The Must-Read Books For Women Entrepreneurs

I recently had a chance to participate on a very popular website by sharing my favorite book for women entrepreneurs. It was so hard to pick just one book; I’ve read so many and refer them to people who are in different stages and processes in their career. As I was forced to narrow it down though, I chose one that I still think about often and has really made an impact on me. The site, Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, just went live and is already ranked on Google’s first page - very exciting! Check out the tip from #92 - she seems very smart. :) "The Must-Read Books for Women Entrepreneurs" is brought to you by Toilet Paper Entrepreneurs (great blog for small business owners).

Meanwhile, this picture of the stacked books represents the pile on my kitchen table that I need to get through. Ugh, how do you squeeze more time out of the day?

Trends in Sales, Web Marketing, and Business Development

Last Thursday I attended B2B Marketing University in Atlanta that was sponsored by Silverpop. It was an interesting concept – invite your target audience to an educational seminar in which there are NO product pitches whatsoever (having it at a top-notch hotel and feeding attendees doesn’t hurt either). Genius. Certainly companies and backgrounds were mentioned but it seemed done more so from the standpoint of establishing credentials.

Over the course of three hours I took five pages of notes, front and back, which I’ll be sharing on this blog. Although I’m no longer in B2B Marketing, it was important for me to be there to learn what the “big boys” are talking about and see how this translates to Small/Medium Businesses (SMB). It is ESSENTIAL in this day and age to stay updated on trends that affect a business owner’s market. One of the speakers even uttered my mantra: “change is the only constant.” Companies that resist change and evolving are going to quickly get left behind.

A few themes developed for me as I was reviewing my notes, and instead of writing one gi-normous post I’ll write a future post on “Tips and Information for SMB." So below are a few of the trends that everyone should become familiar with, according to Silverpop and its comrades:


• The buyer is changing – companies/freelancers are shortlisted before they’re ever called
• Social media is critical to making buyer decisions. So why should a business owner have a blog, submit articles to content-sharing sites, have a Twitter account? Because if he/she doesn’t and their competitor does, it’s an easy decision for the buyer.
• If you can’t be “found” easily, it sends up red flags. When I google a company and can’t find it, it screams out “sketchy” to me.
• There is a fundamental shift focusing on raw leads to managing buyer dialogue to nurture sales-ready relationships
• A trendy new term is “inbound marketing.” Inbound is the ability to 1) Get found and 2) shape community dialogue (this is done via a blog, social media site, etc)
o A fictional example, but one that people can identify with is Dunder Mifflin’s failed “Infinity 2.0” social media project from the popular TV show The Office
• Static websites are dead; websites need fresh, relevant information for SEO purposes. What does this mean for people who have to continuously pay webmasters to update? I don’t know. But for those who don’t have sites yet, keep that in mind.
• Trending words are “manage,” “manage,” and “manage.” Manage the process. Again, back to entrepreneurship 101 of having a proactive not reactive business model.
• Change is the only constant. Get onboard and stop resisting/whining. I tell my husband this all the time as he hates FaceBook, LinkedIn, etc.
• More ROI pressure is being put on vendors. Example: I gave you a $1, now how much is your service giving back?
• Marketers have to adapt, but it is not completely out with the old, in with the new
• Buyers want relationships
o I disagree. I think the word ‘relationships’ is getting old, fast. Buyers want a company with personality. They don’t want you to be their best friend and you shouldn’t like that. But you should stand for something, know how to communicate that, and show up (meaning, be found). • Trend: do to your customers what you’re doing to them. If they mention you on twitter, you do the same. If they comment on your blog, you do the same. Mirror
• Lastly and very important, the difference between “Email Marketing” and “Marketing Automation:”
-EMAIL MARKETING: is more B2C
-MARKETING AUTOMATION: B2B or Complex sales process

Business Communications - Copyediting, Copywriting, and Proofreading: A girl's dream work!

I recently took a Copy Editing and Proofreading class with Jack Smith of The Smith Group. It was a day-long class through Evenings at Emory and I highly recommend the program. Jack specializes in working with nonprofits and focuses on grant writing. We spent the morning talking about the business side of writing/freelancing and the afternoon focusing on the meat of copyediting/copywriting.

The class was 99% women, very Type-A who love pointing out grammar mistakes other people make and who each had an opinion in a highly-charged conversation about whether or not the serial comma should be used. Yes...it was that type of group.

I furiously took notes all day and for those interested, have compiled some useful trends, information, and tips about copywriting, copyediting and proofreading.

-Many people incorrectly and interchangeably use the words copyediting and proofreading. The real definitions are that copyediting means to compile existing/already written material. It is the content and organization of material to cohesion. Proofreading is the final check before launching.
-Content and organization is the meat of copyediting.
-know your grammar weaknesses. Mine are trying to put together words that should not be compound words, such as pot luck, grant writing, table coth, etc. My natural inclination is to make all those words one word. I also always go back and check my subject/very agreements.
-When working on a project for a client, it is extremely important to know what they’re looking for before you begin. That means making sure the client explains exactly what result they want achieved so you both aren’t working on a gazillion drafts.
-It’s also important to know how many pages you can copyedit in one hour. Copyediting is a very tedious task and it’s important to schedule breaks, so factor that in.
-The business has evolved. Gone are the days when copywriting used to mean coming up with advertisements in the paper and copywriters worked on staff. Now the work is more contractual and a large portion of it is online vs in print.
-this doesn’t have much to do with copywriting, but Jack stated (and I wholeheartedly agree), that the opportunities for an employee to stay with the same organization for 30 years are gone. Organizations have evolved, and people need to do the same to stay marketable. As an employee, have a proactive plan, strategy, and purpose. If you are freelancer, multiply this times ten.
-when freelancing, understand your niche and how you fit in. What is your USP? What differentiates you?
-trends that are important to know: the prevalent use of bullet points, italics, and bold to categorize text. NEVER underline a word online unless it is hypertext.
-trends in formatting: one space after the period, not two, and we’re not indenting paragraphs anymore but flush left and ragged right. Double space between paragraphs.
-it’s also interesting to pick up on small nuances and make sure you’re adapting to the language of your clients. For example, if you’re still putting a hypen between “non” and “profit,” that’s the sign of an amateur. The trend is to spell it without the hypen (nonprofit). Small things like that will differentiate you from your competition and show the client you fit in.
-when beginning to freelance, it’s important to have a robust portfolio. Do this by working pro-bono, bartering, or charging a very low rate and then build up from there.
-these days, it’s important to write in an inverted pyramid structure.

We learned a TON more and I’d be happy to share some of the handouts – just reach out to me!