So the latest buzz is Miley Cyrus’ photo shoot for Vanity Fair. The whole situation infuriates me on several levels and there are so many people to blame from the photographer, parents, managers, Disney (have they made a public statement yet?) along with the media that perpetuates the chaos.

As the mother of a 4 year old, I am very cautious about what is on my television. When we watch TV, it’s PBS or appropriate on demand shows so I can monitor what my daughter sees.

Of course, I am not with her every hour and she has sleep-overs with friends and cousins. Much to my dismay, Abbi has watched High School Musical and Hannah Montana during such sleepovers. So what is the big deal if my 4 year old is a Hannah Montana fan? The problem is Abbi, at age 4, is too young to differentiate the behaviors she sees and how she should act. Young children learn by mimicking the behaviors they see. Didn’t we all learn from Britney and Christina that working for Disney does not make you sweet or innocent?

You may think I am over protective by thinking these shows are inappropriate for a 3 or 4 year old. Yesterday’s photo of a half nude, 15 year old child all over the media — who happens to be the most influential media figure for the tween age group down to school age children — makes me hold firm to my beliefs.

As a Mom, it is my job to protect Abbi’s innocence; being strict about what she sees is the greatest way to do so.

It’s not about the shoot being “beautiful” or “artistic.” I was an art major - I get it - but what I don’t get is anyone thinking a 15 year old child posing half bare is appropriate, is in the best interest of that child or the children Miley Cyrus is such an influential power over.

I must say, I will be sure to make it perfectly clear Miley Cyrus/Hannah Montana is banned in my house!

Sorry, Abbi, no sleep overs for a while. Mom has to do what Mom has to do.

I had the opportunity to spend some time downtown with my daughter. We enjoyed walking through the Boston Public Garden full of budding trees, tulips and daffodils as well as a ride on the Swan Boats. It was so nice to see that Boston still has such great resources for families to enjoy the day and have it not cost a fortune.

What have you done with your family to celebrate the arrival of spring?

I look forward to your comments.

The experts have declared it so: the US is officially in a recession.

Everywhere you turn, the media bombards you with negative news about the economy. These are exactly the times when you MUST remember: Your attitude about the current state of the market will guide YOUR future in the market.

If you think that your business will fail during the recession, you are setting the precedent for a self-fulfilling prophecy. But if you believe that your business will stand strong, you are far better prepared to be a competitor in a tight market. So decide to weather the storm by preparing your business for what lies ahead.

A recession can ultimately make or break your business, depending on how you handle your strategic planning and money management during these rough times. Studies show that businesses that maintained or increased marketing during past recessions saw huge sales growth in the five years following.

Is your business ready to use the next several quarters to gain greater footing over the competition? Wouldn’t it be great if you could come out of the recession steady and ready for growth? Here are some ways to position your growth and prepare your business in the current market.

Get Your Finances in Order
No matter what your current financial situation, you must perform a financial analysis. Figure out where your money comes from (your total income, not just profit) and where your money is being spent. Be sure to include EVERY PENNY so that you have accurate information.

Create a business and personal budget that you check - at the very least - on a weekly basis. If the idea of creating a budget terrifies you, don’t do it. Instead, create a business spending/saving plan.

It is crucial to know WHAT your business spends money on, HOW MUCH money it spends, and how effective those dollars are in their use. If you have no clue about how to reach these findings, you should work with someone who can help you. Every time I’ve worked with a client to create a financial plan for their family or business, they have been shocked at where some of their money goes. Once YOU know where your money is going, you can make wiser choices, thus allowing much-needed flexibility during a recession.

This may also be the time to drop your weakest sales distributors, and upgrade your sales team. There are a lot of great sales people who have been let go by companies scaling back. They are looking for jobs, so take advantage of someone else’s loss and get these talented people onto YOUR team.

Recognize the 80/20 Law
Believe the hype - it IS true that 80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers!! For this very reason, it will benefit your business to know WHAT your customer needs, and WHY they buy your products/services. This knowledge will equip you to give them more of what keeps them coming back for more.

One way to keep your loyal 20% customer pool happy during a recession is to give them more bang for their buck. Offer greater value to your customers without lowering the list price of your goods or services. Accentuate the appeal of your great quality products and services, your incredible customer service, and a full money-back guarantee. These are all added benefits for your customers to consider when staying loyal to YOUR product or service.

Some businesses may be tempted to expand their product distribution to lower-priced channels. This is not in the best interest of your business, as this is not your top 20% - where, once again - 80% of your profits come from.

A shift of this kind can weaken your brand image as well as your current relationships with higher-priced channels. It is better to keep list prices at their usual, and offer more promotional discounts, coupons and specials.

Keep in mind that there is another 80/20 rule: 80% of the results in your business are yielded by 20% of what YOU do.

So, said another way – 20% of your activities will produce 80% of your profits. So once again, maximizing that 20% is key. You should immediately begin tracking your marketing, promotions and activities to determine exactly what 20% of your workload is bringing in 80% of your profits.

It may surprise you to realize that most of your time is spent on things that do not bring your business a profit. This is when it is important to look into outsourcing.

If you don’t have to do it or don’t want to do it, but it needs to be done, definitely spend the money on someone who wants to complete your unwanted tasks efficiently and effectively. Then spend the time you saved doing more of what brings in your profits.

Spend money on what EARNS you money

So you’ve looked at your spending, and you know where your money is going. But now it is time to cut some wasteful spending, or “fluff” as I like to call it. As much as we’d like to ignore it, most of us have fluff in both our business and personal budgets.

In order to cut the fluff in our budgets, it is important to know how consumers are redefining value. During a recession, continuing market research on a routine basis will help you do just that. You will need to eliminate the fluff to concentrate your efforts on a crucial aspect of earning – MARKETING!

Here’s the rational for the importance of marketing: In general, people tend to become very home-focused during a recession. They spend more time at home, in the company of their family and friends. This affects advertising, so you may want to adapt this information for upcoming campaigns. There is a shift from quirky humor, fear appeals, adventure and extreme sports to more home/family/friends orientation.

Harvard Business School Professor John Quelch says this about how to market your business during a recession:

“This is not the time to cut advertising. It is well-documented that brands that increase advertising during a recession, when competitors are cutting back, can improve market share and return on investment at lower cost than during good economic times. Uncertain consumers need the reassurance of known brands, and more consumers at home watching television can deliver higher than expected audiences at lower cost-per-thousand impressions. Brands with deep pockets may be able to negotiate favorable advertising rates and lock them in for several years. If you have to cut marketing spending, try to maintain the frequency of advertisements by shifting from 30-second to 15-second advertisements, substituting radio for television advertising, or increasing the use of direct marketing, which gives more immediate sales impact”

Flexibility

During a recession, your business will need flexibility in spending money.

It is better to rent, even if it costs a bit more, because this gives you the flexibility to cut back without any large financial damage to your business. It is better to have the cash available for your business than it is to have equipment and property that you can’t shed if you need to.

The reality is that sales may go down a bit during a recession. This does not mean that sales will stop – not even close! But ask yourself the question: Can your business survive a 10% sales drop? If not, you are playing too close to the edge, even in a good market. So develop a detailed plan that has a 10% cushion built in. Also, have a plan for what fluff to cut if you need to.

This type of pro-active planning will benefit your business once the recession ends so you should have growth plans prepared as well. This is a fun way to look beyond the current market.

Successful companies do NOT abandon marketing strategies during a recession – they simply adapt them. Be flexible - change your marketing strategies but don’t stop them. There are many alternatives or adaptations to make to your current marketing activities.

I hope that you’ve found these tips for maximizing your business efforts during a recession useful. If you have any questions or concerns, I urge you to Ask Coach Kate! by emailing kate@askcoachkate.com

Kate Powers is co-founder of Wild Women Entrepreneurs and CEO of Ask Coach Kate! She helps women achieve personal fulfillment and business success through discovery, goal setting and accountability. To learn more visit http://www.askcoachkate.com or to Ask Coach Kate! email her at Kate@AskCoachKate.com

Today is the Boston Marathon and all weekend the city has been
flooded with thousands of runners and their families.
I can feel the energy, excitement and emotions as they wait out the
couple days before the “big run” today.

Right now as I am writing this runners are boarding busses to
Hopkington with their running clubs.

So how is this relevent to you.

Well, running a marathon is like running a business. It take a
thougth for the concept to be born for both a business and running a
marathon. Both take months, sometimes years of planning. Both take
a willingness to make changes in your life. Both take a willingness
to grow personally. Both take a commitment to the goal and
perseverence to continue when it is difficult.

Many people decide to run a marathon because they were inspired by a
person or event. I ran a marathon in 1997 in memory of my
grandmother who was horribly crippled by osteoporosis for over 50
years. I figured if she could struggle so hard just to walk, I would
run for her. That was over 10 years ago and I still remember it
vividly.

So what has inspired you to:
- start your business?
- make a life change?
- do something different?

Email me at Kate-at-askcoachkate.com and let me hear YOUR story!

While doing research for this post it occurred to me that there are many elements to communicating effectively in business depending on your desired outcome and where you are with your business so I will cover one area since we could be here for hours, days if we tried to cover all of them.

This post will focus on How to Communicate Effectively in your Business as a Business Owner. Most of us are here are the owner of our business.

We want to ensure the success of the business as well as our personal prosperity and quality of life – that’s why we went into business in the first place – right?

There are very specific ways to communicate as the owner of a business, no matter what your title or how large your company. These are some of the universal rules of the business game, so to speak.

First let’s discuss modes of communication. These days there is everything from email and IM to texting and phone calls and each of these has their appropriate place in the communication hierarchy.

Email is fine for day to day correspondence and general memos to staff but should NEVER be used to communicate sensitive issues.

Both the reader of the email as well as the writer of the email super impose their emotions onto the communication with or without intending to. This can give the email a sentiment that was not intended or does not exist.

Email is convenient and quick but is fickle and should be treated as such – fine for the simple things but not for anything important or sensitive.

Sensitive issues should always be dealt with in person or on the phone. This allows you to deliver the intended sentiment to the issues being discussed. It also allows the other party to do the same.

Another thing to consider is WHO ELSE IS READING THE EMAIL CORRESPONSEND.

No one can ever be sure who exactly is included in an email with blind ccs. What would the reaction to the email correspondence be from your staff, business partners etc?

Write all emails as if some else may be reading them. This will save all parties any possible grey area or misrepresentation.

I am not suggesting you become paranoid but as a business owner you need to have a certain level of formality in all your interactions. Depending on the size of your company or your growth aspirations it is important to be the leader your company will need even if you are not there yet.

As the owner you are by default the leader of your organization. All your staff (even if they are remote), business partners, strategic parterns, investors etc will follow YOUR lead

I was discussing this topic with a business associate with decades of background with large corporations.

What I learned is that CEO’s have no friends within the company. They have business partners, employees, and working relationships with these people but not friendships. There is a level of formality and professionalism in all their corresponds and interactions. It was also interesting to learn there are basically two types of women in business(in her experience):

1. The bully who pushes her way thru and intimidates others into giving her what she wants. This mode of communicating will get you what you want in the short run but will be detrimental to your success in the long run.
2. The woman who at all times acts with integrity in EVERY interaction and is exceptional at maintaining a friendly but formal relationship with all in business.

Since I believe we all want to fall into the second category let’s focus on how to integrate this into your business.

It is easy to act with integrity when things are running smooth. What about when something drastic happens, there is an internal mishap/issue that requires a very public response from YOU. This is when everything we have discussed previously comes into play.

To ensure your acting in the best interest of your company as well as communicating with integrity be sure to:

• Decide in advance how you want to handle any difficult situation be it with staff, customers, clients, business partners, etc.
• Vent to a safe person about the situation – your personal safe people who already have in place to support you. Vent until you feel all the negativity has left you. This will allow you to…
• Act instead of REACT. When we ACT we are in charge of our actions. When we react – the person or situation we are reacting to is in charge much like a puppet master.
• Work with an inner circle team (think inner cabinet) on your position and statement to be sure you are presenting the response of a respected leader who acts with integrity at all times.
• Do NOT communicate emotion – do not take things personal, there shouldn’t be any positive or negative emotional baggage in your communication. This helps from a small situation from becoming a hissing cat fight. We are not high school girls hanging out, we are business owners, leaders of our teams and we need to act the part.

Communicating effectively in your business as the owner of the company is one of the steps to brining your company to your ultimate success.

It is a learning process to act with integrity in all your correspondence and it takes time to feel like the leader you already are as the owner of your company.

I have been through professional branding sessions a couple times now. The first time was for Wild WE and again for my personal coaching business - Ask Coach Kate!

Now it makes sense to everyone why a large company like Wild WE would go through a branding session – large companies are like living entities that have distinct personalities and a life of their own which is completely separate from the people running the company or who started the company.

You may not think that branding is for the small business owner, solopreneur, mamapreneur but let me share with you how branding affects YOUR business no matter what the size of your business.

I recently went through the branding process for Ask Coach Kate! as a result of growing. I realized my web content and ad copy was no longer effective. So I went through branding as a solo/mamapreneur to help me redefine my brand.

Here are some points from the facilitators:

Through the Branding process I learned to:
DEFINE the most motivational aspects of your business.
DISCOVER people’s behavior that guides decision making
DEVELOP a relevant connection between your brand and people.

“By embracing behavioral insights (human and gender specific) your group will be more successful in developing marketing initiatives communications, events and experiences that make a RELEVENT connection with people.
RELEVENT CONNECTION is crucial since if the connection you are making is not relevant you are missing your target market and the opportunity for success within that market.

To motivate people’s behavior to buy your product, listen to your radio show, visit your destination, it is necessary to understand people’s behavior.
With out this level of understanding with in your product or target market how can you expect to reach your ultimate success?

Tangible outcomes of branding

• positioning statement – clear statement of who your product is specifically for, what you will provide them and why you are different from your competition.
• tag line – direct statement that speaks to your target market.
• logo direction
• brand brief – clarifies what your next steps are with the branding info

Intangible outcomes of branding

• feel true ownership of your brand
• fully understand the brand “

Both times, I was stunned how the facilitators were able to extract from us/me (the business owners) information which later was used to create our true product, positioning statement, logo, and tagline and clearly define the target market.

One of the things I found interesting about the process was that if one piece of the branding puzzle changes there is a ripple effect and other pieces must also change. This is why the branding facilitators are so critical.
Each part is truly important and should be done completely – not rushed.

Branding your business is a journey into the inner being of your business especially for the solopreneur or small businesses owner where YOUR business is an extension of your self. This is especially true for service providers.

And it is so important to go through branding so you have clear and concise parameters for all your web and advertising copy.

I thought I knew what my brand was but it was not clear, I was confused and did not realize it so my copy was conflicted and I was not attracting my ideal client.

Really, I never imagined my coaching business had a smell or taste or feel but the companies that are hugely successful all do – they reach their customer on every level.

Don’t you want to know how to do that with your business?

Do you know what type of relationship your company should be having with your ideal customer or what personality traits your company has?

In order to reach your ideal customer you better figure it out and that is what branding is all about.

Branding is an amazing process that only takes a couple days but will save your business so much in time and money by attracting the right customer with the right web copy, marketing, and promotions.

I have to say I was surprised how confident I became about my coaching business and what I offer as a result of the branding process. It clarified exactly what is special and distinct about what I offer and who to offer that too.

IF your business is not having the results you would like from you web or ad copy and you feel a bit confused about what your true product (or you have no clue what your true product is) is and who is looking for it you should think seriously about a branding session.

Definition: A profitability measure that evaluates the performance of a business by dividing net profit by net worth Ok so everyone in business has heard the term ROI (Return on Investment) but what does it mean for the small business owner, you ask? Let’s talk about it. You can calculate the ROI of just about anything you spend time and/or money on. Simply track the cost and the benefits of any area of your business and see how it does.

So what does the entrepreneur need to know about ROI and their business. Well, by tracking ROI you can determine if your time/money is being used efficiently and effectively basically are you getting the most benefit from your efforts. For the small business owner some of the ROI issues arise over staff. At what point does the ROI tilt in favor of hiring? How valuable is YOUR time? Can you earn more $$ by focusing your attention on different things and hire someone to do the tasks that eat up your time? Is the investiment in training and salary worth the freedom to focus on things that can earn your business more $$? No one can answer these questions for you since every business is different but it is worth sitting down and figuring out.

Advertising is another great area to determine ROI and if you are spending cash on an advertising campaign you better be able to track it so you know if your dollars were well spent. There are many avenues out there that are inexpensive or free but can be time consuming. Then there is the issue of your Copy. If your copy is not right for your target market it does not matter what your ad campaign is or where you post it. Ok now I have really opened a can of worms but you can start to see the importance here of tracking information on anything you spend time and money on to see how you can do it better, more effectively and efficiently. And sometimes the least expensive does not give you the greatest ROI. Marketing and publicity can be areas that you get what you pay for but you need to check out a businesses track record to know what their ROI is for their clients. LOL ok so now your head is really spinning I will stop.