Tag Archives: women business marketing

7 Small Business Success Tips for Women Business Owners in 2020

Posted on Friday, 17 January
by Dr. Pamela Williamson

Entrepreneurship can be challenging for any individual, and being a woman in the field could sometimes make the endeavor a notch tougher. However, the underlying benefits of being your own boss, tapping into your creativity, and perhaps even working flexible hours are all well-worth the effort.

In order to make your business venture a success here are 5 simple tips women business owners (or women wanting to start their own business) can use today:

1.      Get Inspired

If you’ve been a homemaker and are now contemplating to start your own business, you could easily draw inspiration from home. Observe all the activities that you juggle at home — partner, children, school obligations, meals, home tasks, and extracurricular activities. All of these tasks require you to manage time and people, both of which are an essential qualities to run a business.

2.      Network

Once you are inspired and motivated, the next step is to put that energy into action. It’s important where to constantly look for new leads, and your current resources and network may not be enough. Always stay on the hunt for new business. This can be achieved by finding relevant groups and associations and joining and meeting them regularly.

3.      Delegate

As you get more business, your responsibilities as well as deliverables increase. It is therefore important to delegate work to trustworthy employees. You could also outsource additional work. In either case, you need to make sure that the employee or outsourced personnel is well-trained to do the job, so you can focus on other aspects of your business.

4.      Continuous Learning

Business today is very dynamic. New technology and innovation can directly impact how customers behave, purchase and utilize services. It is therefore important to never be stagnant, and always be in a constant process of growth and learning to supplement yourself with the latest developments in your industry.

5.      Prepare for Financial Challenges

Cash flow can often be a major hurdle to the smooth functioning of any business. It is important to set a frugal mindset right from the start and avoid undue expenses in setting up an office and employing staff. Also, it’s important to get creative and think of ways to save money on your overheads. Avoid getting into the trap of debt at all costs.

6.      Ask for Help

Don’t hesitate to ask for help from people around you. Support or fresh ideas could be gathered from anywhere including your friends and family, neighboring businesses, your landlord, the bank manager or even from online forums. However, remember that a business consultant or mentor might be the best person to give you the best advice.

7.      Marketing on a Shoestring Budget

You don’t have to spend tons of money on marketing. You just have to be smart about it. Think about where your target market is hanging out and target that area. Marketing could be as simple as creating a Facebook page or marketing via Twitter or Instagram. It could be handing out flyers or going to events. There are also many marketing platforms that automate the process for you so you can run your campaigns on autopilot.

Top 3 reasons why women-owned business owners should attend business networking events

Posted on Tuesday, 12 February
by Dr. Pamela Williamson

You may think of business networking as an “on the surface” superficial way of meeting new prospects, exchanging business cards, that may not really lead to building new, “genuine” connections, let alone a business relationship.

Yet…being a woman-owned business owner can get lonely. And you do know that getting out there is important, if not critical to your business success. We’re here to tell you that business networking, especially with like-minded people can be a great way to get out of your comfort zone, expand your contact base, build confidence, possibly even find a mentor and most importantly get results.

Here are top 3 reasons to attend business networking events if you are a woman-owned business:

  1. Step out of your comfort zone

Meeting people at networking events forces you to step out of your comfort zone.

There’s something about face-to-face contact that is essential to building your confidence, that you just can’t do by asking a question on a group webinar for instance.

Some people are naturals, but for most networking can be a real challenge. Conferences are a great way to break out and build your self-esteem. Still, if you’re really uncomfortable to go it alone, bring a colleague along!

  1. Meet driven, like-minded individuals

Think you’re the only business owner experiencing certain ups and downs and challenges of running a business?

When you sit in a room full of other like-minded people who are in the same boat as you, it can be a real eye-opener and a great way to learn new tips and techniques to improve your skills and leadership style, that you can bring back to your organization.

There’s also something to be said about people who attend conferences — they paid to get here and be here. There’s no doubt these are driven, determined individuals who want to “better” themselves, and there’s a lot you can learn by just being in that energy.

  1. Share the same space with experts

Conferences often give you the opportunity to be around experts that perhaps there’s no way you could have managed to meet on your own, or have had the time to meet individually.

When you share the same space with an expert, you can learn directly from them, see how they approach obstacles, discover their challenges and their “journey” to get where they are today — which can all be greatly inspiring, especially if your business idol is on stage!

You might even get to ask a question or two, or meet them after a session or workshop.

If you’re still not convinced, remember that you may just find yourself sitting opposite your next big customer at a roundtable session.

6 Management Tips For Woman-Owned Businesses

Posted on Friday, 09 November
by Dr. Pamela Williamson

Are you a woman who has just started out in business? Chances are that you’re going to have to spend a lot more time managing your business along with providing your core services — and managing your new business could get challenging especially when you are busy focusing on marketing  and going about doing your day-to-day tasks.

When you’re trying to juggle a lot of things, sometimes the best tips can be the simplest and most helpful. Here are some practical business tips to boost your workflow:

  1. Maintain Quality Control

This applies to you if you are in the business of selling a product or service. If you are supplying or selling a product ensure that you keep track of your inventory each day and eliminate anything that could leave a customer unsatisfied — by focusing on your best products you can manage inventory better and get increased customer satisfaction. If you are providing a service, it’s best if you get customer feedback after completion of a service which can help you improve your quality.

  1. Build Customer Relations

One major factor in building good customer relationships is to take their feedback seriously. Attempt to do your best to accommodate the customer and make them happy again in case of any dissatisfaction. This is the key to retain customers and acquire new ones through word of mouth publicity.

  1. Use Networking and Referrals to Your Advantage

Once you have impressed your customer with your product ingenuity or outstanding service don’t stop there. It’s now time to go the extra mile. Ask them for referrals or put in a review on your website or on your LinkedIn profile. Also, invite them to networking events where they can introduce you to someonewho could be a prospect for a new customer.

  1. Form a Community or Advisory Group

One of the most beneficial and distinguishing factors for women business owners is that they maintain formal as well as informal advisory groups. Working with other business owners and learning the current trends and strategies that are successful can go a long way in setting your business apart from the competitors. Advisory groups can offer a different perspective in managing finances, marketing strategies, managing vendors and more.

WBEC-West’s CEO Ambassador program is an excellent example of this.

  1. Leverage Technology

Being a women business owner leveraging current technology trends as well as social media will help you increase your customer base dramatically. Software applications for money management and new tools for managing a business can increase both efficiency as well as the productivity of your business. If you are a social media junkie, start using Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn to get the word out regarding your business.

  1. Use Contract Workers

Many women business owners think about growth but like most businesses face economic hurdles, health-care insurance issues and related taxes when it comes to hiring full-time staff. Instead of hiring full-time workers you can start off by hiring contract workers. This can give you the benefit of hiring good talented people without a long-term commitment or investment.

5 Strategies to Market Your Woman-Owned Business

Posted on Tuesday, 28 August
by Dr. Pamela Williamson

Being a woman entrepreneur in itself, is something to be proud of. As you embark on your journey of converting your creative ideas into a profitable business you need to couple your efforts with some strong marketing strategies.

Here are 5 marketing tips that will help boost your business whether you are offering services or selling a product:

1. Communicate your story

Customers will be more engaged with your products and services when they know where you are coming from. This can be achieved by sharing your story on business’ websites or social media channels. Being a woman-owned business, you will be able to have a stronger customer base when you tell your story since the customer can now relate to you and your background. After all, a repeat customer is one who has developed a relationship with your business journey and values the importance of your product or service.

2. Leverage social media

Social media is very effective in targeting like-minded people. By creating sponsored social media posts on platforms such as Twitter and Facebook you can reach a large number of women in your surrounding geographical area. Once your product or service proves its value, word of mouth marketing (even through social media) can greatly help increase your business.

3. Write a regular blog on your business website

Content marketing is the current trend in business marketing. Usually, this starts with posting a regular blog on your business website. By regularly posting content related to your business industry, customers are more likely to frequently visit your website for related information. One good strategy for this is to write articles providing remedies and solutions to people’s problems. This increases viewership, website traffic, and therefore more repeat customers.

4. Provide a free consultation or demo

Customers are generally looking for an expert opinion in order to solve their problem or provide relief with their mundane tasks. One of the best ways to go about this is to provide a free consultation. Potential customers who are impressed by the initial complimentary value you provide will be more likely to believe in the claims of your product and service and there’s a higher chance that they will buy from you.

5. Partner with local business groups

By partnering with other local business (including other woman-owned businesses) you get the opportunity to have a wider customer base and develop strong relationships within the local community as you do this. The partnership should be a win-win situation for both businesses. For instance, you could co-host an event, market on each other’s social media or split advertising costs.

All said and done, marketing is one aspect of a business that needs continuous work. The more people you connect with, whether on a digital platform or in a local gathering, the more publicity your business gets.

Are you a woman-owned business looking for more networking and marketing opportunities?

Buy a ticket to our 15th Annual WBEC-West Procurement Opportunity Conference!

Click here to learn what’s in store.

Top 5 Tips to Create a LinkedIn Profile that Gets Noticed!

Posted on Monday, 23 July
by Dr. Pamela Williamson

Are you a woman business owner looking to expand your business? Well, one important way is to create a dynamic LinkedIn profile as part of your key marketing strategy.

You may be pleasantly surprised how quick online networking can help get you more business.

Here are some of the strategies that will give your business a stellar presence on social media:

  1. Start with your punch line

Readers browsing through a LinkedIn profile are generally skimming for “what’s in it for them.” In order to capture their attention and engage them to read what your business is offering it is a good idea to start with a catchy punch line – make it about your end client and what you can offer them.

  1. Market your brand’s commitment

Corporations, contractors and end users alike are interested in knowing the values your business upholds and organizations that your business supports. Keeping this in mind, when you introduce your brand also talk about the mission and vision of your business.

  1. Showcase Pages

Showcase pages are subpages created to specifically sell your products and services. Use caution not to create a “hard sell” page. Rather make them as a marketing page that lists the benefits and unique highlights of your product and service. To make it more visual and appealing add a product logo and banner for each product description.

  1. Active presence

As with any social media website the more active your presence the more visibility it gets. It is good practice to share not only the reviews and feedback of your product or service  offerings but also relevant content or knowledgeable information related to your services. This prompts the visitor to frequent your site and will also engage the reader to learn more about your product and give you increased conversions.

  1. Boost your connectivity

As your visibility increases it is also important to involve your employees. Firstly, make sure that all your company associates have connected to your LinkedIn company page. Secondly, ensure that the content promoted related to your industry has a call to action that will capture your viewers.

As you put all these tips together remember to also add a “Follow us on LinkedIn button” on your company website. With that, you are well on your way to get a Linked company profile page that gets noticed!