Successful Blog

Growing Your Business: Four Tips for Female Entrepreneurs

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Ken Myers

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What’s the key to small business success? There are many aspects to creating a successful small business — having a skill that others will pay for is only the first step. With more women than ever before getting involved in entrepreneurship, it’s important to be fully prepared with as much information on small business success as you can get.

Growing Your Business: Four Tips for Female Entrepreneurs

What’s the key to cultivating a lasting small business? Below, you’ll find four tips that other women in small business have used to reach their goals.

1. Connect in the Community

No matter what business you create, there are two major avenues for you to think about: Your “business-to-consumer” strategy and your “business-to-business” strategy. Even if you focus mainly on making sales directly to consumers, you can find great ways to achieve institutional contracts by addressing a need that others may not realize is there. Meet with other local business owners to find ways that you can cooperate for mutual benefit. Consider the needs of nonprofit organizations such as schools and libraries, too.

2. Build Your Expert Credentials

To create an enduring business, it’s essential that you become known as an expert in your field. Showcasing your expertise allows you to find customers more easily and put them at their ease. There are many different ways to do this — you can become active in industry associations and volunteer organizations, for example. Publishing books and articles on your subject is also a road to becoming a recognized expert. Help people get comfortable with your reputation! They will reward your efforts with repeat business.

3. Don’t Neglect the Internet

When you have a steady source of local business, you are at a huge advantage compared to competitors who mainly use the Internet to find their clients. That said, you should never neglect the Internet. Local clients and those who will be visiting your area for a short time will both use Internet search engines to find you. Make sure that your business is listed in “local search” features across the various major search sites; also ensure that your site allows potential customers to contact you, make purchases or set reservations. The longer your site is active, the easier it will be to discover you online.

4. Leverage Local Resources

Women in business can benefit from a large number of local, state and national resources. In addition to major volunteer organizations such as Rotary International, you’ll also find excellent resources at your local chamber of commerce and similar concerns. Don’t forget that, as a female entrepreneur, you can often qualify for grants and other assistance from the federal government and a wide variety of pro-business establishments. It is a good idea to gain some knowledge of grant proposal writing and fundraising!

Remember that a business does not typically turn a substantial profit in its first year. Many small businesses close within five years — and it may take up to three years for a business on a successful trajectory to begin showing a healthy balance sheet. During this time, it is important that you gain as much insight as possible into the aspects of business that support your main operation. Always be on the lookout for ways to expand your marketing efforts using word of mouth and direct contact within your local area.

Author’s Bio:
Ken Myers as an Expert Advisor on multiple household help issues to many Organizations and groups, and is a mentor for other “Mom-preneurs” seeking guidance. He is a regular contributor of “www.gonannies.com/”. You can get in touch with him at k.meyerst20@gmail.com.

Don’t Own the Problem. Own the Solution.

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If You Argue FOR Your Problems …

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At least twice a week, I have a conversation with a person or a team about a problem they’ve discovered with their business. Soon as I can I start asking questions about what makes the problem a problem and how we might unravel that knot to get things moving smoothly again.

What’s interesting is that most folks first want to convince me how terrible, awful, horribly huge and unsolvable the problem is. They want to dig deep into the details and issue and vent the emotions they’ve carried while the problem was tying itself up.

If you argue for your problems, they’ll be yours.

Do You Argue FOR Your Problems?

Don’t confuse identifying the problem with communicating how you feel about the problem. The two are just not the same thing. In the same vein, focusing on the cause of the problem is rarely a solution.

  • If he hadn’t … but he did.
  • If they had just … but they didn’t.
  • If this was built this boat right … but it wasn’t and if we keep talking about it, we’re ALL going to drown. We need a way to keep from sinking or a way to get to the shore.

Talking about how we feel about the problem and its cause, doesn’t do much to change the situation NOW. In fact, staying focused on those points is arguing to keep the problem a problem.

Some problems do better if we solve them first and discuss how to avoid them later.
Some problems – like a dropped glass spilling liquid all over the floor — may be just be an accident and not discussion at all
Some problems — like a detour — aren’t problems at all simply a shift in what we were expecting to occur.

Change Your Mind

The way we see a problem is what keeps is a problem. Stop seeing an obstacle. Look for the opportunity.
Inside every situation that seems to be a problem is a chance to learn a new way of doing things. Along with that comes a challenge to show our courage, grace, flexibility, competence, and confidence when faced with the need to find new solutions.

Truth is if we give up the payoff in dissecting the problem we’ll move more quickly to solution.
Let’s just agree that we have one and get on with solving it. We can address the problem after we’ve achieved the solution. We’ll save urgent time and be more rational then anyway.

Don’t Own the Problem, Own the Solution.

New solutions are what lead to innovation.
Necessity (problems to solve) is the mother and father that gives birth to revelation.
Keeping our eyes on each other and our hearts on open communication can bring us to a solution that was better than what we ever thought we wanted.

And being the one who can positively identify opportunity when the situation has been shaken raises influence and gains esteem from the folks who are stuck and frozen. Being able to keep the focus on the direction that moves us forward is a trait of a leader. It’s irresistible to be ready to keep winning when the day is raining.

Don’t own the problem.
Own the quest to find the solution.
Don’t argue for convincing folks how bad it is that it happened.
Argue for how good it is that we’ve got an opportunity to make something great happen.
Don’t parse apart the people and the pieces to find what was broken.
Do all our can to make things whole and moving things whole again.
That’s winning.
And winning is irresistible.

How do you catch yourself when you’re arguing for the problem?

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

Moving House or Business? 6 Things To Know about Your New Location

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Eveleene Salt

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After the Olympics, you might be wondering what it would be like to spend a year or two in London. Every city has it’s unique attributes, attractions, and amenities of distinctions. Whether it’s a dream or a real possibility, thinking through a home or business relocation is a great exercise in thinking.

Moving To London? What You Need To Know

Every year people from all walks of life move to London lured by its fast living, bright lights, appealing salaries and its cultural as well as professional diversity. What people find is a dynamic, expensive, yet thrilling world class capital city packed with opportunities and great experiences.

London is a huge idyllic place governed by vast administrative body including 33 boroughs and The Greater London authority. Deciding about moving to London is not like a simple across the country move, the whole process needs in-depth research from finding good relocation service providers to getting updated with whereabouts of the place.

Moving House or Business? 6 Things To Know about Your New Location

Any move requires research and planning, here are 6 things to think through about a relocation:

1. Housing

London is a huge city. Like any big city, making a decision where to live will ultimately depend on the factors like price, schools, transportation, travel times, and basic local amenities. Extrapolating the areas and speaking with people may help, but in order to find a peaceful crime free area you can talk to metropolitan police. Check their site to know about all the crime free areas and rent an accommodation in one of these areas.

The housing can be of any type which suits your expenses, there are Bedsits or studio apartments, flats or rental apartments, condos, townhouses, houses or a room in someone else’s house. Check the recent rental prices and guidelines for every kind of accommodation. The most important aspects that you need to consider are dealing with your landlords – tenancy agreement and council tax.

2. Career and Business

Check business climate and work opportunities in the news and through unemployment statistics. These will give you a basic idea about the amount of effort you need to put in order to keep solid financially. Gather and understand the general information about the basic costs of living and salary guidelines.

3. Setting up a bank account

In the U.K., as most locations, bank accounts are easy and safe way to manage your money. In order to open your bank accounts in the country you need to verify both your identity and address. Check with the local financial institutions about the documents you’ll need to set up personal and business accounts.

4. Accessing heath care

National health services provide majority of health care services in England including primary care, long term health care and inpatient health care. You are provided with NHS services by the London government if you are living in London irrespective of the fact that you have citizenship or not. Know the way that healthcare works in your destination before you finalize your decision.

5. Public Transportation

London transport consists of bus system, tram system, a wide spread tube network that include DLR, underground and over ground. There are national rails, black cabs and mini cabs too. For discounted travel rates you can have access to Oyster cards, the current public transportation passes used by the travelers in London. You can check on various public transportation websites and commuter reports to gather valuable information about moving around wherever you’re going.

6. Entertainment

London is vibrant, cosmopolitan and welcoming city where there is no end to opportunities and entertainment. Many of the variety of world famous museums and galleries have free admission. London has multitude of festivals taking up every year. Get a calendar of events in your new location that should not be missed. Some say that London’s Notting Hill Festival is the most famous festival of all.

Whether you’re dreaming or planning, whether it’s London or Honolulu, every destination offers some new challenges that require preparation and changes that might require adaptation. The most successful moves start with some research and planning.

Author’s Bio:
Eveleene Salt has been contributing regular article related to home improvement, reviews about London moving company and removal services

Energize! Act like a startup

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Rosemary O’Neill

Energize! Act like a startup

You don’t have to work in a high-ceilinged loft in San Francisco to take advantage of startup wisdom. The energy, passion, and fast pace of startup culture has a lot to offer almost any business.

It’s not all about the perks

We did have a foosball table in the early days of our company, but what we discovered is that everyone appreciates less tangible perks. A collegial atmosphere, where everyone is respected for their ideas, is much more important than Aeron chairs.

Lessons you can take from startup culture

  • Go all in. Sleep under your desk if you have to.
  • Appreciate your colleagues.
  • Don’t build any internal silos; everyone pitches in.
  • Maintain your hunger for the mission; gather true believers around you.
  • Get all excited over every new customer.
  • Take advantage of guerrilla (free) PR and marketing opportunities.

Even if you’ve been in business for a long time, you can incorporate some of the ideas that make startups successful. But you don’t have to eat Ramen noodles.

What can you do this week to inject some startup energy and passion into your business?

Author’s Bio: Rosemary O’Neill is an insightful spirit who works for social strata — a top ten company to work for on the Internet . Check out the Social Strata blog. You can find Rosemary on Google+ and on Twitter as @rhogroupee

Thank you, Rosemary!

You’re irresistible!

ME “Liz” Strauss

Why Work? Don’t Just Labor, Labor for Love

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Focusing on the Work Won’t Work

Change the World!

The biggest mistake I made in my working life was that I thought work was about working and life was about life. My view artificial in much the same way that school was about getting homework done so that I could get on with with life.

I would focus on the work and making it outstanding, a cut above. I suspect I thought I’d leave a legacy — that the work would be changed, different, and dare I say better, because I had been a part. I lost sight of, maybe I never truly saw, the people I relied upon. At best, I left a shallow, crumbling legacy — easy surpassed, and best forgotten, fueled by transactions more than relationships.

No one changes the world focusing on the work.

Why Work?

We can’t separate the work we do from our lives. It’s not a case of balance — we can’t separate out the time that we work from the time we’re alive. I won’t give up my right to breathe and be on the planet for my right to work. Work fills my need to be fully safe and human, but I is not my life.

Why work? Maslow described how our human needs are met by work. Despite limitations of the hierarchy it makes a nice framework for building a world-changing team..

  1. Work for life. We work because we have needs. We expend energy to sustain life with food, clothing, shelter, and sex, which will ensure the existence of the species.
  2. Work for security and safety. We do things to alleviate our fear of loss from real and imagined dangers.
  3. Work for social interaction. We find our place in society by building things with others. by feeling we fit as part of our group.
  4. Work for a sense of personal value – respect for ourselves and respect from others. We build out our confidence, competence, self esteem, and sense of status from the recognition, reputation, and appreciation of others as well.
  5. Work to reach our potential. In other words, we expend energy to accomplish things so that we can use what we’ve got, become what we could be, change the world for the better.

Why work? If we look at it right, work — not just earnings — but the act of work can offer us a better life.

Don’t Just Labor, Labor for Love

We all know that we work for life, security and safety, social interaction and respect. Leaders realize the potential we could reach if we channel that energy in the same positive direction, if we put labor into a labor of love to raise up the people who help us thrive.

By supporting those same human needs in all of the people who build our businesses — employees, vendors, managers, partners, customers, families, friends — we can make our work better our lives. The very act of our work can satisfy our human needs, our soulful yearning, and our deep and immediate need to offer a legacy to those who come behind.

All we have to do is be and allow it.
Be a person who lives life and who lets others live life too.
Be a person who knows security and who lets others be secure too.
Be a person who decides to belong and who lets others know they belong too.
Be a person who respects yourself and others and who lets others know that same round respect too.
Be a person who lives up to your potential and lets others see and live up their own.

In other words, don’t just labor, labor for love.
We can change the world, just like that.

Be irresistible.
–ME “Liz” Strauss

5 Traits of Successful Real Estate Investors and Everyone Set for Success

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Heather J. Sanchez

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While real estate investing is a diverse field with avenues for all skill levels and incomes to participate, I find the most successful hands-on investors tend have a few qualities in common.

5 Traits of Successful Real Estate Investors

I’ve seen these five qualities in successful investors ranging from my own mentor, Steve Davis, who works full-time in real estate, to men and women who have turned one or a two good investments into a reliable second income.

  1. Successful Real Estate Investors Plan and Follow Through

    For individuals who purchase homes for investment, creating plans and having the commitment to execute them is vital.

    Buying an apartment complex, for instance, is a major decision. Without the right research and due diligence, you might miss out on the fact that the property has liens against it totaling millions of dollars. Or you might miss out on a chance to negotiate an amazing deal, simply because you never took the time to [understand the seller’s needs](http://www.lifestylesunlimited.com/four-ways-to-better-chance-your-real-estate-deals/).

    Of course the most successful real estate investors I know are smart. But what really sets them apart is their willingness to work hard in order to acquire and maintain investments that are profitable.

  2. Successful Real Estate Investors Are Flexible and Open-Minded

    Very little stays the same in real estate investing. Neighborhoods are different. Houses are different, and tenants are different.

    To realize the greatest success in real estate investing, you’ll need the open-mindedness to consider different strategies for different investments. Furthermore, you’ll need to be able to create or find solutions to problems both big and small that arise seemingly out of nowhere.

    And finally, you need the flexibility to be able to walk out of a deal at the last minute.

  3. Successful Real Estate Investors Love to Meet New People

    Very simply, you can’t do it alone in real estate investing. Whether you’re buying houses to flip or to rent out, you’ll need to work with a small army of professionals.

    And let me assure you that not all contractors, escrow agents, and home inspectors are the same. The more you’re willing to network and make connections with others, the more likely you are to find the people that can help you achieve a successful investment strategy.

    A real estate investing club is a great place to find allies, but don’t discount the people you meet at PTA meetings or company softball matches. In this business, you really can “make your own luck” by stumbling upon people who can be of great help.

  4. Successful Real Estate Investors Are Patient

    A good real estate investor doesn’t let her emotions lead her into making rash delicions. She doesn’t give up after minor setbacks. She is willing to look at dozens of homes before finding one that she determines will be profitable.

    Many times, beginning real estate investors are quick to jump the gun on property purchases because they’re eager to start investing. However, by only investing in properties that fit your criteria and by turning them into long-term investments, you’ll realize the greatest benefit in terms of income and personal satisfaction.

  5. Successful Real Estate Investors Are Trustworthy

    To be a successful real estate investor, you need to be the kind of person that others can rely upon.

    You want fellow investors to call you with opportunities because they know its worth their time to work with you. You want tenants who are glad to renew their leases because they enjoy working with you.

    You simply can’t achieve this if others don’t trust you. I find the individuals who genuinely want to help others and who are guided by strong ethics realize the greatest successes in investing.

No matter the business or the calling, if we’re set for success, it’s easy to see how investing in these five traits can give us all an edge.

Author’s Bio:
Heather is a staff writer for Lifestyles Unlimited. She enjoys analyzing real estate investment trends, laws, and practices while debunking myths. As the owner of multiple rental properties and “flipped” houses, Heather believes that Real Estate Investors help put money back into the North American economy.