As a small business owner, one mistake can cost you and any employees you have your career.
The days of women working only as secretaries in the office are long behind us. With the assistance of courageous women, and men, who were willing to take the scorn of the masses to bring equal rights to the female population in the United States, women have increasingly become empowered to accomplish what decades ago seemingly was impossible. It is important to follow some time tested rules of thumb to ensure your business gets the proper positive exposure versus the negative publicity that can come with one small misstep.
According to the 2014 Open State of Women-Owned Business report approximately 1,200 new businesses were started daily by women. This report also states that 4 out of 10 new businesses are started by women. The corporate landscape is no longer dominated by males. As women take on this ever increasing role in the business landscape, the unique challenges that can be faced in this digital age must be addressed with careful thought and consideration before the storms of daily business roll in.
We all have smartphones these days. And we all have either posted something on one of our social media sites or know someone who has posted that “one picture”, or that one “hashtag” that we regret. As a small business owner, that one mistake can cost you and any employees you have your career. It is so true that we can have years of honorable decisions yet it only takes one bad decision to erase them all. So if you are going out with the ladies for the night and intend on having a few adult beverages it may be best to leave your phone in the car or have a “designated phone holder” to curb that impulse to have that inappropriate photo of you on the dance floor posted for the word, and your customers, to see.
Often misunderstood is the importance of your brand. So often people associate the word brand with a meaning correlated strictly with a product. As any recent college graduate from a business school can attest, this loose definition is not accurate in today’s business landscape. Your brand encompasses everything about your business, not simply the product you have on the shelf or ship. A current trend in brand awareness is “bridging consumer insight and brand image to compelling media coverage”, as quoted by a PR firm in San Francisco. Build and protect your brand as it is unique to you and your business and can separate you from the competition.
It matters not what the physical location of your business is as virtually every community in the United States has various cultures within. As any successful start-up or well established business continues to adapt to the digital age, the far reaching aspects of internet marketing are upon us and awareness of the multicultural potential customers and customers you have is a critical key to success. Time should be invested to inventory your audience and utilization of multicultural marketing experts will pay dividends to your brand and bottom line.
Author’s Bio
Wendy Dessler
Title: Super-Connector at OutreachMama
Wendy is a super-connector with OutreachMama and Youth Noise NJ who helps businesses find their audience online through outreach, partnerships, and networking. She frequently writes about the latest advancements in digital marketing and focuses her efforts on developing customized blogger outreach plans depending on the industry and competition. You can contact her on Twitter.
Savvy Tips For The Female Business Owner first appeared on Mompreneur Media
