THE WOD BUSINESS GUIDE · The name of your business is the first connection your customers will make with your brand. Your business name should reflect what your business does, the

THE WOD BUSINESS GUIDE

FOR MOTIVATED ENTREPRENEURS

ABOUT THIS GUIDE

One of the major goals of Women of Denver is to provide female leaders with the tools they need to increase their income. This guide is meant to provide support on your journey to increase your income through entrepreneurship.

This book is not a comprehensive educational resource, but provides basic information to help you begin the process of starting and running a successful business.

For more comprehensive support visit sba.gov.

www.thewomenofdenver.com

CHOOSING A BUSINESS NAME

The name of your business is the first connection your customers will make with your brand.

Your business name should reflect what your business does, the personality of your brand, and the language your customers use to describe the product or service you provide.

Quick Tip

Ask potential customers how they would describe your product or service. Make note of commonalities in language and use the most popular words in your business name and other branding materials.


YOUR BUSINESS LOOK AND FEEL

Your business should reflect your authentic personality, but it should also make it easy for your customers to understand what you do and why they should choose you amongst all other options.

The visible brand of your business is more powerful than any words you use to describe it and can quickly attract or turn away your customers.

Quick Tip

Create a few samples of what your brand could look like and present it to your ideal customers. Ask them to tell you the brand story without any information to start with. Choose the look that best reflects the story you want people to tell about your business.


STRUCTURING YOUR BUSINESS

Knowing the proper way to structure your business is essential to your long-term success. Look at resources such as sba.gov to learn more about the various business structures and the benefits of each. Be sure you understand the legal and financial consequences of the choices you make before filing your business paperwork with the government.

A great resource for new entrepreneurs is SCORE. It’s a free resource that offers mentorship to those starting businesses. Their goal is to help you get the support you need to succeed in business and the mentors are seasoned business professionals.

To learn more about SCORE visit www.score.org.


“Immerse yourself in the customer’s world and get to know their struggles and triumphs inside out.”

Dane Brookes

KNOW YOUR PREDECESSORS

Are there others who have been running businesses similar to yours for many years? Find out what has helped them maintain success and the failures they have encountered during their journey. Here’s a few questions to ask them:

➔ What do you feel is the number one reason for your success today?➔ What consistent actions do you perform that you feel contribute to your success?➔ Tell me about a time when you weren’t doing so well, what happened and how did you

overcome that challenge?➔ How do your customers normally find you? Has that changed over the years?➔ What advice would you give someone who wants to follow in your footsteps?


KNOW YOUR COMPETITION

Knowing your competitors will help you better understand how you can differentiate and reduce the competition between your business and other similar companies.

The best way to get to know your competition is to seek out meetings with other owners through personal introductions. Ask them for a conversation to learn more about what they do and how you could possibly collaborate and help each other succeed. Approach them as colleague rather than a competitor. Here’s what you need to know about them:

➔ What is their main differentiator (the thing that really stands out about their business)?➔ What is one thing they don’t provide that customers really want?


KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

When you know and understand the people you serve it’s easy to stay on target and provide them with exactly what they need. Knowing your audience makes it easier to transform your business as trends change because you’re in tune with the way your customer’s preferences are shifting at all times.

There are lots of ways to maintain a relationship with your audience and listen to their needs. Some strategies include:

➔ Regularly surveying your audience➔ Starting a Facebook or LinkedIn group, so you can monitor conversations➔ Having regular live events where you talk with your audience and learn more about

their preferences, language, and future needswww.thewomenofdenver.com

“If you are not aiming to establish instant credibility and trust with your target clientele, you are settling for cents on the dollar, and you are failing to run your business in a manner that will get you and your clients to the level of success you both deserve.”

Steward Andrew Alexander

ESTABLISH CREDIBILITY

In order for a customer to buy from you, they have to believe that putting their money in your hands is more valuable for them than giving it to someone else or simply keeping it in their own pocket.

You must create the sense that putting the money in your hands is the best investment they can make.

Credibility creates trust and influences people to take action.


CREDIBLE ACTIONS

Building credibility with your customers means offering recognizable evidence of your expertise. Some ways to appear credible include:

➔ Being recognized by a reputable organization with an award or certification➔ Earning news mention from a well-known and well-read publication➔ Receiving testimonials from established and well respected leaders➔ Obtaining referrals directly from satisfied customers➔ Speaking in front of small to large crowds about your expertise➔ Publishing relevant and valuable content related to your business


OBTAINING NEWS COVERAGE

Getting featured in the news is a great way to establish credibility for your business and get valuable exposure for your brand.

A few ideas for obtaining this type of coverage include:

➔ Following HARO (help a reporter out) and responding to requests from reporters in need of sources for their stories. Visit www.helpareporter.com to sign up to receive emails. If you’re featured add the publications logo with “as seen in” on your website, email signatures and other marketing materials.

➔ Following reporters on social media and building relationships with those who write about topics in your field. Offer insights regularly and you may build a strong case for being a regular source for them.


http://www.helpareporter.com

TESTIMONIALS

Authentic testimonials are one of the best ways to increase credibility for your business, but obtaining great quotes from high level leaders creates an even stronger case.

A great way to obtain these high level testimonials is by providing free services or free product samples to high level leaders and directly asking them to review your product or services in exchange for the freebie you’ve given. Here’s the wording you should use.

“I’d like to offer you a complimentary ________. All I ask is that if you’re happy with the (product/service) you receive that you write a testimonial that I can share on my website, social media, brochure, etc.”


GETTING SPEAKING GIGS

Presenting in front of a crowd of any size instantly makes you an expert and a leader. Getting opportunities to speak in front of a group gives you the chance to make an impression on potential customers and increase your credibility.

Your audience can become your raving fans and help you further your brand by recommending you, talking about you, quoting you and sharing your business with others.

A few ways to get these opportunities include:

➔ Sponsoring events at a level that allows you to address the group➔ Joining groups that encourage members to speak at events➔ Reaching out to meetup groups, local organizations, and community associations


“Going into business without a business plan is like going on a mountain trek without a map or GPS support - you’ll eventually get lost and starve!”

Kevin J. Donaldson

KNOW YOUR NUMBERS

How much money do you need to make in order to:

Survive ________ How many sales do you need to make this amount? ________

Thrive ________ How many sales do you need to make this amount? ________

Transform ________ How many sales do you need to make this amount? ________

How many people do you need to reach in order to get one sale? ________

To reach your “thrive” or “transform” numbers, multiply the number of people you need to reach to get one sale, by the number of sales you need to make the money desired and develop a strategy to reach that number of people.


TRACK YOUR PROGRESS

It’s not only important to know how much you need to sell to reach the success you desire, but you also need to be tracking your progress towards your goals in order to know how much energy to put in at any given time.

Your tracking device can be a simple spreadsheet showing your running total of sales for the month. You should check your spreadsheet weekly and increase your efforts depending on how close you are to reaching your goals.


Sales goal Sales achieved Action required

10 5 Reach 40 people

SELLING 101

Sales might have a bad rep, but without sales businesses can’t succeed. It’s important to have an established strategy for selling your product or service to customers. Here are a few tips for crafting a successful sales pitch for your business:

➔ Introduce your company as a resource for solving a specific pain or answering a specific question

➔ Tell your customers what they can become after buying your product/service➔ Describe the features in simple terms they can understand➔ Tell them about the investment (price) and explain the value of what they get for it➔ Illustrate the pain they will go through if they don’t purchase your product now➔ Address the objections they likely have and why they should overcome them


ACCOUNTING

An often forgotten part of starting a business is creating a process for managing income and expenses. The process doesn’t need to be difficult, time-consuming, or expensive, but it’s important to have one. Here are a few options for accounting for your money:

➔ Start a simple google spreadsheet that can be easily updated on any device and is hosted online, so you can get to it from anywhere. Track every sale and every expense and include a running total of your profit over time.

➔ Purchase Quickbooks or another similar service that allows you to track your income and expenses. They do the tabulating for you and offer various charts to help you track your company’s progress as well as transport your info for tax preparation.

➔ Hire a bookkeeper that will help you maintain your records throughout the year.


“The type of person you are is usually reflected in your business. To improve your business, first improve yourself.”

-Idowu Koyenikan

PERSONAL DEVELOPMENT

Personal development is essential for business owners. The more you learn and improve your skills, the better you’ll be at running a successful enterprise.

Running a business can also be physically and emotionally taxing for new entrepreneurs, so prioritizing personal development is a great way to increase the energy you have to continue striving towards your business goals. Here are some development activities you should consider pursuing.


❏ Speaker training❏ Sales training❏ Leadership training❏ Management training

❏ Life coaching❏ Meditation❏ Yoga or Tai Chi❏ Motivational workshops and retreats

STAYING MOTIVATED

One of the best ways to stay motivated towards your goal of creating a thriving business is surrounding yourself with other ambitious people.

Find a community of people that make you feel inspired to keep growing, keep learning, and keep thriving in your business and life. Investing in a community that motivates you is the best investment you can make in yourself.

It’s also important to create a personal accountability committee to keep you focused on reaching your goals. Choose a small group of like-minded people who care about your success and tell them what you’re trying to achieve. Ask them to check in with you periodically to find out if you’ve progressed. Knowing that they will be checking in on you will help create a feeling of motivation because you simply don’t want to look like a slacker.


PRODUCTIVITY

Your productivity is essential to the success of your business, but that doesn’t mean you need to work every hour of the day. Create a dedicated schedule based on your availability and the amount of time required to meet your financial needs.

Here’s a sample schedule:


Sun Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat

Soc mediaplanning1 hr

Strategicplanning3 hrs

Networking4 hrs

Follow up with prospects3 hrs

Networking4 hrs

Business Admin4 hrs

WORK-LIFE BALANCE

Maintaining a comfortable life balance while running a business is absolutely achievable. Reaching that goal requires the ability to compartmentalize activities and give laser focus on each activity in your life.

When you’re working, focus on the project at hand without taking time away for distractions. Give yourself stringent break times and stick to the schedule.

When spending time with family and friends make it an event and give them your full attention for a period of time. Stray away from things like movies and focus on activities such as card games, deep discussions, and physical activities. The more quality time you spend the less likely you’ll experience a feeling of imbalance.


ABOUT US

WORKSHOPS

➔ Increase credibility as an expert by teaching workshops➔ Get video and blog coverage on our website showcasing you as an expert➔ Add your videos to your website or resume to increase your credibility ➔ Get testimonials from other members after your workshops

"Helene was great and gave really valuable information. I'm looking forward to defining and implementing my social strategy further!" Christine McNutt

INTERVIEWS

➔ Be interviewed on our show “Inside the Women of Denver” ➔ Show off your interviews on your website & resume to increase credibility➔ Great way to practice telling your brand story and learn valuable high-level

skills for handling media interviews➔ Our show airs on tv, so you’ll get additional exposure

COMMUNITY

➔ Get to know ambitious women on a similar path➔ Build relationships and collaborate to help each other succeed➔ Trade referrals, sales leads and job opportunities➔ Help each other spread the word about the incredible gifts you have to offer

“I've never been to better events than Women of Denver’s. It's not like you're "working" to build relationships, even though you are, it's connecting in ways that allow everyone to feel confident being their authentic individual self. These events are real, pertinent, explorative, expansive and FUN!” Michelle DesPres

JOIN TODAY visit www.thewomenofdenver.com

Documents

THE WOD BUSINESS GUIDE · The name of your business is the first connection your customers will make with your brand. Your business name should reflect what your business does, the