Why Are Women-Owned Firms Smaller Than Men-Owned Ones?

By SHARON G. HADARY: The phenomenal growth of women-owned businesses has made headlines for three decades—women consistently have been launching new enterprises at twice the rate of men, and their growth rates of employment and revenue have outpaced the economy.

So, it is dismaying to see that, despite all this progress, on average, women-owned business are still small compared with businesses owned by men. And while the gap has narrowed, as of 2008—the latest year for which numbers are available—the average revenues of majority women-owned businesses were still only 27% of the average of majority men-owned businesses.

While the number of women starting their own business outpaces men, revenue for female owned companies still lags behind. Hear Sharon Hadary, Former Executive Director and Founder of the Center for Women's Business Research, discuss this trend and what women can do to improve their prospects.

There are those who will say that these numbers substantiate what they always knew: Women just don't have what it takes to start and run a substantial, growing business. But I don't buy that: More than a quarter of a million women in the U.S. own and lead businesses with annual revenue topping $1 million—and many of these businesses are multimillion-dollar enterprises. Clearly, many women have the vision, capacity and perseverance to build thriving companies.

So what's holding back so many women business owners?

I have spent decades conducting research, studying the data and interacting with all the players involved—entrepreneurs, researchers, educators, bankers and others. And I am convinced that the problem is twofold. First, you have women's own self-limiting views of themselves, their businesses and the opportunities available to them. But equally problematic are the stereotypes, perceptions and expectations of business and government leaders.

Understand: I'm not arguing that all entrepreneurs, all bankers, all policy makers are guilty of such limited thinking. But I've talked to enough of them, and studied enough of the research, to know that these problems are pervasive, and they are having a big impact—on both individual entrepreneurs and in turn on the health of the overall economy.

In that spirit, here's a closer look at how I believe these factors are preventing so many women entrepreneurs from fulfilling their potential—and what can be done to prepare them to accelerate business growth.

Where the Problems Are
IT STARTS WITH THE GOALS: The value of setting high goals for growth is not just a motivational myth. Research shows that the only statistically significant predictor of business growth is not the industry, size of business or length of time in business. It is the entrepreneur's goal for growth.


But research also shows that the differences between women and men entrepreneurs begin with their own reasons for starting a business. Men tend to start businesses to be the "boss," and their aim is for their businesses to grow as big as possible. Women start businesses to be personally challenged and to integrate work and family, and they want to stay at a size where they personally can oversee all aspects of the business.

That mind-set is only reinforced by the training many women entrepreneurs get—at women's business centers, for instance, or seminars for aspiring women business owners, or at adult-education courses at community colleges. This training targeted directly at women too often tends to ignore planning for future growth, focusing instead on business start-up planning, marketing advice and personal-budget planning to ensure the new entrepreneur has enough cash to carry her until the business gets going.

Once a woman starts a business, that lack of focus on growth planning can make a huge difference. She may not establish the necessary tools for tracking and analyzing financial information and business operations or invest in the technology that would facilitate future growth. So, if after a few years, the woman wants to expand the business and needs capital to do so, she is unlikely to have the financial records and projections that a bank requires. In the end, she either delays growth or, more commonly, lowers her goals.

ACCESS TO CAPITAL: Women often come to entrepreneurship with fewer resources available to them than men. The result is that they are more likely to go into industries such as retail or personal services where the cost of entry is low—but so is the growth potential.

Why the lack of resources? Again, women must accept part of the responsibility. Research shows that women tend to view debt as a "bad thing" to be avoided. For expansion capital, most turn to... >> Continue Article at: The Wall Street Journal(http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704688604575125543191609632.html)

Grants For Women

Full Post at: http://governmentgrant.com/grants-for-women

Women have had a constant struggle for equality and have made tremendous strides. Yet many still have lower paying jobs and suffer from discrimination in the workplace. In fact, 75% of women make less money than their male counterparts, when fulfilling the same job. Government grants for women are designed to help lessen this inequality and give women opportunity through finances.

Grants are given to women in order to:

• Pursue college and/or higher education
• Start a new business
• Expand or update and existing business
• Subsidize a low income household
• Subsidize personal or family need

Now more than ever women are receiving grants and starting up their own company or becoming a force to reckon with in their industry. In fact, according to the statistics of recent years, women make up nearly half of the population of new business owners each year; and are more likely to succeed in their venture than their male counterparts. How is that for incentive? If the only thing that has been holding you back has been money, than a grant is just what you need.


***FIND Business Grants and College Grants for Women at http://governmentgrant.com/grants-for-women


Below are some other websites where women business leaders can find information about attaining a grant:

A Free Service Providing Info on Grants for Woman Entrepreneurs and Business Grant Money for a Woman

SBA

eHow: Business Grants for Women Entrepreneurs

Grants.gov

Top Five Favorite Ways For Women Entrepreneurs to Become More Productive

Do you need to increase your productivity and efficiency? Would you like to know what are the favored techniques of successful women entrepreneurs when it comes to increasing productivity? I wanted to know, too.

Recently, I did an informal survey of 250 women entrepreneurs asking them this question: "What's the number one thing you do to boost your productivity?"

Listed in reverse order, here are the results:

5. Prioritize your daily list using the "ABCD and E" method.

A = must do.
B = should do.
C = would be nice to do.
D = delegate.
E = eliminate.

4. Delegate everything possible.

If it isn't directly making you money, delegate it to someone else. Turn over data entry tasks, packing and shipping, and answering non-essential emails and calls to a competent administrative professional. Not sure how to tell if you should turn something over? Ask yourself, "Can this task be done by someone else, or does it need my direct attention?" As an enterprising entrepreneur, your job is to concentrate on what is of most value to you and your business success, not on errands.

3. Break up projects into tasks.

If you have something on your to do list that's been there for a long time, realize that it's probably not a task. It's a project. To do lists are for discreet tasks. When you put a project on your list, you'll feel bogged down and productivity will slow. Many of the women entrepreneurs surveyed use business strategist Brian Tracy's method for breaking up projects into easy-to-do tasks:

First, list the finished result you want.
Next, map out every single step of the project.
Then, put the steps into order, putting the important steps to the front.
Now, delegate tasks and assign responsibilities.
Finally, track the progress of the project.

2. Give 80% of your attention to what is important and 20% to what is urgent.

As an entrepreneur, your job is to discern the difference between what's important and what's urgent. To figure out the difference between the two, ask yourself, "Will focusing on this move my business forward and make me money or will I just be putting out fires?" Dealing with the urgent all day is draining. Dealing with the important is energizing. Make sure you're giving 80% of your time and attention to what's important each day.

1. Focus on one thing at a time.

The number one thing women entrepreneurs do to boost productivity is... focus on one thing at a time. Although women are known to be natural multi-taskers, surprisingly, those surveyed said they were able to get more done when they focused on one thing at a time. Starting and stopping in the middle of things was frustrating for them and meant that not much was completed at day's end.

What is the number one thing you do to boost your productivity? As you've just seen, among the 250 women entrepreneurs I surveyed their answers ranged from prioritizing their daily to do list to learning to break projects up into smaller. Decide which of their favorite techniques will help you the most, and start implementing them right now. You're sure to boost productivity for yourself and your business.

Dr. Susan L. Reid is a business coach and consultant for entrepreneurial women starting up businesses. She is the author of "Discovering Your Inner Samurai: The Entrepreneurial Woman's Journey to Business Success." Here website is Alkamae

Understanding the Basics of Website Statistics

One of the questions that I often get when it comes to online communication/website design, is "How can I measure results?" One way to measure results is by taking a look at your web statistics before and after you make tweaks and alterations. You first want to have a goal in mind – increase the number of new or returning visitors, get more people to sign up for your newsletter, etc. Michelle Shaeffer provides an introduction to understanding website statistics is the following article.

For all the experts out there, what do you think are the most important elements to understanding and leveraging these statistics?

Article:

Learning to understand your website statistics can help you improve your website for visitors, measure if your promotional strategies are working, and find new opportunities to promote your business.

How can you measure your website statistics?

There are two common ways to measure this important information.

One is with software that analyzes the server logfiles. Each time someone visits your site the server records detailed information about the visitor and what they did on your website. With software like Webalyzer or AWStats that information is put into a form you can easily read and understand. Many website hosts offer this software already installed on their servers and available to clients through a cPanel or Plesk administrative area.

The second way to keep track of your stats is with a javascript added to all of your pages that sends info to another server each time a visitor loads a page, such as Google Analytics or Crazy Egg. With these services you sign up, then they provide a small snippet of code for you to copy and paste into your web pages. For WordPress sites you can install a special plugin to add Google Analytics or view visitor statistics.
You may want to combine both methods to get a better overall picture of who is visiting your website and what they're doing.

What do the terms mean?

Hits: Each request for a file from a server is counted as a hit. This is an often misunderstood term. It does not mean you’ve had 5,000 people visit your site if you have had 5,000 hits. If your page has one html file and five images on it, then each time a visitor loads the page it would count as six hits.

Page Views: How many times a "page" as defined in log analysis has been loaded. This is more accurate than hits because it will only count the .html or .php files instead of every image on a page.

Unique Visitors: This is an even more useful....

View the rest of the article >>
Understanding the Basics of Website Statistics, by Michelle Shaeffer (@SmallBizMuse)

Market Segmentation For Online Marketing

Marketing segmentation for online marketing takes many forms, and before you go out and craft your first online marketing campaign, you need to be sure of who exactly each campaign is going to reach out to. Online marketing market segmentation has several similarities as offline marketing.

For example, in the offline world, you will always need to search for where your target audience is already hanging out, and put your advertising dollars there. The same goes for online marketing. You need to know which websites your target customers are already surfing.

Here are some ways you can segment your market. Remember, the clearer you know who your target audience is, the better it is and easier for you to find a place to fit your ad.

1. Demographic segmentation - you can segment your audience by age, gender, education level, or socio-economic status.

2. Lifecycle segmentation - this form of segmentation understands that consumers need different products at different life stages, and you need to target just one of these stages (e.g. pregnancy)

3. Geographic segmentation - in this form of segmentation, you target specific countries, or even as small as a specific neighborhood. This is particularly important if you are a brick and mortar service shop like a barber or law attorney.

4. Job segmentation - segmenting by jobs or occupational roles takes into consideration the roles of the particular person at work. For example, you might be targeting just the purchasing managers of a particular industry.

5. Specialty segmentation - this identifies a very tightly narrow and niche audience that is facing a common issues or have a common interest. For example, you could be targeting only the people who owns a certain model of motorbikes.

The power of the Internet is that is captures the global economy, and because of this, it is best to really niche your focus and find a segment that you can really serve well. By focusing on your segment, it will be easier for you to reach out to that particular segment.

Kent Tan is a full time article writer and web content publisher. Check out his latest website about Holiday Shower Curtain reviews and Pirate Shower Curtain designs.

5 Small Biz Website Musts

There are add-ons galore when you find hosting. Don't get more than you need. 


I recently saw a tweet from a small-business owner who had just purchased a domain name and a hosting plan from a website company. 


"There are all these other products . . . which ones do I need?" she asked the Twitterverse.

Choosing a domain name and website hosting plan can be daunting enough for a small-business owner, let alone wading through the myriad add-on products offered by website hosting companies. Many probably give up without ever knowing that a few key products can make a big difference in how they present their brand and do business online.

I have a few tips to guide you through securing a domain name and choosing a hosting plan. Then I'll follow up with the five best products for a small-business website.

A. 

There are more domain extensions available than .com. You may want to purchase several extensions with the same name to ensure protection for your online brand. For example, you can add .biz, .net and .org and have them all forward to the same website. 

In addition, a new option, .co, launching this spring, is available for pre-registration. General availability is $34.99 per year, with domains available on July 20. You can obtain more information here. 

B. 

Decide the following: 

• How many domains do you want to host? You may only need to start with one domain, but if you know you'll need more than one website in the future, it's better to purchase a hosting account that supports multiple domains. That way you won't have to purchase separate hosting accounts in the future, and you'll save money. Purchasing several domain extensions (.com, .net, etc.) for the same website still counts as just one domain. 
• How much bandwidth and disk space do you need? The amount each business needs depends on the number of users who simultaneously access the site. For most new sites, the minimum amount of space--typically 300GB--is enough. However, if you anticipate thousands of simultaneous users, a 300GB plan won't suffice, and your site will crash. This might be the case if your company posts something that goes viral and is shared rapidly by users all over the internet. 
• How many e-mail accounts do you anticipate you'll need? A company needs at least one e-mail account for every employee. If you plan to grow, consider getting more than you need in the short term. Most hosting plans include e-mail accounts as part of the cost.

Knowing the answers to these questions will allow you to better evaluate the hosting plans offered and choose the right one for you. You can also call your hosting company for expert advice on how these answers translate into the best hosting plan for your website.

Once you have your domain names and hosting plan purchased, it's time to look at the other products that can help you build a strong web presence:

1. Private registration (WHOIS privacy): Every time you register a domain, your personal contact information is submitted to the publicly accessible WHOIS database.......

By Clint Page


Read the rest of this post at Women Entrepreneur


I'll add to this with a couple of tips on website design. As a graphic designer and brand strategist, my experience has been that the essential elements to the design of a website is: 

1. Start with a template: Many web programs online and as separate applications, such as Dreamweaver, offer templates to get you started. 
2. Know your brand colors and use these colors as background colors, navigation colors, and font colors. (but don't use too many colors, otherwise you may distract from the valuable content on your website). 
3. Create or have someone create a website banner. You don't have to have a lot of graphics on your website, especially when you are starting out. A professionally design banner that is branded will do a wonderful job of pulling the design of your website together.