I know that I’ve spoken of this before and I hate that I am writing about it again, but if I just had this situation chances are that many of my readers are struggling with something similar as well. I have a colleague that I worked with and the relationship crashed and burned. To me it was a part of business, while we did not work well together I didn’t see it as anything … [Read more...]
No judgement!
Stop the snap judgements, try supporting each other. Walk a mile in my flip-flops first...everyone has their own story. I work from home, I am also a mom and a wife....99.9% of my meetings are on the phone or Skype....the other .1% are local clients/businesses. Most of those local places I have been in before, they know me, they have seen what I look like on a normal … [Read more...]
Crowdfunding Can Launch Your Business
One of the largest challenges entrepreneurs face is getting funding for their great ideas. Women business owners struggle in spite of efforts by the government to create SBA and micro loan programs to help entrepreneurs’ access capital. The challenge is that even the SBA requires good credit, collateral, and an income source to repay the loan. If you are starting a company … [Read more...]
Women Catch the Entrepreneurial Spirit and Win
Sponsored by VISA Business: Over the past 15 years, the number of women-owned businesses has grown by 54%. Today, there are over 8 million women-owned businesses, and women are founding businesses at a rate 1.5 times higher than the national average. Those women-owned businesses generate revenues of $1.3 trillion and employ 7.7 million people. That’s 40% more people than … [Read more...]
Why Consultants Suck
I know what you’re thinking…I’m a consultant so either this is a self-loathing mea culpa or I have a point. Bear with me because I do in fact have a point. The thing about consultants is that we generally are really skilled at something, that’s why we’re consultants. But we are workers, fixers, problem solvers. We aren’t business owners and that is something that I have come up … [Read more...]
The Small Business Owner Blues
In the silence of the night when everyone else has shut down and you are left with your decisions, that’s when you become an entrepreneur. Someone said to me once that to be an entrepreneur you have to have a spouse with a full-time job and while that anecdote is funny it’s also a bit sad. The very essence of an entrepreneur is a risk-taker, however unfair that risk is to the … [Read more...]
Take your Small Business Back to School
I've always loved the Staples commercial in which a father runs through the aisles, filling his cart with school supplies; a scene set to the tune of "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year." This brilliant marketing is a great take on parenting, but also highlights the hate-to-love it excitement and promise of another academic year. As a kid, back to school season always … [Read more...]
Marketing Your Company, Not You
As I stumble through this minefield of entrepreneurship, I have learned that there has to be a significant switch in your thinking. We start businesses for a variety of reasons, mostly because we are really good at something specific. What happens is that you quickly realize that you cannot be the person that runs the business and the person who does the work. There has to be … [Read more...]
Lead by Numbers
I used to be petrified of failure, but being an entrepreneur cured me of that. I used to think that business owners knew some magical formula for success, but being an entrepreneur cured me of that too. The secret is in knowing that separation breeds indifference. When you aren’t close to your customers, you don’t care how they are treated. Or if you do care, you care too late … [Read more...]
Are You an Entrepreneur? [Infographic]
Last week, I shared an infographic that looked Inside the Mind of a Startup Entrepreneur, and today, I have a new infographic on a similar subject. The Are You an Entrepreneur? infographic shown below visually guides you through a series of personality traits, behaviors, and preferences to determine if you were born to be a leader or not. The infographic splits people into … [Read more...]