Wednesday, August 30, 2006
RE: Little Brains and Breast Flashers.
Interesting conversation "between marketing chicks" over at Susan Getgood's Marketing Roadmaps blog today. Worth a read. Be sure to check out the comments.
Little Brains and Breast Flashers. What a great name for a book!
RE: Reinvention Begins With An Unflappable Failure Party
Every once in a while on re:invention's blog I take time to reflect on the concept of reinvention. If you examine re:invention's logo, you'll notice that we use the dots of the i's as the colon in our name. We "use what we've got," innovatively. The colon transforms our name into a double entendre: reinvention (change) and regarding invention (novelty and connection to entrepreneurs). The colon allowed us to trademark our brand name and servicemark our logo.
I credit Chrissy Haynes, one of my former Whole Foods Market Art Directors, for her role collaborating with me on the re:invention brand name and logo and for inspiring me to take the leap to life as an entrepreneur.
Reinvention requires you to have an indefatigable optimism and immunity to the prospect of failure. You don't let obstacles or even significant setbacks take you out of the game - you rise resilient and you change the rules. Spectacular flops can lead to fruit-bearing futures.
Women instinctively understand the powerful mythology of reinvention. We love subtle makeovers, although The Dove Report suggests the best makeover has little to do with extreme cosmetic procedures or beauty enhancements. Instead, women appreciate women who turn second (or third, fourth, or fifth) acts - Cinderella, Madonna, J.K. Rowling, Arianna Huffington.
I speak from experience: I've held multiple jobs, been fired, been rehired, been a corporate exec, an entrepreneur, a blonde, a brunette, weighed 50 pounds more than I do today and 15 pounds less, recovered from a fluke stroke (yes, you read it here), made money, lost money, been homeless, lived in 15 different cities, dated multiple good and mad men (one of whom told me all I was good for was shopping for shoes)...and bounced back each time. I'm not afraid to admit it -- I love reinvention!
In the July BusinessWeek cover story, "How Failure Breeds Success," a variety of business experts weigh in on the upside to failure. The article goes on to feature a variety of Big Boy Corporations that are taking a comprehensive look at their failures - from GE to IBM. And introduces an intriguing concept - "failure parties." Intuit recently hosted a company-wide party to celebrate a product launch failure.
We recently worked with a client who had co-hosted a series of speed "Brag Parties" for women. 
Brag parties are highly interactive, cocktail-style affairs, where women network personally and professionally, and fearlessly practice tooting their own horns without blowing it.
Why not host an Unflappable Failure Party for Fearless Entrepreneurs in your community? Not a blow-out celebration as Thomas Kuczmarski suggests in the BusinessWeek article, but rather a meeting of masterminds to debrief, share learnings, and discuss reinvention. Gather a group of chicks for a failure party and let the makeovers begin. Plan to claw your way back to the top. Break a sweat and break a few nails trying. Good times, girls!
Reinvention just might begin with a failure party...I can't wait to host one!
Related re:invention Articles:
- We Can Talk About Shoes, Sex, Pantyliners...Why Not Failure?
- Quitting is Not an Option. Sometimes You Have No Choice At All
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
RE: Virtual Book Tour, Featuring Author Mary Clare Hunt
Today we are delighted to welcome our guest, Mary Clare Hunt, author of In Women We Trust: A Cultural Shift to The Softer Side of Business. Mary's first virtual book tour is being coordinated by the brilliant Yvonne Divita, editor of Lipsticking blog and fearless leader of WMEBooks. 
During Week 1 of Mary's virtual book tour, Toby Bloomberg (Diva Marketing Blog) referred to Mary's new book as "a smart look at how women are changing the culture of the workplace, as well as, impacting how business and marketing are being conducted." I agree.
Mary and I talked at length about her inspiration for the book and her experiences as a working woman. She grew up in Saline, Michigan (population: 8,034), notably the 43rd best place to live in the United States, according to a recent CNN/Money Magazine poll. After 27 years apart, she married her high school sweetheart. During her extensive marketing career, she's held various ad agency and business marketing roles. She has also notably purchased 10 cars, furnished 7 homes and bought groceries for over 24,000 meals.
Hang on for a wild ride - because you know I am not afraid to ask the tough questions...
Kirsten: Welcome, Mary! What was your inspiration for writing the book?
Mary: There were so many marketing to women's books out there already. But most were for big time marketing gurus -- not for the rest of the staff, the people in the field, or for real people trying to figure out what could work best for their companies. I decided to write my own book -- with simple ideas, short chapters, and learning bullet points at the end of each chapter. It's a next generation book about marketing with women -- written with the intention of reawakening good common sense.
Kirsten: In your book, you suggest that Integrity, Honesty, Thoughtfulness, Consideration for Others, and Respect are some of the values that define women and bind women together. Yet many of our country's most influential, successful women leaders -- Martha Stewart, Sallie Krawcheck, Mary Minnick (Coke), Gloria Steinem, Kay Koplovitz, Ruthie "Ruthless" Parasol, Leona Helmsley, Hillary Clinton -- are a far cry from kind, kumbaya-singing, supportive, and people-oriented women. These gals are tough - they have killer instinct. What gives?
Mary: Almost all women have a best girl friend, even Oprah Winfrey has her best friend Gayle. But bonding with other women to get to the top of a corporation, or doing it on your own isn't what In Women We Trust is about. It's about identifying the traits that lead women, in general, to trust each other. Are the behaviors different for women than they are or men and if so, can you take the intangible trust factors and turn them into tangible services that will resonate with women consumers?
Since I mentioned Oprah, to me she personifies the new model for success. Oprah is where she is not because she has a killer instinct but because has a kill-them-with-kindness instinct. She's definitely a .com, but with a .org feel. Her success stems from her ability to tap into a woman's heart, to stand next to her not over her and to shine a light on the problems that all women face regardless of money or fame. Her fans love her for how she helps them overcome problems, makes them feel a little safer or just makes them laugh - which is what any good friend would do.
Kirsten: re:invention's blog recently referenced a quote from Sallie Krawcheck, Citigroup's CFO, which appeared in CFO Magazine. Sallie's quote, "People talk about having it all, and I always want to tell them I don't. What I have are two things that are very important to me: my children and my career. You'll never...see me out drinking wine with my closest friends. You won't see me doing a lot of charity work. I'm not very nice to my siblings. I don't see as much of my husband as I'd like. There are many women who would not make the choices I have made." Your reaction?
Mary: This reminds me of a woman I met at BlogHer, her card said something like, "You can't have it all, you can only have a slice of it all, so choose your slice wisely my friend." Sally's being quoted in CFO Magazine, so her slice has been very good for her. To her credit, she doesn't have extra time because she's too busy supporting Women and Co. and other initiatives that help women understand their finances better - by giving up her spare time, she's enabling other women to have more time and money besides. That's women helping women.
Kirsten: Research has proven that women create more word-of-mouth hype than men - they talk among their friends. What can companies do to leverage word-of-mouth among women in a meaningful way without being overtly commercial?
Mary: Pay attention to the organic Word-of-Mouth first before you enhance it with videos and other gimmicks. If the product isn't resonating with women now, adding a gimmick will only enhance bad cyber karma - what goes around, sticks around. Also, be very careful how you roll it out. Let women try it for themselves. They can't brag about something they can't explain in their own words. Lastly, be ready to openingly admit problems if they are flagged and thank those for bringing it to your attention. No one expects perfection, but they do expect to be acknowledged in a real way, not a canned way.
Kirsten: Great advice. So if you had to distill all of the findings you present in your book into 1 key learning, what is the #1 thing a company can do to become female-friendly?
Mary: Start at the core, do what Julie Gilbert did at Best Buy. She believes, if you want to have a good place to shop, then you have to be a good place to work. Over two years ago she instigated a Women Leadership Forum at Best Buy which was an internal networking tool to foster career growth. What is happening, however, is that these mentoring groups are opening conversation between departments and if my email is any indication, giving consumers a new attitude about Best Buy. After posting the interview last Monday, I asked people to read it and then tell me if they would buy or sell Best Buy stock. Ten people replied - nine women and one man - and most said that they would either "buy the stock" or at the very least, wanted to work for Best Buy - no one said they would sell. Best Buy won't be changing overnight, but these responses demonstrate an inherent belief that women will make a difference in the Best Buy brand.
Kirsten: Your book subtitle reminds me of the Sears campaign to women: "Come see the softer side of Sears." In your opinion, Mary, why did that Sears campaign fail? Did they market it well but fail to deliver?
Mary: The tagline was great, that's why it gets borrowed for other places like in my book title. Campaigns fail for many reasons, for me personally the program died due to "guilty by association." It's hard to carry off a soft side essence when you're walking by lawn movers on your way to the dresses. In the end, it was just another ad campaign. Adding fluff to the same old stuff, doesn't change the same old stuff. When I go to the mall, I often park and walk through Sears on my way to other places. Thousands of other women do as well. Women know the style that Sears carries, a great tag line isn't going to motivate them to buy something tomorrow that didn't appeal to them the day before. Sears would have done better by creating a display that stopped women walk-through traffic in its tracks.
Kirsten: So it's more than a tagline, it's about connecting personally with women. I recently read about a fascinating Ohio State University study (co-authored by Dr. Marilyn Brewer). The study found that men can be very connected to other people and equally as social as women - they are just connected and social in a different way. Study researchers found that men tended to trust people who were part of a large symbolic group with them. Women, on the other hand, were more likely to trust people who shared an intimate personal relationship with them. Does this study support or contradict your findings? What conclusions should corporations draw from this and how can they translate this learning into effective marketing to women programs?
Mary: I think men trust symbols because they have a history of following symbols which kept them alive. Carrying the right flag, wearing the right uniform, being a Mason or a corporate team player for that matter all show that they are inside the group (or castle walls) and tells others in the group that they are pre-approved for business.
At the same time in history, women were on the sidelines, per se, and they could carry any flag, wear any uniform and or try to be a team player but it didn't make them any safer socially or richer economically. They were forced to find another way to survive in their world and that meant creating relationships that could depend on and trust.
What can corporate learn from this? First and last, that women will learn to trust the symbols (or brands) when those brands start to represent what works for them. Look at the Red Hat Society, talk about a group who isn't afraid to wear their beliefs loudly! Which came first, the trust or the brand? Without trust between members, there wouldn't be two Red Hatters, let alone a million of them. Expectations were met.
Ford complained that it was the high cost of gas that caused their sales to slump. Meanwhile, Toyota can't make enough of their hybrid Prius model to keep up with demand. I know five women who own a Prius. That's never happened in my life, to know five people who own the same model car. The Prius resonates with what women want. They happily brag about it non-stop to me. And I've yet to hear one of them tell me how many seconds it takes to go from 0-60 they don't care as long as it's fun, it's safe, it's reliable, it's considerate of their wallet, it's thoughtful for the environment. Find out what resonates with women and they will reward the effort and put their trust into the company just like they trust their friends.
Kirsten: Alright, how about a question about women and decision making, in light of the in-depth research you conducted writing your book. A Microsoft Study once suggested that men trust research or product knowledge before making a decision while women tended to trust gut instinct. Do you think this implies that women make less sound decisions than men?
Mary: I don't think you can roll all product research into one statement. When it comes to cars, for example, women do far more research online than men do, it saves them time and keeps them from looking like an idiot once inside a car dealership.
To me, gut instinct is what happens when the information you need can't be found or is presented in such a way that you can't understand it. For some women, more gizmos means more to learn and more to program and more to go wrong. They need less moving parts in their life, not more. I just saw a woman toss her Blackberry programming book in disgust. "Why can't they just sit down with me and show me what to do?" she asked me, "I'm a realtor, not a tech head." When you see an operator's book that thick, it makes you wonder if you can really trust it to work. It looks like high maintenance even if it isn't.
I personally feel that women make better consumer decisions whether they are conducting research or going with their gut. They've price compared and shopped for thousands of items throughout their life, all that experience is fed into the decision making process. Who they trust depends on how user-friendly the entire offering is.
Kirsten: Now it's time for the most important question of this interview, Mary. And you know I've been dying to ask you. So here goes: what's your favorite shoe?
Mary: Tevas. They've been attached to my feet for the past 3 years!
Kirsten: Mary, thank you so much for joining us today on re:invention's blog and sharing your insights. Perhaps this weekend you will agree to participate in re:invention's 10 Tips for 10 Million Women expert feature?
Mary: Of course! Thank you for having me today.
Upcoming stops on Mary's virtual book tour:
8/30 Marketing Roadmaps with Susan Getgood.
9/5 Anita Campbell of Small Business Trends
Technorati tags: Osolind women book tour business trust marketing corporations Mary Clare Hunt
Monday, August 28, 2006
RE: Women's Equality Day Comes and Goes
If you blinked you missed the hoo-hah, cymbols, and celebration - August 26th was Women's Equality Day. The national holiday marks the passage of the 19th Amendment, earning women the right to vote. Consider that 15 states -- Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, ILLINOIS, Louisiana, Mississsippi, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Utah, and Virginia -- have yet to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment.
Here is President Bush's lip service proclamation to mark the occasion. The Dees Diversion blog has a few candid words to say in response.
Sigh. In the end, concepts such as equality and fairness truly can't be advanced through governmental intervention.
More on Women's Equality Day, from Melinda Casino over at Blogher.
Sunday, August 27, 2006
RE: A Tip Off About Tuesday.
On Tuesday, re:invention's blog will be hosting Mary Clare Hunt, author extraordinaire, as part of her "In Women We Trust" virtual book tour. She dropped by Deborah Brown's BizInformer's blog last Wednesday. And found time to chat with Toby Bloomberg, editor of Diva Marketing Blog, on Friday.
We hope you will join us on Tuesday!
RE: Celebrating.
Celebrated Saturday night --
after wrestling with taxes,
preparing media pitches,
writing a presentation for an upcoming speaking engagement,
drafting a 25-page client marketing plan,
rifling through job applicant resumes,
arguing with the car repair shop,
fixing our broken company website,
biting my nails to the quick,
reconfiguring yet another computer,
and buying more printer ink cartridges...
So here's a photo of our festivities. Not too shabby for a CEO whose company has been mentioned in Fortune, Inc., and Businessweek....
Meet good friend, Svetlana. Blondes do have more fun.
Saturday, August 26, 2006
RE: Our Saturday Feature - 10 Tips for 10 Million WomenTM.
Welcome to the re:invention 10 Tips for 10 Million WomenTM Saturday Feature. Every Saturday we feature a woman entrepreneur or executive and her personal 10 tips for success. We believe that women can be experts. They have valuable knowledge to share. re:invention's site traffic includes corporate executives, VCs, women business owners, and members of the media. We offer media access to women story sources and inspire future story ideas - serving as a public relations, marketing, and distribution channel for enterprising women. We're on a mission to move women from the lifestyle pages to the business section of the News. Our goal: a wisely-stocked toolbox for and about enterprising women. We hope this feature will be a powerful example of "women helping women win."
This week's featured woman entrepreneur or executive is "Nancy," an Anonymous Woman Marketing Communications Executive.
about "Nancy"
"Nancy" is a Woman Marketing Communications Executive at a leading company. She first visited re:invention's blog as a reader, leaving comments and sharing her unique perspective. Her personal story? "Nancy" was recently overlooked for a promotion. Her boss, a 60-something male, hired a man with a completely inappropriate background for the open position. After being overlooked for the promotion, "Nancy" was reassigned and offered a small performance bonus to appease her. Her executive salary still falls painfully short of the salary package offered to the inappropriately qualified male executive the company promoted. "Nancy" has admittedly been frustrated. Today, "Nancy" shares her top 10 tips. She prefers to remain anonymous, particularly because her tips are controversial and her tenure is still tenuous. "Nancy" will complete her Master's Degree this December. Her proudest achievement is her family. She has been married for 21 years and has two sons, ages 17 and 20.
CLICK HERE TO READ "NANCY'S" CONTROVERSIAL 10 TIPS.
Share YOUR knowledge, WISE WOMEN! Submit A REQUEST to have your company featured along with your 10 Tips For 10 Million Women.
Click HERE to visit the 10 Tips for 10 Million Women Archives.
Technorati tags: Osolind women entrepreneurs business saturday marketing "Nancy"
Thursday, August 24, 2006
RE: Forbes Defaces Career Women.
Think times have changed? Really?
Bowing to blogospheric criticism, Forbes deleted two articles from its Web site on Wednesday, one of which was titled "Don't marry career women." The article, written by Forbes.com executive editor Michael Noer, included excerpts from a series of social science papers and reported that long work hours for women consistently increase the odds of a divorce but similar jumps in men's work hours often don't...Noer was intentionally flip, advising in the first paragraph of his article: "Guys: A word of advice. Marry pretty women or ugly ones. Short ones or tall ones. Blondes or brunettes. Just, whatever you do, don't marry a woman with a career."
Noer's article appears to have been offline for a few hours before it was reposted with a rebuttal written by Elizabeth Corcoran, who works in Forbes' Silicon Valley bureau.
- MORE FROM CNET (perhaps the first feminist or femi-nazi story to ever hit CNET).
In the blink of eye, Noer has
earned himself a Wikipedia entry. Prior to this serious hard hitting news piece, Noer once authored another brilliant article about marriage for Forbes. THAT story's lead line: "
Wife or whore? The choice is that simple."
Yeah. That's sounds about right. Way to go, Forbes. Thanks for defacing career women.
Gawker responded first. Then good
working women
everywhere began moaning. Boy are they
mad!
Really mad.
Hard working women are shocked
really because
they've been trying to keep up with housecleaning after work hours. Apparently,
working women are the new American Terrorist. Forbes' story read
like a 1950s parody. Late yesterday, Gawker even created a neat
new fairy tale genre out of this Forbes fiasco.
Ahh yes. The more things change the more they stay the same.
In the past, this type of anti-women media outrage has incited me to get on my soapbox about women. But this time it's different. I quietly concede to men's power, the common good, and our
male-dominated culture's public opinion and I resign myself to obedient stay-at-home womanly duties. I repent the error of my ways. Will some kind wealthy man save me so I don't have to work with knuckle-head male chauvinists anymore?
Technorati tags:
Osolind working women entrepreneurs business Forbes anti-women feminism
Wednesday, August 23, 2006
RE: Dear Dennis - I Feel Compelled to Move to Canada.
The Statistics Canada study, published Wednesday in Perspectives on Labour and Income, reports that women were the primary wage-earners in nearly 1.4 million of Canada's 4.7 million dual-earner couples in 2003. The number of dual-income couples has risen dramatically in Canada during the past decade and so has the number of women who are the primary breadwinners...In 1967, around 11 per cent of Canadian women earned more than their partner did, but by 2003, this proportion had nearly tripled to 29 per cent.
-More.
As a benchmark, Catalyst estimates 60% of all U.S. marriages are dual-earner marriages and members of dual-earner families make up 45% of the workforce.
In 2003, women were the primary bread-winners in only 22 percent of all U.S. households (Source: U.S. Census).
According to the Canadian report, primary-earner Canadian women in dual-income couples have more years of experience than secondary-earner women. They are also more educated than secondary-earner women, more likely to hold a full-time job, and more likely to work more paid hours per week.
God bless the Canadian housewife - she is bringing home the bacon! Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I'm on a country music roll today!
RE: Women's "Secret Stash"
One sexy fact from yesterday's Allianz research study about women and financial planning that I missed, reported in today's DowJones Market Watch:
18% of women said they have a secret stash of cash of which their spouse knows nothing.
I'm guessing they use those funds for Fall Shoes...
RE: You Said I Wouldn't Get Too Far....
I bet this road will take me out of here
Take me far away from Austin
I bet this car will go real fast
The wheels might even drive me past
The places that you said I'd never go
Oh...
The Texas Sky is the biggest one I've seen
But it still ain't big enough for you and me
All the things that make you mad,
All the baggage in your past
Don't leave much room for a girl like me to be
So I'll fill her up with hope and worn-out dreams
And I'll grab the wheel and point it west
Pack the good and leave the rest
I'll drive until I find the missing piece
You said I wouldn't get too far on a tank of gas
And an empty heart
But I have everything I'll ever need
I got this old guitar and a brand new set of strings
Mama said I never should have done it
Should have ended before I ever started
Daddy knew about my pride so he stood there
And he smiled inside and I pretended that I
Didn't notice a little tear that fell when I said I was going
And I'll grab the wheel and point it west
Pack the good and leave the rest
I'll drive until I find the missing piece
You said I wouldn't get too far on a tank of gas
And an empty heart
But I have everything I'll ever need
I got this old guitar and a brand new set of strings
I've worried about life and
If it's arriving right on time
I guess if you don't jump
You'll never know if you can fly
But I've flown. I fly. I keep flying....
Lyrics: Miranda Lambert, "New Strings," Kerosene Album.
Tuesday, August 22, 2006
RE: Working Women Worried About Their Piggybanks
According to a new Allianz Life Insurance study, 90 percent of grownup girls feel somewhat or not at all financially secure -- even if they are high income wage earners. Women reported that financial security and freedom are 15 to 20 times more important to them than money-related status or respect. The study also found that women feel they are overburdened with responsibilities and worries when it comes to financial planning. Although women report that they prefer to work with female financial advisers, 80 percent of financial advisers are men.
Do working women worry needlessly? Apparently not. The 2005 Retirement Confidence Survey from the Employee Benefit Research Institute reported that only 59 percent of women are currently saving toward retirement (compared to 65 percent of men) and only 36 percent of women participate in workplace retirement plans, such as a 401(k) s (versus nearly 50 percent of men).
Are you a Working Woman Hungry for Financial Security Resources? Try this financial planning guide website, compliments of the University of Illinois. Pretty nifty and worth a whirl.
Some specific financial tips? Make saving a priority, invest more, contribute to retirement plans, plan for long term care today, delay retirement and seek help from a financial advisor.
Monday, August 21, 2006
RE: Sex Positive Soft-Porn Meets MarketingSherpa
Fearlessly flying in the face of controversy, Anne Holland and her team at MarketingSherpa share a case study titled, "How to Market Toys for Adult Women Online (If You Know What We Mean)."
The conundrum? How to promote a fledgling sex toy company, when online media won't run ads for your ecommerce store. Wasn't it just yesterday that porn operators were using meta-tagging as a method to outwit search engines?
"There's mainstream, there's adult and there's this sex-positive world we fit into in the middle." - Libida Co-Founder and CEO, Dr. Petra Zebroff
According to Marketing Sherpa, the guerrilla techniques used by Libida included conversion marketing, affiliate and email campaigns - tactics that "could" prove useful to any mainstream ecommerce site.
Libida's 10 Tips:
1. Provide loads of content.
2. Offer advance warning of specials and news.
3. Test a more mainstream microsite - PassionBlush.com, which featured the more modest items from Libida's inventory.
4. Start a customer advisory council.
5. Add reassuring, educational content - to make the shopping experience safe and reassuring.
6. Solicit and encourage honest product reviews.
7. Flaunt the company privacy policy and promote discrete shipping to customers (according to Libida, women respond to convenience, more than overt sexuality).
8. Use an in-house photographer who specializes in intimate photos. Libida's CEO prefers "images of women with an expression of positive emotion, her face might be surprised or a little fun (versus overtly sexual)."
9. Constantly test new free-gift-with-order offers.
10. Send email newsletters (from a third-party email service provider) containing four-five articles plus the free-gift-with-order of the month.
Hey - it's sex positive soft-porn - only hardcore-porn is sneaky and underhanded.
We've come a long way baby. Next up in MarketingSherpa,
how iBill, DominaBDSM, and Top-Nude.com. manage billing services and pfishing.
www.libida.com
Saturday, August 19, 2006
RE: Our Saturday Feature - 10 Tips for 10 Million WomenTM.
Welcome to the re:invention 10 Tips for 10 Million WomenTM Saturday Feature. Every Saturday we feature a woman entrepreneur or executive and her personal 10 tips for success. We believe that women can be experts. They have valuable knowledge to share. re:invention's site traffic includes corporate executives, VCs, women business owners, and members of the media. We offer media access to women story sources and inspire future story ideas - serving as a public relations, marketing, and distribution channel for enterprising women. We're on a mission to move women from the lifestyle pages to the business section of the News. Our goal: a wisely-stocked toolbox for and about enterprising women. We hope this feature will be a powerful example of "women helping women win."
This week's featured woman entrepreneur or executive is Susan Roth, CEO of Trims Unlimited, Inc. (Los Angeles, CA).
about Susan Roth and Trims Unlimited, Inc.
Trims Unlimited opened in Manhattan in 1969 as a personal shopping and wardrobe consulting service. In 1985, Susan Roth inherited the company from her mother. As the company's client base grew, Trims Unlimited developed a reputation for its knowledge of protocol and foreign customs in addition to its discretion and taste. By 1991, word of Trims' unique ability to successfully source and deliver the most arcane requests had spread to IBM and Oracle Corporation. Thirty-five years after Trims Unlimited opened its doors, Susan Roth and her experienced team are collaborating with marketing teams, event planners and top level executives for companies as varied as Apple Computer, The Bellagio Hotel, Tourneau and The White House. Under Susan's guidance, Trims Unlimited, Inc. has regularly been named one of the top 100 Woman Owned Businesses in Los Angeles and has received award nominations from the The Governor of California and The Los Angeles Mayor's office as well as recognition from Harvard University;s Diversity/Small Business Program and the Tuck School Of Business at Dartmouth College. Susan lives in Los Angeles with her husband - together they share two grown children and two beloved though unruly German Shepherds, Jax and Abby.
CLICK HERE TO READ SUSAN'S 10 TIPS.
Share YOUR knowledge, WISE WOMEN! Submit A REQUEST to have your company featured along with your 10 Tips For 10 Million Women.
Click HERE to visit the 10 Tips for 10 Million Women Archives.
Technorati tags: Osolind women entrepreneurs business saturday marketing Susan Roth
Thursday, August 17, 2006
RE: Black Women Entrepreneurship Booms. Here's Why.
From the esteemed Dr. Ying Lowrey, SBA Office of Advocacy: a new report about Women Business Ownership Demographics. The research headline here? Black female entrepreneurship is growing rapidly - at a 75% clip versus a 29% growth rate among black male entrepreneurship, a 40% growth rate for women entrepreneurs (inclusive of all races), and a 9% entrepreneurship growth rate across all races/genders in aggregate.
More on these findings from USA Today's Small Business blog.
My controversial supposition for why black women entrepreneurship is booming: marital status and its impact on character. According to a recent article in the Washington Post titled, "Marriage is for White People," African American women are the least likely demographic group in the U.S. to marry (no offense, gals, I'm right there with you!). Only 35 percent of black women are married versus 57 percent of white women. Over 40 percent of black women have never been married. Since 1970 the rate of "single-ness" among black women has dramatically increased. As a result, black women are developing warrior's will, resiliency and self-reliance. That type of character profile lends itself to entrepreneurship, hard-work and risk-taking. Remarkably different from the wealthy white woman entitlement or hobby business mentality.
According to research currently being conducted by Sammie Robinson, assistant professor of business administration at Illinois Wesleyan University, African-American women entrepreneurs define success differently, in terms of spirituality and personal expression. It is almost as if their business is a calling.
Black Enterprise Magazine recently held their 11th Annual Black Enterprise Entrepreneurs Conference. And Black Enterprise Magazine and Chicago-based joint venture partner, Central City Productions, will debut a 30-minute syndicated t.v. news show, Our World With Black Enterprise, on September 30. More about the show, hosted by journalist Ed Gordon: www.ourworld.blackenterprise.com.
Technorati tags: Osolind women entrepreneurs USAToday African American marketing Black Enterprise
RE: Jill Carroll's Story About Women And Vocation.
This little editorial piece about "enterprising women" in Iraq and their dedication to their vocations is so quirky it merits a post...
Abu Ali, the insurgent with the salt-and-pepper beard who had abducted me, proudly declared that his wife wanted to die. "Um Ali wants to be a martyr. She wants to drive a car bomb!" he said, beaming. Of course, she'd have to wait, since she was four months' pregnant.
"Oh, I didn't know women could be car bombers," was all I could muster.
- Read Jill Carroll's entire story in the Christian Science Monitor.
You go Jill. Wanna be featured as one of re:invention's
10 Tips for 10 Million Women experts? Here's a suggestion for your Tip #1: "In Iraq, enterprising men get the glory of fighting the battles. Enterprising women just get to blow themselves up."
Monday, August 14, 2006
RE: Marti Is A Smartie (And a Blogger!)
Marti Barletta, CEO of the Trendsight Group, has launched her own blog encouraging corporations to market to women. The heralded author is hard at work on a new book.
A sample quote from Marti....
"Women find people more interesting than abstract charts and numbers. So while they definitely want specifics, they are more likely to retain them when they are delivered in context. Programs that market to women should emphasize a company's personal connection with customers and prospects. Product specifics should not discussed until the foundation has been established through people..."
RE: Gender and Pricing Professional Services.
Although many women bitch and moan that they aren't paid at par with men in corporate America, given the chance to provide themselves with equal pay as entrepreneurs, they apparently don't...
A new study about gender's effect of professional service providers and pricing practices reveals that even when women have substantial discretion over the amounts they charge, they still make less. Women service providers appear to be softer on prices in order to foster relationships.
The study -- "
A Behavioral Study of Pricing Decisions: A Focus on Gender" -- conducted by William L. Cron of Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, John L. Graham and Mary C. Gilly of the University of California at Irvine, and John W. Slocum Jr. of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, will be presented at the Academy of Management national meeting on August 16 in Atlanta, Georgia.
CLICK HERE to read more about the new study.
This is not the first study to explore gender and price-setting.
A 2000 study of home based businesses conducted by Dr. Kathryn Stafford, associate professor of consumer sciences at Ohio State University's College of Human Ecology, reported similar findings. Women who worked from home still earned less than their male counterparts. Men working from home earned an average of $45.29 an hour, while women earned $17.29. The study carefully controlled for factors such as education and business experience that could have accounted for why women earned less than men, but none of these factors completely explained the pay gap. Stafford concluded that women business owners may perceive their income to be supplemental to their husband's and this affects their price-setting.
Blogger Jennifer Warwick
has mused about price-setting and "chronically un-reimbursed women" before, suggesting women unconsciously tie price setting to self esteem and self respect. Many women fear rejection and think a lower price will yield more sales and longer term relationships.
In the end, price-setting comes down to a seller's confidence, the availability of substitutes, and a customer's willingness to spend time pursuing alternative solutions.
Customers pay for value, brand, and results.
Interesting food for thought this Monday morning...
Saturday, August 12, 2006
RE: Our Saturday Feature - 10 Tips for 10 Million WomenTM.
Welcome to the re:invention 10 Tips for 10 Million WomenTM Saturday Feature. Every Saturday we feature a woman entrepreneur or executive and her personal 10 tips for success. We believe that women can be experts. They have valuable knowledge to share. re:invention's site traffic includes corporate executives, VCs, women business owners, and members of the media. We offer media access to women story sources and inspire future story ideas - serving as a public relations, marketing, and distribution channel for enterprising women. We're on a mission to move women from the lifestyle pages to the business section of the News. Our goal: a wisely-stocked toolbox for and about enterprising women. We hope this feature will be a powerful example of "women helping women win."
This week's featured woman entrepreneur or executive is Dr. Ellen Weber (PhD), MITA International Brain Based Renewal Center (Rochester, NY).
about Dr. Ellen Weber (PhD) and MITA Renewal Center
MITA International Brain Based Renewal Center (www.mitaleadership.com) is a center with two brain based renewal arms. One arm helps business leaders to benefit themselves and others at work from brain based insights. The other helps faculty at university and secondary school to use hidden or unused parts of the brain for higher motivation and achievement for all students. MITA founder and fearless leader, Dr. Ellen Weber, is a well recognized author of several recent books for the higher education arm, and her business blog at www.brainbasedbusiness.com offers daily tips to help business people accomplish things never before accomplished by using parts of their brains never before used in business. Dr. Weber's MITA brain based method is used extensively in the US, South America, Asia, Mexico, Europe, and Canada, and her many published works on practical ways to get more from the human brain are translated into several languages.
CLICK HERE TO READ ELLEN'S 10 TIPS.
Share YOUR knowledge, WISE WOMEN! Submit A REQUEST to have your company featured along with your 10 Tips For 10 Million Women.
Click HERE to visit the 10 Tips for 10 Million Women Archives.
Technorati tags: Osolind women entrepreneurs business saturday marketing Ellen Weber
Thursday, August 10, 2006
RE: GEM Research - An Update for Girls.
Earlier this month, an Oxygen Network study found that 77% of gals surveyed prefer plasma t.v. gifts to diamonds. Gone are the days of gals swooning over little blue boxes.
In this week's news, the 7th annual U.S. Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) directed by Babson College and London Business School has been released. Once again, the U.S. leads in High Potential Entrepreneurship. Nine out of ten U.S. entrepreneurs are "opportunity entrepreneurs"; only one in ten U.S. entrepreneurs start a new business out of necessity. The study defines High Potential Entrepreneurs (HPEs) as: young males, motivated by opportunity, with no fear of failure, yadayada....
I myself am wondering why an HPE can't be a "broad living abroad." Guess that sort of analysis is reserved for the GEM Report on Women and Entrepreneurship, released back in March. Ahh well.
- More.
Send your feedback to Michael Chmura, mchmura@babson.edu.
Wednesday, August 09, 2006
RE: Inspiring Future Women Entrepreneurs in the Netherlands.
Are you a future woman entrepreneur living in the Netherlands? U gaat, meisje! ("You go, girl!")
Dutch Post Bank (part of the ING Group) is serving up a new tool kit for future entrepreneurs. Young girls (and guys) who open an Easy Blue account and log on to bizznizz.postbank.nl receive a briefcase containing materials for printing their own t-shirts, stickers, letterhead, flyers, and business cards. Wahoo - what a whizzy website! Yeah, it's in a foreign language - but you get the drift. Wonder when a U.S.-based bank will jump on this bandwagon?
Laying bets on: Bank of America or Chase.
- From Springwise, via True Story blog
RE: Survey Says...
Businesses that survey working women gain key insights and often get "surprising" answers....
Sears' survey of working women homeowners revealed that 3 out of 5 women would rather receive an hour of advice from Bob Vila than Dr. Phil. Other results of interest? 69% of women homeowners consider themselves "handy." And they admire a woman's proficiency in home repair twice as much as they admire her fashion sense.
- More.
Alright. Maybe Sears' results aren't THAT surprising. What working woman WOULDN'T prefer Mr. Villa to Dr. Phil?
The point here: when was the last time your company surveyed your working women customers? How intelligent are you about their needs and levels of satisfaction? Be sure to randomly sample, explore extreme scores and percentages before you dismiss them as outliers, and specifically and thoughtfully interpret and report customer feedback. By all means, when a particular customer segment, product line, or region genuinely excels, it is smart to publicize your company's success.
Interested in learning more about how YOUR company can court enterprising women?
Click here for re:invention's free report.
Tuesday, August 08, 2006
RE: So much for Adam's Rib Theory.
"Did you know that every brain begins as a female brain? Scientists have proved that until eight weeks after conception, all brains are female....and a woman's brain is more mature at birth than a boy's brain and develops faster, by one to two years."
-More from ABC News.
So much for God
creating Eve from Adam's rib. Indeed it is a fable. Women apparently came first. ;)
RE: Wyndham Is Wise About Women.
From USA Today, August 7th:
Wyndham Hotels & Resorts employs a highly personalized program called "Wyndham's Women on the Way" for women business travelers. Wyndham works with a number of women's organizations (ABWA, BPW/USA, eWomen Network, NAWBO, Women's Leadership Exchange, and WIPP to name a few) to plan better hotel experiences for women visitors. According to Selim Soliman, general manager of the Wyndham Miami Airport Hotel, 60% of Wyndham's check-ins are women business travelers. Wyndham keeps tabs on the likes and dislikes of repeat women travelers. "If they ordered red wine and chocolate cake, red wine and chocolate cake are in their room when they arrive next time," Soliman explained. "If they like a high floor, with a room not near the elevators, that room is reserved for them."
Evy Apostolatos, director of national communications for Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, explains that once a guest profile has been entered into the network, that guest automatically receives such personalized service at any Wyndham property.
Women on the Way is in its 11th year of operations. Under the program, Wyndham has incorporated a variety of programs and services including an in-room exercise DVD; a room service arrival pre-call to ensure guests are prepared to answer the door; and healthier options on the room service menu. It remains the hospitality industry's longest-running branded program entirely dedicated to women business travelers.
Wyndham Women on the Way creator,
Cary Jehl Broussard, now chairs the board of
Boardroom Bound. Cary and Boardroom Bound will host their
Ambassador Awards Luncheon at 11:30 a.m. on September 14 at the Beverly Hilton Hotel, Los Angeles.
RE: Media Opportunity for Women Home-Based Entrepreneurs.
Calling all Women Home-Based Entrepreneurs! Were you inspired to become a home-based entrepreneur because you left the workforce to raise children and found it difficult to re-enter the workforce years later? Newsweek wants to talk to you for an article in an upcoming September/October edition.
Contact Claudia Adrien: claudia.adrien@newsweek.com
Saturday, August 05, 2006
RE: Our Saturday Feature - 10 Tips for 10 Million WomenTM.
Welcome to the re:invention 10 Tips for 10 Million WomenTM Saturday Feature. Every Saturday we feature a woman entrepreneur or executive and her personal 10 tips for success. We believe that women can be experts. They have valuable knowledge to share. re:invention's site traffic includes corporate executives, VCs, women business owners, and members of the media. We offer media access to women story sources and inspire future story ideas - serving as a public relations, marketing, and distribution channel for enterprising women. We're on a mission to move women from the lifestyle pages to the business section of the News. Our goal: a wisely-stocked toolbox for and about enterprising women. We hope this feature will be a powerful example of "women helping women win."
This week's featured woman entrepreneur or executive is Mary Schnack, CEO of Communication Bridges, Inc. (Sedona, AZ).
about Communication Bridges
Communication Bridges bridges communications among individuals, businesses, communities, governments, and cultures. 
Owner of Communication Bridges, Inc., Mary Schnack, is a public relations consultant and crisis communications expert. She has helped small businesses, associations and corporations with a variety of public relations needs and speaks on communications and business topics throughout the world. Her keynote presentations have garnered rave reviews internationally and her warm easy style, command of her subject and keen awareness guarantee that her audiences come away entertained, enlightened and most importantly, informed. Her topics are interesting and thought-provoking and offer communication tips that can be put to immediate use. By peppering her presentations with examples from her personal experiences in such places as Waco, Rwanda, Russia and Los Angeles, Mary offers real world perspective and not just textbook examples from other people's work. In 2004, The United States Small Business Administration honored Mary as Women Business Advocate of the Year for the State of Arizona and Region IX. She served on the national board of the National Association of Women Business Owners and received the association's Pioneer Award in 2001. She currently is the Chair-Elect of NAWBO's International Forum.
CLICK HERE TO READ MARY'S 10 TIPS.
Share YOUR knowledge, WISE WOMEN! Submit A REQUEST to have your company featured along with your 10 Tips For 10 Million Women.
Click HERE to visit the 10 Tips for 10 Million Women Archives.
Technorati tags: Osolind women entrepreneurs business saturday marketing Mary Schnack
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