A Woman With A Business

This week I am talking about Slumps and Slowdowns ... how to know if you are really in a slump or slowdown, when to freak out, and what to do about it! Today is all about analyzing stats.  Over and over I have witnessed people freaking out about slowdowns because their stats are down from a day ago, a week ago, and a month ago ... but just this is not enough information to know if you are really experiencing a slowdown.  Retail sales are cyclical, and you need to know your cycles.  If you cannot deal with the natural cycles in your business, then you need to develop a new product line that will work opposite those cycles in your current business.  Trying to even out cycles in your current business is much harder than creating a product line that you market to a different market to fill in slow cycles.  Also note, that cycles in business will fluctuate year to year, and your sales should be increasing during these cycles year to year.  Although as your bus...

Managing the expectations of you and your business is a tricky thing ... I would say that this is more of a problem when you are new and just starting and have a list of things a mile long.  However, after 13 years, I can tell you that I still have days when I feel completely overwhelmed and have to wrangle in the expectations of myself. Do one thing at a time.  The idea of being able to work at home for yourself is very romantic ... you can have laundry going, the dishwasher going, the kids playing a board game in the other room, all while working away on your business like a boss!  What really happens is, you throw in a load of laundry, and it sits in the washing machine wet for 6 hours because you forgot it, requiring it to be washed again.  You start loading the dishwasher, but the phone rings and the kids drop the board game, causing 250,000 cards and dice and pieces to scatter down the stairway.  The dog throws up, the power goes out, and you realize tha...

When starting a business, a lot of people will tell you that you need a business plan.  However, a lot of people starting a business simply start with an idea or just simply wanting to supplement their current income.  A business plan isn't something that they think is necessary.  Business plans are thought of as something that only large businesses trying to get funding need.  However, business plans can provide an important road map for even the smallest of businesses. In a lot of cases, people spend more effort planning a dinner or lunch date, than they do on planning their business.  It starts with an invite to eat, should you invite others, what time will you meet, what restaurant will you eat at, where is the restaurant, map the location on your GPS, do you need to make reservations, how long will it take you to drive there, do you need to make arrangements for parking, how expensive is the menu, what will you wear, and how long will it take you to get r...

What are your expectations of yourself?  What are your expectations of your business?  Do these expectations match?  Do you have the skills needed to meet your expectations?  I saw a very lofty post yesterday.  From someone that has zero social media experience.  Admittedly, they just set up a social media account a week prior and they are looking for information and advice on how to be a social media manager.  They do not know anything about social media platforms and are asking for any advice.  They want to become a social media manager and, in 6 months from now, be making $10,000 per month running social media accounts for businesses. They have high expectations of themselves, high expectations of their business, and no current skills to meet those expectations.  They do, however, have the guts to admit all of this and start seeking information.  Do you think that their expectations can become a reality?  I answer, maybe....

Expectations in entrepreneurship are big, bold, lofty, and the pressure to succeed is huge.  You may feel pressure to perform, sell, grow, and do do do.  Managing those expectations look different for each entrepreneur and it is important to manage your own.  What are your expectations of yourself? Social media burst onto the scene in a big way, and the pressures on businesses to have a social media presence are huge for entrepreneurs.  We are expected to be available, post great content, post fabulous pictures, grow, interact, and be available. As an entrepreneur, you are in control of managing those expectations of yourself. Set limits and times to post on your social media accounts.  If you find yourself going over those time limits, consider a timer that beeps at you.   Monitor what content you are reading, and if it is content that is meaningful in your life.  If you find that you are reading a lot of content that is not having a positive impa...

Today is the last post in the "So, you want to be an Entrepreneur" series, although really this is the tip of this iceberg!  This entire blog is about being an entrepreneur, but since I must break things up into topics and weekly focuses, we are wrapping this one up!  Today is Part 5, and in case you missed Part 1 , Part 2 , Part 3 , and Part 4 follow the links! So, now, hopefully you have narrowed down products and product lines, and thought about at least one target market for each one.  When you start doing the things I am talking about in this post, you may find that you must go back and redo each of those.  I cannot stress enough that product lines and target markets need to be narrow for this step or else your advertising dollars or your hunts on where to advertise are going to be impossibly large!  Please remember again, you are not excluding shoppers, and you really don't have to exclude products, but you do need to have a target market that is fin...

I hope you enjoyed yesterday's post!  Thanks for following along with the "So, you want to be an Entrepreneur" series!  Today is Part 4, and in case you missed Part 1 , Part 2 , and Part 3 follow the links! Yesterday we talked about narrowing down your target market, and today we are talking about marketing to the target markets you already know of and/or the target markets you can easily find. Perhaps you are a teacher, and already know a large network of teachers, and provide a product or service that can be useful for teachers.  Adjust your pictures and text to target those markets you already have. Think about the similarities that you have with existing friends.  Perhaps some of them would generously provide you with feedback on your items to give you new ideas or descriptive words that you can use to promote your product or service. Think about your hobbies and other groups of people that you are already interacting with.  Is there a product ...

Thanks for following along with the "So, you want to be an Entrepreneur" series!  Today is Part 3, and in case you missed Part 1 and Part 2 follow the links! Target markets are probably the number one thing that I see entrepreneurs struggle with.  Most entrepreneurs are so afraid that they will finally get a visitor to their shop, but they won't have something for that single person, so they frantically try to come up with something that appeals to everyone.  This type of broad net hopeful marketing may work if you have millions of dollars for television ads that are shown on tv shows where you have millions of viewers from different walks of life.  Unfortunately, most of us, don't have that sort of marketing budget. Knowing your target market will allow you to speak directly to your target customer in your listings, titles, and the SEO (Search Engine Optimization) of your site.  It also allows you to easily find places to advertise where those people han...

Thanks so much for reading along with this "So, you want to be an entrepreneur" series!  Yesterday, I told you what you needed to be a successful Entrepreneur.  You can find that post here.   You may be saying out loud ... "But you didn't say you needed a great product, service or idea!" Over my years of being self employed, I have seen thousands of great products and services never attain success.  I have also seen products and services become wildly successful despite them not being the best of the best.  The most common reason for these failures was the unwillingness to fully embrace the elements needed for successful entrepreneurship that I talked about yesterday, and not being able to fully define great product line.  A well-defined product line allows you the opportunity, to present yourself as an expert in your field, and to cross promote your goods and services. You will want to start your entrepreneurial quest by having 1 to 3 product or servi...

This is the last post in the Time Management Series!  You can find post 1 here, post 2 here, post 3 here, and post 4 here!  Today we will be wrapping up this series talking about grace, understanding, and perfection. Time is a tricky thing ... We all have the same 24 hours in a day, and none of us really know how many days we are going to get!  I came up with the idea for this group, blog, project about 6 months ago and I am just now getting around to making it happen.  You know why?  Because life, life happens, and we don't always get to choose what things happen, when they happen, and the extent of them. Despite my best intentions, there have been plenty of years that I planted a garden and things didn't get harvested.  I've learned to appreciate the beauty of okra flowers, how large squash and zucchini can grow over night, and that feeding wildlife is much easier than I have ever anticipated.  This picture is from June 29, 2010 and the...

This is Part 4 of the Time Management Series!  You can find part 1 , part 2 , part 3 here .  You know what they say, the squeaky wheel gets the grease.  However, this is a dangerous game when you are a mompreneur!  I'll be explaining that below! Squeaky wheels come in all shapes and sizes ... when talking about time management these are those little things that pop up unexpectedly, or walk into your office constantly, or all the things that feel like they are important but are just not getting you where you need to go!  They are also activities that you plan on spending 30 minutes on, but 3 hours later you are still working on them.  They can also include social commitments every weekend, if that is the time that you had planned on working on your side gig.  Now, if you have a squeaky wheel on your car, you might need to have that checked out! Notifications ... some people are better at ignoring these than I am.  The constant dinging, ringing,...

This is Part 3 of the Time Management series you can find part 1 here , and part 2 here .  Mapping out blocks of time to dedicate to your business is very important, knowing what to do in those blocks of time is even more important.  Today we will be talking about both prioritizing your time and your activities! So, you are ready ... you've found blocks of time during your day, now what do you do with that time? The first thing you need to do, is evaluate when your magic hours are.  This is the time of day that you are your best.  Your brain is clear, you're at your highest motivation, and you are ready to go.  For me, those hours are first thing in the morning, however, I know others whose peak hours are late at night.  This is the time of day that you need to do the items that require the most of your brain and energy.  Since I know these hours happen for me in the morning, I adjust my schedule throughout the year to maximize this time.  It...

This is Part 2 in my Time Management Series ... If you missed Part 1 you can find it here .  Today, we are talking about designating time for your business.  If you are asking me, Time?  What is extra time?  I got you ... I feel you! If you are a full-time business owner, you may already have large chunks of time dedicated to your business.  If this is you, I'll be addressing prioritizing more in part 3.  If you are running a business part-time or trying to find time to start your new gig, this post is for you! Let's examine how much time you have versus how much time your business needs.  Every business is different as far as how much time it needs, and again, I will again be referencing my gardening hobby, as I fit it into the nooks and crannies of my day.  Throughout the year, there are tasks that I must do to have a successful and well-kept garden, and most businesses are the same.  Dedicating a portion of each day and week to working...

There are a few things that I get asked over and over as a woman entrepreneur, and one of those is ... How do you do it all?  How do you manage your time? and comments like, You must be really organized. There is a part of me that finds these questions and comments odd ... and another part of me that thinks, Ha, you really don't know me at all ... and on good days, I pat myself on the back and think that I have this whole time management thing figured out.  There are also days I look at the pitiful number of things that have been crossed off my to do list and wonder what on earth has happened to those hours.  As I write this post, I also remember, we are all given the same number of hours in each day, sometimes we have a choice on how to use those hours, and on other days it seems like no matter how hard we try, the deck is stacked against us. We now live in a world of Amazon ... where you can click, click, buy and have things delivered to your door in two days, somet...