Blogs

Here are some important things that you should remember about competition:

1) No One is Perfect. Your competition makes mistakes, and runs into problems, issues, and obstacles, just like you do.

2) There’s Room Enough For All Of Us To Be Successful. Don’t believe for one minute that the success of someone else, somehowcompromises your potential to be successful. This is simply not true.

3) What God Has For You, Is For You. No one can take it away from you. It’s all a part of a greater plan and purpose foryour life. No one can steal it from you, and only you can fulfill yourlife’s purpose.

4) Stay focused on your core vision/mission/passion, and you will always stand out from your competition. Why? Because you’re busy being the best that you can be.

If you’re an entrepreneur, and wondering how you can stand out from your competitors, or simply be competitive with companies or individualswho may have more resources than you do, remember these tips:

- Offer High value

-Offer great customer service

-Solve an existing problem

-Offer solutions and/or convenience to your customers in a unique way.

-Be accessible.

Remember, Competition is Nothing.

Autonomy is the greatest asset when it comes to ownership over your blog. One of the best signifiers of autonomy and professionalism is a custom domain name. They are easy and cheap to receive and the benefits are never ending. A custom domain name can help you build a brand around your blog. Plus, which is easier to remember, www.exampledomain.wordpress.com, www.exampledomain.blogspot.com , or www.exampledomain.com?

It’s easier for readers to remember and it provides you with your own personal web location. Even if you choose to move your blog to another space, your custom domain is yours to keep. So, you won’t lose readers because your custom domain will remain the same. Your Google ranking can remain the same as well. There are many different places that you can get a custom domain. Godaddy.com offers great discounts to repeat customers. You can also try register.com, networksolutions.com, and much more.

For More Blogging Tips visit BlackBloggerNetwork.com

Or To Submit Your Own Tips, Email Us at BlackBloggerNet@gmail.com

She said to me, “I could listen to you all day… I love your videos and I WISH I could listen to you while I’m driving my car (lol).”

It’s been a while since I updated my podcast, “Work and Web Women” and I’ve never really wanted to do my own Blog Talk Radio Show BUT I always want to make sure that I’m helping you with your online business. That being said, I really took her words to heart and decided to dust off the old microphone (lol) and get to work. After many hours of what could only be described as “me talking and laughing to myself in a room” I created SistaSense Talks; a series of audio sessions, in which I tell you exactly how I run my business, get customers, market online, and build my brand in the process.

Another sister said, “I understand that I need to use a blog and social media to market my business online, but it was not until we talked that I finally understood why I needed to be on these spaces.”

You already get that building a website, starting a blog, and being on Facebook can help your business, but as this sista points out, if you DON’T get the why, how, and what you need to do with the web, then you are pretty much walking blind. In case you didn’t know, my blog is called SistaSense because I’m a Sista who learned how to make Sense of Making Money Online. Believe me when I say, you can waste a WHOLE LOT of time trying to pick up little marketing tips here and there or tell yourself that you can figure it out for yourself BUT in reality, listening to someone who has been through what you are going through is the best way to go.

Another sister said, “It was not until I joined your SistaSense Circle that I realized other women were going through the same issues that I was going through.”

Believe it or not, God didn’t create technology so everybody could get it but you (lol). Most folks, (myself included) sometimes feel like “this is just confusing me”, but it’s not. While I love to write eBooks for you, I realize that you might just need a little more than words to help you figure this stuff out. Perhaps right this minute, you need to hear my voice and feel like I’m holding your hand, walking you through the process of figuring out where your online business is to today vs. where it could be in the future.

If you are ready to listen, I am ready to share. SistaSense Talks Audio Sessions | Click here to Download

Social networking is serious business! This is social networking for the 21st century, one in which every business owner should get on board with. As entrepreneurs, it is essential that you continually generate new ideas in order to maximize the profit-making potential of your venture.
Social media is a great way to leverage your products or services. It is an easy and inexpensive way to connect to people around the world and an opportunity to make friends with people who have similar interests, find solutions to problems they might have by collaborating with others, as well as attract clients that might need your products or services. Be more strategic.

According to a recent survey on online social networking by the Institute for Corporate Productivity:

• 65% of business professionals use some form of personal or professional social network
• 47% use social networks to connect with potential clients and market their skills
• 55% use social networks to share best practices with colleagues
  

So, ready to jump on the Social Media Bandwagon? Here are 4 Super Duper Tips for Social Media Success:
Super Duper Tip 1: Create a Strategy
Social media is comprised of many different platforms. Creating and implementing a marketing strategy for using social media is extremely important. This will alleviate a lot of time wasted and help you to focus on the most effective way to use it and decide which social networks best suit your business needs. Three things to consider in your plan:

• Primary goal: decide on the purpose and goals for establishing social media
• Content: decide on the message you want to convey to your target audience. It is important that your content is in line with your company’s mission and values.
• Measure Your Progress: Set a timeline for the appropriate time to measure your success. This will allow you to make adjustments to your strategy.
  

Super Duper Tip 2: Know your audience
Often, I consult with clients who after talking to them, I find that they have not considered who their customers are. Most of them want to sell their products or services to any and everybody who will buy from them. I explain to them that they cannot be everything to everybody, it just won’t work! Imagine having to create a marketing campaign to attract a dozen or so industries. You would have to because one shoe does not fit all!

While using social media can allow you to reach millions of people, you want to make sure you are reaching the appropriate audience. Though Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin are the most popular at this time, make sure you research other social sites that can give you the greatest access to your audience.

By knowing your audience, will dramatically increase your effectiveness! This is important both online and offline. Again, know your audience!

Super Duper Tip 3: Protect Your Image or Die!
The image your business portrays sends an important message to your clients. It is easy to get too comfortable and let down your guard when using various social networks. It is important to treat people with the same respect online as you do offline. Truth is information travels like wild fire! If you have a dissatisfied customer; in the matter of seconds, they can post negative information about your business.

For example, if I was dissatisfied with the way I was treated as a consumer from a business, I could post my complaint to my 1900 twitter followers or to my 1200 fans Facebook. Imagine the impact if a percentage of my followers also shared that post with people in their network? A web savvy customer can literally shred your company to pieces as well as destroy your credibility and reputation with a single post. Protect your reputation. Remember, image is everything!

Super Duper Tip 4: Build Lasting Relationships
If you put up your profile to never update or visit the social media site again, what are potential clients and business partners to think? In order to blossom and make an impact in the communities that you join, you must network. Networking is a reciprocal process based on the exchange of ideas, contacts, advice and referrals. By networking, you are building professional relationships and generating new business.

In closing, more and more local small businesses and non-profit organizations are climbing aboard the social media bandwagon to market themselves for free. It just makes good business sense to learn how to leverage social media to build communities around brands and then leverage them into revenue.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it: Sylvia Browder is CEO of Browder Consulting Group, a virtual small business consulting firm. In her role, she helps Women in Business grow and succeed. She is employed as Project Director and business consultant for the Women's Business Center Inc, a non-profit economic development organization with a mission of empowering women to start and grow successful businesses. She has served as an online volunteer SCORE counselor since 2004. She also serves as a Technical Assistant Provider for SBA’s Community Express Loan Program. For FREE weekly articles go to Sylvia Browder’s Blog for Women Entrepreneurs, www.sylviabrowder.com. She can be contacted at info@browderconsultinggroup.com.

• Become a fan of ‘National Association Women on the Rise’ on Facebook: http://bit.ly/9qqvWW
• Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/sylviabrowder
• Are you LinkedIn? I am and invite you to link with me: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sylviabrowder
• Join ‘National Association Women on the Rise’ on LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/dsd5E0
• Join our community on NING, www.nawomenrise.com
  

Is your business experiencing growing pains? Like many business owners, it’s easy to become stagnant. But you must find solutions to continue to grow and reach the level of success that you’ve envisioned. Don’t get discouraged, here are 4 ways to take your business to the next level.

Certify Your Business

Becoming a certified woman owned business can significantly help your business gain access to various types of contracts.

Why certify as a woman owned business?

· Access to market: this can open doors to your women businesses by gaining certification accreditation as a woman owned business; it also puts you in front of corporate purchasing agents, thus, gaining access to lucrative supplier contract opportunities

· Apart of a large network: as women, we naturally like to network. The certifying agencies provide great opportunities to join a network of successful women entrepreneurs to form alliances, partnerships and lasting friendships.

To increase your competitive advantage, there are organizations that specialize in the certification of women owned businesses.

· National Women Business Owners Corporation (NWBOC): NWBOC’s certification program were created for women-owned and controlled businesses as an alternative to the multiple state and local certifications required by many public and private-sector agencies or prime contractors. The agency has partnered with more than 100 major corporations, agencies, and organizations who accept their certification.

· Women’s Business Enterprise National Council (WBENC): WBENC offers certification for women-owned businesses. They are a third-party certifier for businesses owned and operated by women in the United States. WBENC’s goal is to foster diversity by offering programs and policies designed to expand opportunities and eliminate barriers in the marketplace for women business owners. WBENC’s certification program is administered through fourteen regional affiliates.

Develop a Referral Network

Do you know other businesses which you share mutual customers with? You should be running, not walking to find who they are and how you can team up and benefit from each other. For instance, if you are a business writer, you should form a team with a web designer, PR firm and / or an ad agency, to name a few. If you are a realtor, you should form a team with a mortgage lender, Title Company, home inspector and home builders.

The key to this is to learn as much as you can about each team members business so that you can promote it as you would your own. You and your ‘sales’ team benefits with new leads as there are several of you supporting each other’s business. It makes so much sense to work smarter and not harder!

Get on the Social Media Bandwagon
Social networking is serious business! This is social networking for the 21st century, one in which every business owner should get on board with. As entrepreneurs, it is essential that you continually generate new ideas in order to maximize the profit-making potential of your venture. Social media is a great way to leverage your products or services. It is an easy and inexpensive way to connect to people around the world and an opportunity to make friends with people who have similar interests, find solutions to problems they might have by collaborating with others, as well as attract clients that might need your products or services.

More and more local small businesses and non-profit organizations are climbing aboard the social media bandwagon to market themselves for free. It just makes good business sense to learn how to leverage social media to build communities around brands and then leverage them into revenue.

According to a recent survey on online social networking by the Institute for Corporate Productivity:

• 65% of business professionals use some form of personal or professional social network
• 47% use social networks to connect with potential clients and market their skills
• 55% use social networks to share best practices with colleagues

Some popular social networking services, such as, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Linkedin and Bebo allow users to create a profile.

Yes to Name Dropping

Why not ask your existing clients for referrals? All you need to do is ‘ask’ them for up to three friends or colleague’s names that may benefit from your services. Once the names and contact information is given, make sure you ask for permission to use your client’s names when contacting these referrals. When contacting referrals, let each know that your client suggested you call them. This is a great way to bridge the awkwardness to get one foot in the door with ease.

Example: 'Hello, Ms. Jones. My name is Sylvia Browder from Browder Consulting Group. Your friend Ms. Greenberry suggested I call you. She thought you might be interested in growing your small business and I’d like to discuss your needs and give you suggestions for growth. I’d like to make an appointment with you - at your convenience, of course. What day works best for you this week?"

Remember that people do business with people they know and trust. So, if your client is happy with your products/services, then chances are those referrals will turn into clients.

In conclusion, as business owners, it is essential that you continually generate new ideas in order to maximize the profit-making potential of your venture. By doing this, growth is continuous, thus, you’ll avoid stagnation.

WANT TO USE THIS ARTICLE IN YOUR E-ZINE OR WEB SITE? You can, as long as you include this complete blurb with it:Sylvia Browder is CEO of Browder Consulting Group, a virtual small business consulting firm. In her role, she helps Women in Business grow and succeed. She is employed as Project Director and business consultant for the Women's Business Center Inc, a non-profit economic development organization with a mission of empowering women to start and grow successful businesses. She has served as an online volunteer SCORE counselor since 2004. She also serves as a Technical Assistant Provider for SBA’s Community Express Loan Program. For FREE weekly articles go to Sylvia Browder’s Blog for Women Entrepreneurs, www.sylviabrowder.com. She can be contacted at info@browderconsultinggroup.com.

· Become a fan of ‘National Association Women on the Rise’ on Facebook: http://bit.ly/9qqvWW

· Follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/sylviabrowder

• Are you LinkedIn? I am and invite you to link with me: http://www.linkedin.com/in/sylviabrowder
• Join ‘National Association Women on the Rise’ on LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/dsd5E0
• Join our community on NING, www.nawomenrise.com

HOw do you stay on top of everything?....(your "Brand" is all over the internet.) What do you do to stay on top of your industry/niche? -Gazania

What organizational system you use to keep all of your businesses and branches of those business together? -Sharonda

• Like the Nike Commercial Says, I just do it! Seriously, when your business is your primary source of income AND you have little mouths to feed, you don't have time to procrastinate, put off, give up, or neglect those things that are going to keep your bank account from going into overdraft (lol). When folks ask me this question, I like to hammer home this point because sometimes the issue isn't time BUT you actually doing the things you say you are going to do.
  
  
• That being said what do I do first and how do I keep it in order? I do NOT use any crazy online tools or widgets. I have three things that keep my system right: my notebooks, my outlook, and my excel. I was originally going to upload a picture of my notebook for this post, but then I got the idea to put in a few personal pics of me. (You see me squeezing that guys butt? I've always been the short girl who likes them tall, what can I say). Anyhoo.. Everyday in my notebook I map out bullets of what needs to get done, so many of my notebooks are full of me saying the same thing hundreds of times, but they stay in my head and as I get them done I check them off.
  
  
• THEN I have my notepad on my computer, that simple text editor with no bells and whistles, every month I create a file like "todolist_may2010"... I've got files like this going back to about 2006. When things come up, I see sites I like or I come up with a great idea, I just cut and paste them into the pad. I get to what I can get to and I'm cool with letting the rest of the ideas pass away like many of my brain farts often do (lol).
  
  
• At the end of the day (or I should say beginning) top priority always goes to my paying clients first, then my personal projects, then my emails, then people's questions. I always make sure the first thing people can say about me is that when they pay me, I am timely and professional, so customers come first. Remember I told you how to keep your customers happy.
  
  
• I've got over 30 websites right, but I'm NOT afraid to let some of them sit there and collect dust for awhile. If you listened to my audio (the 3 things blocking your business), you'll remember I said one of the things that keeps your business blocked is being all over the place. While it seems like I have alot going on, most times I am focusing on one very specific project at a time. Last month my focus was on updating BBWO and putting together the BBWO50. This month my focus is on launching the SistaSense Circle. I give myself personal projects to focus on and then dig in. Remember my post, 'Tweak Vs Twitter', most of the time I'm just making my current online ventures better, I'm not really doing anything new. Focus truly adds time onto your day and your business because you avoid wasting time doing anything else.
  
  
• If you had a chance to listen to the first 6 minutes of the sistasense circle, you would have heard me say that I focus on 5 Elements that I believe help me make the most of my time online and help me avoid getting distracted by all the new internet marketing trends or ideas. I don't go through social media time warps where I spend hours tweeting or chatting it up on Facebook because I practice exactly what I preach; "my true objective online is to build my list, get new customers, and keep the old ones happy". I avoid all things that DO NOT accomplish the goals in my true objective. (I know its sounds like army talk, but you gotta be militant about this kind of thing if you want to make that money).
  
  
• Yes, before I forget, I also mentioned that use both Outlook and Excel. With outlook when email interview requests come in or I have to schedule a consultation for a client, I use the reminder tool, which is like my virtual receptionist there to remind me when I have something to do. Excel helps me manage the books, from as far back as ... I can't even remember every month I do this thing where I simultaneously open my excel, my bank statement, and my paypal to assess how much money I've made last month, when to pay the bills, and how much I am saving. I know at some point I told you about my money marker system, right? If you want to stay organized and ensure that your business revenue increases you have to track your progress, keep your bills in order, save (so you can see what your working for) and set financial goals for the future.

• Marketing Your Business When You Don’t have time to Market Your Business
• Time Management Tips for Busy Entrepreneurs and Work at Home Moms
• There is Still Time to Join the SistaSense Circle
• Time Management Tips for Bloggers: Scheduling Your Blog Posts
• Do I Really Sleep or am I Online ALL the Time

I am starting another business venture about helping people. I really don’t have the time to do the things you suggest and grow the business. Can you recommend someone that will do it and not tell you how to do it?

Have you ever visited Dolls Like Me? Its a wonderful online store featuring multicultural toys that many parents often have a hard time finding and toys, which of course every kid loves! As the founder of both BBWO and the Black Moms Club, I think one of the best parts of what I do is being able to feature wonderful websites for/by people of color.

In addition to DollsLikeMe.com here are 4 Other Websites that I picked specifically for you and the readers on my Black Parenting Blog:

• Cara B Naturally Hair Care Products, a Chemical-Free Line made specifically for Black Children
• Black And Married With Kids, a Black Family, Parenting and Relationship blog both mom and dad can enjoy
• AfroPartyHouse, Have a hard time finding party favors perfect for African American kids? Diverse Party Favors How Wonderful is that!
• CocoaBabies, Clothing Line with African American Babies, Toddlers, and Children in mind. Bought my son a shirt, 'Strong Black Man in the Making'. Her stuff is too cute!