Advice for Amber Grant Applicants
Filling out grant applications is an art form. And while there are professionals who specialize in crafting grant requests, odds are good you probably aren’t one of them. Few entrepreneurs and business owners are, and that’s okay. No one at WomensNet expects you to have grant writing experience or expertise. The reason that the application […]
Get More Done in Less time by Reducing Distractions
The opportunities for distraction today are greater than they’ve ever been. With phones by our side 24/7, social media calling our name, and anxiety seemingly ever-present, it’s challenging for anyone to stay focused on any one task for more than a few minutes. And yet, staying on-task is critical for progress to be made. Spread […]
The Basics of Pay-Per-Click Advertising
Businesses working to grow their social media following often decide at some point to explore the merits of pay-per-click (PPC) advertising. Where blogging and content creation contribute to organic growth of your audience, paid online advertising can be a shortcut. Digital advertising consultant Barry Hott recorded a video for the WomensNet community to try to […]
It’s Time to Prepare for the 2022 Holiday Season
Now that Labor Day has come and gone in the U.S., you know what that means—holiday season is just around the corner. Yes, even as we’re enjoying fairly warm temps across the northern hemisphere, smart business owners are beginning to plan for Q4. Although retailers are best-known for generating a large portion of their annual […]
Business Bookkeeping and Accounting for Beginners
“Running a business takes a lot of work,” confirms Elisabeth Lee of Lis Lee Accounting, who helps service-based solopreneurs learn how to manage their finances with confidence, so they can become more profitable. When you get the financial piece of your business to run more smoothly, you’ll begin to feel more in control and on […]
How to Incorporate Your Business Simply
One of the first decisions you should be thinking about while starting your business is what legal structure makes the most sense for your company. But even if you’ve been in operation for some time, it’s a good idea to occasionally consider whether a change should be made to how your business legally operates. Toni […]
Choosing the Best Website Platform for Your Needs
Whether you’re starting a new company or have been in business for a while, when it comes time to design or update your company’s website, one of the decisions you’ll need to make is which platform on which to host your site, says Ronke Bade-Ojo, founder of The Pink Creative, a branding and website design […]
Building a Social Media Presence
Having a social media presence should be part of any small business’s marketing strategy, mainly because using social media platforms to connect with target customers can be extremely cost effective. Tia Meyers Grado, founder of Freelancing Females, provides a quick rundown of the primary social media platforms small businesses may want to pay attention to […]
Protecting Your Business with Trademarks, Copyrights, and Patents
What steps can you take to protect the brand name you’ve come up with for your business or product? Can you prevent others from copying the sales page you’ve crafted or the course you just rolled out? How about a product you invented or an app you developed? The short answer is… yes. The U.S. […]
Women and Minority Business Enterprise (WMBE) Certification
During fiscal year 2020, the US federal government spent nearly $600 billion on goods and services from US businesses. What many women business owners may not realize is that they have a chance at landing some of that business. In fact, the government has federal contracting quotas that require agencies and contractors to award business […]
What You Need to Know Before Hiring a Coach
Depending on who you ask, the size of the coaching industry in 2022 is worth anywhere from $2.85 billion to $22 billion. Of course, that number includes all the various coaching niches, from executive coaching to life coaching to career coaching, and more. The field continues to grow as a result of people realizing the […]
Check Out the New WomensNet Resource Center
As part of its new alliance with Freelancing Females, WomensNet has launched a Resource Center with useful videos on a range of topics women business owners frequently ask questions about. The educational video series addresses: Business bookkeeping and accounting for beginners Choosing the best website platform for your needs Coaching and capacity building How to […]
Success as a Solopreneur
Where solopreneurship, or operating as a one-person company, used to be perceived as a starting point to entrepreneurship, today many start-ups are opting to remain as solo ventures. Approximately 73% of U.S. small businesses are categorized as solopreneurships, reports Podia, which equates to 41.8 million companies. Rather than being merely a stepping stone, for many […]
How to Win Back Lost Customers
Most businesses focus the bulk of their marketing efforts on attracting new customers, when their resources would be better spent on trying to win back previous customers. That’s because you actually have a better chance of winning back a lost customer than you do of converting a new prospect. Research by Marketing Metrics found your […]
Time is Money: Here’s How to Find More
Many entrepreneurs often waste time. Of course, it’s not intentional, but they spend time they shouldn’t on tasks that don’t require their direct involvement. Reducing that wasted time is the key to getting more done in less time. By focusing on maximizing productivity, by managing your time better, your business has the potential to become […]
Simple Steps to Protect Your Business from Cybercrime
Reports of cyberattacks are increasing in frequency, with small businesses becoming bigger targets because they typically have not invested in security technology to the degree that larger corporations have. Many also lack internal policies and procedures designed to thwart access to sensitive data. The FBI’s 2020 Internet Crime Report found that the cost of cybercrimes […]
Grow Your Business with Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Fifty percent of Americans would choose word-of-mouth, meaning recommendations from family and friends, if they had to choose one source of information regarding a potential purchase. That’s the power of word-of-mouth marketing, which is based on trust and credibility. In fact, 41% of Americans trust word-of-mouth recommendations over social media suggestions. Yet, surprisingly, only 33% […]
6 No-Cost Ways to Support Other Women Business Owners
The number of woman-owned businesses continues to rise, reports the US Census Bureau, and those with employees account for nearly 20% of all US businesses. When you add in women solopreneurs, that percentage rises to 42% of all businesses in the country. And women of color own half of all woman-owned companies. The rise of […]
Grow Your Influence with Public Speaking
Public speaking is one of the most effective and least expensive marketing tools available. If you have more time than money right now to grow your business, think about doing some public speaking. As the person in the front of the room sharing information, you’re the de facto authority on your topic. You’re the expert. […]
Yes, You Need a LinkedIn Page
Although we’ve been hearing a lot about video and image-based social media platforms, like TikTok and Snapchat and Instagram, LinkedIn is where you can make valuable business connections. Becoming active on LinkedIn can connect you to people who may want to do business with you, as well as with potential new hires, with potential joint […]
Ways to Hire Top Talent When You Can’t Afford to Pay Top Dollar
When faced with a choice between hiring an inexperienced employee and an award-winning superstar, most organizations would prefer to hire the superstar. The hitch is that the superstar’s compensation expectations may exceed what a smaller company can afford. It may be possible to rationalize bringing them on board and cutting budgets in other areas to […]
6 Ways to Show Gratitude to Your Clients that Cost Next to Nothing
It’s customary in many industries for companies to give their customers gifts of some kind during the holiday season. For example, beauty salons often give clients small samples of beauty products in appreciation for their business. Accounting firms sometimes mail out annual calendars for the coming year. Salespeople have been known to hand out jars […]
How to Pitch Local Media Outlets
While your business may serve a national or even global customer base, your local news and broadcast outlets are likely to be the most interested in learning about your company. Since their purpose is reporting on local people, organizations, and events, news about you and your business fits right into what many area media outlets […]
How to Improve Your Company’s Profitability
Although many business owners focus on sales as the most important metric of success, profitability, or how much you have left after you pay all your bills, is actually a much better measure of how well you’re doing. Profits are what allow you to grow and expand. They also determine whether you can afford to […]
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