Your Entrepreneurial Journey

Christian Women Business Owners

Your brilliance is the light that illumines the path of your entrepreneurial journey. You are magnificent, gifted, intelligent, and wise. You have an amazing skill set. You know how to use your awesome skills and great abilities to bring change into the world of business. You stand alone. There is no one like you. God has created a plan made exclusively for you. God’s plan for you is unique as are you. Your gifts are the presents that have helped you to birth your business. Your entrepreneurial journey is life changing.

As a Christian woman entrepreneurial you have a lot on your shoulders, but every weight that you bare is life changing. It is the sugar in your tea and the cream in your coffee. It is the words that you write and the book that you plan to publish. It is the dream you envision and now it is the life you live.

Stay on the path of your journey and never veer from it for you virtuous woman entrepreneur are the force behind the success you breathe.

Written by Cynthia G. Boyer

Best Places to Find Inspiration

Some people love routine. They’re perfectly happy getting up at the same time, doing the same things, eating the same foods, and working the same job, day in, day out. I guess it’s comforting to them.

Not me. I thrive on variety. Newness. Challenges. Getting out and about and making things happen. Starting a project and feeling that awesome sense of accomplishment when I get it done … right.

And that’s exactly why I hate this time of year. It’s the weather.

This is the start of northern California’s rainy season, and I’m an outdoors kind of guy. Whenever I can work outside, I do it. Coop me up inside for too long, I start to lose it. And the first thing to go is my inspiration. No, I don’t need sunshine to think, but enough days without it and my brain starts to develop its own sort of gloomy cloud system.

You know the feeling. Everyone has those moments when you feel like you’re stuck in quicksand: the harder you fight, the more it pulls you in.

It’s a problem for anyone who has to think for a living. Managers, executives, entrepreneurs, business owners, marketers, engineers, software developers – all knowledge workers need inspiration to innovate, come up with insightful ideas, solve complex problems, make tough decisions and excel at their jobs.

Over the decades, come rain or shine, I’ve always managed to find things that inspire me, ways to get my creative juices flowing again. Will they work for you? Beats me, but one thing’s for sure: They’ll never work if you don’t try them out.

Talk it out. Sure, there are times when things just come to you. It happens to me all the time, usually when I’m half asleep or in the shower. But when your brain just refuses to function, a little brainstorming can provide just the spark it needs to get going again. The truth is, some of my best ideas came during impromptu, thought-provoking chats.

Do drugs. No, not those kinds of drugs. I’m talking about caffeine. It’s an amazing stimulant. Whenever I need to do some real thinking, I go for the cappuccino. And when I need a big idea but I’m too wound up, I find a glass of wine or two in the evening helps my mind to relax and the ideas to flow. Not for everyone, but it really works for me.

Disconnect. If you’re looking for inspiration, the last thing you want to do is check your Twitter feed, your email, or anything else online. That’s just a bottomless pit of distraction and instant gratification. The same goes for video games, shopping and stress eating. Because it’s addictive, it feels good, even though you’re really not accomplishing a thing.

Take a walk. I’ve heard that doing something repetitive frees your mind. I don’t know if going for a walk or a hike qualifies, but for some reason, just getting out and about in the neighborhood or on a woodsy trail gets my synapses snapping like crazy. It even extends to walking meetings, believe it or not.

Start a long-term project. Start a project, something you’ve never done before that has nothing to do with work. I once spent an entire fall and winter season designing and building a large greenhouse in my spare time. And you know what? I’ve never been so productive at work.

Get your blood pumping. Once you get over the pain – or at least get used to it – going for a run, shooting hoops, anything really strenuous makes you feel like you’re on top of the world. It always helps me clarify my thoughts and put things in perspective. Little things that build up seem to evaporate when your pulse rate hits 120.

Commune with nature. Beautiful landscapes, mountains, flowers, majestic coastal redwood trees, rock formations, animals – anything born of nature – has a magical way of drawing you in and making you feel apart of something alive and wonderful. There’s a breathtaking view of evergreen mountains and a bougainvillea vine outside my office. The hummingbirds love it. Me too.

Related: Focus on Passion, Not Labels

Practice mindfulness. No, this isn’t some New Age mumbo jumbo. It’s science, and it’s real. Mindfulness meditation can help you learn to live in the moment, deal with stress and gain perspective. It’s a great way to unblock your mind. A leader in the field is Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn, of the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Check out his bestselling audio book, Wherever You Go There You Are.

Play with your kids. If you’ve got them and they’re the right age, I can’t think of anything more inspiring than seeing the world through the eyes of little kids. If not, play with your dog or cat. They love the attention and, you know what? So do you.

Above all, get to know yourself and be good to yourself. If you do, you’ll never hold yourself back or be your own worst enemy. Then all you’ve got to do is figure out how to change the weather.

Steve Tobak

Steve Tobak is managing partner of Invisor Consulting — a Silicon Valley-based management and strategy consulting firm — and a former senior executive of the technology industry

No Money to Start a Business

No Worries; All You Need Is You!

Things to Do Today. Start Your Own Business!

Okay so you are excited and pumped up and ready to start your own home based business. And you realize that you have no money to start a business. That’s okay, because you don’t need any money to start your empire. All you need is you, your gifts and your great skill set.

You might be limited to a strict budget when you want to start a business, but that doesn’t mean you don’t have any options. It is possible to start a business with very little money, if you have the right combination of skills, work ethic and marketing know-how.

According to Chris Guillebeau, author of The $100 Startup, “To succeed in a business project, especially one you’re excited about, it helps to think carefully about all the skills you have that could be helpful to others and particularly about the combination of those skills.”

Follow these simple guidelines to start a business when you have little to no money. Learn how to make money today.

1. Make something.
Yes, making something does take an initial cost in supplies, but oftentimes, these products can be sold for many times over their actual cost. What you decide to make is up to you, but there are several places you can sell your handmade options online:

Abe’s Market deals in natural and organic goods, such as lotions, candles, granola, and more.

Etsy is one of the largest online markets for almost anything homemade, from jewelry to wooden toys for kids.

Bonanza is another growing handmade marketplace, similar to Etsy. According to PC World, it boasts over 10 million visits per month.

eBay is one of the biggest online ecommerce marketplaces in the world, and its streamlined store options, easy checkout through Paypal, and customizable listing options make it a great choice for selling items.

Many business owners sell their products on multiple platforms to get the most exposure possible. It is important, however, to make sure your inventory stays updated on all sites you have a storefront on. If you want to learn about more resources for selling homemade items, check out this Lifehacker post.

2. Resell something.
If you don’t want to make anything (or you don’t consider yourself a creative person), many business owners have grown large businesses just be reselling products that have already been made. This can be done through a variety of ways or channels:

Drop shipping: Set up an online store and partner with drop-shipping companies that will do all the order fulfillment for you. Online ecommerce platform Shopify has a great drop shipping guide, and Tim Ferriss does a good job of explaining drop shipping in his well-known book, The Four Hour Work Week.

Thrift stores and garage sales: If you know where to look, you can find items at thrift stores, antique shops, flea markets and garage sales and resell them online or in your local community for more than you purchased them for. One extremely successful example of this is Sophia Amoruso, the founder of Nasty Gal. Amoruso started buying and reselling vintage and unique fashion pieces on eBay, and her company has grown to a net income of $24 million in 2011 with over 200 employees. Her book, #GIRLBOSS, is in inspiring look into how she got started.

3. Sell your services.
One way to start a business with little to no startup capital is to sell your services, instead of a physical product. There’s a huge variety of services you can offer, depending on your background and interests.

Related: Starting a Business? When to Scrimp vs. Splurge.

Some will require advanced degrees, such as accounting, while others require little more than a working knowledge of how it’s done (such as babysitting, lawn mowing or personal assistance).

Because you are selling your services, you will need a branding plan to make sure your name and company gets in front of the people who may need the service. Some places that are free for promoting your services include Fiverr, Craigslist, Elance, Taskrabbit and Skillshare.

It’s also useful to have a website to show examples of your work, list your experience, and blog about your industry to draw visitors. If you want to learn more about branding and online marketing, check out Buffer’s social-media blog, Hubspot’s blog, Content Marketing Institute and CopyPress.

4. Barter to get what you need.
Unfortunately, it’s extremely hard to start a business without any type of funds at all. Even creating a freelance-writing business utilizing Elance and a free WordPress or Wix website will still require a computer to work on as well as Internet. However, there are ways to get supplies you need for starting your business without money.

For instance, if you find yourself in need of a used laptop, try to barter for it. Build a new website for a used electronics supplier, or offer babysitting services to your neighbor for their old Macbook.

5. Utilize low-cost services.
As mentioned previously, you can use sites such as Fiverr or Elance to advertise your products and services on, but you can also use these platforms to build up your own company. For instance, many designers offer $5 to $25 logo designs (that come with free revisions). Sort by reviews and look at past examples to find a designer or service provider that matches your style.

This is a great way to get branding materials, printed items (Vistaprint and Zazzle are great places to buy personalized items), or other needed items without much cost. And for additional savings, be sure to look for coupon codes on sites such as RetailMeNot before checking out at any online retailer!

Starting a business requires ingenuity and a passion for what you are doing. Once you find yourself doing something you enjoy, you will be more likely to find ways to make it all come together.

This article was written by Sujan Patel

I hope it blesses you in some way.

All for His glory,

Cyndi

www.godsvirtuouswomenentrepreneurs.com

www.everywomanslifelovingjourney.com

www.beautyandtheface.com

How To Work Smarter (Not Harder) For Multi-Seven Figure Success

Riches, Wealth and Opulence Can Be Yours

Sami Wunder is in the business of love. And business has never been better. Today, Wunder is a leading international dating and relationship coach for high achieving women and her company just had its first seven-figure quarter. That’s right, quarter. But when she started her business just five years ago, she was giving away free dating advice in her Facebook group and getting paid just $97 per client. Wunder was working twelve-hour days and responding to clients on her phone at 3am after breastfeeding her baby. “That was a hard phase,” admits Wunder, who says she felt like she was managing two start-ups at the time: her business and her baby. “Everyone thought my business was a side hobby and couldn’t understand why I wouldn’t pay more attention to my child instead and be content.”

To complicate matters even more, she wasn’t sure where to direct her business energy, so she was spreading herself thin. “I used to believe that as long as I was doing something—live streaming on Facebook, offering free advice to anyone who would tag me, posting on social media without a strategy—it would help my business grow,” says Wunder, who has helped more than 255 single clients get married and more than 300 partnered clients avoid divorce. “I was just throwing spaghetti at the wall. Now I realize I only need to focus on two specific things for my business to succeed.”

Despite her busy work schedule and her commitment to spending as much quality time with her husband and (now) two kids as possible, I was able to catch up with Wunder to get more details on those two specific things that led to her meteoric business growth.

Stephanie Burns: How did you decide to get into the business of love and romance?

Sami Wunder: By having my heart broken by a man who I thought was the one for me. After two months of intense dating, he told me I wasn’t right for him. I spent a weekend crying in bed and feeling angry at men. Then I dried my tears, acknowledged that my approach to relationships wasn’t working and decided to make a change. I ended up downloading dozens of relationship books off the internet and devouring them one-by-one. I took courses on self love. I realized that there was a lot of superficial dating advice out there, but I went deeper. I explored how our self-esteem is reflected in how we show up in our romantic relationships. I started embracing my feminine energy and leaning back in my dating encounters—letting the guy approach me—instead of harnessing my masculine energy and leaning in and pursuing men. I used to be so resistant to the idea but once I understood that embracing my feminine energy is actually powerful in love, it made the biggest difference for me. I attracted men who wanted to make an effort to be with me. Nine months later, I was engaged to my husband.

We moved to France when my husband got a high-level government position, which meant that I ended up leaving behind my career in the international development sector. I didn’t even speak French. I was sitting at home all day in tears wondering what profession to pursue that would enable me to have a positive impact on the lives of others when it hit me. I realized how many successful women could benefit from the relationships techniques I’d learned. So I decided to start a business teaching them.

Burns: What are the two things you focused on to grow your business?

Wunder: First, I had to invest in myself to develop coaching skills, because I didn’t want to speak from personal experience alone. I wanted to bring an expert perspective to my clientele and give them a professional service. I took more than $8,000 out of the bank—the majority of my savings—and invested in a coach training program. It was scary, but I knew I had to dive in with both feet to make this a real business. I also believed it was hypocritical to expect people to see the value of hiring a love coach without being able to invest money in my own coaching mentorship. Walking your talk is so important.

Next, I started showing up consistently, every day, on social media and spreading my message. I remember feeling stupid, like nobody was watching or listening. But if you try to avoid feeling uncomfortable as an entrepreneur, you’re going to delay your success for a long time. Finally, I started a Facebook group and invited my single college friends to join. It began with fourteen women, but within two weeks we had 200 members. I asked them if they’d pay $97 for a five-week program and 40 people signed up. My business was officially off the ground!

Burns: Your business has done exceptionally well. How were you able to grow so quickly—especially in a non-traditional field?

Wunder: Receiving coaching and mentorship played a huge role in my success. My mentors and coaches are the people who taught me how to sell my programs without feeling guilty, raise my prices to protect my private time and hire a stellar team that supports me in serving successful women in 50 countries across the globe. People think that you always have to shell out six figures for a good coach, but that’s not true. No matter what level you’re at, there is a level of support that you can access. For example, in my first year of business I spent $5k on six months of private coaching. As my business grew, so did the amount of money I spent on coaching, as did the caliber of the coach I obtained access to.

Burns: You talk about the importance of working smarter, not harder. How can entrepreneurs achieve that?

Wunder: You do have to do the work. There is no magic pill. But you don’t have to buy into the hustle or get obsessed with the hard-work energy. My company made so much money this year but I still woke up worrying about what I would post on social media today. That’s the hard-work energy I’m still trying to heal on some days. What helps is replacing this mindset with focusing on what really moves the needle in my business. For me those two things are getting phenomenal results for my clients who put their trust in me and getting the word out about my business so these women can find me.

When it comes to getting great client results, you have to have the courage to ask for feedback and the humility to use it to tweak your process. After someone has gone through your program or worked with you one-on-one, have them fill out a survey or email them some questions about how you can support them even better. Sometimes, no matter what you do, you can’t help a person. But most of the time, people will come back with constructive feedback and you need to have an open mind about it. Then tweak your process and make it better for the next client.

In terms of getting your message out, look to the media. As I was building my business, I spent time pitching myself to podcasts and newspapers to get the attention of high-achieving women who were struggling in their love lives. By my third year of business, I appeared in a national newspaper that dubbed me the “Get The Ring Coach” and my Instagram exploded overnight. I had 10,000 new followers and my inbox was overflowing with requests from other media outlets. It catapulted my business to another level. I had to raise my prices and hire more staff so we could help more people who started finding us through these channels.

Burns: Why are you so passionate about helping successful women find and keep love in their lives?

Wunder: I believe that love is the single most important thing in life. When you’re on your deathbed, you won’t think to yourself, “I wish I’d sent that newsletter” or “I wish I’d automated my evergreen webinar.” The moments that flash before your eyes are the ones where you felt seen, heard, loved and accepted. Those are the kinds of romantic relationships I help my clients have, especially strong and successful women who often mistakenly believe that they cannot have amazing love and amazing career success!

Today my Facebook feed is full of clients kissing men they love, getting married and having babies. I’ve worked with women who become mothers for the first time at 42 or walked down the aisle for the first time at 45. It means so much to me that there are all these people in the world being positively impacted by my work. I live for this feeling!

Stephanie Burns

Contributor

ForbesWomen

What Goes Into An Effective Sales Funnel?

She gets a funnel, he gets a funnel, you get a funnel! It may be no surprise that everybody is talking funnels these days.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but the idea of a systemized process to get your buyers to take a certain action is by no means a new concept. In reality, a “funnel” is just a fancier term for getting your customer from point A to point Z. The only things we’ve refined and perfected as marketers are the modalities and steps we use that ultimately lead to better conversions.

Before diving into the steps, one should examine the overall objective of their funnel. Is it to upsell a client? Are you targeting repeat customers or brand new prospects? Do you want to lead them to your page to purchase a complementary product? Alternatively, is this the first intro they’ll receive to your business?

So, how do we give clients (and ourselves) foolproof funnels that convert for every type of customer along the buyer’s journey?

Start With The Problem Or Need

While we always follow best practices for funnel creation, we should first take a step back and ask: What does the client want first and foremost? In an ideal world, what is the precise outcome they are looking for? Once you have a clear picture of what they’re looking for, you’ll know what copy to include that speaks to their ideal outcome.

Next, examine every step of the buyer’s journey. I’m not talking about a plug-and-play buyer’s journey. Dive deep into different target markets (potential clients and customers for your client), and think about the thought processes, the hurdles and the pondering they may do before finally making a purchase.

The goal of this exercise is to decipher how each ad (or stage in your funnel) will affect them, both emotionally and psychologically.

There are many ways to optimize the perfect funnel built for conversions. Will your funnel include an eye-catching lead generation piece, a stunning landing page or an e-book and video sales letter (VSL) that really speaks to the audience and provides the value they’ve been dying to discover?

Let’s run through a solid five-stage funnel process and examples of content you might include with it:

1. Awareness Stage

First impressions are everything. Just as you want to go on a few dates before you put a ring on anyone’s finger, you’ll want to warm up new leads so they become familiar with your brand. Try pieces that really dive into the psychology of your target market’s problem or, similarly, tell a strong brand story.

2. Lead Generation

A strong lead generation piece usually acts as a teaser. Oftentimes it asks your potential customer to download a valuable piece of content where they have to share their email address. Aim for catchy headlines and “clickable” content. You might offer an e-book that lays out step-by-step action items to help coaches bring in new clients, for example.

3. Landing Page

A landing page is a specified page that includes a unique selling point (USP), hero image, benefits, social proof and, of course, a strong call to action. This piece is focused on one sole outcome: getting the prospect to take a specified action.

4. VSL

A video sales letter is a short “elevator pitch” that allows prospects to get to know the speaker and builds brand awareness and loyalty. Your video sales letter should include similar aspects of your landing page but can be done all through audio.

5. Thank You Page

A funnel wouldn’t be complete without a strong thank you or follow-up page. After all, the best way to receive brand loyalty is to let customers know how grateful you are after they have made a purchase. These items help you create repeat customers who will tell others about your brand.

Creating a complete funnel is no easy task. If you skimp over any of the steps, your customers will drop off like flies. Pay attention to the beginning stages, especially, as this is where your market research is done. Speak your target customers’ language. Be the solution to their problems. And lastly, guide them through a seamless sales process.

By Solomon Thimothy, CEO of OneIMS. A sales and marketing guru who has built a number of successful companies over the last decade. Read more at Thimothy.com.

Category: make money