Need a Mentor?

By:  Kerri Halmi

One obstacle that women create for themselves in Corporate America is not asking for what they need. At a conference I attended, a female CEO told the story of how when she became CEO, the men lined up outside her office to ask her to be their mentor. She said not one woman did; she had to go out and initiate the mentoring relationships with women (which most CEOs will not take the time to do!).

At one of my recent leadership development classes for women, one of the participants said she liked the assignment of getting a mentor. “Being encouraged (or forced)” was beneficial, she said. Well, consider yourself forced!

Increasingly, management experts view mentoring not just as a one-on-one relationship but also as a component of networking. You gain valuable knowledge by interacting with many experienced people. You can (and should) have multiple mentors and mentor many others. Mentoring is mutually beneficial.

Benefits of being mentored include:
* Competency development
* Management visibility and exposure
* Deeper and wider network
* Enhanced career/life planning skills
* Opportunity to gain feedback

Benefits to the mentors include:
* Greater job satisfaction
* Management visibility
* Enhanced learning and development in own career
* Deeper and wider network
* Enhanced career/life planning skills
* A better understanding of the more junior people they oversee
* Building a legacy

How to find a mentor:
1. Decide what qualities and competencies you want in a mentor. Think about the qualities that you want to develop in yourself.
2. Try and pick people who are not just like you. It is more helpful to have diversity in your mentor relationships.
3. After meeting and establishing that there is a good chemistry, ask the person to be your mentor. Let them know what you respect about them and how you feel the relationship can be beneficial for both of you.
4. Be specific about your needs. Don’t be broad. Let your mentor know if you want to meet once a week, once a month or twice a year. Maybe you just want to be able to call this person when you have a question or a crisis.
5. Be respectful of their limited time, but realize that there are also benefits to them of being a mentor.
6. Take direction. Show sincerity in the relationship. When you ask something, make sure you are listening to the response. Make it clear that you value your mentor’s input. Valuing someone’s input means you actually act on some of it.
7. Follow-up (just like networking). Send thank-you notes. Let them know what advice you took and what happened.

Now … in the words of Nike, just do it!

Article Source: ABC Article Directory

Kerrie Halmi of Halmi Performance Consulting specializes in increasing women’s success in business through speaking, coaching and facilitation. Kerrie has over fifteen years of experience in the Human Resources field with such clients as eBay, Wells Fargo and Kaiser. She received her MBA from the University of Michigan and is certified in coaching with Corporate Coach University International. See http://www.halmiperformance.com/

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Women Writers Wanted

Are you a woman in business who has knowledge to share with other women in business?  Perhaps you have first-hand knowledge on changing careers at midlife—or you started a brand new business from the ground up.  Maybe you can offer an encouraging word to others on how to hang in there when the picture looks bleak.

Boomer Diva Nation invites you to submit an article for consideration.  You will be paid for each submission that is accepted.  You may not get rich off of your submissions but we guarantee they will be read and promoted.

There is ONE CATCH.  You must be at least 40 years old and a member of Boomer Diva Nation in order to qualify as a BDN Writer.  Basic Membership is free, however, you may be entitled to more $$$ as a Platinum Member.

So what are you waiting for?  Come join us and start earning some extra money for your knowledge and expertise!

 http://www.boomerdivanation.org/join-bdn/

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Your Business Image

As a woman in business how do your customers come in contact with your business? Do they arrive through word of mouth, through direct contact with you, business card or perhaps by stumbling upon your website?  All of these methods project some image of your business. What that image is, including your business name, reflects your position in the market. Would you expect specialty chocolates to be dropped into the bottom of a brown paper bag when you purchase them? You must decide upon the image you want your business to project.

Think about how you present yourself. This is most critical if you are a service business. The impression you create in face-to-face contact must reflect your position in the market and create a market opportunity for your business every time you speak to others. People are seeking your credibility on the product or service you sell. Convincing others of your credibility requires two key elements:

1.      Knowledge – You must be seen as knowledgeable about the product or service you are selling or promoting by providing expert information.

2.      Trust – Customers must believe you will act with their best interests in mind.

Credibility and visibility go hand-in-hand. You need to demonstrate your expertise, trustworthiness, and concern for your customer’s welfare. How will you do this? Marketing yourself is an active process. It requires you to assert yourself, make your audience aware of you (even if it is only one person), grab their attention, and then focus that attention on your credibility.

Business image is extremely important to customers who have many choices in deciding where to spend their money. It also affects whether or not someone will return to you in the future. Customers will leave you for many reasons, but almost 70% leave due to a poor attitude exhibited by employees of the business. This is easily avoidable if you understand what the customer wants and then communicate the image you want to project to all of your employees. Remember to talk periodically to your customers about what you’re doing right or wrong.  This is a good way to make sure that your customers view the business in the way you want it to be seen.

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Website Marketing Ideas

If you’re a woman with an online business, you undoubtedly know the challenges you face in getting the word out about your product or services.  One of the best resources I have found is Social Networking sites like Twitter and Facebook.  Some people do tend to overdo it when it comes to their business promotions, however, if you draw them to your website, that’s the first step in turning a prospective client into a keeper. 

Here are some tips on marketing your website

1.     Broadcast your website like a phone number .

1.  
   • Include your web address on all printed material (brochures, stationery, business cards, and press materials).
   • Include your web address in your email signature file.
   • Include your web address in your Yellow Pages listing and in other advertisements.

2.      Entice customers and prospects to visit your website again and again.

1.  
   • Update your site regularly.
   • Add new features to your website regularly.
   • Revise your site’s Meta tags; to make it easier for search engines to find. (Your website developer can embed codes that the search engines use when indexing your web page.)
   • Offer Internet specials, such as discounts for orders placed online.
   • Host a discussion group on your website with customer comments and questions.
   • Add small photos on opening pages that expand to full-size pictures only when clicked. (This saves loading time.)
   • Tailor your choice of web features to your target market – just like you would with any other form of communication.

o        Regularly view your competitors’ websites. Learn from what they do right and from their mistakes.

3.     Use your site for sales and customer service.

1.  
   • Use shopping cart software that allows customers to shop and order online. The software also provides instant feedback of total costs, including tax amounts, to your online customers.
   • Have a secure website for Internet sales.
   • Provide a street map to your business location on the Web. (Customers can print it out.) If you have multiple locations, find a way to let customers know which location is most convenient for them.
   • Provide forms on your web page that can be completed and submitted online for customers’ convenience. (If inquiries are allowed in the forms, respond to them promptly. Most web users expect a response within 24 hours.)
   • Create a link to your email on every page in your website. That way, if something on the page sparks a customer’s response, you’ve made it easy for them to “talk” to you.
   • Make sure your customers can find you by searching with keywords. Check how easy it is to locate your site using various search engines.
   • Check your website using various versions of browsers and types of computers to be sure it loads quickly and correctly. Get business associates and friends to access your site and tell you how it looks.
   • Provide a variety of ways for online customers to contact you: by email, phone (800 number), fax and mail.
   • Offer an online newsletter. This could be an electronic version of a printed newsletter you already publish, something entirely different, or a combination of the two.
   • Feature some interesting history or suggestions about your area of business.
   • Offer to include photos sent by your customers showing them using your business.
   • Create a sense of family among your web page readers.

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Does Sex Still Sell at Midlife?

As a television news reporter years ago, I always knew I had to be visually appealing.  Although I wasn’t well endowed in one specific area, my body was very well proportioned for my size and I had that youthful, perky, cute look.  Unfortunately though, as the years passed and I began to mature, my graceful aging became outdated and I was easily replaced by younger, sexier-looking women who could probably never compete on the show Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader. 

Even though many of us gain more confidence in business and relationships at midlife, the media makes us feel less secure about our image. They imply that if we want to maintain our sex appeal we should consider breast implants or cosmetic surgery to tighten up sagging and flabby skin.   They point to the likes of Diane Keaton, Goldie Hawn or Madonna as role models for us. Now, I’m not knocking any of these fellow baby boomer women but not all of us are alike and we shouldn’t be put into a “woman size fits all” generic category.   

So the question here is, do we still need sex appeal in order to be successful in our businesses at midlife?  Does sex still sell?  As a woman in business, do you feel the need to dress a certain way when meeting a male client to get his attention—or perhaps DISTRACT his attention?  Should we come across as sensuous while also displaying our intelligence?  To what extent does appearance affect our professional success, and can a middle-aged woman really use sex appeal to further her business endeavors? 

Management Psychologist Ken Siegel was quoted as saying, “You’d be a fool if you didn’t use your looks to your advantage and make the most of what you’ve got.  Don’t pretend it doesn’t matter. It’s a huge part of life in the 21^st century.”

What do you think?

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Your Website Image

As a woman in business, you should be concerned about your appearance–your website appearance, that is.

Developing your web site, just as with other promotional campaigns, requires careful planning.  Produce an up-to-date, aesthetically pleasing site with valuable content for your target audience. It’s important to have accurate and timely information – don’t let your site become stale. Updating your content frequently will encourage repeat visits.

Promote your web site through various public relations and marketing methods online and off-line. Some suggestions include:

·         Print your web site and email addresses on all of your marketing materials, including business cards, letterhead, brochures, advertisements, and product packaging.

·         Include a hotlink to your web site in your email signature file along with your name, address, and the name of your business. (A signature file is a closing which automatically appears at the bottom of an email message. In effect, it’s an “electronic letterhead.”) If your email software doesn’t support hotlinks in signature files, be sure that your URL is at least spelled out.

·         Participate in discussion groups. In discussion groups, you can promote your image by contributing suitable and useful information to discussions. It’s bad form, however, to blatantly advertise your web site, company or product in these forums.

You can link your web site to other sites and develop cross-promotional relationships online. Also, regularly visit the web sites of your competitors…and even the sites of non-competing organizations your target audience might visit. Learn from what these sites do well – and from what they could improve upon.

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Do You Have a Promotion Plan?

So you have a product and have set your price. Will the world come running to your doorstep? Not unless people know about your product – you must promote it. Set the stage for sales with a thoughtfully developed promotion plan.

If you’re a woman in business you NEED a promotion plan.  Why?  because a promotion plan outlines the promotional tools or tactics you plan to use to accomplish your marketing objectives. To the new or inexperienced marketer, the promotion plan might be mistaken as the entire marketing plan because it outlines where the majority of the marketing budget will be spent. It is, however, just one component of the marketing plan – there are additional strategy and planning components described in a marketing plan.

Laying the Groundwork for Effective Promotional Tactics
When you’re deciding upon the best promotional strategy for reaching your target market, you need to:

• Do research
• Keep your customer in mind
• Be creative

Doing research includes activities such as studying your target market and finding out what other businesses in your industry are doing. A relatively quick way to learn how your competitors communicate their marketing messages is to look in trade journals. This will give you an idea of which features they believe are important and are emphasizing.

Keeping your customer in mind will help prevent wasting your money and time on ineffective promotional activities.

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What’s Your Business Image?

Your company image is your identity in the marketplace but your identity is may not be exclusive to you. A competitor may have the same image as you. For example, think about two grocery store chains that operate in your region. Both may have an image of offering quality products at reasonable prices. You might feel equally comfortable in stores of both chains, think they hire competent and friendly people and appreciate each enterprise’s contribution to your community.

Your company image, however, may differentiate you from your competition. Using the grocery chain example again, two chains may offer quality products at reasonable prices. However, one chain might not be as clean or brightly lit as another. Its employees might not be as helpful and friendly. You may choose the clean, brightly lit, friendly store because of those image attributes alone.

Interestingly, your company has an image even if you do not undertake any activities to try to build one. If you’re successful, you have customers. And, your customers have thoughts, feelings, beliefs and opinions about you and your products and services.

Even if you do not advertise, distribute flyers, pass out brochures or issue press releases, it might surprise you that the following items will quietly, yet actively, create a company image.

·         Your company logo. Does it evoke the desired thoughts and feelings in your target audience?

·         Your Web site. Is it zany and full of wild colors or conservative and designed with muted colors?

·         Product packaging. Do products from the same line look like they came from the same company?

·         The look of your business cards, letterhead and invoices. A look is created with color, paper quality and type style.

·         How you and/or your employees interact with customers in person and on the phone.

·         How your phone is answered.

Note, it is what others think and feel about your business, not what you think or what your sales literature says about your business.

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Steps to Success

As a woman in business, your success depends on you.  What does that mean?  In essence, it means you need to be mindful of what needs to be done in order to survive and thrive with your business. 

Here are some to tips to keep your mind, body and spirit on the right track:

Successful Business Women Feed Their Minds:

Feed your mind by attending personal development courses. Read self-help and motivational books, listen to tapes. Stress management levels will be much more effective when you look after yourself.

Successful Business Women Clean out the Clutter:  

You will save yourself loads of time, energy and money if you clear out your work and home environment…paperwork, books, old equipment etc. You’ll be able to find things, save money because you won’t have to buy what you already have hidden somewhere, plus you’ll be less stressed. Organize your office regularly and keep the clutter out. Eliminating clutter will help you to avoid procrastination. It’s too easy to avoid getting things done if you are overwhelmed with clutter.

Successful Small Business Owners Use a Planner to Stay Organized:

With so much to organize in your small business, you need to record your appointments and all of the other things you have to do.  Keeping an organizer is the most effective way to get things done, plan your work and your life. Balance is extremely important.

Successful Small Business Owners Learn to say “No”

To dramatically improve your productivity and do more of the things you want, you have to be firm with others and let them know if you cannot, will not or are unavailable to fulfill their requests. If you constantly say “yes” to everyone else’s requests you will never have the time to do what you really want to.

Successful Small Business Owners Do What They Do Best and Delegate the Rest

See what tasks you can delegate tasks which would suit someone else’s talents. Many small business owners are spending heaps of time on mundane secretarial tasks which would take a person who is trained in that area a quarter of the time to undertake. Stress management is an important part of running your small business. Reduce the stress by delegating or outsourcing wherever you can.

Use a bookkeeper, personal assistant or virtual assistant. Always ask yourself, who else can I get to do this? Use your time management to focus on what you do best.

 Successful Business Women Always Take Care of # 1:    

That means you must take care of YOU.  Get plenty of exercise and eat healthy.  What good is it to have a successful business if you’re too stressed out to appreciate it?

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Don’t Make Age an Excuse

How many times have you heard a woman say she put her own dreams on hold so she could take care of her family? 

Too often we put off working toward our dreams because “family comes first” or we feel that it would take too long, or that we will be too old once our “foundation” has been put in place.

Maybe you dream of owning your own business—or of becoming an attorney, a real estate broker, an interior designer, an artist, or a writer. To become expert in any of these fields takes time and often requires going back to school for several years or more. But so what?  If the children are grown, what better time than now to go out and pursue your passions?  Time and time again I have heard people say something to the effect of: “I’d go back to school, but by the time I finish and start working I’d be too old.”

It’s interesting to see what people define as “old?” Some people mean 30, 40, or 50 or more. But none of these ages is too old to begin a new, highly successful career doing something that you love.

Some people will say that learning new skills becomes more difficult as we get older, so going back to school or studying part-time would be too difficult. That theory has been completely disproved. It’s been shown that the brain can handle learning at any age perhaps not as readily as when a child, but well enough to become expert at any advanced skill or field of knowledge. Today, distance learning and Internet education is ideal for more mature individuals, enabling them to continue their educations while still involved with jobs and family.

Don’t use your age as an excuse for starting to move in the direction of your dreams. Don’t tell yourself: “In five years I’ll be too old to enjoy it.” Five years will pass soon enough, and you’ll realize how foolish your excuse was.

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Home Office Deductions

One of the things I discovered by establishing a home based business is all of the qualifying deductions I could make on my tax return.   Here’s some tips to help you in case you’re thinking about setting up shop at home:

Home Office Deduction

Your office at home and related expenses are allowed deductions according to IRS guidelines. To qualify, your home must be the primary place where your business is conducted. Additionally, the office space must be used exclusively for your business. It is best to have a room that is obviously equipped for business use only. Should a question arise, there must not be any doubt that the room is used for other purposes. Needless to say, keep the day bed in another room.  Details of what qualifies as a home office and what can be deducted is explained more fully in various IRS publications found on their website at http://irs.gov

Home Office Building Expenses

You can deduct home office improvements and repairs. So, if you were to paint your home office, it is considered an expense associated with conducting business from your home and it is deductible. You can also deduct mortgage interest as a percentage of the full mortgage paid on your home. Let’s say if your home office takes up 100 square feet of your 1,000 square foot home, you could deduct up to 10% of the interest on your home mortgage as a business expense. This also applies to those who rent. Property taxes paid for your home also qualify at the same percentage rate as the mortgage. Home owners can also depreciate a percentage of the home over 39 years. Home expenses that are not related to your business cannot be deducted.

Utilities

Using the same percentages, you can also write off utilities such as electrical, gas, etcetera.

Phones and Communications

The IRS considers the first phone line in your home to be personal. Additional lines for business use including a cell phone are tax deductible. Internet service fees are deductible as a percentage depending on its business use.

Security

A percentage of the secured home area and its security costs are deductible as a business cost.

Moving Expenses

Form 8829 titled Expenses for the Business Use of Your Home is where you would claim moving expenses related to your business. Again, if 25% of your belongings were business items, that percentage can be written off as a business expense. Unfortunately, a C corporation cannot claim this deduction.

Software

Any software that you purchase for business use can be deducted. You will probably be required to write off over a period of time programs that are over $500 in value though. Check with IRS guidelines for further information.

Insurance

The premium you pay on your home owner’s insurance is partially deductible. Any insurance that covers your business specifically can be deducted as a cost of doing business. An incurred loss not covered by insurance can be deducted fully or partially depending on its’ use.

Tax Preparation Expenses

You might be able to deduct the cost of having your taxes prepared even though it may not be specifically about your home based business. Any software that you purchase to help you prepare your taxes for your business may also be deductible.

Retirement Account

Contributions to a self employed retirement account may also help reduce your tax liability. Inquire with a qualified specialist like a CPA to determine current laws regarding this special benefit.

Educational Expenses

Any monies spent on learning skills that are specific to your home business are usually tax deductible. If you purchase a course in gift basket making for example as a precept to starting your gift basket home business that would be tax deductible.

Transportation

You can write off transportation expenses related to your business. Traveling to and from a clients place of business, for example, would qualify. The IRS allowed 37.5 cents per mile for the 2004 tax year. You must keep detailed records though. A journal kept in your car with odometer readings should suffice.

Meals and Entertainment

If you entertain while conducting business even if it just over a meal it is deductible. While you can only deduct 50% of the cost of meals and entertainment, it is well worth keeping records. Additionally, you can deduct your meals if you are conducting business out of town. Please remember to stay within IRS guidelines to avoid awkward questions later.

Summary

Most home businesses do not take all the deductions that they are legally entitled to mainly because the idea of an audit is so fear invoking. Just stay within the IRS guidelines, keep receipts and accurate records. If you have any questions or doubts, call and ask the IRS. You can also consult with a tax preparer to help you discover, implement, and plan on what deductions you can legally take.

Remember, tax deductions are a way to foster the growth of your business. Take advantage of your legal right to legally minimize your tax liability, your home based business will be glad you did.

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