Saturday, March 25, 2006
This week's featured woman entrepreneur is Karen Chung, CEO of Nomadic Group of Companies (Chicago, IL), a holding company that specializes in minority company financing and retained executive search for diversity candidates.
about Nomadic Group
Nomadic Group is a holding company that includes Nomadic Capital (www.nomadic-capital.com), a boutique investment banking firm providing venture capital and merger & acquisition services to minority-owned businesses, and Nomadic Consulting (www.nomadicconsulting.com), a boutique strategy consulting firm specializing in retained executive search for diversity candidates and human capital consulting. The secret to Nomadic Group's success? A wealth of industry experience, proven structured methodology to ensure excellence and consistency, and unparalleled understanding of each client's business that assures every financial transaction or search assignment is positioned for success. Karen formerly served as an Executive Coach and Group Leader for Inc. Magazine's Eagles CEO program and holds a Masters of Management degree from Kellogg Graduate School of Management at Northwestern University.
Karen's Top 10 Tips
1. Be 10 times better than your male counterparts. Let's face it, we still work in a world dominated by male decision-makers. Most of us won't be able to bond with them in the traditional way (i.e. playing golf or talking sports). We need to make sure that we stand out by being heads and shoulders above our male counterparts; we need to be better, smarter, faster...
2. Use your stronger emotional skills (i.e. ability to connect with people) to develop unshakable bonds. At a certain level of your career or business, you will realize that you can't do everything by yourself (even though many entrepreneurs fight this tooth and nail). In this environment of "transient relationships" it is critical to surround yourself with individuals that will "go to the mattresses" for you. The only way to accomplish this is by developing strong emotional connections with people based upon reciprocal respect and integrity. We can count on our best friends to be there for us.
3. Become very comfortable at asking for things from people. While it may be true that "good things come to those who wait" -- why wait? Ask. Remember, your business and your career are at stake. Don't you want to achieve success sooner rather than later" If you don't ask for things (money, contacts, advice, support, etc.) you may not get those resources that may be critical for your continued success. Ask.
4. Surround yourself with successful male and female mentors who have a vested interested in seeing you become successful. While it may be comforting to have female mentors with whom you can relate, male mentors are often in a better position to help you achieve your career or business objectives due to their position in the company, relationships, financial net worth, etc.
5. Identify and cultivate relationships with capital sources long before you actually need the money. One of the biggest reasons for small business failure is due to lack of proper capitalization. This problem is especially exacerbated within the women and minority entrepreneurs. As you develop relationships in the earlier stage of your business, spend an inordinate amount of time cultivating relationships with those individuals and sources to whom you can turn in your time of need. This includes friends and family, bankers, personal investors, angel investors, and VCs.
6. Prioritize your relationship development time. The 80/20 rule is particularly relevant in this area. Too often women seek to develop relationships with individuals for the sake of developing relationships. Unless you are in a business where broad superficial relationship are necessary, target and develop deep and close relationships with a handful of people with whom you can develop a long-term reciprocal relationships.
7. Prioritize your business development activities. Not all events and activities are created equal. The most precious commodity for a busy executive or business owner is time. Make sure that you strive to get the biggest "bang for the buck" by critically evaluating networking opportunity by developing an Events Listing and "force-ranking" them by applying a perceived value judgment to give more focus to your activities.
8. Don't lose yourself in your job or business. No matter how passionate you are about your job or business, don't let yourself get lost in the sole pursuit of your career. Allow the other side of you (the non-business side) an opportunity to express itself by indulging in hobbies or activities that you enjoy. Never lose focus of the important people in your life. Allow them to support you but also to set boundaries to keep your grounded. Thirty years from now, you may or may not have a career, but you are going to want to have your friends and family. Don't let relationships wither away from neglect.
9. Don't be afraid to emulate male characteristics. We look up to strong male executives and business owners for their ability to think critically through difficult issues, to make solid business decisions (devoid of debilitating emotions), and to provide appropriate communications, even in the most difficult of times. Those rational "male characteristics and behaviors" are desired traits and key success factors for people in leadership positions, regardless of gender.
10. Don't be afraid to lend a helping hand. Successful female executives and entrepreneurs have often been criticized for being self-centered in the pursuit of their individual career goals and for not offering to lend a helping hand. While you may agree or disagree with this assessment, one can only take responsibility for your own actions. If you have ever received help from others; be willing and available to extend yourself to those who can benefit from your knowledge, experience and relationships.
Karen's Favorite Marketing Tools
- Hoovers database (for lead generation)
- Economic Club of Chicago membership (and committee participation)
- Crain's Chicago Business (to keep up-to-date on current Chicago news)
Contact Information
Contact Information:
Karen Chung
CEO of Nomadic Group of Companies
Nomadic Consulting
www.nomadicconsulting.com312-664-1734
Nomadic Capital
www.nomadic-capital.com312-664-1732
A big thanks to Karen for her wise words.
Share your knowledge! Submit A REQUEST to have your company featured along with your 10 Tips For 10 Million Women.RETURN TO TODAY'S RE:INVENTION BLOG POST.ARCHIVED FEATURESClick
HERE to read previous 10 Tips for 10 Million Women features.
Saturday, March 11, 2006
This week's featured woman entrepreneur is Katie Delahaye Paine, CEO of KDPaine & Partners. (Durham, NH), a firm dedicated to ensuring that public information and public affairs professionals around the world have the information and knowledge they need to measure the success of their efforts.
about KDPaine & Partners
KDPaine & Partners is a firm dedicated to ensuring that public information and public affairs professionals around the world have the information and knowledge they need to measure the success of their efforts. Through its consulting and publishing services, KDPaine & Partners provides clients with the insight and knowledge they need to not just measure the effectiveness of their communications efforts, but to help them make better, more informed decisions for their organizations. Their latest software product, DIY Dashboard, provides an easy, inexpensive way for organizations to measure the effectiveness of their PR efforts.
Katie's Top 10 Tips
1. Have a better reason than -- I'm tired of wearing panty hose and high heels, and want to spend more time at the beach, so I think I'll start a business. Starting companies is very similar to starting a family, there's never a good time to start -- or rather you can always find a good excuse to put it off. And conversely, if you're an incurable entrepreneur, you can always find a good excuse to do it today. A month before I was scheduled to take a five-week trip to Australia, with no nest egg and no business plan, I quit my job and announced I was starting a company. In general, a little more advanced planning is recommended.
2. Look at your life patterns before taking on a partner.If you're an only child, divorced and, have never gotten along with a roommate -- partners are not a good idea. I was all three, and learned the hard way that if you've had trouble making relationships work -- business partners are even harder because there's money involved. I not only tried the partner routine, but also brought in good friends. Most of them no longer speak to me. If you have to have a partner, you might want make sure one or the other of you have a good therapist.
3. Be sure you have enough capital and plan for creative financing. It helps to have enough money in the bank to survive for at least a year. I had enough to buy a computer and a printer. If you don't there's a four-step program for serial entrepreneurs:
Step 1: Beg until your family is sick of you. They'll give you money to go away.
Step 2: Pull the gender card. The SBA has quotas it need to fill for loans to women and minorities.
Step 3: Invite your banker to your parties. I went to a bank that was known for its good attitude towards women and convinced them that my clients were blue chip companies, and I'd be able to pay my bills. They didn't have a clue what I did but that didn't seem to matter. I then invited my banker to all my parties; we've been working together for ten years thru four different mergers and three different banks. He still gives me money when I need it.
Step 4: Be really, really creative. So what's wrong with charging all your long-distance calls on my father's AT&T card? Nothing, as long as you pay it off before he finds out.
4. Don't rely on your friends to give you business. One reason it took so much longer than I expected to get the business off the ground, was that I just assumed that with my connections I could generate business right away. I'd made a promise to myself in February, that if I had a client by April that would be a sign that the business was viable. I did. A major Public Relations Agency. I was ecstatic and immediately borrowed some money, ordered letterhead, did a major mailing and thought I was in business. I never guessed it would take 120 days to get paid and that it would be the only business I got for another six months. By that time the mortgage was three months late, my friends were getting a bit tired of seeing me show up at meal times, and I'd spent the $700 three times over in marketing materials and promotional efforts.
5. Don't get sidetracked out of desperation. A local advertising agency was looking to expand its PR offerings. After staring at my stack of bills for awhile, I beat down all those gut instincts that said stick it out, and took the job as Director of their agency's Public Relations Group -- although I refused to be put on their payroll and operated as an independent consultant. The job required my attention for at least eight hours a day. So I worked at the agency until six or so and then worked to serve my own clients from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. The logical flaw in my putting my best, most productive time into someone else's clients didn't occur to me till it was too late. The agency shut its doors, and I was saddled with PR clients and a whole host of clients and personnel that had nothing to do with my business expertise.
6. Don't let someone who hasn't balanced a check book since Nixon was in office write a business plan. I wanted to work no more than 35 hours a week and figured I'd need $30,000 a year to live. So $65 an hour seemed about right. That was my entire pricing model and business plan for the first two years. Needless to say, I spent most of those first two years very poor. I finally broke down and asked my ex-husband for help, since he was the one who'd been balancing my check book for the prior decade and he'd developed the original pricing model for Hewlett Packard's Services Division. I figured he might be better at it than I was. I've been profitable ever since.
7. Try not to take the "Huck Finn" approach to hiring. A friend of mine once told me that I didn't really want to work for a living, I just wanted to surround myself with friends and do stuff. And that's what I did at first. My initial hiring strategy was I'd find someone who I liked, and say "You're nice, want to work for me?" I can't pay you but, want to have a really fun time and grow a company together? But then I wanted them to actually do something...and they didn't or couldn't and I had a very hard time managing them. I still occasionally hire friends, but I never, ever have them report to me. The other challenge when you're small is figuring out how you're to reward people for their efforts -- and the more Herculean the efforts, the harder it is to define the reward, especially when there's no money.
8. Stop giving everyone a 22nd chance. Most small businesses are like families, and the process of getting a "divorce" from a partner or key player is remarkably similar. Since I've gone thru both personal and business divorces I can tell you that the wrong way is to try to make it easy on everyone. Giving someone a second chance is fine. Giving them a 22nd chance is not. All you're doing is prolonging a bad situation. Evaluate everyone based on a simple premise: can they or will they be successful in your company. If the answer is no, get rid of them sooner rather than later.
9. You don't have to do it all.I began my business with the ultimate "supermom" syndrome and it was a recipe for disaster as well as exhaustion. Repeat after me: Fire the bad apples. Hire good people. Delegate, Delagate, Delegate.
10. But when the time comes, you also don't have to hire a president fresh from a Fortune 500 company.My biggest mistake was thinking that someone from a Fortune 500 company could run my company better than I could. The person I hired was better suited for secretaries and a sixty page policies and procedures manual -- and they didn't know what it took to keep cash flow coming in. My personal passion and experience served my business better.
Katie's Favorite Marketing Tools
- Google Ad Words (search engine marketing)
- Speakers programs/conferences and seminars (we created the Measurement Summit)
- Blogging
Contact Information
Contact Information:
Katie Delahaye Paine, CEO
KDPaine & Partners, LLC
www.measuresofsuccess.comhttp://kdpaine.blogs.com603-868-1550
A big thanks to Katie for her wise words.
Share your knowledge! Submit A REQUEST to have your company featured along with your 10 Tips For 10 Million Women.RETURN TO TODAY'S RE:INVENTION BLOG POST.ARCHIVED FEATURESClick
HERE to read previous 10 Tips for 10 Million Women features.
Saturday, March 04, 2006
This week's featured woman entrepreneur is Chris Vasiliadis, President of Signature Faces, Inc. (Burlington, MA), a company that helps you face the world at your unique best.
about Signature Faces, Inc.
Signature Faces is an image consulting company based in Burlington, MA. Founder and President Chris Vasiliadis helps women create a signature presence that attracts clients. She specializes in working with people who are the face of their business: sole proprietors and small business owners. Chris formerly worked as a systems engineer, but her intuitiveness in people skills and human relations helps her promote women. She has been featured in The Boston Globe, Women's Business Boston, and the Downtown Women's Club's national newsletter, DWC Dish. Chris is quoted in the marketing books Perfecting Your Pitch by Nancy Michaels and Building Buzz by Marisa D'Vari. She is currently working on her first book.
Chris's Top 10 Tips
1. Perform at least one follow-up per day. Whether it's a phone call, email, note or letter, reach out to another human being at least once a day. Possible examples include (a) a current client: just touching base to see how things are going, (b), a prospective client who's expressed interest in your service, (c) a current or new colleague who also works with your target market and might be a good referral source for your business, (d) someone who just met with you or for whom you just completed work, to thank them for their time and/or business.
2. Seek input from your customers. When your customers order or re-order from you, ask them whey they chose your services. Use this information in your marketing materials and strategy. When someone says something great about your services, ask them if they know someone else (briefly describing your target market) who might want the same product or service (and results) they got from working with you. Ask what other products or services would help them, and consider either adding those services to your offerings or build relationships with other vendors who provide such offerings.
3. Make your outgoing voicemail a commercial or tip-line. When was the last time you listened to your outgoing voicemail message? Do you sound happy and upbeat (or - yikes - boring and monotone)? Do you briefly state the kind of people you work with or the results they get from working with you? How about changing your voicemail weekly, with a new tip that would help your target market?
4. Share new news. Have you received an award or certification, or new training that helps you improve the way you solve your client's problems? Do you have a new partnership that allows you to provide more/better services to your clients? Put this information in your marketing materials and/or issue a press release.
5. Do something different. Attend a presentation by a speaker new to you, visit an organization you've been meaning to check out, try a new marketing tactic that's worked for someone else. If you're not happy with the results you're getting from always doing the same things, switch it up!
6. Brainstorm with others. Do you have an advisory board or Board of Directors? How about a Mastermind Group of other business owners? If not, create your own, and commit to meeting regularly (for Mastermind Groups, I recommend meeting at least monthly). These types of groups are invaluable in providing objective feedback and ideas on growing and developing your business.
7. When are you at your marketing best? Are you a morning or evening person? Schedule your project activities when you're most "on," administrative activities when things are more slow, and marketing/sales activities at all the in-between times. Set a specific time-period as 'office hours,' when you return phone calls and emails. Not sure how you spend your time? Keep track for a week, in 15 minute increments. While painful, it's eye opening in terms of energy level, time wasted and opportunities to improve. For example, I schedule all my 'cerebral' activities in the morning before 11 am and afternoon/early evening from 4-8 pm, as I've found that I have the highest levels of concentration and energy in those time periods.
8. Block out marketing time. Whether it's one coffee meeting a week, an hour a week, or a 1/2 to full day or more per week, make the time to market. Take a class that will better help you, hire a marketing consultant to give you key words, activities, a structure and/or to keep you on track. Look at your current offerings and figure out what you can add, reuse or repackage in another form to further develop your business. If your business is seasonal, with a predictable busy time and slow time, implement promotional programs and activities far in advance of the slow period.
9. Have an "off-site." Back in my 'corporate life' days, when the Chief Officers of my former employers wanted to take a step back and reassess where the company has been and determine future direction, they held an off-site. They devoted an afternoon, to a full day, to a weekend or week away, out of the office, in a strategic meeting to refocus their efforts. I conduct my own annual "off-site" around mid-year, spending a couple nights by myself in a hotel or B&B, and I always come back with fresh and new ideas for promoting my business.
10. Treat every day as if it's your Grand Opening. What kind of energy and attitude are your bringing to your daily business? How differently would you treat incoming calls and emails, who would you contact, and how would you show appreciation to those who give or send you business, if you treated every day like your Grand Opening?
Contact Information
Contact Information:
Chris Vasiliadis, President
Signature Faces, Inc.
www.signaturefaces.com781-750-8350
A big thanks to Chris for her wise words.
Share your knowledge! Submit A REQUEST to have your company featured along with your 10 Tips For 10 Million Women.RETURN TO TODAY'S RE:INVENTION BLOG POST.ARCHIVED FEATURESClick
HERE to read previous 10 Tips for 10 Million Women features.
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