How to Stand Out amongst Other Women Entrepreneurs
As more and more of the female population decides to start a business, it gets harder to stand out amongst other women entrepreneurs. However, it can be done. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.
Utilize Social Media
Social media can be used for so much more than keeping in touch with friends and family. Create pages for both yourself and your business on multiple social media sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, etc.). Then, share content that shows off the things that you have to offer.
Be sure to highlight ways that you are different than your competition. For example, if you’re the only day care service in your town that also provides transportation, be sure to bring that up in your posts.
Keep Your Promises
Clients and customers alike will notice when you deliver on every aspect of a promise that you make to them. Make sure that you finish everything that you start, and that you get it done in a timely manner. People remember that you were true to your word, and keep that in mind when deciding who to do business with in the future.
Go the Extra Mile
Doing more than is expected of you when working with clients or customers is a sure way to set yourself and your business apart from competitors in your field. If you can offer an extra feature or service that your competitors don’t, that’s an excellent point to make when trying to “sell” yourself to potential customers.
Give Out Free Samples
People tend to get pretty excited about the idea of getting something for free. Consider investing in promotional objects like pens, mouse pads, t-shirts, or fridge magnets. It may not seem like much, but gifts like this with your logo on them can go a long way toward setting yourself apart from your peers.
Listen to Feedback
Even if you are successful when you launch your business, you won’t be able to keep up with the changing landscape if you aren’t able to adapt as a business owner. Take every opportunity that you can to collect feedback from customers and other businesses that you work with.
One way to do this is to provide customers with a satisfaction survey, either in person or via email. Make sure to include a section that lets the customer fill in suggestions on how you could improve your service. Not only will this give you an idea of how you can do better, it also lets your customers know that their opinion matters to you.
These are just a few ways to help to ensure that you stand out among the sea of female entrepreneurs. Yes, competition is fierce. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t be successful. With perseverance and due diligence, chances are you’ll realize continued growth along your well-deserved journey to success.
How to Use Your Feminine and Masculine Energy While in Business
If we look at a list of the top CEOs in the world, almost all of them are men. If we look at the US, there has never been a woman president, though there have been female statesmen at the head of many other countries for many years. Why is this the case?
It isn’t simply an issue of gender; it is an issue of masculine versus feminine energy. Male energy is very action-oriented, driving hard and not permitting there to be more than one way to do things or look at things. Female energy on the other hand is very creative, flowing and allows for other approaches and points of view.
Both men and women possess masculine and feminine energies. It has nothing to do with sexual orientation and everything to do with action and communication. Yin and yang, Shakti and Shiva, female and male energies, have been seen as different for thousands of years, and the goal has been to balance them in order to maintain harmony.
There are a number of ways to use your feminine energy in the workplace without seeming too “weak” or “girlie”.
A Harmonious Workplace
“Business as usual” is the attitude in most companies; one that is driven into workers no matter what the reality of the situation and economy. Emotions are discouraged, action is encouraged, and any voice of seeming dissent is disregarded or gotten rid of through lay-offs.
But workers are human beings, not human doings. They will also get disgusted and leave a company where they feel they are not being valued as people. Women will often be those who work harder even under the toughest circumstances, and also set the tone. Women are more comfortable with strong emotions than men and can therefore express them in positive, problem-solving ways, not fly off the handle and bully others the way some male managers will.
A Creative Workspace
Feminine energy also leads to more creativity, something that is not usually encouraged in businesses where people just want to get the job done and go home. “I wonder what would happen if,” is not a dangerous phrase in a work environment that is feminine in nature, and that’s where true innovation and achievement can begin.
Nurturing Leadership and Mentorship
Feminine leadership tends to be more nurturing, and like a mentor-mentee relationship. Look at the number of women who go into education and work as teachers. Yet most administrative roles such as principal and dean go to men. Women value connection and foster personal growth in the workplace. They understand the value of team work, not the “lone wolf” approach.
Women can also transition from masculine to feminine energy more easily. It is great to get input about a new project, but it is also essential to meet the deadlines.
Women entrepreneurs should not make any apology for their feminine energy or try to “man up”. Instead, they need to embrace the differences and study the best times to switch from one energy type to the other, in order to run their business efficiently.
How Women Can Learn to Use Graceful Flow for Success in Life
Many business women make the mistake of thinking that they have to abandon their feminine side and embrace all things masculine in order to get ahead in business. The truth is that no matter what job or industry you are working in, you will never be truly successful and happy in your career if you are pretending to be something that you’re not.
You might think the role of hard-headed businessman is the only way to succeed in top companies, but most businesses have more than enough of this type. Their masculine energy rides roughshod over anyone who doesn’t meet their exacting, and often unrealistically high standards. It also silences any disagreement or any creative thinking that might come into conflict with their vision of how things “should” be done.
Feminine energy is a lot less action oriented. It is softer, more creative and flexible. Feminine energy goes with the flow. It doesn’t try to redirect the river.
The Idea of Graceful Flow
The idea of flow is that everything should come to us naturally, without us chasing all over the place after things we think will make us happier, more successful, more… whatever. Flow is about accepting what is good in life without wanting more or pushing it away because we think we don’t deserve it. It is also about attracting the good things in life through correct action. If we work hard on a project, for example, good results will follow.
Flow is also about a vision of how things can be better, but organically. If you want to grow a wonderful rose, you can’t keep tugging at it to make it grow faster. The result would just cause it to wither and die on the vine.
The Secret of the Secret
The very popular book The Secret resonated with a lot of people who wanted to learn more about abundance and flow. It is also commonly termed the law of attraction. Instead of exhausting yourself chasing after all the things you want, you can take actions that will make those good things come to you. The result is a lot less stress and a great deal more success and satisfaction.
A lot of business people get so caught up in the idea of more – more customers, money, and profits – that they fail to appreciate what they actually have. They get so stressed that their health starts to fail. They also say or do unskillful things which result in poor relationships in the workplace, and unhappy clients who go to businesses who will treat them better.
The Pareto Principle tells us that 20% of your customers are responsible for 80% of your profits. Graceful flow in this case would therefore mean nurturing these relationships as much as possible to sustain them over the long term.
The energy can be directed in a positive, purposeful way, with laser focus – not negative, aimless and anxious. Graceful flow will bring success without having to stress over it, for more harmony and balance within the company, the business community at large, and within yourself as a woman entrepreneur.
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