I'm happily child-free and Ernie, my better half, has always been supportive of whatever I do. So for me it's all about seeking balance and pulling myself away from work to have time with friends and the people who are important to me.


I believe in delegating and I strongly feel the first thing every woman should have as her business starts pulling in income is household help. After all, if you don't have household help you are valuing your time at that of a housecleaner. If you're CEO of your own business aren't you worth more than that? Even if you only have someone come in a few hours once a month you will feel better. Give half of the time you save to your business and the other half of that time to your family and the people you love.


Surprisingly, as much as we gripe about housework, delegating it is something a lot of women have a difficult time with because our homes are a reflection of us. You don’t have to scrub the toilet yourself to take pride in the fact that it's kept clean. It just doesn't have to be kept clean by you. Don't fall into the trap of believing no one else can do it as well as you. Busy work is often a way of avoiding the more important decisions and action steps you need to take in your business.


Who have been your mentors along the way?


I look at people who have created highly successful businesses and I'm inspired. They've created something out of nothing. They've moved a lot of energy. Of course best-selling author Robert Allen is someone I admire because of his vision and his ability to see what people want and need and give it to them. Since I worked as his assistant years ago I really have paid attention to the business model he's created. I also have learned a lot by paying attention to women who have been highly successful like Martha Stewart. Her drive to make everyone want to be perfect led to her downfall but I believe she's a brilliant business woman and she's learned some very valuable lessons from the time she spent away from her business. For sheer marketing and branding brilliance however no one tops Oprah Winfrey. She is simply amazing and millions of women can learn so much from her even if they have no interest in being on television like her.


Now, I know you have recently published, "Testosterone-Free Marketing: The Yin and Yang of Marketing for Women." What can our Wild Women Entrepreneurs expect from your book?


First and foremost, expect to have your eyes opened. It's a real "aha" experience for women who read the book and apply what they learn because the truth is that most of us are unaware how their kneejerk reaction cause them to hold themselves back from the success they say that they really want. Certainly we work hard enough for it. We deserve it ­- but we have to let the world (or at least our ideal customers) know that we’re out here, we’ve got the ability and we deserve to be paid well for it.



Secondly, your income will go up and you'll have a lot of fun doing it. A lot of women are shocked how fast it happens. One woman who took my TFM teleclass last year ­- before the book was released ­- well her income quadrupled in the time we worked together. It's amazing, but she discovered a well of strength and ability within herself that she never knew she had and she also learned that she was worth a whole lot more. She's a much happier person today.




If you could offer these Wild Women Entrepreneurs a piece of sound advice, what would it be?


Make new conscious choices. That means don't make business decisions in automatic ways. Ask yourself what would be best for your business and do that rather than doing what makes you feel most comfortable. Your courage and confidence will skyrocket and you’ll make so much more money it will make your head spin.


To pre-order a personally autographed copy of Denise Michaels' groundbreaking book, "Testosterone Free Marketing: The Yin and Yang of Marketing for Women" go to MarketingForHer.com and click on "Get the Book!"

Labels: wild we member of the month

Email is one of the easiest forms of communication--easiest to SEND, that is. As a busy person who gets over 150 business-related emails and over 1000 spams each week, I can say with some authority that email is one of the hardest forms of communication to RECEIVE. Besides checking my spam filters to make sure legitimate communications
aren't mixed in with the Viagra offers; triaging legitimate requests from clients; and responding to actual personal letters from actual long-distance friends, I find an increasing amount of email that I call "oobleck" -- well-intentioned, forwarded email that is not exactly spam, but can be almost as annoying and, in the worst cases, can cause harm to the recipients.


I'm not knocking anyone who likes this kind of email and enjoys forwarding it to friends whom they know will appreciate it . . . but some of it is dangerous and misleading, so please read on.


Avoiding Oobleck


Here are the major types of oobleck and what I suggest doing to avoid them.

1. Petitions. This kind of email asks you to sign an online petition and forward it to all your friends, unless you are the tenth (hundredth, thousandth) person to sign it, in which case please forward it to your congressional representative (president, governor). If you were an elected official would you think an email petition represents a groundswell of opinion from likely voters? Even many lobbying organizations concede that email petitions are among the least effective forms of advocacy. Also see the discussion of hoaxes below. The verdict: Trash and don't forward -- save someone else the three minutes you just spent.

2. Chain letters. Just as rude as postal chain letters, email chain letters are easier to perpetrate because you don't have to stick a stamp on them. I promise you, no great calamity will occur to you or your family if you Trash these.

3. Jokes. Ha ha ha ha ha ha. Forward jokes only to people you know will appreciate them. But beware . . . if you send someone a joke they might decide you want to see
their next e-mail petition. Also beware of jokes that have a hidden purpose -- for instance, clicking through to a website link included in an innocent-seeming joke email can allow spammers to harvest your email address.

4. Hoaxes. This is the worst kind. Mars so close to earth this month it looks as big as the moon? Serial killers using recordings of babies to lure victims out of their homes? A science homework assignment which asks you to forward email to 10 friends? Email hoaxes prey on our fears and our tendency to believe the printed word. Some of them contain grains of truth, others are outright lies. At their best they waste time by impelling people to circulate them. At their worst they socially engineer us into doing something destructive, like virus hoaxes which prompt you to delete a legitimate file. The verdict? Any time you get a
forwarded email that purports to contain factual information, Google
it. (e.g. Virus hoax, Serial killer hoax). You will be amazed at how many legitimate-seeming emails are hoaxes or distortions. Then send the information you find to the person who sent you the email. After a few times of being embarrassed, folks will usually at least quit bothering YOU, if not other people. And whatever you do, DON'T forward any email you get without fact-checking it yourself.


And When You Can't Avoid It

Sometimes you just HAVE to forward something. To protect the privacy of your recipients, do NOT use the "cc" feature to include
more than one person. All email programs have a "bcc" feature. This stands for "blind carbon copy" and hides the identity of your recipients from each other. Outlook Express does NOT show the "bcc" feature by default. To use it you have to have the message window open, then select "View"
from the message's menu and make sure "Bcc" is checked. You can click here for a screen-by-screen walkthrough.


What happens when you don't use BCC? Everyone on your list gets copies of everyone else on your list . . . making them vulnerable to more oobleck. When I have too much time on my hands and get an email that annoys me I can:

• Google the subject matter and find out that it's a hoax.


• Compose an email stating the reasons why the email is false.


• Send this email not JUST to the original recipient, but to all the others on the list.


• Also point out that everyone else on the list is getting the email because the original sender didn't use BCC.

Well, I mostly fantasize about doing this because it's truly obnoxious. But there are plenty of people out there who are just as cranky and less inhibited than I am. So, use BCC to protect yourself from
embarrassment.


Email is a wonderful tool but it can be a dangerous time-waster. If you rely on these tips, over time, people will send you less "oobleck." And you will save your friends and colleagues countless hours, too!

Naomi Mahoney is the owner / art director of Studio N, a graphic design and web development firm in business since 1989. She is also a musician and one of the founding members of Wild WE.

Ok, so I am not the most organized person in the world. Actually, I am organized in a disorganized kind of way. Organized chaos describes most of my life. I have always wanted to be organized but just never got there. Then an event in my life caused me to change my ways. I am looking for order, neat and tidy on the shelves, paperwork in files and laundry folded and put away. What, you may ask, brought this on? Recently my brother, his wife and their 3 year old moved into my apartment, which already held myself, my husband and our 15 month old.


During the move my office/junk room was moved into my scrapbooking workshop room. This may not have been so bad if I had been around to assist. I was not and everything, useful and otherwise, was deposited into my workshop room where I had previously run workshops and classes for my scrapbooking business.


We have been living together for 2 months now and things have settled into a rhythm. Just keeping up with the housework has been a struggle but I was determined to reclaim my space. As a work at home mom my business depended on getting this room under control.


I knew I needed help when I brought the wrong product to a customer then did not have that same product for the correct customer because I could not find the paperwork in all the mess. I had never run my business like this and I refused to let it go any further.


I asked my cousin, a self admitted neat nut, for her assistance. She is an Organization Consultant and had offered her services to me several times before I just was not desperate enough to accept. Now I was desperate and begged for her assistance. She came armed with pen and paper. I was to make a list and follow through on her suggestions if I wanted to reclaim my space and get my business back up to par.


We each took a seat in the mess, well actually on the outskirts since there was too much furniture in the way. I told her what I wanted the room to do and she told me how to make it happen. Here is a check list of what we did.

1. Decide what you want the space to do when you are finished. Envision a perfectly organized space and make that your goal. I wanted to have a neat, functional workshop room and office area.
   
2. Get rid of all unnecessary items i.e. Furniture, books, clothes, junk, etc. If you have not used it in a year you probably don’t need it. Goodwill gladly accepts all these items.
   
3. Paperwork: Toss what is unnecessary, file what is necessary, and act on things that need it. I was so excited to toss 2 trash bags of junk mail and magazines. Take the time to create a filing system for yourself. It is easier to file things right away than let them get lost on the desk. A great tip was that the desk or table should be cleared off everyday. Never let things get out of hand. It is easier to deal with one day's worth of paper than a month's.
   
4. Shelves, shelves, shelves! I did not have enough storage so I put up 3 sets of shelves and will be adding more storage bins as we go. It made a huge difference to get everything off the floor and tables. Now I can see what I have. I am also not tripping over things. Customers are more comfortable here now as well.
   
5. Binders, binders, binders. I love them. I have a binder for each of my major projects. I use sheet protectors to hold all papers from a particular meeting or event. Whatever project I am working on, I just pull the binder and am up to speed within minutes. I have found this to be the most successful tool yet since it keeps my businesses separated. I do not have meeting notes from one business in with notes from my other business.

So it took me a week of work but I was able to have a workshop on Friday evening and have several events planned each week through the summer. I am so excited to prove to the Naysayers wrong. The room is better than before. Thanks Christina for all your wonderful advice and vision.


Kate Powers is a founding member of Wild WE and a Creative Memories consultant. Visit her online at Creative
Memories.

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We here at Wild Women Entrepreneurs are looking for strong, enthuastic women to run our Wild WE events in YOUR City!
If you are looking to:

• establish yourself as a leader in your community
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Then this is FOR YOU!!!! Just email Ja-Nae
for more information.

Question 1:


You've approached all your warm market, you've got a great product & opportunity that you really believe in, but you don't have a track record & things aren't happening as fast as they should be -- what do you say when people want to know how well you're doing???


JD:
My advice is to stay positive and focus on the good that is occuring with your business! You might not be where you "think" you should be, but you are making baby steps. Any step in a right direction, is one step CLOSER to your goal!!! When people ask you, just be honest. Tell them you are steadily moving forward. Then tell them your goals. If you verbalize your intentions, then people will be more inclined to help you achieve them.


KP:

Think Positive, Live Positive, Be Positive! If you believe in your product so will others. If the product is great, it will speak for itself.


Things aren't happening as fast as WHO says they should? You should not let the expectations of other people determine your success. The product and how long you have been selling for factor into the timeline. I would focus on the positive. I had a start-up that eventually failed. When people asked me how well I was doing, I always said it was going well. In my mind it was going well, I was learning and gaining experience. Even when the business failed I still felt positive about my experience and I knew those experiences would serve me well. They do every day!


NM:

It's tempting to share disappointments and difficulties. The problem is that success has a certain mystique . . . people are more likely to refer new customers if they think things are going well for you (as long as you're not bragging). Plus, the more you talk about your business as if it's everything you expected, the more it becomes that way as you project success as a reality. So -- the answer is it's going well and you're really enjoying your new venture.


Of course, if you are speaking with a close friend whom you trust you can let it all hang out. And if you're speaking to someone who you think may have ideas about a specific problem you're facing, you could ask for input . . . for example, "It's going pretty well, but I'm having problems with cold calls. Do you have any suggestions for me?"


Question 2

How do you book home parties when you just don't know many people?


How do you get people interested in Hosting Book Parties (Catalog Parties)? What should the verbiage be for online marketing??


KP:
I started as an independent consultant with a direct sales company with NO WARM MARKET! No one I knew was interested in my product. SOOOOOO I did a couple of craft fairs and fundraisers for my church and women’s group to get going. I handed out flyers for the fundraiser at the craft fair so anyone interested could come check my product out without any obligation.


Online marketing can be difficult. Are you hosting an online event in a chat room or just a catalog party via email? I have done catalog parties in person and have had mystery host online events (I used my active customer base for this so you may need to wait). If you are in direct sales it is better to create a live customer base before you worry about online customer activity. I waited 9 months before I had a website. Now the customers I have created a relationship with order online from me all the time and so do their family members and friends. They do not feel like they are ordering off a website, they are ordering from me -- a real person.



For online marketing: What would you respond to? If you would not click on it, why should someone else? Sell it to yourself and that should be your verbiage. And remember less is more when it comes to advertising. My most successful ads are short, to the point and have great pictures that tell the story for me.


NM:

My first piece of advice is to work on building your community wherever you go. For me, that means sharing baked goods, shoveling out driveways for older people, hosting play-dates, and helping others create networking opportunities. When I have an invitation or need to sell something for a fundraiser, people show up for me because I've been there for them. The second, more specific piece of advice is to find a few local organizations (PTO's, preschools, churches, etc.) whose members are in your target market and offer to host parties to benefit them. You donate all or a portion of your proceeds to these organizations. Bingo - everyone who attends is on your list. Many MLM businesses offer specific discounts in these situations, making it easy for you to set up your events as fundraisers. A friend of mine who started her business that way is now among the ten top sellers in the New England region.


Your second question is much too broad for me to answer, but I would
suggest you read Jay Conrad Levinson's "Guerrilla Advertising"
for great hints on advertising verbiage and placement. You can find
information on this book on Wild WE's Resources page.