FEMpower

10 Great Tips to Empower Female Entrepreneurs
1. Do not be afraid to fail.
You have to move outside of your comfort zone. Resumes that include failures are great proof that you have taken the necessary risks in your journey. Often, women are more affected by failure and let it affect their confidence. Don't let it. Failure is an inevitable part of success, from which we learn.

Remember the great advice of George Burns, "I honestly think it is better to be a failure at something you love than to be a success at something you hate."

2. Get feedback.

Feedback is critical to validate your business. Competitive research can also help you understand what customers want. You will need to go beyond researching on your competitor's websites. Read reviews, find articles about them, and interview their customers. Pay particular mind to negative reviews and ask people specifically what they wish they were getting out of the product or service they're using from your competition.

Doing this in-depth analysis will help you determine where your competition's strengths and weaknesses. Once you find their weaknesses, you should exploit them by making sure your product or service fills that gap for customers.

If you are in a business that produces a product, then crowdfunding can be a great way to quickly validate your idea. Even though there are several crowdfunding sites, iFundWomen is a new platform for women-led startups and small business and offers free crowdfunding coaching.

3. Keep learning.

The key to growth, innovation and success is knowledge. Every successful entrepreneur I have met is an avid learner. In fact, the average CEO reads up to 60 books a year. If you don't like reading, try audio books, online classes, masterminds and/or continuing education classes at a local university.

Mentorbox is a great resource that helps busy entrepreneurs by picking out the best business and leadership books and providing summaries and webinars on each book so you can absorb the information in the way that suits your learning style.

4. Become an expert.

The marketplace has shifted, but people still value authenticity and expertise. You can showcase your knowledge through speaking, public relations and/or even blogging. You want to be as visible as possible so make a wish list of places you want to be seen that range from TV to YouTube and podcasts. Guest blogging is another great way to gain exposure.

5. Ask for what you need.

As you navigate through your business, you will come across resources that you need ranging from capital to knowledge. Figure out what you need at each stage and ask everyone. It is often the most unlikely people that will give you the insight you are looking for. Ask people you meet in person, ask in Facebook and LinkedIn groups and ask your personal network.

6. Minimize negative people.

You will meet a lot of doubters and people who do not get or understand your vision. Try to avoid these people or at least any work conversation with people that do not inspire you to move forward.

7. Network. Network. Network.

If you want to build a large and successful business, you cannot do it alone. You need to get over your fear of rejection and network like it's your job. The amount of collaboration and connections that can be gained by a large but close network is invaluable.

8. Have BIG plans.

Women often underestimate their own potential and fail to dream big enough. It is important to tap into the inner reason behind your business and really think about the legacy you want to leave behind.

I always think about Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, President of Liberia, who said, "The size of your dreams must always exceed your current capacity to achieve them. If your dreams do not scare you, they are not big enough."

9. Support .

Female entrepreneurs can shorten the path to success by learning from the success and failures of others. It is important to have both mentorship and accountability to make sure you do not get stuck in your own head or the overwhelming amount of information on the web.

At FEMpower we strive to empower women and millennials to becoming business owners and guiding established entrepreneurs toward prosperity with coaches and mentors who have actually had real world success as business owners.

10. Be confident.

Believe you can do it and you are most of the way there. Entrepreneurship does not follow any "hockey stick-like" projection and looks more like a staircase at best. It is important to maintain confidence and believe that the rocky journey is worth it, because the world needs your impact.

The businesses women who start businesses are usually ones that help make the world a better place. Once we equip women with the right tools and knowledge, we will see an innovative business landscape that is diverse, tolerant and looking to better the world.

The Importance of Having a Database for Small Business Owners
As the owner of a small business, you need to be conducting research and analysis to check whether your business requires having a database. Most business owners will require the services of a database to help them streamline their customers and audiences. Databases help business owners and marketing strategists to understand their customers better and formulate new business strategies based on this knowledge. This article will highlight how you can use databases for enhancing your business development.
The decision to get a new a database for your business is a vital one; it is a decision which is more critical for people who own small companies compared to the situation in larger multinational organizations in the same circumstances. A database can help in streamlining the business strategy for marketing your wares more efficiently.

Why get a database?
Because of the simple fact that the nature of small businesses entails that they are required to be more into collaboration than the larger companies. A lot of users will be requesting access to the program and also at the same time. Hence, as a result, this package should be more robust, and it should be ensuring stability for multiple and synchronous accesses. Then there is also the reason that since there are so many employees who have to be working in proximity both physically and collaborating on the projects. So, in case, there arise any issues with this package you will be likely to hear from them in quicker time than you would if the company was a large one.
Getting the database
The primary thing that you must try and do is to canvass opinions among the employees. These workers would be primarily using the software for both suggestions and analysis.Besides, it can be used to get ideas about how your database package for the small business can be integrated with the way you are running the business.
The next important thing to do would be training your employees on how they should use the database. You must ask the database providing company to come and find time to train your employees so that they do not have to leave their work to get the training. The training needs to be quick and efficient. Thus, you must ensure that the training is taking place when the employees are on site, and it is given by a certified trainer who works for the database providing company. Today, software packages for databases are quite intuitive and straightforward also, and your employees will quickly learn to use it. This would help to minimize the expenses incurred in training the employees, and your brand’s efficiency will maximize. You should consider this investment as significant because once the employees receive training your business marketing will get easy.
You will have to lastly select the database package which would work for your particular small business goals and objectives. These databases will help you to learn how your products and business have performed on a regular basis. This is a prime advantage that today’s database software brings to you. Your database will store the vital customer information carefully in a more logical manner and which can also be retrieved quickly. Besides this, the database packages and be used with other types of software packages like presentations, documents and spreadsheets software. A good database package will be more adaptable for use for different purposes.
After setting up the database, you shall need to fill it up with the contact details of your target audience. Of course, this list will grow bigger. You will have not only names of your current clients on this database but also people who may become your potential customers. These databases will provide you with information about the buying patterns of people, and this can help you understand when people are likely to buy specific products and what they expect from them.
Conclusion
Getting a database is essential for your small business. It helps you to keep a tab on your customers. You will know how many customers you have, what their buying patterns and purchasing choices are and so on. The information can help you to design your marketing strategies in a better way which will help you to get more clients and customers for your business. Hopefully, the information mentioned in this article will have helped you. So, build your database now!