Selfmade

Brit Morin thought up Selfmade under her Brit+Co, which helps people start businesses and make their own money, a little more than a year ago, when she was home-schooling her 4- and 6-year-old sons, and was reading articles about how the majority of jobs lost in the early weeks of the pandemic belonged to women. Economists were calling it a “Shecession.”

More than 1,000 women have completed the program. They range from 16 to 51 years old, and are from diverse backgrounds — stay-at-home mothers, burned-out executives, women laid off during the pandemic. More than half have been women of color.

Learn that anything is possible.

5 Ways to Get Double-Digit Growth For Your Business

The road to recovery due to the global pandemic is no excuse to settle for status quo or to not push hard for double-digit (10 percent or more) business growth.   

In the article below, I [Laurel J. Delaney] highlight some points in Michael Treacy's book, “Double-Digit Growth: How Great Companies Achieve It – No Matter What."  His insights are still relevant for today's business owners.  The five ways to go after growth consist of:

1. Get traction with your market share.   
2. Hold on to your hats — I mean customers!
3. Leverage market position.  
4. Move into new markets.  
5. Commission new lines of business. 

Read on to learn more. 

Women Entrepreneurs Must See Opportunity In Every Difficulty

Before the COVID-19 crisis, women-owned 40% of the businesses in the U.S., representing more than 12.3 million firms.

As of 2020, these companies employed nearly 9 million people and generated $1.8 trillion in sales. Last year alone, women started 1,821 new businesses every day.  Of these, over 60% were started by women of color, and Latina women-owned businesses grew more than 87%.

As Winston Churchill once said: “A pessimist sees the difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees the opportunity in every difficulty.”

Women entrepreneurs must see opportunity in every difficulty, too.  Now is a perfect time to think about how to create a new market space. Your clients in the past — indeed, the whole marketplace — have changed. 

Take a look at seven areas women entrepreneurs can discover new ways to solve old problems and gain traction in our new world. 

Your Action, Not Your Words, Gets You Ahead

One of the classic ways to find out what is really going on with a business owner or top-level executive these days is to ask, “What’s keeping you up at night?”  Being a small business owner and a formally trained facilitator, I decided to take a different approach and asked 20 presidents of small businesses in marketing, interior design, insurance and a variety of other industries what’s allowing them to get a good night’s rest.  Here are the highlights of what they shared.

The one tip that trumps them all?  No. 10.

Deal with it.  Don’t think of surviving.  Think of thriving.  Action, not words, says it all.  Imagine yourself five years from now and where you will be.  If you can envision it, you can do it.  And end up sleeping like a baby.

How to Market Your Global Business Lady Gaga Style

The following is an article I [Laurel J. Delaney] wrote more than a decade ago and I still think it is relevant more than ever coming out of the global pandemic.  It was originally published by American Express.  I am surprised and delighted they had accepted it back then.  The photo that accompanies the piece is a little conservative but hey, you can't have everything!

American pop singer Lady Gaga has taken the world by storm with her robust voice, over-the-top theatrical performances and outrageous costumes. Global small business owners can learn from her without going to the same extremes. 

There are lots of little ways to reposition your business, be different, and have customers take notice of you both online and off. All it takes is a little innovation and determination.

Learn more. 

Happy Mother's Day 2021 from Escape From Corporate America!

©2021 Laurel J. Delaney.  All rights reserved.

Can SHE Do it?

Hidden Stash, a chestnut colt will be one of the longest shots – 50-1 – when the field of 20 is sent on their way today in what is known as the most exciting two minutes in sports:  The Kentucky Derby. If he were to win, Hidden Stash would be the newest member of the Mount Rushmore of improbable Derby winners.

Here's what makes this race special.  Ms. Vicki Oliver is Stash's trainer and SHE has that chance to put her name into the thoroughbred record books. She is the 18th woman to saddle a horse in the Derby.  And, yes, she is quite aware of the history lesson she could teach if Hidden Stash finds his way to the winner’s circle.

“It’s unbelievable how much work she has put into this,” [Braxton] Lynch [one of the founding partners and the racing manager at syndicate group BBN Racing] said. “She has been doing it for over 20 years. I tell you, it’s not an easy business being a woman. It wasn’t an easy business 25 years ago when we both got into it. It’s hard work. Man, woman, whatever. You have to put in the work."

Can SHE do it?  Race on ...