Blogs

Attending a conference can be as productive as you plan it to be. You will gain opportunities to communicate with many people, be inspired by great ideas, excited about future of your business and empowered to move your business forward.To have the most successful experience, here are “6 Simple Tips to Prepare for a Business Conference.”

Tip 1: Preplan your Day

Most conferences require a full day of your time. It is important to look and feel your best; wear appropriate and professional attire and comfortable shoes. At past conferences, I’ve seen women walking bare footed at the end of the day. Not a good look!

Tip 2: Pick your Sessions

If the conference agenda is available in advance, take time to map out a strategy to select sessions that are most beneficial to improve your skills. At each session, actively participate by asking questions and taking notes. Spend a few minutes after the presentation to introduce yourself to the presenter.

Tip 3: Practice your Pitch

You will meet a lot of people and have the opportunity of introducing yourself and business. Make sure your message is clear and concise. Fine tune your elevator pitch to make the most of your meeting.

Tip 4: Prepare to Network

This is a great opportunity to network with people. The key is to meet new business contacts. Depending on the size of the conference, make sure you visit the exhibitors and sponsors who might be prospective vendors or clients.

Tip 5: Bring Plenty of Marketing Material

The purpose of attending a conference is to market your business, right? So, why not have a professional brochure, flyer and or business cards. At the very least, have plenty of business cards to pass out.

With that being said, make sure the information on your business cards is accurate to avoid crossing out and handwriting your updated information. Remember, image is everything! A helpful suggestion, jot some details of people you meet on the back of their business cards to remember later.

Tip 6: Follow Up

Within the next week, make sure you follow up with e-mails, phone calls or a simple letter. The key is to connect with potential people that can be beneficial to your company.

In conclusion, by deciding on the bottom line results you want to achieve, whether meeting certain presenters, attendees or vendors or attending a specific session, make sure you get a great return on investment or ROI.

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 Face book: http://bit.ly/9qqvWW

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

· Are you LinkedIn? 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

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