Author Archive
Entrepreneurial Tip #1: Begin with a Dream
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A dream for a small business might be as simple as a sidewalk flower shop. Or you have an idea for a cozy four-table breakfast shop. Maybe your dream is to start up a concierge bookkeeping service. No matter what the business is, it began with a dream.
As a writer, I’ve been absent from Women On Business for awhile as I was working on redesigning my business blog and art blog; beginning a new direction for my art – into ceramic mosaics [my home-based business revolves around my art business]; and getting into the thick of the art show season. Now that the blogs are redesigned to my liking and I have three new mosaics done and on my gallery page and the season for shows is two-thirds complete, it’s time to pick up the pen again [so to speak].
Notice the Work all Around
Posted by: | CommentsI returned recently from a 10-day vacation. For me ten days is a good length of time. One day was “get there” day and one day was “go home” day…that left eight days for vacation. That was enough days to have some solitary beach time, some shopping and “do lunch” time and sightseeing. While resting and relaxing I noticed the variety of businesses associated with the tourist industry. I noticed the work that people do.
One of the places I spent some appreciated time was Siesta Key Beach, not far from Sarasota, Florida. Siesta Key is rather famous as it has the purest, whitest, softest, coolest-to-the-feet quartz sand. It is beautiful. The water of the Gulf of Mexico was about 80 degrees the past couple weeks so the hours I spent on this beach were a delight. There is a snack bar, ice cream shack and beach accessories shop at Siesta Key Beach. All were small businesses. I appreciated the work of these people because they helped to make my visit pleasant. Other small businesses that aided the vacationing pleasure of tourists were the fishing boats, para-sailing boats, bicycle rentals and kayak rental businesses.
Is your business Opaque or Transparent?
Posted by: | CommentsNews of yet another possible meltdown on Wall Street in the U.S. is enough to make me yell ‘oh my gosh!’ And ask the question: why can’t businesses realize that transparency is the preferred dressing and not opacity?
In the art world, where I live some of my time, there is an easy test for transparency that I’ve used in teaching beginning painting students…it works for both acrylics and watercolor paints. I tell my students to never assume a color is transparent until it is tested. Here’s what you do:
- on a piece of white paper, in the center, draw a thick line using a black Sharpie pen [Sharpie is my brand choice because it dries almost immediately and it is waterproof]
- take a color of your paint, like red, and brush some across the black line
If you can see the black line through the paint…you have transparency; if you can’t see the black line, the color is opaque. To further test this, if the red paint proved to indeed be transparent, add some white to it and test again. I think you’ll find that now the new mixture is opaque. Adding white not only tints a color it makes it opaque.
Have you ever considered that place between Prosperity and Success?
Posted by: | CommentsSemantics can be defined as the study of meanings, or the science and study of meaning in language. I think there is importance to paying attention to the meanings of words and how that applies to our businesses and how we see our businesses.
Here’s an exercise in semantics. Ask yourself: do you work for success as an end-all or do you see your business as a means or tool for prosperity? Aren’t success and prosperity the same thing? I think that one of the key elements to business prosperity is dedication. I think that dedication resides in that place between success and prosperity.
I remember years ago, when I was in high school and my mom was busy with her bookkeeping business, I once talked to her about success. You’d have to know my mother to understand her response, but she said she did not believe she would ever be successful; her only goal was to be prosperous. To her “prosperity” meant making a profit and success meant something beyond her ability to achieve.
It takes a Beginner to write a Beginners Guide
Posted by: | CommentsI envy those people to whom numbers come naturally. In elementary school, arithmetic was not my strong subject and to this day I can’t figure out how I got an “A” in my high school algebra class. My mother, however, was a genius with numbers – she had a successful home business offering bookkeeping and payroll services and doing taxes for folks. Mom didn’t progress beyond high school but she gave herself the equivalent of a degree in accounting. I marveled at the way she could look at a column of numbers and add them up without the use of a calculator.
Me? I always found English class an easy class. Remember those exercises in breaking down the structure of a sentence? Remember conjugating verbs and tenses? I’ve always been as at home with words as my mom was with numbers. One of my former positions was as marketing director for a large nonprofit agency in the central valley of California. One year I was fortunate to have the assistance of a college intern from the University of the Pacific in Stockton. This young woman was in the communications department and wanted to go into public relations. However, I spent quite a bit of time proofreading. For her the words “then” and “than” were one and the same.
Are Business Principles important for the Solo-Preneur?
Posted by: | CommentsEver heard the phrases, “standing on principle” or, “following principles,” or “adhering to principles?” Have you considered that how you run your business is based on your idea of business principles? And have you considered that you are the architect of the principles upon which your business is built?
Most businesses of more than 10 employees have organizational charts, documents of policies and procedures and other ways of determining what their principles are upon which they run their enterprises. The tiny business owner, the solo-preneur, rarely gives this much thought. Some tiny businesses get born by a good idea and launched into activity without even a written business plan. However, I’ve said it before – if you haven’t set a destination and know how you’ll get there, you’ll only run in circles. Principles are important.
At its most basic, what is a business principle? A principle? Principles are those things and elements that represent what is desirable and positive for a business to do and they provide forward momentum. Although principles hold within themselves policy, goals and objectives, they are actually more elemental and are meant to be the baseline governing factor in all manner of doing and operating your business.
What is Your Business Committed to?
Posted by: | CommentsAre you committed to your business? That’s an obvious “yes” or you wouldn’t put out the welcome mat each morning. What is your business committed to? This is a different question. Is your business committed to fulfilling your initial start-up vision? Is your business committed to fulfilling a perceived need? Is your business committed to something beyond the framework of commerce?
Recently while working on my newest mosaic piece, I went to the garage and grabbed a fresh bottle of water from the case we keep out there – being winter right now it stays cool. I set the bottle on my work table and went back to the business of gluing tiny ceramic tiles into my design. I looked up and noticed that the bottle had a big green box on its label with the words “Our Commitment” in dark green text. I got intrigued. My initial thought was that Arrowhead would be committed to providing good quality spring water. However that’s not what the stated commitment on the label was about at all. The label says:
- …”We’ve always been committed to monitoring our springs in order to assess their health and manage long term water supply: both now and in the future. Be Green….”
A Sweet Song of Success
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve never been one to rush into new technology…probably my age or the fact that too much technology requires thinking logically. I’m an artist and by nature thinking analytically and logically isn’t my default. So I must report that I’m new to the iPod. What I have is the iPod Nano, a purple one, and I must admit I’m amazed at the sound that comes out this bitty thing. I bought one of those little amplifier things for the iPod Nano, a miniMove Boombox – and I got a pink one because you’re never too old for pink!
What’s taken me awhile to figure out, however, is how to use the iTunes store. I know that millions of people buy and download music, tv show, movies and more at iTunes, but for this old gal, it’s not intuitive. I got in the mood yesterday for the music of my younger years, Simon and Garfunkle and Heart. I made the purchase but then had a difficult time figuring out how to do the download and syncing…as I said, not intuitive. Probably logical.
2 helpful guidelines for your business
Posted by: | CommentsThe younger of my two daughters called this morning and told me about her excitement for the 2010 edition of the San Francisco International Film Festival to be held in April. According to their website, “…Founded in 1957, the San Francisco International Film Festival is the longest-running film festival in the Americas.….” Her husband’s company handled the tech solutions for the 2009 festival which allowed her to attend many of the functions. During our conversation she told me about some interaction she’d had with the director this week and some ideas she had and I was impressed with her initiative taking. She talked about the importance of building relationships. After we said our “love yous” and “have a great days” I realized that two important ideas came out of our conversation that apply directly to entrepreneurs:
- taking initiative
- building good relationships
Initiative has within it the idea that you go with an idea. It is a “doing” word and means that you take action. Successful entrepreneurs are those who can start something new and follow through. In this time of economic downturn, more small and home-based businesses are starting up. For some, a job layoff is an opportunity to follow a personal passion by starting a home-based business. It takes initiative to:
