If you’d like to learn to write compelling copy for your own advertising and marketing materials or if you’d like to transition into a career as a copywriter, then take a look at the new course I’m offering through the Absolute Write University: Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps.

The online course follows the steps I teach in my upcoming book of the same title, Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps, that will be published by Entrepreneur Press in September 2008. This course won’t teach you how to write a hard sales letter. Instead, it will teach you the fundamentals of copywriting in a linear way that you’ll be able to apply to any copywriting project again and again.

Copywriting in 10 Easy Steps (the course) will be offered on an ongoing basis, starting the first Monday of every month. The course will be open to just five students per session, so I can provide one-on-one feedback and discussion with participants.

Tags: copywriting, copywriting course, copywriting class, learn copywriting, online copywriting, copywriting in 10 easy steps, women in business, businesswomen, career development, women on business

Donna Maria Coles Johnson of Indie Business Media LLC wrote a great post on her blog, Indie Business Blog, today called Top 10 Small Business Administration Website Links.

If you’ve ever tried to navigate the internet to find resources and information to start a business, then you know it can be overwhelming and like finding a needle in a haystack. Donna mapped out links to learn a lot of the basics in her post today from how to start a business in your state to financing and more. It’s worth reading and bookmarking for future use.

You can follow this link to read Donna’s full post: Top 10 Small Business Administration Website Links.

Tags: women business owners, female business owners, starting a business, Small Business Administration, business financing, women in business, businesswomen, women on business, female entrepreneurs

As I first wrote about back in January, the Principal Financial Group is hosting a series called the Five Secrets of Millionaire Business Owners.

Tomorrow, Mary Cantando, business growth advisor and author of The Woman’s Advantage: 20 Women Entrepreneurs Show You What it Takes to Grow Your Business, will lead a class in which she’ll share best practices you can implement into your business learned from multi-million dollar business owners.

You can register for the telecast (it’s free and conducted via telephone) and learn more about Mary Cantando on the Principal Women in Business Teleclass Series web page.

Tags: Mary Cantando, Principal Financial Group, women in business, businesswomen, women on business, female entrepreneurs, Principal Women in Business Teleclass

More and more social networking websites are popping up online everyday, but an interesting new twist on social networking is coming from established businesses adding a social networking component to their existing websites. Fast Company is one of the most recent entrants into the social web by adding a new Business Network to its existing website where users can publish blog posts on the Fast Company website, participate in forums and ask and answer questions.

I wrote an interesting post for Buzz Networker that was published today called Fast Company Joins the Social Networking Bandwagon which describes Fast Company’s Business Network in more detail.

I think new social websites like this could create great networking opportunities for business people, particularly ones that are so heavily focused directly on business such as Fast Company’s Business Network. What do you think?

Tags: social networking, social web, business networking, online networking, Buzz Networker, Fast Company, women in business, businesswomen, women on business

In November 2007, I wrote a post about a new ad agency, Womenkind, that focuses on women using a unique business model. Now, another agency, Hoffman York, is launching a business unit dedicated to advertising to women called The Kaleidoscope Group. This new agency is the product of three years of research, interviews and reviews done by Hoffman York.

The Kaleidoscope Group released a press release yesterday stating the business unit will work to develop creative advertising that more effectively speaks to the female audience which influences more than 80% of purchase decisions.

Interestingly, despite being formed to address the disconnect between advertising and women, The Kaleidoscope Group does not advertise exclusively to women. The business unit also advertises to men claiming their messages focus first on women and then on men.

I also think it’s interesting that the 11-person team of agency professionals who work for The Kaleidoscope Group includes three men. While that number is not high and provides diversity within the team, what is significant about it is (according to The Kaleidoscope Group’s press release) two of the three leaders of The Kaleidoscope Group are men. In other words, only 33% of the leadership team of The Kaleidoscope Group are women. The middle-management and lower level team members are mostly women though - no surprise there.

While The Kaleidoscope Group sounds like a great idea, I’m still feeling a disconnect. Is it just me or are women not just under-represented in the advertising messages The Kaleidoscope Group claims it can fix but also in The Kaleidoscope Group itself? If women are so important, then why isn’t a woman heading this group? If a company is trying to position itself as understanding and catering to the needs of women, then shouldn’t women be in key positions?

You can read the entire press release about The Kaleidoscope Group after the jump (I couldn’t find a link to the press release on either the Hoffman York website or The Kaleidoscope Group website, so I had to copy and paste it from an email I received from the Hoffman York media department today).

Continue reading »

Catalyst has released an overview of their most recent study about women working in the field of technology. The study shows that while women are making strides in high-tech careers (in comparison to study results from earlier in the decade), they still face significant barriers to equality.

Women in the high-tech industry cited the following problems:

1. A lack of role models and mentors
2. A lack of access to networks
3. A lack of satisfaction with supervisor interactions
4. A lack of opportunities to voice opinions during decision-making processes

Despite these barriers, women who participated in the study were generally satisfied with their jobs and the environments in which they work. However, the number of women in technical jobs has declined in recent years.

The need for employees with skills in the technical field continues to grow and get more and more competitive. Coompanies need to find ways to address the areas of concern for women to not only increase employee satisfaction but also to attract and retain the best technical talent.

Tags: women in business, Catalyst, equality research, women on business, businesswomen, female technical, technical careers, women in high-tech industry

PINK magazine’s March/April 2008 issue names the top 15 women in business. These are the women PINK has named “The Innovators.” PINK calls their list the, “exclusive list of the most influential women driving innovation (and revenue) in corporate America.”

PINK developed their list of the top 15 women in business through nominations from the top 250 public companies as well as through their own research of membership lists of industry organizations and regional women’s groups. After creating a list of candidates, PINK narrowed down the list to the top 15 by finding women who made documented innovative contributions to their companies that directly impacted those companies’ profits and/or customers. Continue reading »

It’s well known that when Oprah Winfrey endorses something, sales go up. It’s also a known fact that when Oprah Winfrey adds a book to her book club, sales for that book increase by a million copies. On Friday, Oprah Winfrey put her seal of approval on Suze Orman’s book, Women & Money.

On Friday’s telecast of The Oprah Winfrey show, Oprah told her viewers that Suze Orman’s Women & Money, which was published a year ago, would be available for free download from Oprah’s website for 33 hours. During that time, 1.1 million copies were downloaded in English and another 19,000 copies were downloaded in Spanish. At the same time, Women and Money sat in 6th place on Amazon.

Suze Orman is very famous in her own right, and she certainly didn’t need Oprah Winfrey to promote her book in order to sell copies. However, Suze Orman was quoted in a statement released by Oprah Winfrey on Saturday saying, “I believe Women & Money is the most important book I’ve ever written,” Orman said in a statement released Saturday by Winfrey. “So this was not about getting people to buy the book, but getting them to read it, and that was the intention behind this offer.”

Sounds like this book is a must read not just for women in business but for all women. Have you read Women & Money yet? If so, leave a comment and let Women On Business’ readers know what you thought of it.

Tags: women in business, Suze Orman, Oprah Winfrey, Women and Money, women on business, businesswomen, women finances

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) has a great contest going on for small business owners.  It’s open for entries through February 28, 2008.  It’s called the “What do you have to say?” Small Business Contest, and one small business owner in the U.S. will win an opportunity to build their brand and differentiate their business. Continue reading »

In January, I wrote a post on BloggingTips.com called 5 Tips to Create a Blog Plan for Long Term Success. Today, I received an email from Evan Carmichael of EvanCarmichael.com to let me know my post was included (and ranked #4) on the list of the Top 50 Business Plan Posts of the Year that was published on his website today.

If you need to write a business plan or revise your existing business plan, the 50 business plan posts of the year provides an incredible amount of information and resources to help you succeed. Some of the posts on the list of the top 50 business plan posts of the year come from well-known bloggers while others come from lesser known bloggers who have something valuable to share.

Take a look at the list when you have a few minutes by clicking on the link to the top 50 business plan posts of 2008. If you don’t need this type of resource right now, it’s the kind of post that you might want to bookmark and save for future reference.

Tags: EvanCarmichael.com, Evan Carmichael, top 50 business plan posts, business plan, create business plan, women in business, businesswomen, women business owners, women on business