Leon Panetta put a sizeable dent in the gender gap for American women last week by announcing that the U.S. ban on women in combat positions will be lifted. Top military leaders were in accord with the decision, and there seemed to be very little opposition -- can Board seats, C-suite executive roles and equal financing for women-owned small businesses be far behind? In a short video Tory Burch talks about how women entrepreneurs should find their passion and be just as ambitious as men. Continue reading

The right story will turn customers into standard-bearers for your brand, says marketer Jonah Sachs. How do you find the right story? Here are some concepts that may help. The templates are out there. "The thing about stories is, they've always followed a particular pattern," Sachs says. "I use Joseph Campbell's hero's journey idea. The outsider living in a broken world meets a mentor and goes into a magic world to fight a dragon and make the world better. That's Star Wars, The Matrix, and The Book of Moses, among others. It goes back to ancient times and we can get some very simple tips from this tradition." A good story has a moral. "The best stories are all built around one key idea, one truth about how the world works," Sachs says. "The best brands figure out one key truth that they stand for, and the audience sees it... Continue reading

For those looking to make a career change, volunteering can give you a virtually risk-free chance to explore your interests in other fields—kind of like a grown-up internship. Years ago I thought I wanted to be an event planner, so I jumped at the chance to chair a major fundraising gala for a local nonprofit. But after managing that and multiple other events, I realized that event planning was not for me. Thank goodness I had the chance to “try it before you buy it” through volunteering. But in other cases, volunteering may confirm your desire to make a big career change. via gtalumnimag.com This article by Heather Rocker, former ED of Women in Technology in the Georgia Tech Alumni magazine really captures the benefits of volunteering, whether you are just starting out or looking for a change. Continue reading

Coach Mike Krzyzewski has won four NCAA college basketball titles as the head coach of Duke, a gold medal as an assistant coach of the 1992 Dream Team in Barcelona and a gold medal as head coach of the U.S. mens team in the 1998 Olympics in Beijing. He’s a servant leader who works on making his players feel connected to him and to one another. In an article in the New York Times magazine writer Mike Sokolove says he coaches "like a girl" because Coach K cares about people and results. To learn more about Coach K’s leadership style check out this New York Times Magazine article entitled “Follow Me.” You’ll learn how a guy from an all boys Catholic high school, West Point and the U.S. Army evolved a very effective leadership style that is not command and control, but mimics women leaders' focus on relationships. Maggie Anderson... Continue reading

The story took viewers to a huge building, down a long hall, and into an enormous room where the ceiling was ribboned with thick yellow cables. The reporter explained that inside these yellow tubes were thousands of tiny cables that carried the movie you were downloading, or the family photos or new business plan you upload to "the cloud." As he spoke, in the background, was a technician tying these huge thick cables to a support grid on the ceiling with -- I kid you not -- string. I laughed, then thought about the metaphor for the way we live and work now: prodded and pushed to use new social media and technology every day, yet sometimes it is the timeless skills, like the string grandma used, that holds our productivity and potential business achievements together. Continue reading

Our view is that your brand is whatever your customers think of you and they make the decision of what they think of you based on their interactions with you. Marketing is one thing, but the key to branding is delivering on the promises you make every day. And if you deliver on those promises then people will believe what you tell them. Continue reading

I know you are busy, but pause for a moment and consider the miraculous history of marketing and branding for business, because I think it is going to help you. The very first Internet domain name was registered just 27 years ago in 1985, by a company called Symbolics.com. ARPANET, which came online in 1969, was its grandfather, connecting large computers at four universities in California and Utah; it was only used by computer experts, engineers, scientists, and librarians. By 1972, ARPANET users had a form of email, and file sharing in 1973. ARPANET expanded and inspired other networks over the next decade as more and more academic and government institutions developed and adopted this networking technology. Each had a string of numbers as their address which were hard to remember and update if the site moved to a different IP — Internet Protocol — address. So domain names like... Continue reading

...for 11 of the 15 years between 1996 and 2010, Americans between the ages of 55 and 64 had the highest rate of entrepreneurial activity of any age group. The National Journal reports that 9 of the nation's 15 million small-business owners were born before 1965. Continue reading

"A pessimist sees a challenge in every opportunity; an optimist sees an opportunity with every challenge." This is one of General David Petraeus' favorite Churchill quotes. Continue reading

8. Own your message Remember the phrase “1,000 songs in your pocket”? Of course you do. It’s because when Apple launched the iPod, the executives who were authorized to speak to the news media repeated the phrase over and over again. It’s classic Apple: Craft, control and repeat the message. My favorite of 10 insights from Adam Lashinsky in an interview by Guy Kawasaki via www.openforum.com Continue reading

If you’ve ever walked into a mattress showroom, you know that the only way to buy a mattress is to lie down on it. For the most part, they all look the same--like flattened marshmallows. That’s also your challenge, right? How do you convince a customer to buy a service before they see the difference you can make in their organization? How do you differentiate your services from other firms like yours so you don't look like one more flattened marshmallow? Learn some new small business marketing ideas from this post, like how to change perceptions of your small business so you stand out. Continue reading

NAWBO President Praises Elevation of SBA Administrator to Cabinet Level Position WASHINGTON, DC--(Marketwire - Jan 13, 2012) - The President & CEO of the National Association of Women Business Owners® (NAWBO®), Diane Tomb, released the following statement today following President Barack Obama's announced decision to elevate the U.S. Small Business Administrator to a cabinet-level position. "Given our contribution to the economy and job creation, small business owners, millions of which are owned and run by women, have earned a seat in the President's cabinet. It is important for the White House to understand the impact its policy decisions and regulations have on the millions of small business owners across the nation, especially as we continue to work to get the economy turned around and often look to small businesses to grow and create jobs. Therefore, today's announcement is welcome news for small business owners in general and particularly women business... Continue reading

To me getting clear about strategy is the most important challenge business owners face ... John Jantsch said this in a recent post. His Duct Tape Marketing blog is very practical, and so useful for Small Busines Marketing. I say this in my blog and my programs, but John says it so well! I’m going to challenge them first to look inward. I’m going to ask them to choose a marketing strategy that is infused with who they are, why they do what they do and how to use that story to attract opportunities and clients. While every industry has a unique set of clients, a unique language, maybe even an unusual distribution model, the way that customers come to know, like and trust them is fundamentally the same. John goes on to outline a core set of practices that every business can use to communicate their simple, clear, marketing... Continue reading

I hope your productivity is peaking as you start 2012 and this will be a great year for you! If you could use a little help with organization, my colleague and friend, Wendy Ellin is offering at 4 pm Eastern TODAY, Tuesday 1/10/2012 a live (and free) tele-call: ‘Enough is Enough, Get Control of Your Stuff!’ Wendy told me today there are a ton of people registered, and I wanted to give you the opportunity to register and join in today at 4:00 pm ET (1:00 pm PT). You can get more details, plus check out a short video from: http://wendyellin.com/enough-is-enough-call/ On this 60-minute tele-call, you’ll learn everything you need to take the productivity level in your business up several notches! It’s time you (and even your staff) get the life you want by focusing on the energy, the attitude and the efficiencies in your business. Remember, Getting Organized is... Continue reading

So what is Wabi Sabi for a small business? Taking a deep breath, recognizing and accepting with humility your own imperfections and those of your team. Seeing them as the right kind of imperfection, like asymmetry in a bowl that shows the handmade craftsmanship, instead of a perfect, but soul-less, machine-made bowl. Celebrating your successes with the team who helped you achieve them and dialing back on striving for the much more you think you "should" be achieving. Continue reading

The 17th century philosopher Blaise Pascal said: all of man's problems come from his inability to sit quietly in a room alone. And they didn't have internet, email or iPads back then! Around this time of year there is usually a lot of energy around making lists and getting a fresh start and I wanted to make a different suggestion. Schedule time to do nothing. At Intel they scheduled engineers to have 4 hours of uninterrupted time every Tuesday morning just to hear themselves think -- and it was so unusual (apparently the usual is about 3 minutes of uninterrupted time) and had such an impact that at the end of the experiment the participants recommended extending it to everyone in the company. I just returned from the longest getaway I've ever taken -- two weeks at a wonderfully quiet beach where there is almost nothing to do. We had... Continue reading

5 Things You Should Never Say While Negotiating If you're new to negotiating or find it difficult, here are some missteps to avoid. By Mike Hofman | @mikehofman | Jan 31, 2011 2,456 inShare via www.inc.com Forget your professional expertise or years of experience in your field. Keeping a cool head in a negotiation is one of an entrepreneur's best tools -- and a difficult one if you are, like many entrepreneurs, passionate about what you do. Continue reading

Thanksgiving by Linda McCarriston Every year we call it down upon ourselves, the chaos of the day before the occasion, the morning before the meal. Outdoors, the men cut wood, fueling appetite in the gray air, as Nana, Arlene, Mary, Robin—whatever women we amount to— turn loose from their wrappers the raw, unmade ingredients. A flour sack leaks, potatoes wobble down counter tops tracking dirt like kids, blue hubbard erupts into shards and sticky pulp when it's whacked with the big knife, cranberries leap away rather than be halved. And the bird, poor blue thing—only we see it in its dead skin— gives up for good the long, obscene neck, the gizzard, the liver quivering in my hand, the heart. So what? What of it? Besides the laughter, I mean, or the steam that shades the windows so that the youngest sons must come inside to see how the smells... Continue reading

Instead of creating a new Twitter account, head over to the Account tab on Twitter.com. There, you can change your username, as well as your e-mail address and security settings. You'll also want to visit the Profile tab to update your picture and bio. In the bio section, it's wise to let your followers know—for the next few weeks, at least—that you've changed your account username, and that you'll continue to receive all of their @replies and direct messages at your new username. via www.openforum.com With the success of my book, I wanted to shift my branding to "Do You Stand Out Enough?" but thought I was stuck with the Twitter handle I came up with before I knew what I was doing :~) Nice to know you are now free to align your Twitter name with the rest of your branding without losing all your followers. From now on... Continue reading

Branding is a way to boost your visibility and help your small business marketing efforts produce more results. As a small business marketing consultant I've noticed that entrepreneurs often hurt themselves by going too big or too small in their efforts to create a strong brand. Branding is not an action -- it's a process. Not a big transformation you budget time and money for "when business picks up next year" but strength that builds gradually. Regular and consistent steps that build credibility, appreciation and trust for your company, your products, your services is what builds a strong brand. Continue reading

I saw the amazing violinist Joshua Bell perform with the Symphony on Sunday, and was reminded how moving unself-conscious excellence can be. Bell glides about the stage seemingly pulled and played by his violin rather than the other way around! Fully wrapped in music creation, he seems to give himself over to focus on the music with little on himself. The result is a unique and moving sound. How does this help your small business marketing efforts? Stay with me and I promise a very short marketing course that I hope will spark some innovative ideas for you. There has never been a time when entrepreneurs had so many new media marketing solutions available, but as many of my clients complain, they do require work and constant creativity and innovation from us. Joshua Bell's kind of deep, creative focus is satisfying for the player and for the audience who experiences... Continue reading

Think about it: if all 24 of the other people in a room understand exactly what you do, and how it could benefit someone, what possibilities does that open up? You X 24 = Questions. When people you meet are confident they have a basic grasp of what you do, they are more likely to explore further by asking questions. A 30 or 60-second introduction is not likely to make a sale, but questions that let you explain more about how you can meet their specific needs do! Referrals. When others are clear what you do and have simple, memorable words to express it they can confidently connect you with their networks. It's easy to see how connecting with the networks of 24 other people in the room could geometrically expand your market! Opportunities. You know your business well, but I'm sure there are opportunities for growth you are simply unaware of. One woman told me afterwards she got a great lead from the meeting because something she said in her introduction made someone else think of someone who should be doing business with her. A clear, concise and compelling introduction is one of your most important business assets today and there are three basic elements it needs to include: Continue reading

I just did a VIP One-day with an Atlanta Executive Homes advisor who is amazingly savvy on the internet -- he gets 200,000 hits to his Website every month! But in our session he was totally opposed to using Twitter. Here's what Kathy C. says about that: One of the top social sharing tools you should include on your website is a Twitter Retweet button. Some small business owners laugh when I say this, and they laugh because they are not using Twitter and see no reason for having anything to do with it on their website. My answer is always: “What about your website visitors? They probably are using Twitter, or at least a good number of them.” And then the light bulb moment comes… “Ohhhh, right.. “ Continue reading