10 Tips for Women Entrepreneurs to Stay on Track

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• 10 Tips for Women Entrepreneurs to Stay on Track
• Internet Explorer Remains Dominant Browser
• 7 Free Tools to Find Twitter Influencers Who Interact with You
• Yahoo Mail Classic Users Forced to Update, Accept Content Scans
• Are You Being Too Nice for Your Own Good?

10 Tips for Women Entrepreneurs to Stay on Track Posted: 04 Jun 2013 04:00 PM PDT After women joined the employed, they had two choices – to stay at home and manage their families or to become part of the workforce and manage their jobs. Things have undergone a significant change and nowadays, women are increasingly choosing the third path – staying at home and managing their work independently. Women entrepreneurs – the concept is nothing new. Eliza Lucas Pinckney, the first woman to be inducted into South Carolina’s Business Hall of Fame, took over the management of her father's plantations as early as 1739, where she developed indigo as one of its most important cash crops. And today, there are a dearth of women led businesses. What prompts a woman to take up the challenge of becoming a successful entrepreneur? The main reason is the flexibility that being your own boss offers. Below I have shared a few tips for today’s women entrepreneurs. 10 Tips for Women Entrepreneurs to Stay on Track Take Up Something You Have a Passion For Even the best idea cannot translate into a successful business if you are not passionate about it. You need to focus on the area of work you love as only then will you put in the required effort to build a business based on it. If you do not have an interest in designer wear, it is a bad idea to start a haute couture business. Trust Your Instincts Facts and stats may help you prepare the groundwork. But they may not work at every step. It is a good idea to rely on your instincts at times and many successful entrepreneurs, male and female, can vouch for this. This does not mean that you ignore all of the feedback you receive. Remain open-minded to positive opinions as well as the negative ones. Prepare a Business Plan A sailor is lost without a map. Similarly, an entrepreneur is lost without a business plan. If you do not have a business plan yet, it is high time to create one. It will set the steps you need to follow to succeed. It will also convince investors that you are serious about your endeavor. Hoard the Cash Life is not a bed of roses and neither is business. Keep in mind, there will be ups and downs from day one. It is important to accumulate as much cash as possible before you take the first step. You will need it to keep you and your business afloat for a while once you enter the world of the self-employed. Learn as Much as Possible About Finances It is always best to hire an accountant to work with you when you first start a business, man or woman. It is also important to learn about taxes and related matters to ensure that they do not become a problem for you later on down the line. Know Your Target Customers Who do you target to sell to? For example, if you are into haute couture, you need to focus on the modern day fashion conscious female. Create contacts and conduct surveys to know all that you need to know about your customers. This will help you learn to address their needs/wants and provide suitable products/services. Build Relationships with Outsourcing Partners For a majority of new entrepreneurs, it may be best to outsource the tasks that take up too much time and effort and yet, are not related to your core business area. Keep in mind that the providers are your partners; they work with you, not for you. Set Realistic Goals If you think that you are going to earn profits within a week of starting a business, you are not on track. Many times, new businesses take months or even years to get back the cash originally invested. Take one step at a time and set achievable goals. Nothing beats hard work. Be Helpful The best and easiest way to get help from others is to help them first. A business is as much about value creation as it is about profits. Contribute in any way you can. Introduce people to each other, create write-ups, suggest important events and do everything to extend help. Most Importantly – Believe in Yourself There is no secret to success for the self-employed. The only thing that works is a good combination of planning and hard work. Whatever you do, don't give up. A business can experience highs and lows. Just don't let them discourage you into quitting. A woman has the best chances of success as an entrepreneur if she knows how to create the right balance. It is necessary to plan well and involve people who will be honest and supportive throughout the ups and downs of your new business. Track Photo via Shutterstock The post 10 Tips for Women Entrepreneurs to Stay on Track appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Internet Explorer Remains Dominant Browser Posted: 04 Jun 2013 01:30 PM PDT Internet Explorer remains the dominant Internet browser among its competitors like Firefox, Chrome and Safari — at least according to one measure.  And IE’s market share continues to grow. In May, Internet Explorer (IE) gained slightly, and now has almost 56 percent of market share, according to the latest data from Net Applications, which tracks page views on Web browsers worldwide. By comparison, Firefox and Google Chrome released new versions in the last month, but each still lags far behind Internet Explorer. Firefox was able to chip away somewhat at IE’s market dominance and at the same time, distance itself from Chrome. Firefox is the second choice, with about 21 percent of all users. Chrome comes in third at nearly 16 percent. Safari is the leading Mac browser at just under 6 percent of the overall market. However, not everyone agrees with the Net Application numbers. One major service, StatCounter, lists Chrome as the most popular browser. StatCounter’s breakdown of browser market share is: Chrome at 41  percent, IE at about 28  percent, Firefox at about 20 percent and Safari at around 8 percent. The difference is in where the two services get their data, and how they count it.  As The Next Web notes, Net Applications counts unique users,  whereas StatCounter counts page views, for determining browser share: “Net Applications uses data captured from 160 million unique visitors each month. The service monitors some 40,000 Web sites for its clients.  StatCounter is another popular service for watching market share moves; the company looks at 15 billion page views. To us, it makes more sense to keep track of users than page views.” Wikipedia has more on competing browser market share numbers, for those who need a statistics fix. So what can you do with this information?  Keep it in mind for purposes of your website design.  Validate that your website or Web application is properly viewable in the most popular browsers, especially recent versions. Cross check  against your own website analytics, too.  Individual audiences may vary.  If the vast majority of your Web visitors use Chrome, for instance, it would be foolish not to have an optimized experience for them in Chrome. Internet Photo via Shutterstock The post Internet Explorer Remains Dominant Browser appeared first on Small Business Trends.

7 Free Tools to Find Twitter Influencers Who Interact with You Posted: 04 Jun 2013 11:00 AM PDT Twitter was the first social media network that made influencers more reachable. It has never been easier to pitch to someone who can make an impact (and thus become influential as well). Knowing who influences your potential customers and winning their trust is gold… yet it’s not easy. The first step in influencer marketing is identifying those influential people who are already interacting with you: Those are your most effective targets because you have already managed to get their attention. Below are 7 free tools I am using to interact with influencers who know me or are familiar with what I do. Find Twitter Influencers Interacting with Your Content 1. Who Tweeted Me Influence measure: Number of followers Who Tweeted Me is a new tool from Hubspot that finds all people who tweeted your pages and sorts them by number of followers. You can thank them with one click as well: 2. Topsy Influence measure: Topsy influence Topsy is another good tool to try here especially since its browser bookmarklet has made it so easy to get the data: Topsy Trackbacks (to install, simply drag it to your browser bookmarks toolbar) – simply click it when you are reading the page you want to analyze and you’ll be taken to Topsy results. Now scroll through results until you see “Influential” or “Highly Influential” flags: Find Twitter Influencers Interacting with You 3. Commun.it Influence measure: Ratio of followers / following Commun.it is an absolutely awesome tool for keeping track of Twitter users who have recently interacted with you: You will see the list of *recent* interactions with Twitter influencers. You will be able to see if you interacted back (track “unreplied status”). You will see if you follow that Twitter influencer. You will be able to load more information on each Twitter influencer in the next column. You can rate results by “Highest rating” to see MOST influential users who have ever interacted with you. You will be able to see how much impact each of the influencer’s tweets made (number “interactions” of the tweet = replies + retweets). That’s one of the most robust influencer-management Twitter tools I have ever used. 4. Klout Influence measure: Klout score New Klout “Moments” feature is another interactions manager you need to look into. You can control which “Klout” score users who have recently interacted with you have. You can interact with your influencer’s interactions (I know that sounds funny, by the way) by replying (e.g. to thank) and retweeting right from the Klout page: 5. Kred Influence measure: Kred score Kred is another free tool that will list your recent interactions and sort them by its own score called “Kred.” To thank users you can “Kred” them: Find Twitter Influencers Following You 6. Friend or Follow Influence measure: Number of followers Friend or Follow is an interesting tool that, among other features, grabs all your “fans” (people who follow you but who you are not following back) and sorts by the number of followers. You can follow them back right from that page as well: I like it that it shows “verified icon” overlaying the Twitter avatar which makes it easier to find “real” influencers following you. 7. Fruji Influence measure: Number of followers Fruji is another great option here. What I like most about this tool is that it breaks your followers into groups by the number of followers. Another cool thing is the YAS Factor (You Are Special), indicating a higher chance of that person noticing your tweets. What other free tools are you using to interact with Twitter influencers in your network? The post 7 Free Tools to Find Twitter Influencers Who Interact with You appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Yahoo Mail Classic Users Forced to Update, Accept Content Scans Posted: 04 Jun 2013 08:00 AM PDT Yahoo Mail Classic users who’ve been clinging to the Classic interface now need to conform to a recent update in order to access their email. Yahoo Mail’s Help Center informed users of the Classic or non-updated interface Sunday that they would need to update their mail platform to a new version introduced late last year as of the beginning of this week. Along with adopting the new interface, Mail users will also have to agree to the site’s new Communications Terms of Service and Privacy Policy. Those who are worried about Yahoo scanning their emails are not going to be pleased with the new policy. Yahoo is suggesting users not happy with the policy either transfer their e-mail elsewhere or simply close their accounts. The new policy allows Yahoo to scan email content so it can generate ads specifically geared to the user. According to TechCrunch.com, Yahoo has only made mention of the new usage terms and privacy policy through the Help site and in emails sent to users. “This includes the acceptance of automated content scanning and analyzing of your communications content, which Yahoo! uses to deliver product features, relevant advertising and abuse protection,” the site states on the Help page. Users can opt out of the ads generated via the content scans, but Yahoo will still be scanning email content. Smiley Photo via Shutterstock The post Yahoo Mail Classic Users Forced to Update, Accept Content Scans appeared first on Small Business Trends.

Are You Being Too Nice for Your Own Good? Posted: 04 Jun 2013 05:00 AM PDT I was looking back at the topics I've covered here on Small Business Trends recently and had to laugh. Based on what I've written about management issues, you might think I'm a total softy. Well, that's kind of because I am. But I also recognize that being too nice as a business owner or manager can backfire on your company. Are you in danger of being too nice? There are many reasons behind "nice girl/nice guy" syndrome. Maybe you're too nice because you want everyone to like you. (I have a feeling women business owners are more likely to fall prey to this syndrome than men are.) Maybe you felt faceless as an employee at a big corporation and part of wanting to start your own business was creating a place where everyone had close personal relationships. Maybe you hated how your last boss treated you and vowed that your employees would feel "like family." Or maybe you just aren't confrontational, so you give in with a smile, rather than face up to problematic employees. Unfortunately, being too nice can have many negative consequences for your business. Some employees will take advantage of you and stop pulling their weight or doing their jobs. That means your business isn't as profitable and productive as it can be. Worse, when employees see others getting away with things, it snowballs and leads to either poor behavior (as everyone starts flaking off) or poor attitudes (as the employees picking up the slack resent the others who they see as getting special treatment). Ultimately, you could end up facing a lawsuit. Not to mention, if you're the one picking up the slack, you'll start feeling resentful yourself and eventually burn out—and that's not good for anyone. So how can you stop being Mr./Ms. Nice Guy? Assess Take a step back and assess whether your policies, decisions and attitudes are negatively affecting your business. You might need to enlist an outside party, like your significant other or an advisor, or another manager in your business to give you their unvarnished opinion. If your customer service manager says something like, "Yeah, you always give people time off when they ask without checking the schedule first and it really messes us up," then you might have a problem. Put the Business First It's great to let employees have flexibility and it also helps attract and retain new employees. But be sure you know where to draw the line so that business doesn't suffer. If you're struggling to make this shift, remind yourself that keeping your business healthy and thriving is what pays your employee's salaries. So ultimately, you're doing them no favors when you weaken the company by being overly nice. Set New Rules I know many of you chafe at "rules," and I'm not saying employees need to fill out a form in triplicate to go to a doctor's appointment. It’s just that there needs to be some type of system other than, "Go ask the boss who always says yes." Maybe only X number of people can work at home on any given day (rotate days among the staff so everyone gets a fair shot). Or maybe people need to ask a few days ahead if they can leave work early to see their kid's school play (rather than informing you as they run out the door). Know What Really Matters There's a difference between the employee asking to take a long lunch to go to an exercise class and the one asking to work at home so she can take care of her dying mother. Know when to bend the rules, even if it puts your business in a bind. Employees will never forget it. Doormat Photo via Shutterstock The post Are You Being Too Nice for Your Own Good? appeared first on Small Business Trends.

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