NAWBO Insider - Fall 2008
Ways to Brand Yourself as a Woman Entrepreneur
By Erika Flora
September 2008
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..
Here are five things you MUST be doing as a woman entrepreneur to build your business.
- Write articles on what you know, what makes your company different, etc.
- Nominate yourself and your company for awards, at the local and national level.
- Create a web presence – website (MINIMUM!), blog (really good to have) or even writing to editors of online or print papers, answering questions on LinkedIn, etc.
- Network like crazy and develop new relationships.
- Speak to groups – anywhere and everywhere.
If you’re not doing these kinds of things, you should be! Consumers are inundated with information all the time; your business can easily disappear into the noise – so you need to ensure that doesn’t happen to you!
Take a Branding Quiz
Here are 10 questions to ask yourself.
Score 1 for “yes” responses, and 0 for “no.”
In the last six months, have you:
- Been published in an article?
- Joined an online networking group?
- Joined a professional or charity organization?
- Given a presentation to the public?
- Written an article?
- Been nominated for an award?
- Received a client by them seeing something about you from a presentation, article, etc.?
- Received business cards from at least 50 new people?
- Had lunch with six new people?
- Taken a training class?
If you scored 8-10,
you are an awesome “self-brander”!
If you scored 5-7,
you are doing great, but have a few areas in which you can improve.
If you scored 2-4,
you’re doing better than average, but can stretch yourself in a lot of areas.
If you scored 0-1,
don’t panic; you have scored with most people in business – but you have to get moving and create a plan on ways to start branding yourself and your company.
Embrace the wonderful and unique “you” in today’s market, and think about some interesting and fun ways to promote yourself and your business. Best of luck, and happy branding!
 Erika Flora, MS, PMP is the co-owner of Creative Enterprise Solutions, a management consulting company in La Jolla. She serves clients in the areas of IT/project management training and consulting. She also has a wealth of experience in pharmaceutical recruiting and non-profit leadership and loves sharing her unique knowledge in these areas.
|