The Women Entrepreneurs Blog @ Simon

Web tip of the week – Add a human touch!

Today I spent an inordinate amount of time on the telephone attempting to reach parties who do not have a live voice picking up calls.  Voice mail is great and so is email, but to be competitive in today's world, customer service is going to make your business outpace the others. 

Don't let your customers get caught in a situation where they cannot talk to a human.  If they want to leave  a message, they will, but give them the opportunity to dial 0 for customer service or your assistant.

Business today is about instant gratification.  Customers have choices and businesses need to make sure they can meet their customers’ needs quickly and efficiently.  A good start to this would be a live voice!

You Need a Plan

Here at the Simon Graduate School of Business, one of the courses I teach is Entrepreneurship 423, otherwise known as "the business plan" course. At the Simon School our research has revealed that ten years after graduation, approximately one half of our graduates migrate into their own business or some form of entrepreneurial venture.

While not a required course, it is usually a sell-out as entrepreneurially inclined students recognize the importance of knowing how to prepare a business plan. The value of a solid, well conceived business plan cannot be overstated.

All businesses require capital to begin the venture. Whether you are funding the venture privately or soliciting funding elsewhere, the business plan provides the reader with the required information that is critical to understanding many aspects of the business.

The authorship of the plan forces the creator of the business to examine many of its elements by thinking through the process and articulating it on paper. It is designed to detail all of the major elements of the product or service as well as the financial implications, needs, start-up capital, return on investment and income projections. No one, other than a delirious relative is going to advance you any significant amount of money for your venture without having a thorough review of a business plan.

Simply put, a business plan is expected when asking for funds to invest in a new business start up.  A well conceived plan answers most of the questions an investor will have. If there are no outside investors, there is great value in writing the plan for yourself, simply to chart the course for your venture.   

Always Operate in the Black

As Wall Street goes through its most chaotic period since the Great Depression many small businesses are concerned about cash flow and credit. The next few years will certainly be no walk in the park for small business owners but instead of worrying, now is the time for small businesses to become more strategic in how they manage their operations.

At My Brands, our CFO and I have one rule that we follow religiously - always operate in the black. Your company can stay in business for a very long time – through economic crisis and more – if you focus on this as an objective.

As a brand new company, especially before you have any sales, this can be tough or even impossible to do.  Strive for this objective, sacrifice to achieve it.  Our company operated for 18 months without making a profit.  Since that time, we have done everything we can to keep our focus on not over extending ourselves. 

Social Media Works: Try It!

I expect all of you are as worried about finances and the economy as I am. Everyone is counting pennies and wondering what tomorrow will bring. I can't make predictions about tomorrow - I'll let the financial pundits and the politicians do that. What I can do is give you some advice on how to help market your business online, and not overspend.

Use blogs. Use Twitter. Use the connections you can make via social media, strong connections to people who will share good advice for free, and offer their help, for free, and guide you on which platform to use, the one that will work best for you.

According to Dr. Tracy L. Tuten, author of the new book Advertising 2.0: Social Media Marketing in a Web 2.0 World, "In a Web 2.0 world, we have the opportunity to develop advertising that is engaging, entertaining, informative, fun, credible, different - advertising consumers invite into their lives."

I believe (have not completely finished the book, yet) that she is talking about blogs and Twitter and the kinds of online connections that build real relationships. Relationships that move from online to offline... that connect real people to real people, and start conversations about life, liberty, business, kids, Moms, Dads, and pets...among many other topics.

A Dash of Passion with Michelle Robson: Part II

On Monday, we shared the start of the inspiring Michelle Robson story...please visit our Monday post, and then come on back as we conclude the story of EmpowerHer.com...

Fortunately, a firm called Mita Group from Washington DC, a company specializing in website design and development, happened to stumble upon the site. They emailed her expressing their interest in having a meeting regarding her website’s potential. “Three of them flew out to meet me on their own dime,” said Michelle. And they told her that her tiny website could potentially be worth over $100 million.

At this point Michelle decided to seek the advice of someone more knowledgeable about the technology industry. Through personal contacts she was able to get Mita’s proposal in the hands of Shahi Ghanem, former President of DivX, one of the world's leading developers of video compression, security, and distribution technologies, and former CEO of Brickfish, a networking company that regularly hosts competitions in art and design.

Ghanem called her immediately and asked her to fly out to meet him and an attorney the next day. They thought she had a really interesting idea which held great potential if executed correctly.

A dash of passion can take you a very long way

We are often told that we should follow our dreams and pursue our true passion but what happens when we don’t know where our true passion lies? For Michelle Robson it took reaching one of the lowest points in her life to truly find her entrepreneurial calling.

Michelle is founder of EmpowHer.com, a website dedicated to not only educating women about their health but connecting women to other women who share their health concerns. She founded the website after she became terribly ill and could not find another woman who could understand what she was going through. Michelle had received a complete hysterectomy that so eroded her quality of life, she even contemplated suicide.

“I was thrown into menopause and instantly lost all my hormone levels. It was not gradual. I was told to take these drugs and you’ll feel fine but I didn’t feel fine,” explained Michelle.

Michelle went online searching for someone to talk to but all she found were hormone replacement ads and whenever she posted a question, she never got a response. At that point Michelle vowed that if she ever got better she would dedicate her life to ensuring that no woman would feel as frustrated and alone as she was.

Tip of the Week - "Never Give up"

From our blogger Jane Glazer:

The Tip of the Week for October 3rd: NEVER GIVE UP

In these turbulent times you may find that everyone will influence you to quit the fight. Friends hate to see friends suffer, so they will be the worst offenders. Resist and thank them for their good wishes.

You are an entrepreneur for a reason. If you wanted to take the merry go round, you would not have chosen the roller coaster! Trust your instincts and find ways to be leaner.

In 25 years, I have always been amazed that when I thought I was running a lean operation, during turbulent times, I found ways to get leaner.

And, I'm still here to tell you: Never Give Up.

Your optimal positioning strategy

As a businesswoman you want to be taken seriously but you don’t want to lose your femininity.  You want to walk into a room and command just as much respect as a man, but you certainly want people to remember that you are still a woman. Seldom talked about, but a very real concern for many woman heading down that business path, is – how do you retain you femininity while advancing in the business world?

I asked a very savvy business woman who refused to compromise her femininity during her amazing career (which spanned from Wall Street to her very successful public relations and media strategy firm – MKlein Communications) exactly what was necessary to retain your femininity but still be taken seriously in the business world.  I met Marjorie Klein at an Entrepreneurship conference I recently attended at Queens College. She was part of a female panel of entrepreneurs and she certainly had some interesting things to say.

How you dress is very important. When you walk into a corporate environment your attire plays a major role in how people perceive you. Revealing too much skin can destroy your ability to be seen as a credible business professional. That means midriff bearing tops and low rise jeans are strictly forbidden under any circumstances. Marjorie advises taking subtle cues from the fashion world and adapting them to fit a business environment.

Choose tasteful clothes in which you feel comfortable. You can’t command a room if you are worrying about how you feel in your outfit. Your audience will pick up on your insecurities if you are fidgeting with waistbands, buttons or other things that detract from your overall presence. Buying clothes that you feel great wearing allows you to feel at ease and in control, and in turn, project an image of confidence.