Vered Neta's Blog, page 19

7 Questions for Defining Your Target Audience

ABC of marketing is Define Your Target Audience.

If you wish to sell more you’ll have to be specific who is your target audience. I know that YOU know it, but if you are still struggling with your sales it’s mean you have not defined it enough

The biggest struggle women entrepreneurs have is finding and defining their target audience. If you are like many of them it sometimes feels as if it goes against every fiber in your body, which says that you want to help EVERYONE.

The problem with EVERYONE is that it is expensive and impossible to reach. Trying to reach EVERYONE would lead you to reach NO-ONE.

If you’ve done any training with me before, or read any of my other blog posts, you know how passionate I am about the need to define your target audience.

Therefore, if you wish to be successful you’ll need to define your target audience and choose them wisely. That might be the most important decision that you’ll have to make in order to be successful.

Here are 7 questions that would help you in defining your target audience:

1. Who would pay for my product or service?

The definition of an entrepreneur is: “Someone who sells solutions for problems for a profit”. Therefore you’ll need first to make sure that you are offering a solution to a problem that your customers are aware that they have.

The first step is to understand the problem that your product or service can solve, Then, use that information to help determine who would be willing to pay for a solution. You’ll need to check that your potential customer is aware of the problem that your product or service is offering and is willing to pay for it.

Using Google’s keyword tool to see how many people are searching for words related to your business idea can be a great place to find out if there is a need for your solution.

2. Who has already bought from me? 

Returned customers are the best customers you can have. It’s also the easiest way to grow your business. Therefore check who has already bought your product or service. You can gain valuable insights by releasing the product or service in a test phase and ask your previous clients to check it out for a discount and then get their insights, testimonials and ask for referrals for that product.

3. Am I making assumptions based on my personal knowledge and experience?

There is nothing as damaging as basing your marketing on the basis of assumptions. The fact that you had a good experience with something has nothing to do with your target audience, even if they are just like you. For example, if you’re a fitness buff and want to start a business related to personal health, you may assume you know your customer.

In order to know your audience you’ll need to speak to them and ASK them what they are looking for.

4. What does my network think?

The best and cheapest way to ASK and talk to your target group is to tap into your social networks to get free feedback. Many people in your extended network will likely be willing to take the time to give you opinions and advice.

5. How will I monetize on my product or service?

Figuring out how you’ll reap revenue can help you find your target market. Without a stream of revenue your business is going to last very short time. Therefore you’ll need from the start to figure out how would you monetize it. This would also indicate for you who could be your target audience.

6. How will I sell my product or service?

Women have a love/hate relationship with the whole concept of making money. In business your revenues are your Lifeline. You have to think how would you sell your product or service. This would help you determine your target market. Will you have a store, a website or both? Will you be marketing only in your home country or globally? For example, an online-only business may have a younger customer than one with stores. A brick-and-mortar business may narrow your target market to people in the neighborhood.

7. How will I find my customers? 

As you start defining your target customers, try to determine whether you can efficiently market to them. You’ll need to do some market research and study your target audience’s demographic, geographic and purchasing patterns. If you’re selling from a storefront, you need to know how many people in your target market live nearby. If you’re selling from a website, you need to learn about your prospective customers’ online behavior. Understanding how to locate your customers early on can help you establish a game plan once you start building a marketing strategy.

Now I’m curious….

What are your tips in defining your target audience?.

Share with us your tips and advice in how you managed to define your target audience? Share with us in, the comment box below.

If you find this article inspiring, please SHARE it on Facebook, LinkedIn or retweet it, by pushing the button on the left, for the right channel, so more women could benefit from it.

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Have a magical week! Vered

The Most Important Question in Business

At the time you will be reading this blog post I’ll be spending time with my parents back in Israel.

A few weeks ago I was talking with my father and he was telling me with huge sadness in his voice that this year none of his daughters would be with him and my mother during my brother’s memorial.

Eight years ago our family’s world was shuttered when my younger brother was killed. He was barely 40.  I cannot think of a worse nightmare for any parent than the one of losing one’s child.

With all the pain and sadness that I have experienced I could not compare it to the one my parents were going through. Even though we were all grown up kids and both my brother and me had our own families, a child is always a child for his own parents.

However, life is stronger than any pain or sadness. Life goes on and so do people. During the years this day was always a day when we got together and allowed the pain and the love to come up.

This year my father said that somehow all of us (three girls) were caught up in our own life and somehow managed to be outside the country on that day.

He wasn’t saying it in order to make me feel guilty; he wasn’t saying it in order to make feel ashamed that I forgot them. It was said in his usual dry, “matter of fact” tone of voice. There was no demand in his voice, no pleading for pity or anything.

After ending that conversation I couldn’t rest, I was busy checking my agenda, checking flights back home and mostly asking myself a question that you should ask yourself.

You see, I came to realize that no matter how much we all know we would die one day, we tend to take life for granted. We tend to think that we are invincible and that we DO HAVE TIME. We tend to waste our precious time as if there will be tomorrow.

If there was one thing my brother’s death taught me was, we need to cherish each day that we live as we never know what would come tomorrow.

The question that I had on my mind after that talk with my father was – If I knew that I had only one more year with my parents would I be doing what I am doing today? If you knew you have only one year to live, would you be doing what you are doing today?

The answer to that question was not an easy one to face.

I realized that many of the things I’m doing today I would probably stop doing.

Many of the projects that I’m spending today time on I would stop doing.

Many of the people I’m spending time with, I would limit my time with them and spend more time with other people,

if I knew that I have only one more year to live.

This realization made it very clear and left no doubt on what I had to do.

I went online and booked a ticket to Israel to spend even just 4 days with my parents this week.

You might ask yourself what’s that got to do with me?

What’s that got to do with a business blog?

Here is the answer – You don’t know how long you have. You might find out that you wake up tomorrow

and your target audience is listening to someone else. Or that someone else is selling them YOUR message and vision.

You better start telling people what you have to tell them and what you have to give them otherwise you might find that it’s too late.

You better start focusing in what is truly important in your business and spend most of your time on that. When you ask yourself this question it makes everything clear and doubts disappear. That’s the one question you need to ask each morning when you wake up in order to create clarity for that day.

A business is just like any other relationship. You have a relationship with your audience and you don’t know when they might leave you. You better say the important things to them as soon as possible. Don’t hold back.

Now I’m curious…

What would you do if you had one year to live?

How would you spend it?

Who would you spend your time with?

Share with us the comment box below.

If you find this article inspiring, please SHARE it on Facebook, LinkedIn or retweet it, by pushing the button on the left, for the right channel, so more women could benefit from it.

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Have a magical week! Vered

How to Capture Any Audience

I just finished giving an amazing weekend, which is part of our yearly program the Business University, the weekend was the Master Presenter weekend and it was all about how you can become a great presenter and speaker.

Giving valuable presentation is one of the ways that you can establish yourself as an expert in your field. The problem is that most presenters suffer form what I call the Corporate World Syndrome – which means they are… BORING.

Here are four simple rules that would make sure that you will be a top presenter and that your audience will be will be paying attention to what you have to say to them.

It takes an audience about 15 seconds to decide whether your presentation is worth their attention. Fritter away those fifteen seconds and your audience will either mentally check out or pull out their phones to start texting.

Here’s how to begin a presentation so that your audience really sits up and takes notice.

1. Take your time to get to the stage.

Most presenters think that if they run to the stage that would cover their nervousness and that it would “pump them up” so when they get to the stage they would have high energy.

Nothing is farther away from the truth. Running to the stage would create the opposite. You will get on stage breathing heavily (especially if you’re out of shape…) and more important you’ll be focusing on your fears instead of being centered and focused in what you wish to deliver.

Instead walk steady to the stage (don’t have to be too slow), stand in the center of the stage and just center yourself by taking a few deep breath on stage while scanning the room and looking for friendly faces.

This way once you open your mouth, you already got the attention of the people and you are centered and focused.

2. Do not start with a joke.

Unless you are a stand-up comedian (if you are, I have no clue why you are reading my blog…) never start with a joke. I have no idea how the “warm-up joke” became part of common-sense speaker’s arena wisdom.

Most of the time those jokes are as old as Moses or worse… not funny.

3. Open with questions.

To get an audience focused on what you’re going to tell them, you must first break through the “mental noise” that causes their attention to fade away.

The best way to get the audience engaged is by asking them two questions that would hook their mind on the answer and would force their brain to be focused on what YOU want them to be focused.

The truth is that your mind is nothing more than an… answering machine. When I ask you a question your mind cannot stop from looking for the answer, even if you don’t have the answer, which makes you even more engaged in what I wanted you to be.

As a presenter you want your audience to be engaged with what you have to speak to them about. Therefore starting with two questions or maybe three would get the attention of your audience.

Make sure that the questions are simple and not too complicated.

4. Do not give your “background”.

So many presenters are starting by telling their corporate background in order to build credibility. (Example: “I’ve been working in the education field for 35 years!”)

The problem here is that at the start of a presentation nobody cares about you or your company. You’re asking them to translate your background information into something that’s meaningful to them and their business. Why should they bother?

What you need to do is engage them by telling them your personal story so they could connect with you and realize – “hey this gal, has something meaningful for me I can learn something from her”.

So this is it in a nutshell…

Now I’m curious…

What are your tips in how to start a GREAT presentation?.

Share with us your tips and advice in how to get the audience engaged immediately?

Share with us in, the comment box below.

If you find this article inspiring, please SHARE it on Facebook, LinkedIn or retweet it, by pushing the button on the left, for the right channel, so more women could benefit from it.

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Have a magical week! Vered

Success = Thinking Differentely

When I was young my mother kept telling me I need to fit in. I needed to adjust to how the other kids are. Basically she was telling me – “be normal”.

I never liked that concept. But as a young person popularity is everything, and you tend to do anything that would make people like you and therefore you adjust. So very quickly I learned that in order to be liked and popular I better do things, which most people think are “normal”. I shouldn’t do things too outrageous, because then they might look at me as weird and no one wants to be labeled as weird.

The good thing about crossing the age of 50 is that you care less about what people might think about you and you start-doing things your own way. It feels so much better and much more free.

What I found interesting was that the more I do things out of the ordinary, the more I do things differently, the more success I have. Isn’t that funny???

As a young person we want popularity because we think that popularity would bring us into success.

It makes sense. The more people would like you the more success you’d have.

Especially in business, this was just pure common sense – the more people like you, your product, your service – the more success you’ll have.

As the years went by I realized that this common sense is not always right. It might be common sense, but I learned that the majority of people (the common people) are… BROKE, which means not so successful…

The more I look around I find that whether in business or in personal life the so-called common sense doesn’t always lead to success.

I found out that thinking and doing things differently would bring you to success faster.

You see most people would walk on the path of the common sense. The majority of people would do things according to what they call “normal”, which means – that road, that path would be over crowded. The competition there would be much tougher and much more fierce.

However, if you take the road that most people don’t take you’ll have much more chance in reaching success and in an easier way.

When you look at successful people you’d realize that most of them have done it in a counter-intuitive way. Which means that they did things in a different way than most people did.

It means that they were willing to stand up and be different and do things against what seemed to be the obvious and intuitive way of doing things.

This is what made them remark-able. That’s the reason people talked about them or their products and services. Isn’t that what you want for your own business?

It’s not easy to do things differently, to take then risk that you might be ridiculed.

But on the other hand the opportunity on that path is HUGE.

It’s not easy to develop a product that goes against what people perceive as common sense, but once you do, it has so many rewards, and not just financially.

Once you create a product or a service that is special and different, people would talk about it… which makes it remark-able! People can remark about it and would remember it.

And once you have a remarkable product you can call it a success.

What I learned in life is that, in life and in business, success is daring to be different and go against the common sense.

Now it’s your turn…

Share with us what are you doing differently than others?

Share with us your tips, suggestions or advice how to create a remarkable product/service or how to BE remarkable? Share with us in, the comment box below.

If you find this article inspiring, please SHARE it on Facebook, LinkedIn or retweet it, by pushing the button on the left, for the right channel, so more women could benefit from it.

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Have a magical week! Vered

7 Steps in Telling a Great Story

A few weeks ago I was giving my seminar Women Do Marketing Differently. Part of it was about mistakes women make with marketing.

One of those mistakes was the fact that many of the businesswomen are still trapped in the “old school” of marketing. When they communicate they try to be professional instead of telling a story. Many women are still hesitating in telling their own story and sharing their own S.O.S – How their Story of Struggle turned into a Story of Success.

Nothing sales better today than telling a story, if that story is been told correctly. Stories that are told well are always about people and events that changed people’s lives in some way, anecdotes create emotion and interest. They teach without preaching. They paint mental pictures that are worth a thousand buzzwords.

Here is a seven-step process how to tell a good story:

1. Start with the End in mind.

You don’t tell a story for the sake of telling it. You need to know exactly what you want the listener to believe, understand or do when you’ve completed the story.  In social settings, stories are generally told to strengthen relationships; you might tell a funny story, for instance in order to “break the ice” so everyone could laugh and feel closer to you and everyone else.

The same thing is true in business you want to show that you are an authentic person so they could get to know you and then like you and in the end trust you. In addition to creating a better relationship, the story should shed some light on whatever product or service you wish to present to your audience.

For example, if you are a web designer you might want to tell a story about a client you helped, or how you improved someone’s web presence and prevented a disaster in sales for that person.  If you’re trying to nurture trust, you might tell a story about how you overcame temptation and did the right thing.

2. Have a punch line.

Every story has a beginning, middle and an end. However, when you tell a story, the most important is the ending of the story, which should make the point that you’re trying to communicate.

For example, if you want to convince a customer that your services are reliable and that you will over-deliver than anyone else, you might select a story where you or your team worked through a holiday weekend to make sure a customer got what she needed and you fixed it faster than they would have thought it would be possible.

3. Use the 5 “W” questions to direct your story.

The number one mistake people make when telling a story is that they do not use the imagination of the listener from the start. Memorable stories engage the imagination, which is only possible if you create images in the listener’s mind to make the story real and relevant.

If you read or watched any great story or movie it starts with a person (who is going to do something), a place (where things are going to happen), a time (so people can relate “then” to “now”), and just a hint of direction, indicating where the story is headed.

Here are some examples from famous stories (and a gold star to anyone who recognizes all three):

In a hole in the ground there lived a hobbit. Not a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms: it was a hobbit-hole and that means comfort.
Call me Ishmael. Some years ago – never mind how long precisely – having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I though I would sail about a little…
Alice was beginning to get very tired of sitting by her sister on the bank, and of having nothing to do …

4. Emotional is memorable.

Memorable stories are always attached to powerful emotions. Add emotional power by putting the four elements above into stronger context.  For example, suppose the simple facts of your story begin like this:

It was late Friday before a long weekend holiday, and I got a call from one of my most loyal clients. Her husband recently died and she discovered that the only thing he had left her were… debts. At the same time her business was losing money. 

Now, here’s the same beginning, but with some additional details for context:

A few months ago I was on the edge of a burnout I’ve been launching a new line of coaching services and creating a whole web presence. After months of hard work and overtime, I was looking forward to a long holiday weekend, the first in months without a looming deadline.  As you can imagine, that Friday was almost like a holiday itself.  I was relaxed and happy. Then I get this call…

The first version might spark some interest, especially among people who live and breathe coaching, but the second version makes you “feel like you’re there.”

5. Every story is a journey of overcoming obstacles.

Every memorable story has a plot–usually a goal that the character must achieve, along with the obstacles that might prevent them from achieving the goal.

For example, in the story about coaching your client, the complications might be:

The customer was frustrated and uncooperative.
The coach was exhausted.
The customer problem was difficult to solve.
The clock was ticking toward a hard deadline.

6. Describe the turning point.

In every story, there is a turning point–a decision–that allows the person or people involved to overcome the obstacle and achieve the goal.

In the case of the coaching story, for instance, the turning point might be when the coach said something that triggered the person to be willing to listen, or that the coach realized where the real problem is and gave a 3 step solution to it.

It’s important not to confuse the decision (or turning point) with the ending of the story.  The turning point is not “what happened”–it’s the decision that caused what happened to happen.

7. Provide the lesson from the story.

You end the story by describing how the goal was achieved; thereby tying that ending to the lesson you want to leave in the mind of the listener.

For example, the coaching story might end with:

By Sunday evening after spending a few hours of coaching not only was she stronger to face her challenges, but also she had a plan of what to do on Monday morning with her finance and she vowed to “never give up on her dreams”. 

Now I’m curious…

What would be YOUR STORY that you would tell to gain the TRUST of your customers?.

Share with us your stories in how to gain the trust of your target audience

Share with us in, the comment box below.

If you find this article inspiring, please SHARE it on Facebook, LinkedIn or retweet it, by pushing the button on the left, for the right channel, so more women could benefit from it.

Please share this article with your:



- LinkedIn connections
and blog readers...

Have a magical week! Vered

Lessons From Margaret Thatcher

On Monday the world said goodbye to one of the most iconic women leaders that we had in the 20th century.

Margaret Thatcher is NOT my chosen role model for women’s leadership, certainly not for feminine leadership.

However, no matter what I think, or anyone else in this case, about her style of leadership, the fact remains that she was, one of the pioneers and trail blazer, for us women, in stepping up and taking the lead.

No other woman comes to my mind, when we speak about willing to “lean-in” than Margaret Thatcher. Much before  Sheryl Sandberg used this phrase Margaret Thatcher was doing just that.

A daughter of a grocery owner and a dress maker Thatcher always stressed her roots back to this humble beginnings and kept having the interests of businesses at the top of her economy philosophy. She was the one that coned the term “there is no alternative for free markets and free economy”

Margaret Thatcher might not fit into the new way of looking at leadership – cooperative, listening, working with teams and sensitive. She was definitely none of the above. There is a reason why she was called the Iron Lady.

She was strong-minded, not willing to be flexible and certainly absolutely righteous when it comes to her opinions, even when reality showed her that it’s not working. Maybe that was the reason for her down fall.

I believe she did not have other role models to show her other ways of being a woman leader and she had to do it the way it was done at that time. We women of today have other role models. We still can learn a lot from Margaret Thatcher of what we can do in order to take the lead.

The only reason that we do not see more women in leadership positions in government, business, finance and community is not any more the outside circumstances, it’s only our willing to step forward. WE need to do it.

I’m aware that some of you might be still thinking it’s a “man’s world out there”, but if there is one woman that shows us that it is not true is Margaret Thatcher.

Let’s see what are the lessons that we can learn from her that would allow more women to step forward.

Find Mentors

They say, “Success leaves clues”. More than anything women need not just role models to show them that things are possible, we need mentors that would teach us how to do it and give us advice on the way.

Margaret Thatcher had a tutor in Oxford University that encouraged her to logically work her challenges and turn them into solutions.

Speak Up

Women tend to take the back seat around the table, when discussion take place and wait for others to give them permission to speak.

Thatcher was a genius in knowing when to speak up and in navigating herself to sit at the table at the right time and in the right place. She was a genius at political timing, sensing the moment to grab a power seat when the table was in disarray in the ’70 when the Tories were falling in power.

Take Risks

Most women when they hear the word risk would tend to step backward. But when it comes to leadership you would always have to take the risk and do what is not popular and what are not people expect from you.

Margaret Thatcher had no problem taking those unpopular steps and take risks that others were not willing to take. She was willing to push for budget cuts when her advisers, including influential U.S. supply-siders, advised her to emphasize tax cuts. “Pennies don’t fall from heaven,” Thatcher said in 1979, the year she took office. “They have to be earned here on Earth.”

That is why they called her the Iron Lady. Her party tended to cave and reverse policy under political pressure, but not Thatcher: “This lady’s not for turning,” she famously declared.

Persistence

The one element that keeps coming back as the one that makes the difference between success and mediocrity is persistence and never giving up.

Margaret Thatcher ran twice for office in her 20s and lost in both times, but she didn’t give up she kept going to it until she reached the top.

You can have it all

Even though she was leading her country Margaret Thatcher still had a husband who was supportive to her career and two children. She did not give up on her role as a wife and as a mother. She found a way of combining it all. She wasn’t willing to give up on any of those roles.  Yes, it might not have been the traditional way of being a wife or a mother, but she found a way of doing it all together.

Now it’s your turn…

If you look at all those lessons, what would you pick up and adapt to your business?

Share with us your tips, suggestions or advice how you take the lead?

Share with us in, the comment box below.

If you find this article inspiring, please SHARE it on Facebook, LinkedIn or retweet it, by pushing the button on the left, for the right channel, so more women could benefit from it.

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Have a magical week! Vered

 

Can You Measure Trust?

Last Saturday I gave the seminar Women Do Marketing Differently in my yearly program Women Do Business Differently.

I realized that many women do not know the difference between marketing and sales. They see them as the same and because of that they miss the huge advantage that they can have in today’s economy.

They say that clarity is power. Nowhere is it truer than when it comes to business. In business clarity is not only power it would mean the difference between success and struggle.

If you’re not clear about the difference between marketing and sales you are missing the most important ingredient that would make your sales easier, faster and efficiently.

The job of marketing is to make sales redundant!

If you are not clear about that you are making the biggest mistake in your business, as you are not focusing on the right element.

When you get clear about this definition you start focusing your marketing strategy on taking your audience through the cycle that would bring them naturally to want your product or service.

This cycle consists of three important steps – they need to KNOW about you, they need to LIKE you and most of all they need to TRUST you.

The question is how do you bring your prospects to TRUST you?

How would you know if they trust you? How would you be able to quantify trust?

Just like in any relationship without trust there will be NO relationship or the relation-SHIP would turn to relation-SHIT.

In your personal life you probably know to evaluate when the trust is down and you can recognize when it is low and the effects of it. In business it is usually regarded as a “soft” quality that cannot be measured and therefore is treated like the Loch Ness monster – “we heard about it, but we’ve never seen it”.

The book by Stephen M.R. Covey called The Speed of Trust shows us how trust is actually a fundamental issue for the success of a company and how it can be measured. Although Stephan Covey is focusing on big business what he shows is just as true for small businesses and to your own business.

Stephen Covey starts by explaining that trust means confidence. The opposite of trust is suspicious. When you trust people, you have confidence in them. You have confidence in their integrity, in their abilities and in what they do. When you don’t trust people what you are, in reality, is suspicious about them. You are suspicious about their integrity, about their motives, about their agenda, their capabilities and track record.

Which means that if your clients do not trust you or your product and service, it means that they are suspicious about your motives, about your ability to help them, about your reasons to help them and about your capability to deliver the promise that you say you could.

When you realize this simple definition you can come up with a clear formula to see why trust is essential to the success of any business.

When trust is low customers would be cautious of what they are doing, you’ll have to invest a lot of time and money in convincing them why you can deliver what they want and that your track record is good. The costs of your marketing will be soaring while your income will be lower, your ROI will be low.

When trust is high customers would be willing to take risk, customers will be taking your offer quick, you will not have to invest a lot in convincing them, they will be willing to buy and spend money with you just because they trust you and not for any other reason. They will be willing to go with their emotional decision much faster without the need of their rational mind that need proof. Your revenues will be soaring.

This clear formula explains why trust is so essential in the success and growth of any business. Suddenly the “T-Factor” is clearer and less “soft” or vague; it can be quantified and checked.

Now I’m curious…

What are YOU doing in your business to gain the TRUST of your customers?.

Share with us your tips, suggestions or advice how to gain the trust of your target audience

Share with us in, the comment box below.

If you find this article inspiring, please SHARE it on Facebook, LinkedIn or retweet it, by pushing the button on the left, for the right channel, so more women could benefit from it.

Please share this article with your:



- LinkedIn connections
and blog readers...

Have a magical week! Vered

Women Do Marketing Differently

On Saturday I gave the first seminar in my new program Women Do Business Differently. The seminar was about Women Do Marketing Differently

One of the main issues that we talked about was that although women feel that business has to be done differently most of them would operate in the “normal” way of doing business and marketing which is what I call the masculine type of business and leadership.

What is the difference one might ask? Well… Have you been lately into a local supermarket? Have you noticed how many brands of breakfast cereals are on the shelves? How many different brands of breakfast cereals are you actually eating? Few!

If so, why do we need all this variety? The truth is – we don’t!

Our society is absorbed in a mad race after…MORE! More breakfast cereals, more car brands, more money, more influence, more, more, more… The reasons? Competition, power, survival and consumption.

These are only few of the characteristics of (what I call), the Masculine Energy business.

We can find those characteristics everywhere. In business, politics, organized religions, social organizations and even families.

If you take a break for a moment from the rat race you’ll notice that today, humanity have arrived at saturation point. The price we pay is everywhere to be seen.

Wars and conflict dot the globe, huge economic and social differences exist between the West and the impoverished third world. The wealthy abide in magnificent mansions in every metropolis, whilst thousands exist without homes. Workaholism, and a frightening incidence of suicides, especially with the young generation, scar our nations.

Which leads naturally to the question, is there any other way?

I believe there is. I call it, the Feminine Business approach. That has no connection to gender!!!

Instead of competition as a means to success, using cooperation; instead of  ‘me first, f*ck you’, an approach of service and win-win solutions; instead of criticism, the use of acknowledgments; instead of indulgence – preservation; and so on…

As the number of choices in our life grows, we are seeking for a balance in our lives between our inner and outer worlds; between the demands of our jobs and those of our families; between our focus on material affluence and our quest for spiritual meaning; between our preoccupation with our individual dilemmas and our awareness of the challenges facing society at large.

So how can we create this balance? It starts with bringing Feminine business approach into our workplace and business.

In the workplace we can see two types of leaders: The leader (Feminine Business) and the Boss (Masculine Business). As I said, it had has nothing to do with gender!

Most authorities in our business world are operating, mostly automatically, within structure of the Masculine Business approach as we adopted our society’s values of high achievements, discipline, performances, order, competition, aggressiveness, etc.

Let us remember that we do need some of those approaches in order to be successful. In order to be a long-term successful you will need discipline, you will need to have high performance, you will need to set high goals and act upon them.

However, you will also need in today’s New Economy to be personal, to be vulnerable, to listen, and share with your teams, customers and suppliers. All those are more Feminine Business approaches.

Lets take a look at a few real-life situations:

The project is stuck. The Boss looks for someone to blame and to punish. In business it would show up as blaming the customers for not understanding how good the service/product is for them.

Alternatively, the leader, aware of his part, acknowledges the efforts that were made, and focuses on solutions.

Staff meeting. The Boss issues orders.

The Leader states the vision, and brainstorms the process, with the staff.

Sales are down. The Boss calls a meeting and tells everybody, “Here is what we are going to do.”

The leader calls a meeting and asks, “How can I support you?” In business – the leader will ask the customers “How can I improve my services to you?”

Handling change. The Boss tries to control and direct the change.

The leader understands that change is the only constant phenomenon and goes with it.

Marketing. The Boss declares the competitor as the enemy.

The leader looks for joint ventures.

Problem solving. The Boss knows all the answers.

The leader asks the right questions.

Now it’s your turn…

Share with us how you work in your business.

Share with us your tips, suggestions or advice how to work more with feminine business approach that works

Share with us in, the comment box below.

If you find this article inspiring, please SHARE it on Facebook, LinkedIn or retweet it, by pushing the button on the left, for the right channel, so more women could benefit from it.

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Have a magical week! Vered

It’s More Fun – Being Who You Are

Two weeks ago the world celebrated International Women’s Day (March 8). Without taking away the importance of this day, having this day makes me think how come we need to celebrate a day for us for just being a woman.

How come we are so focused on trying to prove that we are worth something and we need special days of the year to remind us that we are important and that we do make a difference in this world?

When I was 21, I had my first real experience, of what it means to be totally ME. I felt whole.

At that time, I was living in the Sinai desert, in charge of the logistics of different archaeological excavations. For weeks I was alone – only the vast desert and me. I had time and space to see myself, as I am, and I loved myself.

Unfortunately, I forgot that experience and integrated the more popular viewpoint, that no one is perfect, and that I need to do something with myself (or my life) in order to feel that wholeness again.

For years I was afraid of looking in the mirror and seeing the woman that I was. I was scared of ‘being me’ and as a result I did my best to be ’someone else’ or ‘like the others’. It didn’t work out too well.

‘The others’ were always better than me in being them…

Do you recognize this pattern?

How did it all start? When did you start giving up on who you are?

What happens is that early on you received the message that what you do is not OK, or what you think is wrong.

As a child, you normally interpret this feedback as who you are is not OK and thus you develop negative beliefs about yourself. From this point, the road is very short to the creation of your image and thus giving up on who you are.

We are all afraid of showing who we are, as we believe there is a ‘right’ way to be.

We are afraid that if we will show how we really feel, or what we really think, ‘they’ would not like us, or criticize or judge us.

Once we let that fear rule our life, we give up our authenticity and begin to live within an elaborate lie.

We can, however, choose to live differently.

When you allow yourself to experience and express who you are in the moment, you usually discover that ‘they’ like you as you are and prefer you real and authentic.

You realize that you are your own judges, criticizers and worst enemy.

Look at nature. Everything in nature is unique and different and perfect as it is.

The willow tree does not compare itself to the oak tree thus allowing us to enjoy the beauty of both.

The ocean is always different, yet it is always perfect.

It’s only us who need to compare ourselves to somebody else…

So how do we break through this pattern of behavior?

The way out is to realize that there is NOTHING wrong with who you are.

You are the best person to be you and you do that perfectly.

Look at all you have accomplished in your life, see how much energy, creativity and wisdom you have put in it, and then acknowledge yourself for it.

Look at all your qualities and abilities, without comparing them to those of anyone else, and without judging them as low or high, enough or not enough.

Just list them and see how much you have given to yourself and the world and how much you can still give.

Would you like to know the person with those qualities?

Relax and enjoy who you are. It costs less energy and is so much more easy and fun.

Remember, you don’t have to rehearse to be yourself…

Now it’s you turn…

Share with us what makes you special? What are the qualities you posses that you are proud of?

Share it with us in the box below - so others would know about you

Lets’ support each other in enjoying our own uniqueness.

If you find this article inspiring, please SHARE it on Facebook, LinkedIn or retweet it, by pushing the button on the left for the right channel, so more women could benefit from it.

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Have a magical week! Vered

Marketing Without Strategy is a Waste of Time

If you’ve been with me in the day of  “Women Do Business Differently”, you probably know by now that I am big believer of thinking FIRST Strategy and only then tactics.

I believe one of the biggest traps women fall into is that they rush into marketing tactics in order to “save the day” as they call it.

Do you recognize this pattern in your business?

If you do, don’t beat yourself up – when I started I used to fall into this trap over and over again until I defined for myself what is strategy and what is tactics.

Strategy and tactics must go together in order for your business to reach it’s full potential and achieve the goals that you wish. But for that to happen you MUST FIRST have an effective strategy in place and only then come up with the tactics you wish to use.

If you’ve taken any kind of business training, seminars, webinars or read any books any one of them would have said the same. However, most women entrepreneurs have it hard to get their head around what does it mean marketing strategy.

Let me try and make it simple for you.

Let us start with what it isn’t – Marketing Strategy is NOT:

A wish list
Goals
Mission statement
Set of Values

For me the best definition of what is marketing strategy was given by John Jantsch founder of DuctTapeMarketing.com.

Yes, I know, it’s a man!!! – However, as I said in the seminar, this mistake demands from us to use more of our masculine energy, so nothing wrong in learning it from those that are good at it….

Marketing Strategy is a clear explanation of how you’re going to get there, not where or what there is. An effective marketing strategy is a concise explanation of your stated plan of execution to reach your objectives

Goals and missions and objectives are nice, but how you plan to achieve them – otherwise known as strategy corresponding with a logical set of tactics – is the best way to reach your end result.

A marketing strategy is how you plan to use the available resources to build an ongoing case that your business, products and services are the obvious choice for a narrowly defined ideal customer.

Here are 3 steps you should consider when building your marketing strategy:

1. Know Your Ideal Client

In order to create an effective marketing strategy you must have in mind whom would it attract?

Using your ideal client profile as the basis of your strategy allows you to think very carefully about how you serve them and how you use your tactics to attract them. Without having your focus on this crucial element your marketing strategy would not have clarity and it will be go “all over the place”.

2. You Were Born to Stand Up

Too many women entrepreneurs are trying to “fit in” or to play it the way everyone else does it. This would never work. You need to make sure that you stand out from the rest. However, you need to make sure that your clients recognize this as an advantage and that they value it.

In order to find out what they value all you need to do is… ask them what it is that they value. Once you find it make it your own – add to it your flavor, your colors and identity. Don’t be shy let them connect it with who you are as a person.

If you don’t take this step seriously everything else you do in terms of marketing will be far less effective. That’s how important standing up and being different is.

3. Integrate everything

The last step in the marketing strategy is to put together everything that you’ve done previously – defining your ideal client and creating what is special about you and putting it together into a planned strategy.

For those of you who have registered to the series of  ”Women Do Business Differently” in the coming seminar we will be devoting time to work through this process.

Meanwhile…

Share with us what have you found that works for you in defining your Ideal Client.

Share with us your tips, suggestions or advice how to define your Ideal Client

Share with us in, the comment box below.

If you find this article inspiring, please SHARE it on Facebook, LinkedIn or retweet it, by pushing the button on the left, for the right channel, so more women could benefit from it.

Please share this article with your:



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and blog readers...

Have a magical week! Vered