Johan

How to Stand Out amongst Other Women Entrepreneurs

As more and more of the female population decides to start a business, it gets harder to stand out amongst other women entrepreneurs. However, it can be done. Here are a few suggestions to get you started.

Utilize Social Media

Social media can be used for so much more than keeping in touch with friends and family. Create pages for both yourself and your business on multiple social media sites (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, etc.). Then, share content that shows off the things that you have to offer.

Be sure to highlight ways that you are different than your competition. For example, if you’re the only day care service in your town that also provides transportation, be sure to bring that up in your posts.

Keep Your Promises

Clients and customers alike will notice when you deliver on every aspect of a promise that you make to them. Make sure that you finish everything that you start, and that you get it done in a timely manner. People remember that you were true to your word, and keep that in mind when deciding who to do business with in the future.

Go the Extra Mile

Doing more than is expected of you when working with clients or customers is a sure way to set yourself and your business apart from competitors in your field. If you can offer an extra feature or service that your competitors don’t, that’s an excellent point to make when trying to “sell” yourself to potential customers.

Give Out Free Samples

People tend to get pretty excited about the idea of getting something for free. Consider investing in promotional objects like pens, mouse pads, t-shirts, or fridge magnets. It may not seem like much, but gifts like this with your logo on them can go a long way toward setting yourself apart from your peers.

Listen to Feedback

Even if you are successful when you launch your business, you won’t be able to keep up with the changing landscape if you aren’t able to adapt as a business owner. Take every opportunity that you can to collect feedback from customers and other businesses that you work with.

One way to do this is to provide customers with a satisfaction survey, either in person or via email. Make sure to include a section that lets the customer fill in suggestions on how you could improve your service. Not only will this give you an idea of how you can do better, it also lets your customers know that their opinion matters to you.

These are just a few ways to help to ensure that you stand out among the sea of female entrepreneurs. Yes, competition is fierce. But, that doesn’t mean you can’t be successful. With perseverance and due diligence, chances are you’ll realize continued growth along your well-deserved journey to success.

Dealing with Natural Disasters as an Entrepreneur

As a small business owner, it’s imperative to give some thought to the types of natural disasters you may be subjected to depending on where you live, and how that may affect your business and your customers’ ability to use your solutions and communicate with you.

Some of the things you may need to deal with and think about are:

* Flooding
* Hurricanes
* Fires
* Weather Issues
* Earthquakes

You could be dealing with many problems as a result of any of these natural disasters.

For example, if you experience flooding or fires where you live, you may lose your place to do business for a while as you clean up and rebuild. For almost any issue you may lose electricity, which can damage your ability to communicate with or accept payment from your customers.

You may end up shut down entirely for days, weeks, or months. As you consider each type of natural disaster you could be faced with, how prepared are you? Do you have flood insurance, fire insurance, and so forth? What about a backup method that you can employ if needed?

Here are some scenarios with suggestions on how to deal with them.

* I have no electricity: I have a backup generator. I will go to the local coffee shop. I can evacuate to my friend’s house.

* I must evacuate my area: I will evacuate to my colleague’s house by plane. I will use my fifth wheel to get out of town to a safe place.

* My server burned up: I have a backup server, so it’s all going to be okay as soon as we enter the right information, or it’s automatic, so this will not be an issue.

* My computer is damaged in a storm: I have insurance so I can buy a replacement right away. I back up everything in the cloud.

* I can’t do business for two or three weeks: I have savings and insurance that will help me. I have processes in place that will allow someone else to service my customers.

* I lost everything in a fire: I have insurance that will pay for everything, and I have savings that enable me to purchase backups.

Know what type of insurance you have, as well as the humans that can help you, by keeping the phone numbers handy. Make it even better by having redundant backup systems for your technology that enable you to keep on going when needed.

Understand that the main thing that is going to protect you and your business is pre-planning. Consider the types of natural disasters that you may need to deal with. Don’t discount environmental disasters either, such as oil spills. These affect people just like natural disasters since they’re usually so sudden.