Five Mistakes Women in Business Make

Elizabeth Gordon is the author of a news book that’s designed to help women entrepreneurs who want to build a profitable business go “from flats to stilettos.” The book is called: “The Chic Entrepreneur.

Here are the Five Mistakes, she says we should avoid:

1. Sales and marketing: Women fear looking like a pushy salesperson and have a resistance to charging a high price. Selling too softly, and not being willing to go after a premium niche and declare a high price for the value she is providing can handicap a business’s ability to generate revenue.

2. Planning: Business plan? What business plan? Women often go by their intuition when making decisions concerning their business instead of writing out a strategic business plan and sticking to it. While using intuition in business can be a strength, intuition should not be the only decision-making criteria.

3. Measurement and money: Women entrepreneurs often start a business because they seek a greater sense of fulfillment, meaning, connection, or flexibility. Because profit is not always the main motive, the need to put strong financial controls in place is often ignored. As a result, cash flow often becomes a critical issue. Finance is the language of business so women must get comfortable with their numbers. In addition to looking at overall revenue figures, understand fixed and variable costs, know your break-even point and growth rate. Do monthly, quarterly and yearly trend analysis. Examine expenses, and learn how to read a profit and loss statement and balance sheet.

4. Vision: Women in business often do not have a big enough vision for their company. They focus on making enough money to just get by, rather than on creating an asset of real value and maximizing their wealth. Dare to dream a larger vision. There is nothing greedy about sharing one’s business value across a larger spectrum; on the contrary, it is more generous to grow, as women can do more good this way.

5. Long Range Personal Plan: Most women start service-based organizations, but never take themselves out of the role of performing the service. Because most women start businesses with lifestyle considerations in mind, they are not willing to sacrifice their lifestyle to create an organization. It’s not impossible to do both. A woman entrepreneur can still have her desired lifestyle and the financial well-being that growing a profitable and large company can provide. The foundation of the business has to be structured properly to enable growth. A businesswoman then becomes the strategic leader of the organization.

“A flourishing business is one that grows naturally,” concludes Gordon. “Once a woman understands the critical components to running her business, her business will bloom like a flower coming out of the earth; she won’t have to push it up out of the ground. She will have built a system that perpetually works, grows, and bears fruit.”

For a free copy of Elizabeth Gordon’s 20-page Ebook, “The Secrets of My Success,” or to order “The Chic Entrepreneur,” please visit Chic Entrepreneur.com.

MetLife Named a Best Company for Multicultural Women

MetLife has been recognized by Working Mother magazine as a 2008 Best Company for Multicultural Women for the third year in a row. The Working Mother Best Companies for Multicultural Women initiative celebrates employers that are establishing groundbreaking diversity policies and programs to encourage the hiring and advancement of African-American, Hispanic, Asian-American and Native American women.

Just one example of MetLife’s programs to support diverse women is its Global Women’s Leadership Forum. Launched in 2007, this forum brought together MetLife’s senior women officers and diversity leaders from across the company and the globe to promote networking and knowledge-sharing among women leaders. The forum kicked off with a discussion about how to take diversity, inclusion and women’s advancement to the next level, and will continue throughout the year with webinars, regional small group meetings and other opportunities for candid conversations.

Best Companies for Multicultural Women show a dramatic increase in the number of women of color who are senior managers and that women of color represented 13% of all new hires last year, 14% of all employees, and 7% of top 20% earners at the winning firms. The report also finds that Gen Y thinks about race and gender far differently than Gen X and Baby Boomers—and are changing the discussion about race and ethnicity in the process. Unlike their Boomer parents, Gen Y’s tend to look beyond skin color for their identity, choosing instead to define themselves by age or lifestyle. This shift is causing companies to rethink their diversity strategies so that they resonate with a group that’s eager for speedy advancement.

The 2008 Working Mother Best Companies for Multicultural Women were selected through a detailed application process that covers a wide variety of questions about a company’s workforce (such as number of women of color in top positions); culture (programs for women of color); external programs (diversity activities); and work/life programs (child care, elder care). This year the most weight was given to questions involving the representation, recruitment and retention of women of color.

Baby Boomers Plan Funerals Online

Two baby boomers in Minnesota have come up with the idea that when you die, you can still have the last word.  Nancy Bush and Sue Kruskopf have created a website called mywonderfullife.com where you can plan your own funeral BEFORE you die.  You can select your outfit, the music, any special effects and probably create a guest list.

In this picture to the left, the dearly departed chose to be laid out in his pajamas while laid out in his favorite reclining chair.  A blanket of his favorite sports team (Pittsburgh Steelers) is beside him along with a can of his favorite beverage (I’ll let you guess what that is).  What you don’t see in the picture, is a television set playing a Steelers game and a host of chairs for the guests.

Now I don’t know about you but I prefer to meet God on HIS terms and not MY own.