Tag Archives: entrepreneurs

Finding Balance in Chaos

on February 21, 2011 in Coaching Corner, Education, Women in Business

Guest Post by Premier Success Coach Kim Griffith, MA,        Co-Active Parenting and Wellness Coach

Does this sound familiar?

I had a plan … I was organized and in the flow. I had a deadline to write an article on trauma for a parenting magazine and write this blog post, so set aside 2 full days to complete them. I felt confident and in control of my time. 

And then, the biggest ice storm hit Dallas and all my plans came to a screeching halt.  My daughter’s school closed so she was home.  Then came our power outages, and finally, my husband wrecked his car trying to get out of the driveway!  I had to take and pick him up from work (he’s a doctor and babies don’t wait to be delivered)!  Although this is an extreme scenario, it expresses how crazy life can get as we are juggling being a mom, wife and running a business.  When we love all of them, HOW DO WE FIND OUR BALANCE?

I have found that getting REGULATED (calm and centered) is of the utmost importance.  When we are stressed and run by thought patterns that keep us in “survival mode,” our brain is limited to fight, flight or freeze, which shows up as anxiety, fear, frustration, anger etc.  No one is getting their needs met in this state of mind, not to mention the toll it begins to take on our physical well-being.  When we can take a few deep, conscious breaths and find a sense of calm, we give our brain a chance to tap into creative solutions, increase our energy and have the space to ask some important questions.  

Ask yourself, what is the most important thing to me right now in this moment?  What do I value the most in my life?  VALUES are our road map to making good decisions and living a truly happy life.  After getting regulated and asking myself these questions, I was able to regain my sense of calm, and be present in what I was doing.  My energy was amazing and I wrote this post in 20 minutes!  I felt productive, with my creative juices flowing. 

I found my personal balance in this extreme set of circumstances by honoring and being in tune with my values and priorities. And this, I believe, is the first step in balancing meeting our own needs with the needs of our family. What is of highest value and priority to you?   Live in alignment with them and your business will flourish!

In summary….1) Breath  2) Regulate 3) Accept  4) Ask what is most important (Values, Priorities) 5) Be Present in what your doing 6) Trust and allow your creativity to flow!

Connect with Kim Griffith at eWomenNetwork or The Wellness Way

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At Home Businesses for Women: Soapbox Warning

on February 17, 2011 in Branding, Coaching Corner, Motivation & Inspiration, Women in Business

Guest Post by Premiere Success Coaches Aly Calvo and Andrea Kulberg, M. Ed., Branding Specialists Coaches

We get it.  You work  from home, so you have a free pass to spend the day in your pajamas behind the computer while juggling loads of laundry and dishes, right? Wrong.  Fair warning, we are about to be on our soapbox and hold you accountable for the way you operate your business.  If that makes you uncomfortable…. read on, anyway because we’re calling you out and that means you need it. (Yes, English teacher, we are using the word YOU today.)

With the evolution of the office (thank you, technology), so has come the evolution of opportunities for women, particularly moms, entering the workforce.  Put that in a blender with the recent economy, and find for the first time ever that more women are beginning entrepreneurial endeavors than men.  The fact is, we really can bring home the bacon and fry it up in a pan… and do the family taxi-driving, chef duty, housekeeping, bookkeeping, teacher, tear-wiper, nose-wiper, and you get-the-idea-all-at-the-same-time.  BUT, if you want to be more than just slightly successful in the bank account department, you must define boundaries for your work space.  Physically and emotionally.

If you are working to serve your purpose (and you should), protect that.  We are guessing that most you you are not energized or empowered by laundry or scheduling the garage door repair.  We also know that if you really are working to your highest potential, your hourly rate is likely higher than the cost of outsourcing house management tasks.  Plus, you can feed the economy by employing another person who IS asking for that kind of work.  Just because you can do something, doesn’t mean you should.  That is applicable in both your personal life, and your business.

We are calling it like it is here.  There is no excuse for you to be doing anything in your personal life or your professional career that does not serve your strengths, talents, personal joy, or legacy.  We coach in detail about how to do this, but suffice it to say, if you are truly ready to be successful, joyful, and fulfilled, we know this is true.

And another thing!  Since we are on our soapbox, we have to say it that way.  If you want to be successful, you must ACT successful.  Expect it.  You wouldn’t go to a corporate sales meeting in sweats, so why go to your Starbucks meeting, or even Skype meeting like that?  If you are networking, Get UP, dress the part, and put on a little lip gloss!

Our encouragement to you today is to respect yourself first, so you have the authority to demand that respect from others.  If you want your family, friends, colleagues, prospective bosses, or potential customers to take you seriously, act like you work.  Because you do.

Stepping down now….

Connect with Aly and Andrea at eWomenNetwork

Original Post @ Rock Star U

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SPRING CLEANING TIME!!

on February 12, 2011 in Success Institute, Technology, Women in Business

Guest Post by Rebecca Metz

Yes, the weather outside is still frigid for a lot of us, but it is soon going to be spring cleaning time, not just for our homes, but for our computers and others gadgets as well. Remember to clean up your PC to keep things moving along quickly.

Here is a simple way to clean your computer up without losing Windows or needing to reformat your computer.

Clean up your Windows Registry – as you add programs and uninstall programs, your registry expands and needs to be cleaned up as well. This area will help speed up your booting time.

Remove background services – when you install a program, it also installs a background service that is not necessary to run. Make sure you are running what you need, not what you don’t need.

Hard-drive issues – a hard drive can become full and will make the time from swapping from main memory to drive very slow. Make sure you are defragmenting your system when it starts to slow down.

Seriously – it seems like something that you only need to do every now and then.  But I bet it’s been a loooong time since the last time you cleaned your computer up.  Do it, you will be shocked at the difference.  (Original Post http://modernincon.com/blog/computer-hardware/spring-cleaning-time/).

Join Rebecca Metz on Success Institute 2/22/11, 1:30pm CST, to learn more about 3 Simple Systems to Automating Your Business!

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Are Your Blog and Email Friends?

on February 1, 2011 in Marketing, Social Media, Women & The Media, Women in Business

Guest Post by Karen Talavera
 
Sometimes we get so caught up just keeping our email programs running that we get tunnel vision.  We forget that email is an essential tool in the marketing toolbox, an ingredient in the marketing mix, and not a channel to be kept unto itself.

There’s been plenty written about integrating email and social media (I know, I wrote some of it!) but what about an even more obvious connection you can make – integrating email with your blog?  Here are three easy ways to do so:

Tip #1. Promote email subscriptions and content offers on blog pages

A well-written, frequently updated blog can drive significant amounts of traffic to your website (or, it may BE your website). With the impact of search indexing and social sharing, it’s likely that many potential readers are first landing on your blog pages – not your home page or product pages.

Make sure you have a way to capture email addresses from blog visitors who might not take time to explore other parts of your site.  How to do so?

Make your e-newsletter or promotional opt-in offer visible on every page of your blog. That way, visitors who land on a specific blog post – and like what they read – will easily see other ways to receive content and information from you.  When you build this into the standard frame or design template of your blog, it’s easy to do.

Tip #2. Offer an email subscription to your blog posts

Although it’s standard practice to use RSS syndication to provide automatic updates of blog content, RSS readers remain a niche technology (various studies have placed RSS adoption between 10%-20% of Web users). But many feed management systems, such as Feedblitz and Google’s Feedburner, allow subscribers to receive updates by email.   I myself subscribe to many blogs this way, as I prefer to have as much content as possible pushed to my inbox where I use tools to sort and prioritize it from there.

Promoting an email update service can help you attract a lot more subscribers for your blog content. You’ll also capture a vital piece of information that you don’t get from RSS subscribers – an email address.   And this as we know is CRITICAL to including blog subscribers in your marketing and promotional communications funnel.

Also consider taking a cue from listserv mailing lists and create a blog “digest” newsletter. This could be a weekly, biweekly or monthly publication that consolidates blog headlines from that time period for easy scanning and skimming.  The option may appeal to visitors who want to follow your blog but don’t want a lot of new messages in their inbox. You also can use space within that email to promote relevant offers to subscribers.

Tip #3. Repurpose blog posts and other articles for your email newsletters

Get the most from the content you work so hard to create by repurposing and re-using blog posts within your email newsletters.  A favorite tactic of mine (which you’ll soon see in my e-newsletter, InSight) is to write a blog post, then use the first half of it as an email newsletter article with a link to continue reading the full article on your blog.

This drives email subscribers who HAVEN’T yet sampled your blog to the blog on a regular basis.  Also, since you have more latitude and control over what happens on your blog/site and more ability to drive conversion or sales from there than the inbox, getting readers in front of your content in your preferred context should always be the goal.

You can also consider dedicating a specific section of your newsletter as a “blog corner” – highlighting your most popular posts, a featured guest post, or a post by an industry luminary.

Finally, look for ways your blog content offers variety or a departure from typical newsletter articles. If your blog tends to be more informal or entertaining than your newsletter articles, that content may be a welcome addition.  For example, Jim Palmer (the Newsletter Guru) routinely includes a video in his email newsletter which plays on his blog.

Remember, your blog and your email can work beautifully in tandem to both distribute content and invite readers to interact with you in other ways . . . ways that produce deeper engagement, greater loyalty, and more revenue.  Plant the seeds to forging stronger ties between your blog and email marketing and watch your opportunities flourish!

Join Karen Talavera on Success Institute 2/15/11, 1:30pm CST to learn more about  The 3 Keys to Unlocking More Revenue from Your Online Marketing in 2011

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Become Financially Secure Now!

on January 27, 2011 in Education, Women in Business

Guest Post by Camille Gaines

A financial woman is prepared to step into the role of overseeing her money at any time. This can seem a little scary, but the truth is that no one plans for the unexpected. There are several reasons why being prepared to take over the management of your money at any time is important, beyond the unexpected happening in your life.

The definition of overseeing your money varies depending on your individual circumstances.  For one, this may mean taking a leadership role when hiring and meeting with your financial advisor. For another, it may mean implementing a simple index strategy to create a diversified portfolio. Both require understanding the basics of investing in order to responsibly oversee your investments.     

A Citigroup study found that 90% of women in the U.S. will be solely responsible for their own money at some point during their life. This alone is good enough reason for you to be actively involved with overseeing your money management if you are not. It is easy to defer the leadership role if someone else in your household is taking responsibility for your money since women already have so many roles, but this job only requires as many hours as you decide you want to spend, depending on the investing method you chose. A few consistent hours a year gets this essential job done.

Just knowing that you can step into any important role, especially one that affects the quality of your life as much as your money does, empowers you. Knowledge is what provides empowerment and confidence. Once you know the basics of exactly how much money you have, where and how it is invested, and how to measure and monitor the performance of your investments, you’ll be able to confidently do so at any time.   

Things just feel bigger and scarier when we don’t know anything about them. Think of all the experiences in your life that you dreaded because they seemed big and intimidating, and then after you learned how to do them you wondered why you had been so intimidated by them. I remember how difficult it seemed to make online purchases when I first began; I would inevitably make some mistake and become frustrated. Now it seems silly that something so simple was difficult; unfortunately for my spending plan, now I find it all too easy!

What areas of your life have felt overwhelming until you learned them, and then they seemed easy? It usually only takes some initial involvement to start feeling confident and ready for the next steps. If the thought of overseeing your investments seems uncomfortable and overwhelming, decide what steps you need to take to become financially empowered so you can have real financial security.   http://www.financialwoman.com/ 

Join Camille Gaines on Success Institute 2/1/11, 1:30pm CST to learn more about how to “Become Financially Secure Now!” 

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Long Term Care and Your Taxes

on December 3, 2010 in eWomenNetwork Members, Women in Business

Having just completed Long Term Care Awareness Month, the end of 2010 is the perfect opportunity to consider your best long term care options for the new year and beyond.  The Administration on Aging reports that by 2030 persons 65 years or older in the U.S. will represent 19% of  the population and most will be women. Unexpected care expenses for an individual, a spouse, a parent or a family member can greatly impact your finances.“In America 3 in 4 of us need long term care after we turn 65.  But most of us aren’t insured for it, and waiting to insure carries great risks,” says Denise Gott, Chairman of the Board of LTC Financial*.  A long term care insurance policy protects against asset loss by paying long-term care bills and avoids dipping into savings or selling investments to cover the costs.

Under current U.S. tax law, long term care insurance premiums offer a tax deduction that is often overlooked. In addition, when a policy is paid for out of a Health Savings Account there can be tax advantages.  Based on federal tax information from the Internal Revenue Service, for 2010 the maximum amount of qualified long-term care premiums you can include as medical expenses has increased.  For businesses, there are tax breaks that can be especially attractive. Some business owners can deduct premiums without having to satisfy the 7.5% medical expense threshold amount.  In addition to federal tax benefits, there may also be state tax benefits as well. For those who don’t currently have policies, investigating long term care now could position you for deductions next year.  Be sure to ask your tax expert to check into every deduction that may apply in your case.

Take advantage of this opportunity to educate yourself about your options.  For more facts on long term care, click here.

*LTCFP does not offer tax advice, but teams with consumers’ financial advisors and accountants to provide information on long term care insurance options affecting one’s financial situation.

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Managing Director Pamela Chatry Named Business Person of the Year

on November 24, 2010 in eWomenNetwork Members, Local Chapter Events & Info, Women in Business

On November 18, 2010, Pamela Chatry became the Business Person of the Year at the Westside Awards of Distinction ceremony for the Kitsilano Chamber of Commerce.  Pamela is the Managing Director of eWomenNetwork Vancouver Metro and Coquitlam in Vancouver, BC.

The Westside Awards of Distinction brings together and celebrates the achievements of local businesses.  The Business Person of the Year has shown exceptional vision and expertise, demonstrated consistent performance and dedication, and has served as a wonderful role model for business development and excellence.  Pamela is thrilled to be acknowledged for her commitment to women and business in both her company, Pamela Chatry and Associates, and as Managing Director for eWomenNetwork.

“There were eWomenNetwork logos all over the place!” said Chatry. “My fervent belief in the support and promotion of women in business is a natural extension of the eWomenNetwork philosophy: Lift as you Climb.  Taking on the role of Managing Director has not only enhanced my work, but also the quality of my life.”

Congratulations to Pamela Chatry for this prestigious award and for her commitment to her members and her community.

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Express Your Personal Style This Holiday Season with Glorious Gifting!

on November 22, 2010 in eWomenNetwork Members, Women in Business

The holidays are upon us and it is time to give some thought to unique and creative gifting for your customers, family and friends.  If you review the many lists for the “Best Gifts for Women in 2010″, you see everything from the perfect book, a holiday clutch, an over-sized tote and sassy shades, to an iPad, a BlackBerry and a tropical vacation escape.  eWomenNetwork member Ruth Fernow of Dilania offers these stylish ideas from her online/travelling boutique.

Who wouldn’t love blinged Stem Wear on your holiday list? The designer uses semi-precious stones to adorn stem glasses, napkin holders and much more.  Look for the distinctive and the delightful.   What about exotic visors or a chic cap embellished with Austrian crystals for that golfer or jogger on your list?

And if you have a practical and thoughtful client, a purse hook might be the perfect gift.  Wrapped in black velvet, this is an accessory every woman needs to have.  It keeps your purse in sight, off the floor and within arm’s reach.  It even works for backpacks, diaper bags and messenger bags!

This holiday season, don’t forget a present for yourself. Is it time for a new briefcase or travel gear?  Ms. Fernow recommends a line called Exclusively Chic Travel/Business bags. It includes a Bag on Wheels, The Overnighter Garment Shoulder Bag, a Laptop Case, Large Tote, Organizer Purse and a cell/business card shoulder purse called PurCELLnality.  Gift yourself something fashionable and practical at the same time.

Express your unique personality this holiday season with festive, funky, fashionable and fabulous holiday gifting.  And don’t forget to support your fellow eWomenNetwork members and Small Business Saturday℠ on November 27th. This Holiday Season, “Shop Small”!

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Celebrating Small Business Saturday!

on November 15, 2010 in Events, Women in Business

Small Business SaturdayThis holiday season make an extra effort to support local community small businesses with your hard-earned cash!  Small Business Saturday℠ is a national movement to drive shoppers to local merchants across the U.S.  We have all heard of Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). In 2005 Cyber Monday was penned based on the appeal of online shopping.  Cyber Monday was the second highest spending day of 2009!  As entrepreneurs and solopreneurs, we all know the importance of small business to the economy.  Small businesses are the engine of job creation and have generated from 60 % to 80% of net new U.S. jobs annually over the last decade, according to the Small Business Administration.

November 27th will mark the first-ever “Small Business Saturday℠”.   This is your opportunity to invest in the success of small businesses in your own community!  Buy local and help keep your neighborhood and community economically strong.  As an added bonus, for those who support “Cause” and effect, by Liking the Small Business Saturday Facebook page, American Express will donate $1 up to $1,000,000 to Girls Inc. “to teach and empower young women to be entrepreneurs of tomorrow”.   There are other great offers on the Facebook site including  FREE small business Facebook ads for 10,000 small businesses and  American Express statement credits for 100,000 Cardmembers who register and “Shop Small” (check out the site for details).

eWomenNetwork is excited to be a part of this incredibly important initiative to support Small Business Saturday℠.  So, help us spread the word about #SmallBusinessSaturday!  Let’s all make an extra effort to support our friends and local vendors as they continue to provide value for their customers and deepen their roots in our community!

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What is Coaching?

on November 11, 2010 in Coaching Corner, Women in Business

coaching

Coaching is a jointly-designed partnership that supports you and forwards your actions toward the achievement of your goals and vision of your business, career, or personal life.  Success means different things to each of us, and this partnership allows you to reach greater personal and business success. Strategic coaching principles and tools are used to empower you and restore a dynamic state of balance in the key areas of your life.

Throughout the coaching relationship, your coach will engage in direct and potent questioning, and may, on occasion, be directive.  You can count on your coach to ask honest and straightforward questions designed to open new thought processes, to make inquiries that offer inner discovery, and to make requests that lead to action and achievement.

Why does eWomenNetwork think that it is important to include two complimentary Coaching sessions as a Member Benefit?  Sandra Yancey, CEO of eWomenNetwork, believes that entrepreneurs and solopreneurs need a way to break through the isolation that comes from doing it all on their own.  “I would have never made it without help.  It was a pivotal turning point in my business.  Coaching represents an honest and objective  third party who can help you with your challenges and conflicting demands.   It’s similar to why you may hire an exercise trainer or join a weight loss group.  You know what you need to do, you just want someone to guide, support and hold you accountable.”  I asked Sandra how to select the appropriate coach.  “If you have several challenges and not sure which one to focus on first, think about the one thing that keeps you up at night,” she said.  “It can be either your greatest pain-point or that single burning idea you are so excited about.”

Coaching provides  an opportunity to gain clarity, translate your dreams and ideas into achievable goals, change old beliefs and patterns that hold you back, develop and maintain focus, design structures and systems to support your journey, and choose how you are going to live the rest of your life in a whole new way!  To learn more about coaching, go to  http://www.ewomennetwork.com/coaches.html.

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