Posts Tagged ‘financial success’

Why There Are So Few Women on Fortune’s “40 Under 40” List

Saturday, October 22nd, 2011

Fortune Magazine just released its “40 Under 40” list – a collection of the brightest and best innovators, leaders, “disrupters,” and job creators in the world under 40.   These folks are truly changing life and work as we know it.

But there’s a deeply disturbing problem with this list – where are the women?  The first woman listed is #20 – Marissa Mayer – VP of Google — and there are only 5 more.  Also extremely curious is that Fortune chose to feature on the cover two women (out of three individuals), when their list was only 15% female.  What were their reasons? 

You can’t imagine what it’s like to be a career and executive coach and trainer for professional women, and see a list like this.  It fires me up – makes me furious, motivated, frustrated, re-committed – a full gamut of emotions.  All of us who care about the advancement of women want to do more, impact more, change more, so that women — who are 47% of the U.S. labor force today yet only 15% of corporate leadership — aren’t grossly underrepresented in a list of top young movers and shakers in the world of business.

How can more women advance to the top of their fields?

Those who work intensively with professional women know there are key reasons why women are not making in large numbers to the top of their fields today.  Gender roles at home and the highly disproportionate distribution of labor around childcare and domestic responsibility is one.  And we also know there are critically important shifts that have to occur in women’s behavior, thinking, and actions to catapult them to the top.

These changes will not happen overnight, or even in our lifetimes.  But we can’t let up – we have to create new pathways for women to rise to senior leadership in every field and every industry.  Most people on the planet understand why it’s vitally important to have more women in leadership.  But very few know how to make it happen.   

8 Essential Steps for Women to Rise to the Top of Their Fields

Click below to read my latest piece on Forbes.com about the 8 essential steps for women to rise to the top:

WHERE ARE THE WOMEN ON FORTUNE’S “40 UNDER 40” LIST

Please let me know your thoughts – share your candid opinions.

Arriving at the top doesn’t just happen.  Women have to commit themselves to being the best and stretching beyond all imagining.  And we need empowering programs and initiatives that help train women how to overcome their challenges to rising to the top.

Are you ready to do what it takes?

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Posted in Careers, Empowerment, Kathy Caprino, Leadership, Women in Business, Women in Leadership, success | No Comments »

Are Your Values Keeping You From Earning More Money?

Wednesday, June 15th, 2011

Last week, I had the immense pleasure of conducting a coaching training course for the CT Women’s Business Development Council.  I shared the day with an amazing, inspiring group of women who work throughout Connecticut and are heart-committed to helping others get on more solid ground with their finances.  (By the way, if you don’t know about the Women’s Business Development Council, do check them out!).

In the program, we conducted a number of role-play exercises illustrating the power of coaching, and one exercise truly took me by surprise.  In this exercise, each of us explored our intrinsic, heart-felt values – what we care about deeply and what we need in our lives to feel fulfilled and to craft a life worth living. 

After the exercise, we evaluated how these values are supporting us, and also how they may be clashing, in fact, with our desire and need to make more money, and to save and invest wisely. Fascinating discussion…

In doing the internal work of this exercise myself, I was reminded that I value the following traits very highly in my work:

1) Helping people make positive, lasting change (value: making a difference)
2) Authenticity and individuality (value: truth-telling)
3) Offering help and insights based on reality (value: realism)
4) Delivering programs informed by research (value: expertise/diligence)
4) Endeavoring to offer something of value that exceeds what my clients pay (value: service)

When I compare my values and behaviors to those of some other service providers, I see key differences.  A large number (not a majority perhaps, but many) consultants and providers these days seem to value making money over all else, by:

-  Using hard-hitting marketing promises to convince clients about what they can achieve (no matter how likely those outcomes are)
- Accepting clients who are desperate financially, but don’t have the ability to recoup the money they invest in the coach/consultant
- Encouraging clients to put out programs and materials that offer less than high value or strong content
- Making abundant success sound very easy and very accessible to all
- Talking about how they personally made their money, not what the client needs to do in these times to make their own money
- Using fear tactics to scare clients into thinking if they don’t hire the consultant/coach, they’ll fail

On the contrary, when I looked very closely at my own values as well as my outer behaviors, I realized that my intrinsic values have prompted actions that in some ways clashed with my desired outcome of inviting more money into my business. As an example, I tend to give far too much away for free and then feel resentful and angry, and I have a hard time honoring my own boundaries about the type of coaching projects I will and will not accept.

After a long, hard evaluation, I now understand that what I want to change is not my values, but the way in which I express them.  For instance, I’m focused more keenly on being of service to people who are in synch with me about what they value and the outcomes they wish to produce.  I’m also more committed to working with those who are happy and able to pay fairly for the time and support they receive. 

The ultimate goal, I think, is to honor your values fully, while engaging in conscious behaviors that are in alignment with who you really are and what you want in life.

It’s a very powerful exercise to understand exactly what you value, and explore how these values prompt unconscious behaviors that hold you back from achieving core goals such as greater financial success.  I’d recommend doing this exercise today!

Question for the day: What do you value deeply in your life and work?  And how might these values be (unconsciously) promoting behaviors that hold you back from creating a higher level of desired success. Please share what you discover!  

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Posted in Breakthroughs, Careers, Empowerment, Kathy Caprino, Living Real, Marketing Support, Uncategorized, Women in Business | 3 Comments »

Why We Find “Make Money Quick!” Promises Such a Turn-off

Sunday, January 30th, 2011

In speaking to many of my coaching and consulting friends in the past few months, I’ve noticed that the folks I’m most connected with — those with whom I share the most emotional, spiritual and behavioral common ground – are all feeling the same way about the trend we’ve seen during the recession of marketers offering promises like these:

-          Double your income in weeks!
-          Recession-proof your practice!
-          Earn six figures now!
-          Kiss your money worries goodbye!
-          Make money while you sleep!

And so on…

Why do some of these marketing programs make us sit up and pay attention, and others make us press “delete” before we read the tenth word?

As a women’s researcher and a marketing consultant, I myself am offering an ongoing marketing success program for women coaches, consultants and practitioners called Prosperity Marketing Mindset.  I believe that this program helps you name and claim greater success and fulfillment on terms that meaningful to you.  But I make no promises of doubling your money, making money while you sleep, recession-proofing your practice, or finding a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  I’m careful about what I indicate are the potential outcomes of this program.  I feel that I can authentically and with integrity back up what I’m saying are the probable outcomes, with proven results.

Of course, most of us want to make more money, but the key outcome we want in making more money is doing what we love and doing it with more ease.  Many of us come from a place of wanting to give what we love to give, and we’re NOT drawn to making more money through constructing empty, inauthentic passive revenue projects, affiliation schemes, programs and partnerships that don’t, in the end, bring us closer to what we love to do.

In the wonderful book The Energy of Money (highly recommended), author Maria Nemeth shares this:

“We are all happiest when we are demonstrating in the physical reality what we know to be true about ourselves, when we are giving form to our Life’s Intentions in a way that contributes to others.

I think that this statement sums it up so beautifully and powerfully.  The folks I resonate with want to:

  • Create in life and work that which reflects what they know to be true about themselves
  • Honor their Life Intentions (truest visions and goals) in ways that serve others
  • Make great money doing what they love
  • Expand themselves in the process of being of service

If we can stretch ourselves to do the above better, more effectively and with greater ease, now we’re talking!

So what makes some money messages highly distasteful and a complete turn-off, and others more authentic, believable and compelling? 

Here are five ingredients I’ve found in inauthentic money promises that make us want to run:

1)  They talk about shifting yourself to double your income as if it can happen tomorrow – and in most people’s experience, it’s a process that takes a good deal of time

2)   They promise that because others have done it you can do it too in the same way – and that’s just not always the case.  Financial success is a unique and specialized journey based on the individual’s needs, desires, beliefs, and visions.

3)  They focus on money to the exclusion of other factors that go into creating success, fulfillment, reward, and results

4)  They hold up money as the ultimate outcome we desire – whereas being of service that reflects our Life Intentions is the true outcome we want

5) They ring of self-service – not of uplifting messages that will help US

Coaches, consultants, practitioners, and others who come from the heart want to be of service in the largest way possible, while earning a living that reflects what we know to be true about ourselves.  It’s simple but not easy, and we know it.  There are challenging steps involved in clearing and stretching us to be able to give of ourselves in a healthy and generous way, and strike a beautiful balance with the energy of money.

In the end, it’s vitally important to embrace messages that feel authentic and compelling to you.  Please don’t worry that’s something wrong with you (or that you’re not doing what you should) if you feel out of synch with these make-money-quick messages and schemes.  Make yourself RIGHT, and not wrong!

I’d love to hear from you – Do many of these “double your money!” messages turn you off?  Why, exactly?  And what money messages are attractive and exciting to you?  Please SHARE!

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Posted in Advice, Breakthroughs, Empowerment, Kathy Caprino, Marketing Support, success | 1 Comment »

A New Kind of Year

Tuesday, January 4th, 2011
Hello and Happy New Year!  I hope your holidays were lovely, and you feel refreshed and excited about the New Year.

What a challenging year 2010 was for so many, including me.  In thinking about what I would like to bring about in 2011 in my life and work, I’ve decided to take a very different approach to my planning and envisioning process. 

I’ve suffered a good deal of heartache and disappointment over the past years because I overly-attached to what I thought I wanted to achieve and create.  When these events or experiences didn’t come to pass, I was let down, only to learn later (days, months, and even years afterward), that what I hankered for so keenly wasn’t even what I truly wanted in my heart and soul. 

 Over-Attachment Causes Suffering 

I’ve observed that we humans attach ourselves with full force to a specific outer “form” of something we think we want (this new job, house, business, etc.), because we believe this “thing” or experience will bring us happiness. 

 What I’ve learned is that experiencing joy, fulfillment and “success” is much less about outer experiences and things, and much more about the process of living – namely, letting go of what we think we should be doing and being, and instead, embracing with gratitude and gusto the person we are and what we have already created, and moving forward from a perspective of acceptance rather than resistance.  After all, what we resist, persists.

 A New Process

So this year things will be different for me.  Sure, I’m excited to set out key goals for my life, work, and business.  But at the same time, I’m ready to let the year unfold as it will, embracing what comes, learning and growing from it, and knowing that much of what life brings is out of my control.  I know now that if I can be fully present for the ride rather than resisting it, life is more joyful, peaceful and fulfilling. Make sense?

I encourage you to set out for yourself the heartfelt goals you’d like to achieve, but also forge a new process of living whereby you are able to deeply and wholeheartedly feel, embrace, and cherish who you are and what you have in your life, each and every day.

Sound good? Let’s do it together.  Let’s plan, envision, and embrace.  Here’s to a new kind of life experience in 2011.

What can you accept and embrace today that you’ve been resisting?

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Posted in Breakthroughs, Challenges, Empowerment, Inspiration for Change, Kathy Caprino, Yes I Can Thinking | No Comments »

Why Asking for Money Is So Hard

Wednesday, December 8th, 2010

I’ve been watching my clients – and myself – this past year around the experience of charging fees, asking for payment, suggesting folks re-enroll in our programs, etc., and here’s what I’ve found…

Very few people like asking for money, and no one finds it easy – we universally hate it.

Why? 

Because asking for money brings up thousands of insecurities and doubts.  We’re scared to look money in the face, and to put ourselves out there, formally stating where we stand in a value equation.  And we’re unsure of our worthiness.

Folks tell me that when they ask for money from clients or customers, questions swim inside their heads about value, impact, and “appeal.”  They fear that asking for money is the opposite of being “pleasing” to people, and will be a huge turn-off.  (For a fascinating discussion around if we should worry about what other people think of us, see Jonathan Fields’s recent post “What Other People Think IS Your Business.”)

In tough times like these, consultants, coaches, practitioners and entrepreneurs struggle hard to stand up for what they want/deserve in compensation or fees, fearing no one will pay.  And in the end, many aren’t sure themselves what their services are worth.

At the root of this money challenge are shame, doubt and insecurity:  Am I good enough? How can I put a value on what I offer?  Will there be enough people to pay this?  Will they come back?  Did they think my work was a good value?  How do I fare against the competition?  Did I give them great results?

While I continue to struggle with asking for money, I’ve found greater success this year only after figuring out beyond a reasonable doubt what I feel my services are worth.  I didn’t make the numbers up – I did the work of obtaining valid information and feedback.  I conducted diligent, open-hearted research – with clients, competition, experts, role models, the marketplace, etc.  I asked my clients how they assessed the value of our work together, and the impact it made in their lives.  And I left my ego at the door when these conversations occurred. 

Asking for money IS hard, but it gets easier when we become crystal clear about what our services/products are worth to those we serve.  Once we know in our hearts and minds what to charge, then it’s time to speak up and ask for it. 

Curious about your thoughts – Do you find asking for money hard, and what makes it easier?

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Posted in Challenges, Empowerment, Inspiration for Change, Kathy Caprino, Marketing Support, Women in Business, success | No Comments »

Why Million-Dollar Coaching Promises Should Make You Leery

Friday, November 19th, 2010

“It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link of the chain of destiny can be handled at a time.” – Winston Churchill

These past few years I’ve been connected with literally dozens of coaches who promise that, if you follow their work and their model, you’ll be a millionaire. 

 Really?

I’ve listened intently to numerous coaching teleseminars these past months about how to make a million dollars, and so many are all about the insider “secrets” to making seven figures, and if you follow their “five easy steps” (or whatever model they’re pitching), you too can do it easily and effortlessly.

I don’t know about you, but I’m up to my craw with these ridiculous promises.  Why do they annoy me so much?  Because they’re misleading and unethical, and leading thousands of people down a path that is clearly not in their best interest.

I’m not saying that people can’t make a million dollars in their coaching practice, or other forms of business, and I’m not saying that there aren’t some great coaches out there who help people reach the million-dollar mark and higher. 

I am saying that there are many more ineffective, self-serving coaches who aren’t capable of helping you reach your high goals.  If you’re broke, and are told you can go from that to a millionaire in a year because you’re following this one coach’s program (and not doing all the inner and outer work it truly takes to be abundantly successful), then you’ll be sorely disappointed and waste a great deal of time and money in the process.

Here’s the rundown of my serious complaints about so many “millionaire” coaches:

Often millionaire coaches end up telling you exactly how they made their million, and recommend that you should follow their “five easy steps”.  However, my many years of training as a therapist, coach, marketing and business exec, writer and researcher of women tell me that:

  1. Easy Steps aren’t the ones that bring about life change: If it were easy, you’d be doing it!  What brings about massive shifting and change is the challenging stuff – the actions that make us fearful or take us WAY out of our comfort zone.  And “easy” steps are not necessarily easy or right or aligned with everyone.  Offering specific “easy” tactics to help people make more money is fine as far as it goes, but it’s not far enough without helping the individual identify specifically the powerful internal shifts they need to make to bring about far greater success.
  2. Broke to Millionaire – it’s doable, but I can tell you, if you’re flat broke, and are given a promise you can make half a million next year, it’s misleading at best, devastatingly off-track at worst.  The reason for that is that we all operate on a level that we’re comfortable at right now, and launching yourself 10 levels higher doesn’t typically work.  What does work is slow and steady progress to the next level higher, then the next and the next, and continuing that process with vigilance and commitment.
  3. Cookie-cutter models are ineffective – A cookie-cutter model to generate a million dollars in revenue is absurd.  To make seven figures, you have to power yourself up in ways that you don’t even realize right now – in your mindset, beliefs, actions, offerings, sense of worth, expectations, financial planning savvy, boundaries, self-advocacy, and in your relationship with money and success.  And you don’t do that by following someone else’s basic tactical strategy.  You do that through intently focused inner and outer work that brings you – step by step, day by day – to a new place that is right for you specifically.
  4.  These promises are entirely self-serving – These millionaire coaches want you to think it’s easy to follow their plan and succeed, because that’s how they make their millions!  Signing people up for programs that cost thousands of dollars, when in many cases the individual being coached can’t possibly recoup those thousands of dollars that year (or in the several years to come) given their mindset, capabilities (at the moment), and business model—that’s just plain wrong.

I come from a perspective of social and ethical consciousness, so seeing these promises being made in sleek and sleazy teleseminars and long-copy marketing pages – the whole thing makes my head spin.  They talk about offering high value and content in the teleseminar, but literally 60% of the seminar is selling their next event (using a cookie-cutter marketing approach for selling events!).

About money – I’ve made six figures in many years throughout my career, and I know what it takes to do it, and it’s not “5 Easy Steps.”  In winning the Make Mine a Million Dollar Business “Micro to Millions” program award in 2008, that one event in my life stepped up my goals and visions for my company significantly, and took me to new heights overnight.  Of course you can power up your career and your business and make great money – and a million dollars is within your reach if the necessary events, factors and ingredients are there, but it’s not through an easy five-step coaching model.

If you too are tired of (and disgusted with) these empty, over-simplistic and grandiose claims and selling tactics, you’re not alone!!  And don’t worry – you’re not being resistant or pushing away your millions to say that that these coaches and messages turn you way off.  There are other ways and means (and empowering mentors, coaches and consultants) who can truly help you achieve what you long for.

The key is in discernment – figure out how to tell the difference between a flashy, self-serving promise (that makes the process sound far easier than it is) vs. a heart-felt commitment to your success — with the intellectual, spiritual and ethical chops to make it work for you. Find helpers who wish to be of true service in helping you become exactly what you want to be in the world.

Thanks for listening to my rant!  And PLEASE share – are you tired of these empty, vacuous and absurd promises?  I’d love to hear.

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Posted in Advice, Careers, Challenges, Empowerment, Inspiration for Change, Kathy Caprino, Living Real, Marketing Support, Women in Business, success | No Comments »

7 Reasons You Hate Marketing – And How to Learn to Love It

Saturday, November 13th, 2010

In ramping up my marketing consulting work with women consultants, practitioners, and entrepreneurs these past months, I’ve heard these words over and over:

 “I hate marketing.”

 or, more specifically…

 “I hate promoting myself.”

It’s an amazing thing to observe – that so many women today view marketing as sleazy, embarrassing, scary, or simply overwhelming.

Women tell me that marketing and networking are deeply challenging (and scare the pants off of them) for the following reasons (these are exact quotes):

 “I just feel like that sleazy used car salesman I hate.”

 “I don’t know how to go up to people and share what I do.”

 “I feel so intrusive to just blurt out that I can help someone.”

 “I’m too shy to do what’s necessary.”

 “I don’t understand how to do this – it’s all so overwhelming.”

 “I think I have to be like her (an aggressive, in-your-face networker) to be successful, and I just can’t.”

 “I love the work I do – why do I have to do this other marketing stuff?”

If these statements resonate with you, help is out there for you!

I’m here to tell you – marketing is not what you think.  And the sooner you can embrace your “inner marketer,” and learn to love her, the happier and more fulfilled you’ll be in your work.

 What Is Marketing?

First, marketing is not the hairy monster you’ve imagined.  It’s simply about letting people know you exist – via any and all of the many neat methods and forms available today – so that you can be of powerful and joyful service to the world. 

It’s about sharing your unique messages in an authentic, compelling way so that the people you love to serve can find you, and identify that you’re the right one to help them. 

Marketing is about bringing yourself to the market you want to help, and communicating, “I’m really awesome at what I do and offer, and I LOVE my work.  May I be of service to you?”

How to Embrace Your “Inner Marketer”

Let’s break this down to look at what’s really beneath the challenges you face in marketing. 

The key marketing obstacles for women fall into the same four categories that I uncovered in my national research with career women.  (For more about the 12 “hidden” crises working women face today, and how to overcome them, see my  book Breakdown, Breakthrough.)

These categories represent levels at which we interact with ourselves and our world, and can be characterized as either empowered or disempowered, based on each individual’s specific situation, in:

  • Your Relationship with Yourself
  • Your Relationship with the World
  • Your Relationship with Others
  • Your Relationship with Your Higher Self

These same relationship categories apply to your marketing endeavors and marketing persona. 

Here’s what you need to understand to become a comfortable and easy marketer and networker who likes it:

Your Relationship with Yourself

Confidence and Worthiness:

The key marketing challenges for women are confidence and worthiness.  Deep down, many are not quite sure they’re great at their work, and don’t have the self-confidence to come out say “I’m very talented at this work, and would love to be of service to you!”

Tip: You need to step up to embrace how great you are in your work.  And if you don’t feel you offer high-quality products and services, then you need a shift.  Identify the new skills, talents and experiences that will bring your work to the next level.  Go out and get those skills and experiences.  Don’t wait.

Your Relationship with Others

Two key marketing challenges come up here: speaking up with power and authority, and connecting deeply with others in your communications and your interactions.

Speaking Up:
Many women are challenged in speaking up about and for themselves with power, authority, and command. 

Tip: If you believe that speaking out about your gifts and talents means you’re bragging, think again.  How can people know about your work if you don’t tell them about it – in your speaking, writing, and interactions? Release this misguided belief that talking about your work is pushy or arrogant.

Connecting:
Getting out there in the world with your products and services means you have to connect to people from the heart, help them find their pain points and show how your work addresses want they want most.  People do business with people they know, like and trust, so you’ve got to give them the opportunity to know you.

Tip: If you’re shy and uncomfortable about connecting and interacting with people, get out there and do more of it.  If you’re too self-focused and self-limiting, you’ll find it hard to make the authentic connections you need to bring your work and business out there in a bigger way.

Relationship with the World:

The two core challenges here are: Money and Service

Embracing Money:
Many women are simply disempowered around their finances, and around earning, managing, and investing their money.  Often, they can’t seem to establish great fees/prices for their work, and or command these fees on a consistent basis.  Further, many women don’t have the financial planning experience to make their marketing efforts profitable.

Tip: Get financial help!  First, you must have a very clear sense of what your products and services are worth in the marketplace – not what you think they SHOULD be worth, but the true and perceived value of the outcomes you give to others.  Then you must acquire the confidence and strength to obtain these prices and fees, and negotiate powerfully for them when needed.  Secondly, don’t overspend on your business (on marketing or other initiatives) before you’ve learned how to earn.

Being of Service:
You need to know how you want to serve the world, and how you do it best, above and beyond the competition.  If you don’t know how you’re different from your competitors, the marketplace won’t know either, and you won’t get the business you want.

Tip: Name and claim the niche you serve best and are most joyful at working in.  Find ways to become an expert and truly gifted in the areas that light you up the most, and communicate your stand-apart qualities.

Relationship with Your Higher Self

Finally, the two essential marketing blocks here in terms of accessing your most expansive, highest self in your work are: Finding Role Models and Being Open to Angels (the human kind – and others, if you wish!)

Finding Role Models:
If you think that the only way to do marketing is the sleazy, intrusive and shameless kind, you’re just stuck in a misguided story that’s holding you back.  You need a new set of role models that you can see, hear, and follow, who are doing it the way you want to.

Tip: Find fabulous visual role models of marketers who are doing it the way you love.  Follow my “marketingpeeps” list on twitter (@kathycaprino) for a start.  These men and women are just a sampling of amazing communicators and marketers who do great work in the most authentic, heart-aligned and compelling way possible on the planet!

Opening to Angels:
If you hate marketing, you’re going to struggle in your business and creative ventures.  It’s that simple.  So get help to overcome your fears about it.  Be open to the angels that come in your life who want to help you move forward.  Find people you trust and respect, and ask them for their critique (yes, critique!), advice and support.  You don’t have to do this alone.  Angels are waiting in the wings to help you.

*  *  *  *

Learning how to get yourself out there and share your authentic messages with the world – and powering up to deal with this success outcomes that will follow – is one of the most enlivening and exciting processes you can undertake.

 Are you ready to embrace your Inner Marketer? I think Yes!

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Posted in Advice, Breakthroughs, Following Your Dreams, Inspiration for Change, Kathy Caprino, Levels of Disempowerment, Powerful Self-Marketing, Women in Business, success | No Comments »

The “5 M’s” of Entrepreneurial Women’s Success

Monday, September 20th, 2010

In launching my new Breakthrough Vision Marketing division that offers women entrepreneurs, consultants, writers, and practitioners marketing support to achieve success in their ventures, I’ve discovered some telling statistics about the success entrepreneurial women have achieved thus far, and the challenges women continue to face in creating financial success in their endeavors.

Some key stats on women entrepreneurs:

 About entrepreneurial ventures:

  • Most business experts conform to a theory of “thirds”: Of all the new business startups, 1/3 eventually turn a profit, 1/3 break even, and 1/3 never leave a negative earnings scenario.
  •  Other research shows that only 2/3 of all small business startups survive the first two years and less than half make it to four years.

Are women different from men in entrepreneurial ventures?  Research has shown there are differences in:

1) Attitude
2) Expectations for the business
3) Goals and Motivations (males more likely to start businesses to make money and achieve recognition; women emphasize balance with family)
4) Prior business experience
5) Risk tolerance (lower for women)
6) Active pursuit of ongoing business opportunities
7) Type of business formed (males are more likely to form more technologically-intensive businesses

The top challenges for women entrepreneurs are:

1) Financial Planning experience and focus

2) Thinking big enough to delegate, hire, and grow (giving up complete control and fearing what growth means)

3) Overcoming reluctance to self promote

Five Step Plan to a Successful Entrepreneurial Venture

In reviewing the research available on entrepreneurial success for women, and in thinking about the research I’ve conducted over the past six years on the 12 hidden crises working women face today, I believe there are 5 core areas that are vitally important for entrepreneurial women to master.  If women (and men) ignore these areas in their businesses, failure is far more likely:

Focus on the 5 “M’s”

  • Management
  • Money
  • Marketing
  • Mastery
  • Mission 

(Click here for a look at my recent interview on News 12 CT on the “5 M’s” for Women’s Entrepreneurial Success).

Step 1: MANAGEMENT -  Know What’s Required to Manage Your Business Successfully

The terrific book The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber talks about three different roles that are essential in creating a successful business – Technician, Manager, and the Visionary.  Often women who start their businesses do so because they have a love of the technical skill involved (baking, career coaching, software design, etc.) and they make the fatal assumption that having an understanding the technical aspects of the business is the same as knowing how to run the business.  These are completely different skill sets, and you must extricate yourself from a sole focus on the technical service (being “in” the business””) and focus more “on” the business – what’s involved in building it to the level you want it.

Key tactic – Focus more time “on” the business than “in” the business.  Develop a sound business plan with S.M.A.R.T. (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic and timely) goals and strategies that will help you get your business to the next level.

Step 2:  MONEY – Get Empowered with Money, Financial Planning and Budgeting

Many women entrepreneurs start a business with little understanding of the financial investment required, the financial planning steps necessary to build success, or how long it will take to make a business profitable.  The first key step is to gain complete control of your finances – first personally, then professionally – and plan how you will fund and grow your business.  Get outside help in the form of an empowering financial consultant and accountant to advise you.  Don’t try to do this alone – gain an outside perspective about your money, and funding of the business.  In general, you need a reserve of money for two full years while you launch a business, as most likely you won’t see profits until after several years.  Many people fail to plan for how long it takes for a business to be profitable.

Key tactic:  Create a strong budget and financial plan for your business that you monitor and assess vigilantly, on a monthly basis, with key milestones.  Find an empowered outside financial consultant and accountant who come highly recommend to you by other empowered and successful women entrepreneurs to help.

Step 3: MARKETING – Understand the New Rules of Marketing

The world has changed.  Marketing is no longer about hawking your services or wares to a group of people who are unknown to you (cold calling, direct mail to unsolicited names, etc).  It’s about building trust and credibility, and developing relationships through authentic connection and engagement, over time.

People do business today with people they know, like, and trust.

Key tactic: Create a multi-pronged marketing strategy that builds relationships, trust, and credibility over time with your potential customers and clients.  Serve them in different ways and means that allow customers/clients to connect with you at various levels, price points, and engagement entry points.  Then and only then will they buy or do business with you, when the time is right for them. 

Step 3: Mastery – Master an understanding of what’s required to succeed in the various aspects of the business.

There are many different dimensions that must be mastered to run a successful entrepreneurial venture, including:

- Financial planning
- Accounting
- Systems
- Advertising/Marketing
- Research
- Product development
- Pricing
- Services/packages/products
- Human resources/staffing
- Sales
- Business Development

In areas in which you are unfamiliar or uncomfortable, you must reach out and get help or hire it.

Key tactic: Connect with resources that support women entrepreneurs, such as Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence, SCORE, Small Business Administration, CT Women’s Business Development Center – there are scores of affordable sources of help in our area to assist you in building a strong foundation for your business.  Don’t wait until it’s too late to get the help you need.

Step 5: MISSION:  Find your passion and your calling in this work

It’s a hero’s journey to become a successful entrepreneur or solopreneur and have the staying power and energy to make it work over several years when the going is toughest.  There has to be compelling mission behind your work  and a calling to be of service, and to do it well — and make a profit in the process.   This is not a volunteer endeavor – this is a business that you wish to become highly profitable and lucrative – so that you can have the largest impact possible.  And you must know your core, competitive advantage – what makes your business different and how it stands out from the rest – and communicate that powerfully in all you do.  If you’re not passionate about this work, think again about launching your business.

*  *  *  *  *  *  *  *

Think about your mastery of the “5 M’s.”  Are you focused on these areas?  What areas do you feel most challenged in?  You’re not alone – we all struggle with areas outside of our comfort zones. 

Do you feel confident that you have the skills and expertise to take your business to the next level?  If not, don’t wait to get the help you need and want.  Knowing when we need help — and taking empowered action to get it — is the critical difference between achieving the success you want, and letting your potential slip through your fingers.

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7 Signs You’re In Denial About Your Money Situation

Wednesday, July 21st, 2010

In the past year, I’ve spoken and worked directly with hundreds of women entrepreneurs, executives, consultants and small business owners who are, as I was at one time, in complete denial about their money situation.  They know they’re not earning nearly enough or they’re spending too much, and money is slipping through their hands, but that’s as far as their recognition of the problem goes. 

In short, their heads are deep in the sand about their money relationship.  They’re working hard to ignore the obvious – the inevitable misery that will come unless they change directions, and fast.

How can you tell if you’re in denial about your money situation? 

Here are 7 glaring signs that you’re in money trouble:

1.    You can’t pay your monthly mortgage or your rent without tapping into savings, retirement, home equity loans or other funds.

2.   You are using your credit cards each month to buy essentials such as food, clothes, and gas.

3.   Your small business, consultancy or private practice is losing money each and every month, and despite your valiant efforts, nothing you do is changing that fact.

4.    All the ways you’ve made money in the past don’t work now.

5.    You don’t have a Plan B in the event your Plan A fails, and you don’t have the necessary benchmarks and signposts to tell you it’s time to change course.

6.   You’re hanging on by a thread to your “Build it and They Will Come” mentality, but they’re not coming.

7.  Someone you love and respect has been telling you over and over that you’re in denial and things must change, but you’ve ignored them or argued against them bitterly

Do any of the above sound like your situation?  If so, PLEASE act now. Don’t wait another day.  Your money situation simply will not improve unless you do things very differently, starting today.

What should you do differently?

I’ve just read a terrific book called Life! by Design (highly recommended) by Tom Ferry– a well-known success coach and motivational leader — and he outlines 6 steps to changing your life and “living by design” which I think apply perfectly to changing your money situation.  These are steps I explore with all my clients as well.

These six vital steps are:

1.         Wake up from your coma – be aware of the key areas in your life that need attention today

2.         Make the choice to change your life

3.         Create your life by Design

4.         Do the things that bring you power

5.         Practice visualizing yourself already there, in possession of what you want

6.         Create structure and accountability by telling others around you about your plans and goals

I know from experience that in order for your money situation to change you must wake up to the severity of it, and commit to changing your situation by taking new empowered actions that will change your course.  To do things differently, you need a new, fresh perspective that includes concrete, practical, and effective support, know-how, and help.

And yes, you can do this, despite the negative stories you’ve told yourself that you don’t have what it takes.  I know you do have what it takes to revise your money situation — you wouldn’t be reading this information if you didn’t have access to the necessary resources, courage, faith and resolve to make this important life change.  The energy of money is pervasive in our culture – there’s no escaping it.  In this lifetime, you’re being called to empower yourself so that money will flow in your life, and support you as you flow with it.

The problem of money breakdown in women is so enormous today that I’ve committed myself to be an active part of the solution.  I’m excited to share that I’m launching this Fall a new marketing and communications consultancy branch to my business Ellia Communications, designed to help women entrepreneurs, executives, consultants and private practitioners step up to their highest visions in their work by find the right marketing, communications, and business planning strategies to support their empowered goals.  Stay tuned for more on that!

In the meantime, come for a specialized reading about your financial situation as it pertains to your career, small business or practice.  Call me for a Private Career Consultation.  I’ll help you see where you’re blocked around money, and support you to begin taking new steps that will release you from your financial traps.  Also, check out my book Breakdown Breakthrough, Chapter 10: Escaping Financial Traps (or write me at kathy@elliacommunications.com for a free chapter download). 

I’d love nothing better than to help you emerge from your financial woes so you can be all you wish to be in this life and in your work.

You’re ready for this new step, and so is your life!

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Is Your Attitude Keeping You Broke?

Monday, April 12th, 2010

As we move into a time of planting new seeds and cultivating what we truly wish to create, it’s time also to weed our gardens – discard old remnants from past plantings that thwart our growth, and cease to be beneficial as we evolve.

 This Spring, I’m doing a great deal of emotional weeding.  Truth be told (and so many people do not tell the truth about their real-life problems, so here we go), I’ve been extremely challenged by financial mistakes of my past.  I don’t regret these “mistakes,” as they are fodder for learning, but that doesn’t make them any easier to resolve.  And boy, has there been learning!

 

What are these serious financial mistakes? 

I’ve realized that I’ve been held hostage by old “structures of knowing” around money formed years ago. 

These mental models of how things work were not fully in my awareness until now — and they include my believing that:

1. It will be virtually impossible to make fantastic money if I’m doing what I love in my heart and soul

2. If I work for someone else, I’ll be terribly hurt, as I was in my past corporate career

3. I have to work incredibly hard to be successful

4. When abundant money flows again from my work (as it did in my corporate career), I’ll misuse the power that comes with it (as I did before)

5. To make great money, I’ll lose the precious family time I’ve worked so hard to achieve

6. I can’t admit out loud that I’m not having the financial success I want, because then I won’t be a strong role model for other women

7. I can “affirm” away scarcity

These structures of knowing have wreaked havoc on my financial health, and I’m taking powerful action to revise each and every one, and its working!

(For help about uncovering your limiting “structures of knowing,” see Dr. Maria Nemeth’s book The Energy of Money).

Unearthing these limiting mental models is a vital step to shedding behaviors (financial and otherwise) that keep you from the joy and success you long for.

And by the way, I have seen with hundreds of people I work with and in my own life that knowing about the Law of Attraction and practicing abundance principles is often not an effective enough guidance system to shift you into a prosperous state, when you’re really stuck around money.

I’ve found that what truly WORKS in shifting you out of your money lack is to 1) release old beliefs and behaviors (I call these your “Breakdown Myths”) that sabotage your success, 2) connect with your true intentions  and life purpose, 3) gain awareness of your standards of integrity and use them to guide your life, 4) infuse your life with new energy of money, time, creativity, vitality, enjoyment and support, and finally 5) create a S.M.A.R.T. plan with doable goals and steps that move you forward to what you deeply want.

So if you’re stuck around money…

 

1) Read my latest newsletter and the featured article called “Is Your Attitude Keeping You Broke” written by my friend and colleague, holistic financial consultant Denise Hughes. 

 2) Join my Breakthrough Women’s Circle

Denise will be holding an hour-long teleseminar on “Achieving the Financial Success You Dream Of: 6 Steps to Financial Growth” for my Breakthrough Women’s Circle members only on Wednesday April 14th 1pm to 2pm EST.  She’ll also be available next month on the BW Circle forum to answer your specific financial questions! 

 If you’re not a member of the circle, join now and don’t miss it.

3) Reach out to get help and build your success support community today

Get help today.  Don’t wait.  Find a coach, join a support community, take a workshop or seminar.  For live support in Connecticut, join me on May 15th in Norwalk, CT for my Breakthrough to Abundant Success! Seminar.  (Register by April 15th and save $50). 

My friends, your reality can change in a blink of an eye – I can attest to this.  But it takes a new and different kind of inner and outer work to achieve it.

Is there any better time than now?

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Posted in Advice, Breakthroughs, Empowerment, Inspiration for Change, Kathy Caprino, Living Real, Resources, Support for Change, Tips for Empowerment, Yes I Can Thinking | 2 Comments »