arrived.
I said to her husband as I left, “You have given everyone here one of the greatest gifts of all time – you gave us the gift of being together to celebrate her while she was still alive and to see her happy one last time.” I will always remember her in that happy moment.
Two days later Debbie passed away with her husband by her side and 40 people very grateful for the amazing memory of her last celebration filled with pure love and friendship. It was an early Christmas present and a gift I will never forget.
This special blog post is to remind you to live life with as much joy as you can. To take the time to tell the ones you love, what they mean to you. To celebrate the good and bad times together with those who mean the most to you. It’s truly a gift for the ages and one we must give ourselves every day of our lives.
Women TIES 