Who is telling your story?
By · CommentsWhether you realize it or not, you are telling a story about your business in every thing you do. Question is, does that story accurately reflect who you are, what you do and the clients you serve?
Every page on your website, every sales letter, every elevator speech, even every tweet you send – all of these communications tell the world about your values, attitudes and personality. It is up to you to put forth consistent, accurate and positive messages that reinforce your business story.
So, how do you take control of your story and make it one that you can consistently utilize to brand your business and galvanize your message?
First, pull out all of your marketing tools- anything that a client or potential client sees. Print off your website and any other online tools you use to reach your audience. Take a look at what you are saying and answer the following questions.
57 More Years Until the Gender Pay Gap will Close
By · CommentsThe gender pay gap isn’t isolated to the United States. According to a study by the Chartered Management Institute (CMI), if current salary trends continue, it will take another 57 years for the gender pay gap to close in the United Kingdom. In other words, another half century will go by before men and women will earn the same wages for doing the same work.
The Chartered Management Institute also learned in its recent study that female managers’ salaries did increase by 2.8% in the past 12 months (compared to 2.3% for men). However, those same female managers still earned an average of nearly $16,000 less than their male counterparts. That pay gap isn’t isolated to management positions. While the gap might vary a bit at different levels on the corporate ladder, it still exists. For example, the gap is smaller among junior management workers, but it’s even higher (24% gap) at the executive level.
Interestingly, it has been forty years since the Equal Pay Act was passed in the United Kingdom. However, it appears that it will take a full eighty years, nearly a century, for equal pay to actually become a reality.
Guest Post by Antar Salim (you can learn more about Antar at the end of this post)
Consultative activities and organizational development interventions can be riddled with flaws and drawbacks. On the surface, it may appear to be a negative statement, but many consultants can learn from these trammels and create capacities to better serve their clients. Whether you are dealing with business management, marketing and sales, finance or human resources consulting; following this article will teach the taboos that many consultants make and provides insight into how to avoid them in the future.
There are a number of errors that a consultant can make that hampers their ability to serve their clients. There are a number of complications encountered by consultants, including colluding with clients, placing financial gain ahead of the client’s needs, and under estimating the importance of implementation. Each type of flaw falls into one of two categories: a) purpose and b) partnership.
Let’s explore the broad component of purpose first. There are four elements of purpose:
- Defining the problem in the consultant’s terms
- Focusing on the problem, not the people
- Realizing the process is as important as the product
Blog from Maribeth Kuzmeski of Red Zone Marketing
When a client is upset with you…when your spouse is angry at you…when your teenager is ranting about some way you’ve wronged her again… it very often is not what it appears to be. Yet, in our attempt to minimize conflict, we immediately react to the outburst and attempt to fix the problem they describe. But often, the outburst is just the surface wound, there is much more beneath the surface that needs to be tended to first if we ever expect to properly repair the problem.
People get upset. We are not perfect, and sometimes our emotions take hold. These are facts of life.
But what I have learned from analyzing specific negative interactions between financial advisors and their clients is that a lot of the time, if not most of the time, when a client gets irrationally upset, the problem isn’t really the problem they are reacting to. It’s the series of things that lead up to it.
Does it Work to Fake it until You Make it?
By · CommentsDo you know that low self-esteem can sabotage your career success? In a recent article in Forbes Woman, author Laura Sinberg states that people with low self-esteem often unconsciously sabotage their careers. Sinberg quotes Lois Frankel, PhD, author of Nice Girls Don’t Get The Corner Office.
People with low self-esteem often try to remain under the radar screen because they don’t want to be noticed, but especially in this economy, that is the wrong thing to do.
This quote caught my attention because the focus of my coaching for professional women is to help them create visibility and be on the radar screen of key influencers at work. This is critical for career advancement.
The article also states that, in general, we tend to make assumptions about people who exhibit behavior associated with low self-esteem. One common assumption is that they are not very intelligent. We make these assumptions based on the fact that these people seldom speak up in meetings and if they are called on, they are timid and don’t readily express an opinion.
Other self-sabotaging behavior that is associated with low self-esteem is not asking for raises or promotions. It’s easy to see how all this can negatively impact your career.
Leadership and Change
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Home in Santa Fe
It was a planned change. Nothing like changes that occur when a hurricane blows your home away or a toxic dump makes it impossible to live a healthy life where you once had a home.
So, why bother writing about it? Maybe it is just my way of connecting my own life dots. Maybe it is to say that just because it is not a dramatic and life altering change it still has its bitter sweet moments. It is a way of getting everyone who reads this to think about the little changes in life and to stop and reflect.
I must admit, I was surprised at the emotions that came flooding through me as I began to pack up the small blue and gold image of kokopelli that sat on the fire place mantel, the boda crystal candle holders in the dining area, the Taos drum that sounded a bit flat and really needed some professional attention.
I kept looking out of the window that made the mountains seem as if they were there just for my personal admiration. I watched one of those amazing New Mexico sunsets, wanting to breathe it in and savor it the way I used to breathe deeply into the curls of my daughter when she was a baby and had been freshly bathed.
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].
You can’t do it alone
By · CommentsLast Thursday, I jumped in the car and took a road trip to Atlanta with three of my favorite, and most inspirational, female entrepreneurs to attend a seminar on mindset.
While the seminar was amazing, it was the three-hour car ride that still resonates with me. We each took turns talking about “stuff” we are facing. It helps so much to have a strong support system, especially if you work from home in isolation.
The concept of a mastermind group is still pretty new to me. I managed to read about a fifth of “Think and Grow Rich” by Napoleon Hill last fall. I never really put much stock into it, but the more I keep running into the same challenges, the more I realize I can’t do it alone.
Having a strong support system is an invaluable tool for any business. Just as every new venture needs a plan, every entrepreneur needs a group of honest, caring, bold colleagues to hold your hand while simultaneously kicking your butt.
We are not meant to be solitary creatures. And that goes for your business, as well. To be successful in any industry, you can’t do it alone.
A Picture Says 1,000 Words – Especially on The Internet
By · CommentsIf a picture of you appears on Facebook or somewhere else on the Internet, it is likely that just about anyone can see it if they search for you. Right now there is a Facebook application called Photo Finder, powered by Face.com. It uses facial recognition and social connections software to locate a photo of someone – even if it wasn’t identified by name (tagged). You want you and your business to be searchable, but are we becoming too searchable on the web?
According to the exceptionally insightful article in The New York Times Magazine, “The End of Forgetting,” by Jeffrey Rosen (July 25, 2010), as facial recognition software becomes more sophisticated, people will be able to find any picture of you located anywhere on the Internet. Someone could simply take a picture of you with a cell phone, plug the image into Google, and pull up all photos (whether identified or not) of you that are on the Internet. Yikes. What about that fun neighborhood party last weekend where a bunch of adults were swimming… yeah, better not put those on Facebook…
