The Women Entrepreneurs Blog @ Simon

Selecting a Bank

Choosing the right bank can have a significant impact on your business success.

It’s important to thoroughly evaluate your needs prior to making a decision on the bank that will be your partner. Things to consider include:

• How are your products/services paid for? 
• Is close proximity to a bank a key issue? 
• What types of checking and savings accounts will you need?
• Will your customers/vendors request a credit history from your bank? 
• Will you need notary services? 
• Will you have a need for Letters of Credit?  
• Will you be transacting business outside of the U.S.?
• Does the bank have FDIC insurance and what are its limits?
• Will you need financing for working capital and/or equipment?
• What types of online banking services do they have?
• What are their hours?

Get Your Ego Out of the Way and Listen to Your Critics!

In July of 2000 I decided to give entrepreneurship a serious try. I had been considering the idea of starting a company for many years, knowing that I always wanted to follow in my father’s footsteps to be an entrepreneur. In fact, I had planned my career expressly so that I would develop the skills and knowledge that would equip me to someday run my own business. 

Following the advice I got from Bill Stolze's book, Start-Up, I had been mindful all throughout my working career to being open to ideas for business opportunities. Finally, the idea that ultimately became the core concept for my company, My Brands®, came to me while working in marketing for Hefty brand products.

Through my experience at Hefty, I had found an idea and even gathered some good empirical data that supported the need for what My Brands does today. Even with that, I knew that I needed more advice.

Tip of the Week – How to Get Creative

One of the things you always hear is “be creative with your marketing campaigns”.

You have to do something that captures the attention of your target market. But how can you be creative all the time? I got a really great tip yesterday at our second Mark Ain Workshop. The topic for this workshop was Competitive Analysis, Customer Identification and the 4P’s (of marketing). Presenter Kara Painting, who is Managing Partner and Creative Director at local Marketing, PR and Advertising firm, Dixon Schwabl, told us to think about all the possible connections we could, regarding the focus of our campaign.

Marketing: An Essential Part of Your On-Going Focus

When you spend as much time on the net as I do, you meet a lot of interesting and fascinating people. Some of them happen to be famous - like Guy Kawasaki, and Robert Scoble, and Jackie Huba or Ann Handley. All of these experts in marketing and using social media are great folks to know - but the opportunity to meet them or connect with them on a personal level grows out of the earlier connections you make. Connections on Twitter and LinkedIn...

But, what do you do BEFORE all that? Before jumping into social media? You start ... with a great book. Yes, the advice of Guy or Jackie or Ann (maybe even Robert) can do wonders to helping new business owners create a good marketing focus, but sometimes you need to get to the true basics first. The kind that help you create a marketing plan...on a budget, in no time at all.

When should you protect your intellectual property? Now and forever.

Your intellectual property – that is, intangibles like your business name and product brands (trademarks), marketing brochures, web content, and advertising campaigns (copyright), novel inventions and business processes (patents), and business secrets, such as unique software code, research and development, and customer lists (trade secrets) – often are the most valuable assets of your business. 

How you protect your intellectual property can dramatically impact both the valuation of your company and the level of success it can achieve.

  Not only do you want to ensure you have secured your rights in your intellectual property to the maximum extent possible, you also want to be sure your intellectual property isn’t infringing anyone else’s rights. 

Blog Tip of the Week: Go the Traditional Route

In today's age of e-mail, blogs, facebook, and twitter, it's hard to pick up the telephone and talk. Sure, it is an advantage to be able to look up an e-mail from months ago and see the exact deal or discussion that transpired, but sometimes sacrificing recorded history for the human voice is the key to success and your future.

Talking is more intimate; you can hear reflections in a person's voice and the fact that you made a phone call shows sincerity. In addition, it requires "greeting" talk at the beginning, which is the sales secret to success.

Now you have a friend, someone who knows you personally, someone who will think of you when future deals arise, someone who trusts you. Take one hour each week to go the traditional route, pick up the phone, and talk.

Selling Beyond our Borders

From glass to IT services and microchips to wine - you name it and some enterprising small business has found a way to sell it to overseas markets. Small exporters prevail, despite daunting obstacles, and account for nearly 30 percent of total  U.S. exports, which are expected to approach $1 trillion this year. Innovative small businesses are finding profitable niches outside the U.S.and can have anywhere from 5 percent to 100 percent of their sales in foreign markets.

Exports are key to the profitability of many small companies and to U.S.economic and job growth. But it is vital to do your homework. Success is best achieved if you calculate all the costs of doing business and understand the ramifications of each decision. Failure to plan, as always, may turn these potential revenues into losses.

If you would like to learn more about exporting and small business, spend a few minutes taking SBA's Export Primer. This course offers a brief overview on the export process and helps you to assess your export "readiness". If you are interested in more information, visit SBA's International Trade resource page.

In this current economic climate, many businesses are struggling to maintain or grow their revenue stream. Perhaps your business could benefit from casting your net across the ocean.

*SBA's participation in this blog does not constitute an endorsement of the William E. Simon Graduate School of Business Administration or any other person or entity.  SBA's programs and services are provided to the public on a non-discriminatory basis.

I’ve finally found what I want to do

When I first came to the Simon Graduate School I was dead set on starting a business magazine in Barbados. If you take a look at my bio, you’ll see it’s still written there - “Marita came to the Simon School after deciding to pursue her dream of starting her own publishing company.”

Like the good entrepreneur full of passion, I did everything to get me closer to that goal – I sought the advice of those in the industry, took classes that I thought would be useful in the future, wrote a business plan and entered a business plan competition.

These were all great steps for that particular goal but the more I tried to build this dream the more I realized I wanted…..well….more.

Women: Make Mine a Million Wants You!

Make Mine a Million is a popular and well-known non-profit focused on working with women entrepreneurs to help them build successful businesses.

Recently, they launched a new initiative called The M3 Race. Essentially, this is "a year-long business growth marathon where women entrepreneurs sign up to meet certain business goals, such as generating annual revenues of $250,000, $500,000 or $1 million."

Overall, this is a great opportunity for networking and sharing ideas.

Thanks to Mark Marich over at Entrepreneurship: United by the power of ideas, for his post on this topic. We hope you will click over to the new initiatve link above and get involved with this fabulous opportunity.

Redefining Advertising and PR Strategies: The Shift to Online Media

While all advertising requires a strategic and targeted approach, online media requires a very personal focus—an effort that matches the highly personal and often intrusive nature of the online experience. 

As nearly every consumer today has access to, interest in, or familiarity with the Internet, the shift to online media is less subtle than in the beginning of this decade, and more apparent to the everyday consumer. 

Even a challenging economy cannot thwart online marketing.  Forrester Research shows that 25 percent of marketers will increase spending in online advertising—because of the recession!