Did you know women-owned businesses are one of the fastest-growing segments of new business in our economy? To help support their growth, the Small Business Administration (SBA) along with American Express OPEN and Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP) announced the launch of ChallengeHER – a new national initiative aimed at boosting government contracting opportunities for women-owned small businesses and empowering the success of the Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB) Federal Contract program.
The power to focus and make your dreams come true has lead me to experience something most people only hear about. Fresh out of seasoned employee status and now a rookie in business, spending 5 days with a leading edge Millionaire Mentor teaching me how to market was absolutely mind-blowing! Hold on; wait a minute you may say – 5 days? How is that possible? Now, you and I can both agree that as I boarded the flight to Melbourne, I too had questions… will I be good enough to ‘get it’, will I belong because I’m a rookie? Will I be able to make connections and give value?
5 days have passed since I was at Mastermind and I am busy writing to you about what I learned and the actions I am taking. As I look around the desk to find my notes, I pick up Think and Grow Rich and flip to any page and read:
“The economic feature is obvious. Economic advantages may be created by any person who surrounds himself with the advice, counsel, and personal cooperation of a group of men who are willing to lend him wholehearted aid, in a spirit of PERFECT HARMONY. This form of cooperative alliance has been the basis of nearly every great fortune. Your understanding of this great truth may definitely determine your financial status.”
Napoleon Hill, Think and Grow Rich
5 Proven Strategies to Kick Start Your Portfolio Results – have a strategy for wealth, test the market, be a unicorn/purple cow, dig where you are and have an ultimate buyer in mind or an exit strategy.
The promise of a magic pill or secret formula to make instant millions is a certain myth. If this were true, the best marketers in the world would have found it by now. The truth is it’s about practice, like everything, to earn the results you want.
A strategy for wealth is for your assets to be generating cash for you and to be sustainable and replicable. So if you stop work your residual income keeps flowing. Imagine how long could you maintain your lifestyle without working? Statistics show that if you are in the top 1% of wealthy you would soar, 5% are financially independent, 16% would still have to work, 24% are dead and 54% are dependent on welfare.
“Your economic security does not lie in your job; it lies in your own power to produce – to think, to learn, to create, to adapt. That’s true financial independence. It’s not having wealth; it’s having the power to produce wealth.”
Stephen Covey, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Testing the market – your brand is your culture and yes the word matters e.g. Virgin – within the word is the culture and the experience! Tip to successfully using adwords is to have a budget, get help – don’t do it alone – get informed. Question to ask yourself is ‘who’s got my client before me?’ Check out Business Essentials online they offer a monthly CD of interviews with successful people.
Seth Godin says that “the key to success is to find a way to stand out–to be the purple cow in a field of monochrome Holsteins.”
Sean Ashby, 43, was born and raised in the outer suburbs of Melbourne. He has gone from being unemployed and sitting on the beach to owning a multimillion-dollar underwear and swimwear manufacturing and retail business called AussieBum. He started out selling swimmers from the boot of his car and today the business turns over thousands of orders and millions of dollars a month.
Key learnings here are to zig when everyone zags; use a model for success (ESIP – more on this later); be mission based (it’s not about the transaction but the experience); build a movement.
Dig where you are, expanding on what you call normal. Guest Speaker, Alison Crabb
Flight Centre National Leader for Victoria and Tasmania (VicMania) shared her leadership strategies and talked about creating a vision of belonging and connection; having high expectations backed up with support (mentoring/coaching); of core values (more of this later); living with purpose and mission; of following through with everything (say what you mean and do what you say); recruiting on attitude and teaching the skills; on the dark days believe in your purpose and mission more.
Alison said:
“It’s important not to get caught with the KPI’s whether it be profit, sales improvement, all of those things because that is just the outcome of what you do… Part of being a leader is looking after others and leading others and the only way you can look after others is to look after yourself first.”
What would it mean to you to find out what your strengths are? How do you uncover your niche? You can’t give what you don’t have!
Exit strategy – got one? As you grow your business and develop strategies around your framework you must think about your exit strategy or who your ultimate buyer will be. Buyers buy solutions to problems, what will you offer: systems, licenced models, contracts, research and development, market share, lists – is your business real estate you can sell? What is your consultative sales process, (more on this later)?
I’m still buzzing with excitement as the day ends and as I walk to the hotel, I think back to when I was packing to leave and what I was telling myself and how I was feeling. Seeing myself today stepping into that action – these words form on my lips ‘if you can language it, you can have it’ and it feels amazing to be doing this… right now… and imagine tomorrow where more ‘gold’ awaits and the connections waiting to be made… the feelings of total satisfaction of being in a place that brings choice and possibility.
My attention drifts to the words of Gordon Hinckley:
“You are good. But it is not enough just to be good. You must be good for something. You must contribute good to the world. The world must be a better place for your presence. And the good that is in you must be spread to others.”
Truly successful women in business know what success means to them. Not to anyone else; or how the world defines it. But success as it takes on meaning in their lives. They can write it down; articulate it clearly and succinctly to others and pursue it with relentless tenacity.
Once upon a time; I asked the question of a small group of women – “What does success mean to you? Define and write it down in 3 to 5 sentences”. It was an extremely different chore for each of them. In fact, one woman defined it as “making her think!”
Why do we shy away from thinking? Shy away from the very activity that can make or break us when it comes to business success? Or life in general success for that matter!
I think we simply want to go with the flow of a passion without having to engage in the mental work required to be truly successful. If that’s the case; then what we call “business” is nothing more than a glorified ‘hobby’. And being asked to do otherwise is simply too much effort.
Perhaps I’m being unduly critical. Then perhaps I’m just being realistic and practical. Because the truth is; women who are successful in business do more than just “go with the flow” – at least in the beginning. They plan, seek advice and wisdom from those who’ve gone before, strategize and then plan some more. These successful business women can tell you at the drop of a syllable exactly what “success” means (or will mean) to them. They haven’t left it to guess work!
Let me suggest an exercise for each of you reading this. Take paper and pen (or laptop) and in 3 to 5 sentences; DEFINE “Success” for yourself. Think of it in emotional terms:
May I suggest that you do this now – rather than later. We’re nearing the end of another year so I suggest you put it into your year-end planning.
That is if you truly want to be successful business women. The choice is your!
Warmly,
P.S. Who are some of the most successful women in business you know? Add them in a comment list and tell us how they started and why you believe they are successful. Here’s one of mine:
Carrie Wilkerson ~ The Barefoot Executive. She sets her mind on a goal and never wavers until she’s accomplished it. Carrie has razor-like focus!
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According to the US Census, by 2010 5.9 million people aged 25 to 35 were back living at home. This is just one of the shocking headlines we have seen recently about a generation of educated, unemployed or underemployed and often under-motivated adults. Recently, sociologists and therapists have attempted to identify and explain this explosive phenomenon.