Ways to Brand Yourself as a
Woman Entrepreneur
By Erika Flora

What is “branding”? It’s comprised of marketing, public relations and networking, all with the ultimate goal of promoting your reputation. When it comes down to it, we are all a brand; some of us are just more widely known (and successful) than others. As women, we often feel that bringing attention to ourselves is a sign of bragging, being full of ourselves, buying into our own hype or being arrogant about our accomplishments. However, branding yourself is quite the opposite; it’s sharing information about you and your amazing company with the world and reaching out to customers in ways that are interesting and compelling. Branding makes you no longer the “best kept secret.” Instead, it makes you someone people want to meet and, ultimately, do business with.
Full Story

De-Mystifying Human Resources
By Ange Rakov Matthews

Ensuring that you have a good human resources (HR) infrastructure is simply a smart business decision. According to Sharon Hadary, Executive Director for the Center for Women’s Business Research, the top obstacles for women business owners today include HR, cash flow & capital, marketing scope, customer relations, and access to key decision makers. This article is intended to de-mystify the concept of HR while providing an overview of what every business should have from an HR perspective, whether it has 1 or 100 employees.
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Women Who Green Business
By Midori Connolly

The term “Mother” Earth is no mistake. We women are nurturers, creators, care-givers – even if some happen to have a business rather than children that they are nurturing. Fundamentally we care about the future of our planet for that which we are creating and giving life to, no matter what it might be. With this in mind, it’s not surprising that women are at the forefront of the “Green” revolution. But how do we integrate our cares for the environment with how we conduct business?
Full Story

IT Partner: What Differentiates
the Best from the Rest?
By Phyllis Risner

Many business owners seem frustrated about computer problems and poor service. In particular, I frequently hear the following two things:

• IT vendors talk a good game, but when it comes right down to it, they give numerous and varied reasons why a particular problem can’t be fixed.
• Why can’t they just get it to work? With all the technology I have, we still are forced to come up with a work-around.

It’s time to turn up the heat on energy savings
From SDG&E

Early fall is an ideal time to prepare for winter heating. This is especially true if you’re concerned about natural gas prices, which are expected to be higher this winter than last winter. Some things you can do:

• Get cash back on new equipment
• Take advantage of 0% financing

WELCOME TO THE
NAWBO INSIDER

Given our varying experiences as women business owners, there’s a lot we can learn from one another. That’s the premise of this quarterly newsletter—to provide a vehicle where NAWBO San Diego members can share best practices and other “tricks of the trade” learned on the path to success.

If you’re interested in submitting an article, please contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it so I can provide you with writer guidelines and issue deadlines. Don’t worry if writing isn’t your strong suit, since it’s mine; I’ll be sure your words reflect your professionalism.

We’re also interested in including news from your business in the “What’s New?” section, so please forward your accomplishments (no commercials, please) as appropriate.

If you have any questions, feel free to call me at 619-291-4645

Adrienne Moch, Editor
NAWBO Insider

WHAT'S NEW?

The autumn issue of bizSanDiego featured two NAWBO San Diego members. Writer Adrienne Moch authored an article about employee recruiting, and Ange Rakov of Metaforce was one of her expert sources.

Joanna Herr Hanks of Herr Photography was the cover girl for the Summer 2008 issue of Business Action, the quarterly magazine of the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Mindy Selinger of Power Partner Connections has been busy. She purchased the rights to two Mel Kaufmann works, The Millionaire’s Handbook and The Link System® Training, and also launched networkingeventfinder.com, a database of San Diego networking events that will serve as the beta version for a national rollout.

Carole Hamilton of Info Design is the winner of our Newsletter Naming Contest with her entry — NAWBO Insider. Twenty-five names were submitted to the contest judges (the board of directors), who picked the winning name without knowledge of the contributor. Carole’s prize is two free meeting coupons, one for her and one for a guest.

Five NAWBO members are nominees for the "Women Who Mean Business Awards" by the San Diego Business Journal: Alycia Huston, Claudia Klaus, Adrienne Moch, Saundra Pelletier, and Angie Swartz. The 15th annual awards ceremony will take place on October 23.