Successful Women Entrepreneurs Today In A Competitive World

The successful female operated businesses know the meaning of a true business owner, “One who carries out to conduct a business assuming complete control and danger,” is not gender specific, it is not surprising that most entrepreneurs are men.

Lots of women merely do not have the time to start a company due to the fact that women tend to undertake the greater share of raising kids and keeping the house together!

I had the chance to interview a few who attended the woman’s conference and take a close take a look at the issues that successful women entrepreneurs deal with.

At a current international women entrepreneur’s conference in Glasgow, the Bank of Scotland presented a few of its research studies.

In accordance with the bank, even successful women entrepreneurs tend to: under-capitalize their organizations at startup; have a disinclination to use financial obligation financing and to be more danger averse than their male equivalents,

And they utilize a greater percentage of their individual savings within their service, both at startup and advancement.

They are less aggressive than guys about their understanding and understanding of financial products and services, all which can influence on funding and growing their businesses.

This might be exacerbated by the banks’ historic hesitation to treat their women in business clients in the very same manner as male customers.

Females owned businesses have the tendency to be more service oriented.

Yes, and therefore have less equity than male owned services– another factor banks can be hesitant.

Financing is vital to all commerce and of course the female owned businesses, and possibly managing money is most crucial amongst small businesses, whether at the start or when expanding.

The struggle to keep appropriate cash and financial freedom alive is consistent among business owners.

Is it any surprise then, that monetary concern is the most widespread cause of stress and insomnia!

With female owned businesses producing over thirty nine percent of new start-ups, and just over a third of self-employed proprietorships in Canada owned or led by females, female entrepreneurs have increased by just over more two hundred per cent in the last twenty years.

As an outcome, more black female business entrepreneurs are seeking more opportunities to grow their network and boost their support systems.

The Women Entrepreneurs of North America in Canada was established in Toronto in 1992, as a support, opportunity and resource network for female entrepreneurs.

I found that WEC promotes and fosters the young women entrepreneurs, too, in Canada and assists them to accomplish and define success on their own terms.

It’s important to help promote the interests of successful women entrepreneurs and women in business getting started, and business owners in the larger service neighborhood.

It assists in the transfer of appropriate knowledge that is appropriate to WEC members; and partners with companies both in Canada and abroad, such as the National Association of Women Business Owners in the USA.

And the global groups like Femmes Chefs d’Enterprises Mondiales and the Italian Associazione Imprenditrici e Donne Dirigenti D’Azienda, to bring finest chances, resources and practices to its members here.

This is an organization where women can fulfill their life dreams and blend with other female owned businesses, who deal with similar issues in starting, running, and growing their services.

WEC is a resource that offers a unified voice to federal government and the public, pressing the issues of women in business to a right-minded leading edge.

It is suggested that increased young women entrepreneurs research and study to produce more chances for black female business owners, while bringing exactly what is learnt about women’s organizations updated.

And relating to maternity leave– as female owned businesses are working to do the exact same benefits as for their staff members as they ‘d like to be treated.

There’s the “what might be done” to level the playing field and extend that advantage to all as, for example, it is in Finland?

It’s like the Course in Miracles teaches, “True extension of Self and one’s true free will brings on an awakening worldwide.

There are many organizations that help female owned businesses to interact a confident and refreshingly positive message about the future potential customers for females, and it is gratifying that the message is being heard.

I urge any woman in business, especially young women entrepreneurs to discover more about self-confidence as an entreprneur.

This takes us to wonderful tips for female owned businesses, and encouraging young women entrepreneurs.

Many aspiring female owned businesses, business supervisors and other professionals typically forget that they really have 2 tasks– the very first is to do exactly what they make money for (and do it much better than males).

The other is to proactively handle their profession path and do exactly what is required to guarantee their upward mobility isn’t really based on others– particularly those who notoriously subscribe to the “Old Boys Club” mentality who might or may not be working in her benefit.

The following “secrets”, amassed through my substantial background as both a business entrepreneur and organization experts lending me advice, will help female professionals better handle their success course:

Understand the “circle of successful women entrepreneurs”

A typical piece of suggestions provided to female owned businesses is for them to spend a good deal of time being familiar with, and working side-by-side, with their personnel to make sure each employee has what (s) he needs to be productive.

While that concept is well intentioned, it’s does not offer maximum advantage to all included.

Rather, it is more vital that female managers hang around helping their employer look proficient at every opportunity.

When (s) he understands that you have the ability to assist her/him prosper, you and your group will get more time, attention and resources assisting in optimum productivity.

Many female owned businesses cite male stereotyping and prejudgments of female “appropriate” roles and abilities as a leading barrier to their development.

It’s crucial for women to assess where a male employer stands relative to female specialists.

Previously I discussed women’s insecurity issues can be healed fast and to be a confident woman.

This can be done by analyzing his promotion track record of males vs. females, his balance, or lack, of interactions with female vs. male staffers, and if his interactions with female staffers is strictly expert rather than just inane or flirty little talk exclusively about her household.

How we sound (i.e., one’s unique attributes of the voice such as pitch, volume, and tone) play a crucial role in how females are viewed.

In addition, lots of women tend to mention their opinions, objections or recommendations as a question as opposed to affirmatively and confidently making their point as a declaration.

In a work context, females should command the flooring lest their fantastic ideas fall by the wayside.

Since numerous of us still associate one’s temperament, speaking and appearance capability with their general ability, this stays a powerful challenge for those women who have other or physical stereotype-based characteristics that are tough.

But as humans like the Course in Miracles teaches us, “The ego is aware on how to creep in the back door on us and begin projecting judgment based on fear and self-doubt.”

That said, it might be impossible to change, such as height or weight, blonde hair color, or merely a high pitched voice.

This subjectivity is even worse for young women entrepreneurs as society is generally more able to accept males with what’s considered to be shortfalls more than ladies.

Regardless of these barriers, condition yourself to bring yourself with best posture, speak and gesture in a reliable and confident way, and wear clothes that imparts your female owned businesses success.

To actually stand out from the others and get the crucial promotion, young women entrepreneurs from off site, or in house women execs, ought to guarantee they are in the workplace whenever her employer is in the office.

If (s) he has actually decided that it’s essential to be there after hours, on weekends, or early in the morning, it is entirely to your advantage to be there at the very same time.

Even in this day in age of so-called gender equality, females need to take benefit of all chances to differentiate themselves in the work environment.

It is essential that those who are in the position to benefit a woman’s career in any method know who she is and exactly what she has accomplished.

Effective service people understand the importance of letting others understand about their successes, and go about it in the suitable method.

Ladies need to not wait to get discovered while they toil away at the job at hand, but rather develop the ability of how to tactically talk about her achievements in the work environment.

Far too numerous employees throughout our world are bored and disinterested, which is adversely affecting their performance and creativity.

It’s time for the globe’s corporate leaders to re-engage and invest more time acting as leaders rather than bureaucrats.

The female owned businesses need to exploit this innate capability whenever possible, since such right-minded management ensures that everybody is focused on, and vested in, getting to the goal lines.

(I always suggest searching the web for related information that is a discussion on being a self-assured woman today filled with female confidence. A good conversation might be, should you have a life coach, yes or no?)

To your success in life!

10 Tips for Effective Competitive Intelligence Gathering

Competitive intelligence gathering can be a useful exercise that yields important information to guide your business and marketing strategy, or it can sit in a computer file and collect the equivalent of electronic dust if you’re not careful. While a competitive intelligence project can bring out your inner spy, it can also lead to confusion, misinterpretation of data, and faulty strategy-setting. Worse still, it can lead to something I call the “me too” syndrome in which you end up pushing your business into a model that’s a poor imitation of a competitor rather than an authentic and rich representation of yourself. The following 10 tips for effective gathering and use of competitive intelligence information may help you avoid the pitfalls of gathering information on your competitors while simultaneously helping you use it effectively.

Tip 1: Schedule Time Regularly to Perform Research

One of the most common complaints from business owners is that they don’t have time to do competitive intelligence. They also complain that they don’t have time for market research, marketing and promotions, and you name it – they don’t have time for it. Every entrepreneur, business owner and executive is faced with this problem. Honestly, have you ever had a day in which you just had oodles of free time? Probably not. The best way to overcome this problem is to block off competitive intelligence time on your calendar as you would an appointment with a prospect or an important meeting. Block off at least one hour a month, and preferably one hour every other week. This should give you some uninterrupted time to do some internet research and begin your competitive intelligence-gathering efforts.

Tip 2: Keep a List of Competitors Handy for Future Research

One time-saving tip I like to share is the handy spreadsheet; keep a list of competitors on your spreadsheet for future reference. Include the date last researched, the name of the competitor, and the URL of their website, and leave the last column blank to type in any research notes. This ensures that each month, when you sit down to conduct your competitive intelligence work, you’ll have the list handy and won’t need to reinvent the wheel.

Tip 3: Listen to Your Customers When They Mention Other Companies

Your customers are an invaluable resource of information about your competitors. If they mention that someone else does the same thing for cheaper or better than you do – note the name. That’s a competitor. Whenever I get a call from a prospective customer, I always ask, “How did you hear about us?” Often they will mention they visited a competitor’s website first and then came to us, or they used a competitor’s services and weren’t happy with either the price or the results, so they are seeking a new vendor. The companies, products and individuals they mention may be competitors, and provide you with great information to start your research-gathering efforts.

Tip 4: Track Products and Services, Messages and Offers

Many people make the mistake of simply tracking the overall efforts of their competitors. It’s important to note not just the direction the competing company is headed in, but what new products and services they are offering. Look at the messages they are using to describe their products and services, and any prices, sales or special offers to entice customers to buy from them. Are they retiring programs? Adding new ones? Touting research projects? Offering special events or announcing participation in a trade show? Each of these pieces adds up to the big picture of the activities of your competitor, and merits tracking and monitoring.

Tip 5: Sign Up for Competitors’ Emails and Social Media

To make your job easier, sign up for your competitors’ press releases, email newsletters and announcements, and major social media sites. You’d be amazed at how much they share with their customers, information that you can obtain freely and publicly. You can even set up a Google Alert to monitor new information and articles published about them.

Tip 6: When You’re Stuck Looking For Information, Search on a Key Executive’s Name

Here’s a useful trick I learned when researching an industry for which there was little published information about industry revenues, market growth, demographics and more; use a key company executive’s name as the search term and see what pops up. In my specific example, the executive had an unusual last name, and when I typed her name into the search engine, the result was several articles in which she was quotes about the detailed demographics of the industry I was researching. If you know the names of your competitor companies, then you can find out the names of key executives. To find any interviews they may have participated in, search their names. You may unearth some golden nuggets of information.

Tip 7: Examine SEO and Internet Marketing Efforts

Take a few minutes to examine any search engine optimization (SEO) elements your competitors may have put into place on their web pages. While a complete discussion of every potential method and element is beyond the scope of this article, there are many good resources online offering advice and suggestions for what to examine and how to find the information. For example, you can plug any URL into the Google Keywords Analysis Tool and the tool will attempt to extrapolate the keywords from the page. A cursory examination of the HTML code on any web page uncovers any meta tags in place, and using your favorite search engine, you can read your competitors’ page descriptions. Learn as much as you can about SEO and use this knowledge both to empower your own internet marketing efforts and to help you uncover your competitors’ level of SEO fluency.

Tip 8: Don’t Fall Into the “Me Too” Trap

One of the pitfalls of conducting competitive intelligence is assuming that what you see your competitors doing is the ‘right’ or ‘best’ way of doing things. If the competition is running ads on certain websites, the company owner feels he must, too. Beware of the “me too” trap and of copying anything, even the smallest thing, your competitors are doing. First of all, you don’t know if what they are doing is successful; they could be failing miserably at their efforts, not generating any sales or leads from their campaign even if you happen to like it. You don’t have access to their results, so you don’t know what is working and what isn’t. Copying anything they’re doing could be dangerous. Why make your business into a poor copy of another? Instead, focus on how you can improve your business, products or marketing efforts based on what you learn during the competitive analysis. Can you add new features? Better service? Focus on your own efforts and avoid the ‘me too’ trap.

Tip 9: Avoid Pricing Wars

Another trap many novices fall into is getting into a pricing war with competing businesses after seeing their prices. Many business owners realize that their prices are higher than the competitions’ and panic, thinking that by lowering their prices they will beat the competition and increase their own sales. You may increase your sales but unless you can decrease your costs, you’ve also just decreased your profit margin. And how much of that can your business withstand? What if your competitor decides to lower prices further – can you afford to keep lowering yours? Can you afford to set your customers’ expectations around lower prices?

Tip 10: Use the Information to Choose Your Strategy

After completing your competitive assessment, use the information you’ve uncovered to establish your own marketing strategy. Strive to improve your products, promotions, and service, always focusing on what you can do better, more efficiently or less expensively (while still maintaining margin) than your competitors.

Focus on your own business strategy, and decide for yourself how you are going to position your business in the marketplace in light of what you’ve learned. The result may be a competitive business, one that acknowledges competition without being a reactionary to the competition. Be the leader, not the follower, and use competitive intelligence to your advantage.

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