Many years ago, the business world was full of men in tailored suits, while women stayed at home to support their husband. This usually meant looking after the kids, cleaning and preparing home-cooked meals for the family. Today, everything has changed, and women are refusing to conform to the stereotype set upon them.

Statistics from the National Association of Women Business Owners (NAWBO) show that 11.6 million businesses in the USA are owned by women. Today, four out of every ten businesses are female owned, showing that times have changed. However, the road to entrepreneurial success isn’t easy, especially for a woman.

We all dream of achieving financial freedom and being our own boss, but there are many obstacles in the way. The old saying “If you don’t succeed, try again” is easy to listen to, but not so simple to live by. Rejection and failure impact people, but the most successful entrepreneurs know that thick skin and resilience is critical in the business world.

These women entrepreneurs show us that nothing is impossible. They failed, cried, screamed, spent weeks lying on the couch but guess what? They got up, dusted themselves off, and built an empire.

1. Arianna Huffington

Arianna Huffington grew up with a love of writing, but, her command of the English language held her back. Born in Athens, Greece, she was rejected by 36 publishers early in her career. While most people would give up, Arianna kept striving for success – and achieved it.

Despite multiple failures, Huffington ran against Arnold Schwarzenegger for a seat as governor of California. After achieving only 0.55% of the votes, Arianna picked herself up and continued on her journey to success.

In 2005 she started The Huffington Post with Kenneth Lerner and assumed the role of Editor-in-Chief. The powerful blogging platform features news and opinions about current events. It’s considered one of the best online news sources and attracts millions of people.

Huffington continued her success by creating Thrive Global, an online platform dedicated to helping individuals balance work and life. Since 2016, Thrive Global has been the go-to place for women in business.

How did she do it? Arianna Huffington attributes her success to something her mother once told her – “Failure is not the opposite of success, but a stepping stone to success”. This invaluable piece of advice enabled her to learn from each failure and keep striving towards success.

2. Kathryn Minshew

In 2010, Kathryn Minshew left her job at The Clinton Health Access and started Pretty Young Professionals. The idea was to create a successful women’s networking platform, and while it attracted 20,000 users in the first year, arguments with the team caused issues.

Eventually, the team split up, dividing the company assets. While Minshew should have been distraught at the failure of her company, she moved on and weighed up the pros and cons of trying to rescue PYP.

In 2011, alongside team members of PYP, Minshew founded The Daily Muse, which is now The Muse. By 2012, the website had 2,000,000 viewers, which surpassed Minshew’s expectations. Companies including The Huffington Post and TheCrunch covered The Muse and contributed to its continual growth.

Today, she continues to run The Muse, which partners with 60 of the biggest companies and is the best place for young professionals to find jobs.

3. Oprah Winfrey

No rags to riches story has been told as much as Oprah Winfrey’s. A role model for young women everywhere, she proves that nothing is impossible. However, few people know that Oprah failed before becoming the richest African American woman in the world.

Oprah’s child was fraught with poverty and heartache. Abused at nine years old and pregnant at 14, she faced problems most of us could only imagine. In 1986, Winfrey got her chance at success when she won the Miss Black Tennessee title. This opened doors for her, including a job offer at WJZ-TV as a co-anchor.

It would be her position at AM Chic...

All businesses have their competitors to fight. And if you add to that the fact that a competitor can be a larger-than-life brand as well as a small business that’s just around the corner, it’s more than obvious that you’ll need all arrows in your quiver, in order to beat the enemy.

And your best, fastest arrow is an email marketing and automation strategy that will help you make the most out of your revenue. But first of all, you’ll need to make sure you’ve picked out the proper email marketing software, like Moosend (which is a great MailChimp alternative, by the way).

Email marketing is the single most cost-effective way, that can help you with your endeavors, with increasing your sales and reaching your KPIs.

You see, for every dollar invested in an email campaign, there is a return of $38, or an ROI of 3800%. There is no other more profitable technique than that one, not even social media marketing – which, by the way, uses emails to communicate various news, notifications, etc.

The problem with all that is the fact that some of the emails will need to be automated. But this doesn’t, in any way, mean that it’s okay for them to look like they’ve been written and sent out by robots!

So, read on to see what kind of email marketing automation techniques you really need, in order to boost your business.

1. Data and Segmentation First

The very very first step is selecting an email marketing and automation platform from the dizzying number of email marketing services that are currently available. Once you’ve done that, it’s time to move onto data, segmentation and their importance.

Data is the basis around which everything is built, pretty much. So, make sure that your data is up to date, otherwise you’ll be in for the unpleasant surprise called undelivered and/or marked-as-spam emails, not to mention the high unsubscribe rate.

Now, undelivered emails, being marked as spam and the unsubscribers can harm your deliverability rates, make your email provider penalize you and so on and so forth, but also, it can harm your reputation among your subscribers, which means that your open rates will be low. Too low

Data will also be the be-all-end-all when it comes to the second point of this step: segmentation.

You cannot segment without having proper data, it would be kind of like trying to eat food that is burnt to a crisp.

Once you make sure your data is valid, begin sorting them into different segments.

Some of your subscribers will need to see different offers and benefits than others, based on their location, their age but other factors like educational and marital status could be taken into account as well.

Oh, and remember: some of your subscribers are deeper down the sales funnel, more so than others. These subscribers need a different type of approach and different offers to choose from.

Segmenting your data can only be good for you, seeing as it can, and will, be of huge benefit down the line. Just take a look at the numbers:

21% of the people asked, said that the reason they unsubscribe from mailing lists is irrelevant emails. Imagine losing one-fifth of your email list just because you didn’t segment.

2. Say Hello

By segmenting your list, you’ll see how many of your subscribers are new, how many are old, how many have bought a product or a service from you and so on.

Now, your new subscribers are right there at the top of the funnel. You need to nudge them downwards, don’t you? Of course you do.

And what better way to do it than a welcome email? You see, welcome emails are a norm, they’re expected, even. So, when your prospects sign up, let them know that you’re grateful for that by sending them an email.

Better yet, send them a welcome email with a small discount, in order to encourage them to make their first purchase. Like that one:

Simple, easy and has a little incentive to encourage purchase and lead a user further down the funnel. What’s not to like?

3. Cart Abandonment

The welcome email worked, the subscriber logged...

Pharmacies are a vital part of every culture. They act as go-betweens for patients and doctors, and make sure medication lands in the right hands. It’s not surprising, then, that you chose to make your healthcare mark this way.

If your pharmacy is anything like most, though, you may be feeling at an impasse in operations right now. And, as is always the case when industries change, staying open is about keeping up. In this instance, changes mainly revolve around technology. Of course, technology is nothing new to this field. Basic electronics like a pharmacy fridge, a computer, and a till have been staples for years now. Still, things are on the move, and keeping up may be about doing more than just implementing methods everyone else is already using.

Instead, your pharmacy could benefit from looking further forward. Imagine how much better your reputation could be if you were the first pharmacy in your area to implement new tech methods. Patients would come flocking, and your enterprise would thrive as a result.

Lucky for you, we’re on the cusp of a few pharmacy tech advancements right now, and we’re going to look at them here.

Automated Dispensing

The job of a pharmacist is pretty intense. Not only do professionals in this field serve and advise customers, but they also dispense prescriptions and provide vaccinations. In short; there are a lot of balls to juggle, and it could easily lead your pharmacist to take their eye off the ball in fatal ways. Not to mention that it can fast lead to burnout or even career dissatisfaction.

The good news is that automated dispensing is well on its way, and you could benefit a great deal from jumping on board. Admittedly, this isn’t an entirely new concept. Reports published as early as 2001 advocated the use of automation in medical dispensing and this has already been implemented within hospital settings. Still, the size and cost of robots like these have kept most pharmacists away.

Now, though, smaller and more efficient machines are in the making, and you may well benefit from considering them. Of course, technologies like these are always going to come complete with price tags through the roof. There’s no denying that you may need to take a loan or even settle for rentals to get you started here.

Still, these efforts could soon pay for themselves. As soon as you automate this long-winded process, you free your staff to be more efficient and focus on impressing patients, which is really where your profits lie. Keep an eye on the market, then. You might find that automation like this isn’t as far from your grasp as you think.

Wider Mobile Use

We love using our mobiles for everything now, and most companies have realised as much. That’s why it’s possible to get apps for everything from online shopping to online banking and more. Even schools now rely on mobile apps for everything from sickness tracking to sending out school updates. Despite this influx of mobile-based customers, though, pharmacies have primarily fallen behind in this area. Some pharmacists have developed a texting system to inform patients when their medications are ready, but many would argue it isn’t enough.

Instead, pharmacists should consider different and more interactive ways to develop mobile use. An app which provides the ability to order repeat prescriptions or even get a break down of what their medicine will do would be fantastic here. Equally, an app-based diagnostic tool could be an excellent guide and could also reduce the work of your team. Obviously, you will need to emphasise that patients should speak to you if they’re uncertain. Still, an easy app like this can go a long way towards giving them some idea of whether a physical visit is even necessary. The fun and interactive nature of these efforts will also go a considerable way towards winning you more leads. And, app development needn’t even be as complicated as you may imagine.

Websites With Information In Mind

Any business now needs a website, a...

There are lots of reasons to start your own business. You get to be your own boss, follow your passions, and take control of your working schedule.

But another fantastic reason to run your own enterprise is to opt-out of environmentally damaging big businesses and to make your living ethically.

With more and more customers keen to invest in ethical products (and happy to pay a little extra for the peace of mind), choosing to run an eco-friendly business is not just environmentally responsible – it can be lucrative too.

So if you’re looking for small-business ideas that won’t do damage to the planet, check out the list below.

Vegan and Organic Foods

Industrial livestock farming contributes significantly to global warming. This is just one reason that vegan and organic diets have become increasingly popular all over the world.

Vegan cakes, organic preserves, dairy-free ice cream, organic wine, home-grown vegetables and vegan fast food can all be made cheaply and easily, and sold at farmer’s markets, independent cafes, and provided at catered events.

For more vegan business ideas, check out The Minimalist Vegan.

Soap and Cosmetics

Most supermarket soaps and cosmetics contain substances which are not only environmentally damaging but also tested on animals. Palm oil is particularly problematic, as are products wrapped in plastic.

But ethical soap can be made at home using organic substances like coconut oil, olive oil, avocado oil, almond oil and shea butter. You can then add natural colours and fragrances for some extra originality and luxury.

Ethical soap and other handmade cosmetics are popular purchases on online and in independent shops.

Rosin Products

Rosin is a hard resin extracted from a variety of pines and other plants, which can be handmade and used for several purposes.

One of the most popular uses of pine rosin is to treat horsehair violin bows. You can extract the resin yourself, or buy raw pine resin online, then complete the process at home.

Rosin is also used in printing ink, soap, sealing wax and soldering fluxes. If you live in a state where marijuana is legal, you can also extract rosin from cannabis plants using a nugsmasher.

Cannabis rosin has become increasingly popular as an organic alternative to dried marijuana, which contains harmful solvents. Solventless rosin is a particularly great option for the elderly, as well as people who are concerned with the purity of what they put into their bodies. Most experts predict that it will continue to grow in popularity.

Eco-Friendly Fashion

Fashion enthusiasts all over the world are looking for alternatives to cheap, disposable, unethical clothing products. As a result, ethical clothing has become a booming business.

There are a number of ethical clothing business ideas to consider. Second-hand ‘vintage’ clothing can be collected, tailored and sold online or in independent shops.

Ebay and Etsy are great places to get your clothing store set up, whilst social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and Twitter are effective tools for branding and marketing.

You can also buy ethically produced, fairtrade and organic plain t-shirts from companies like Boody and Kotn, then customised with your own designs.

And there we have it! Use these ideas as a springboard to find the perfect ethical business idea to make an income whilst helping to save the planet.

With the increasing popularity of e-commerce, you’re going to have to make sure that your small business has a significant presence on the internet. This is the space where a huge percentage of your customers are likely to engage with your brand, look through your goods and services and make purchases or place orders that will ultimately generate profit for you. Of course, this is easier said than done.

One easy and highly effective thing you can do to help your brand’s online presence, however, is to implement SEO into your business practice. SEO stands for search engine optimization and is the process of helping your company’s website scale the search engine results and appear at the top. Ranking highly will see more people click through to your page rather than your competitors’ and spend money with you rather than your competition.

SEO can be implemented easily through blogging. However, crafting the perfect SEO blog post is by no means an easy feat. You need to take all sorts of factors into consideration – like post length, keywords, images, backlinks and more. But not to worry – once you get into the swing of things you’ll be producing high quality SEO blog posts in next to no time.

The infographic by Rank Fire Agency below should help you get to grips with the basics and start preparing perfect blog posts! Infographic Design By Rank Fire Agency

Business loans are not always a sign of mismanaged finances. If you are thinking about your spending and are doing it for the right cause, there really is no reason to shy away from taking out a loan. A lot of successful companies owe a great part of their success to sensible business owners making informed decisions about borrowing from trustworthy financial institutions.

Going into business entails a certain amount of risk. All it takes for your ensured success is to take the ones that offer solutions tailored to your specific needs.

Here are some of the top five signs that it is right about time for you to consider outside business funding.

You Are Considering Expansion

Whether you need new seats, tables, various types of equipment, space renovations, advertising, or an entirely new location to keep up with the growing demands of your business, getting a loan to help cover the expenses makes total sense.

You are most probably thinking of expansion because business is booming, and you want to ride that wave while it lasts. Taking a loan will help safeguard the continued growth of your business.

Upfront costs for startups can be extremely expensive, and a term loan is especially useful to finance your expansion efforts. But before you completely commit to it, ensure that you won’t end up being buried in debt that you will be unable to pay in a timely manner.

As a general rule, you must still be able to cover the amount of your loan and make a reasonable profit after that.

Major business expansion decisions like moving to a bigger location, introducing a new product line, or diversifying your investments must be researched carefully. Do your homework by doing a revenue forecast. Hit your books and see how your loan would impact your entire business bottom line.

You Have Plans of Building Credit for Your Business’s Forthcoming Needs

Maybe you are planning way ahead, and have the foresight to plan for bigger business financing options as your company expands in the coming years. If this is something you are considering, you can start with a smaller loan that you could pay in full and in time, so you could up your credit score.

This is an especially useful tip for fairly new businesses that do not qualify for bigger loans as of yet. Businesses and its owners who do not have a strong credit history typically encounter difficulty when it comes to meeting qualifications for larger financing options.

Remember to borrow only the amount you could afford to great working relationships with reputable lending companies. Making timely payments are essential because even a single late payment on a small loan you made could greatly decrease your chances of being qualified for better financing in the future.

When You Are Required to Hire New Team Members

Younger businesses in the start-up phase are usually just composed of only a few key individuals who multitask to stretch resources in the early stages. After some time in the game, the need for expanding the team to cater to more customers becomes vital to bigger business operations.

Your employees need to develop a specialization in the long run and stick to tasks that are tailored to their skills and capabilities. This ensures that the quality of work from each team member remains at an optimum level, which in turn, also increases your operational efficiency.

Focus on getting individuals with the right attitude and skillsets for your industry. Prioritize those whom you feel have the potential to grow with the company. Having a great team behind you will enable you to have more time and energy to focus on growing your company to grade-A status.

You See the Need to Increase Your Cash Flow for Working Capital

Requiring additional financing until your profit margin becomes satisfactory enough to cover operational expenses is another reason to get a business loan.

Taking out a loan from a lender with fair policies will work for supplementing your immediate need for working capital to manage ...

Taking your company to the next level is a tempting thought. Regardless of how long you have been in business for, there is always the desire to want to do more and be more. But how do you know that you are ready to take the next step? Running before you can walk is only going to end badly so whilst you may feel you are ready right now o progress with you company and extend, it may be worth your while to wait and really look at your performance and the position your company is in before undertaking anything drastic.

So what do you need to look at before you think about taking the next step in your business?

Can You Manage the Work You Have Now?

This is a great indicator of whether or not you will be able to cope with the additional workload. How well are you currently coping with the current demands of your company? Take stock of how things are running right now and factor in any changes you will need to make or any extra staff you need to hire to meet expected demand. Whilst you may be able to work well now, once you expand, it may be a whole different story.

So run through a plan and think realistically with regards to the extra work you will be taking on and how this will affect you in the future. It’s a big step, so make you know where you are going to land when taking it. Will you need extra equipment to meet the demand, like VinylCuttingMachineGuide’s best vinyl cutting machine? If so, this will cost you money. money that you need to be sure is a good investment before it leaves your bank account.

Is There A Demand for What You Can Offer?

Considering expanding your business in a new direction requires extra homework. Do you know exactly what you need to fulfil when you offer a new service or product to your customers? More importantly, are you filling a demand that is already there? If there is no current demand for what you plan to offer, chances are it may be worth your while to wait until you can prove any new venture isn’t a risky endeavor for your company. If MLM companies are launching in your niche – and doing well – this is one surefire way to tell that you have a viable product or service.

Look at what your competitors are doing? Are they offering a similar thing to you are planning on adding to your portfolio? If so, can you be sure there is a demand and a gap in the market for you? Do your research and find out what people want in the sector you are in. Ask your current clients if they have any needs that aren’t being met or ways you can look to improve what you do. This is the best way to gauge what people are after and if what you are planning will be well received and needed by the people you created it for.

In conclusion, it is better to wait and do your homework before looking to expand your company, after all, no one wants all their hard work to be for nothing because you risked it on a new venture that didn’t become everything you expected or wanted it to be.

While it’s important to appreciate what you have and to stop and look at what you have achieved and enjoyed that, if you’re not improving, then what are you doing? Where are you going? Are you staying still or going backward? If you want to succeed in something, then it’s essential to keep improving, and even if you think you’ve cracked it, there is always room for improvement.

If you have your own business or you’re working for someone else but want to enhance your career, it’s essential to keep learning, growing, and developing. It’s that that also makes life interesting and never dull. It’s also necessary to move with the times, as technology improves, we must too, and we must get on board with the changes that are happening in the world today.

It could be anything in your business that you could improve, you could always be making more sales, you could still be driving more traffic to your website, or it could be that you need to look into stamping simulation at/ to improve product performance. Whatever it is, you need to learn about new things, you might need to invest in new software or products, and it might even be just small changes you need to make to improve your business or your career.

Never Stop Learning

Whether it’s through watching TED talks, studying online, reading before bed or listening to audiobooks in the car, you car you are never going to know everything but you can expand your knowledge massively, and you can learn so much from other people, not all of it will be useful but a few nuggets could be all you need to succeed and to change something in your business or your career.

Set Goals

It’s likely that you already do this, but if you don’t, then it’s time to start. To improve, you need to know where you’re going and where you want to go. Setting goals and objectives is one of the best ways to keep improving and is essential to your success. Having something to work towards and to keep you moving in the right direction will keep you focussed, and in the end, you will get there.

Invest In Technology

Keep up-to-date with technology and if there’s software which can allow you to do your job better or makes things easier and quicker for your employees, then get it. It will be worth it in the long run and means you can spend less time on menial tasks so that you and your staff can be focussed on where it matters most. If it’s your career you are looking to improve, same goes. If there’s technology out there, then use it. Learn how to use it, in work, learn how to use the systems and software better than anyone else. Look out for new software and if it’s not up to you to invest in it, learn about it and tell your boss. It will keep you one step ahead and ultimately help you achieve your goals.

While having business insurance can protect you financially from the loss of business due to a fire, it can do nothing to restore your business’s reputation if you miss orders or fail to keep your promises. You’ve worked hard to build a successful business and don’t want to see it all end in a disaster. So, here are four reasons why alarm systems and monitoring from Verisure could be the way to ensure your business doesn’t go up in smoke.

1. Fast Response Times

While having a fire alarm installed is mandatory in places of business these days, what type of fire alarm you have is not. When an alarm detects a fire during normal business hours, employees are around to react. However, what happens if the fire occurs at night when everyone has gone home, and there is no one to fight the fire and call the emergency services? If this happens, and there is no alarm monitoring in place, then the delay in the arrival of the fire department could be catastrophic.

2. No Loss of Revenue

Alarm monitoring means that the fire department will arrive promptly to deal with the fire. This means that any disruption the fire causes will be kept to an absolute minimum. If the alarm in your business is monitored and a fire breaks out, you may have to make a few repairs, and there will probably be some cleaning up to do, but hopefully not much else. However, if a fire breaks out at night and the fire department is only called when someone sees smoke or flames coming out of the roof, you may not even have a business to return to in the morning.

3. Lessen the Chances of Losing Your Business

Let’s talk statistics. A recent government study in Britain found that 25% of all businesses that experience a major fire never manage to recover. And in 2017, there were nearly 500,000 business fires in the US. This means that approximately 125,000 companies will go out of business each year because of a fire. Alarm monitoring means that your business is far less likely to be one of them.

4. Increased Loyalty Amongst Your Employees

Of course, it’s not just you who will suffer if your business closes down, so will all your employees. And showing your employees that you are not just investing in your own future but also in theirs, will mean a great deal to them. By ensuring that they have a safe place to come to work each day, you will build a loyal, stable workforce. This, in turn, will bring so many benefits to your company that your return on investment in alarm monitoring will be repaid many times over.

Summary

Fire alarms work really well if there is a fire in your place of work during normal business hours. Unfortunately however, if a fire breaks out during non-trading hours and days, there is not only a good chance that the damage will be extensive but there is also a one in four chance that you will lose your business altogether. The best way to ensure that doesn’t happen, is by investing in alarm monitoring.

No matter the size of your business, from a large corporation to a new start-up, there are some of the same threats. Things like web theft, data theft, or physical theft, is something that can cause a lot of disruptions to the day-to-day running of any business. When there aren’t the right security settings or procedures in place, then it can leave you open to attacks, and the consequences of which can be really devastating for your business.

As damaging as the threats to a business can be, they are also easily avoidable if you don’t have the right safeguard settings in place. So wanting to keep your business safe is something that is a must. Plus, if you want to ensure business continuity, then investing in some of the right methods is something that is essential. So to get you started with where you want to be, to make sure that you are able to keep your business and keep all of your data and information secure.

Create a Strategy

No matter the size of your business, you need to have a formal security strategy when it comes to IT and your business. Rather than having a vague idea of it all, you need to think about making it as detailed and exhaustive as possible. It is something that is imperative that it lays out how you can protect data and resources, as well as the things that you should do when things (if and when) they go wrong. Make sure that you have it all up to date and have it laid out close to hand. Don’t have it written up for people to learn from and follow, if it is only going to collect dust somewhere.

Protect Against Malware

There are some definite things that can make a difference to your data protection, and one of them is making sure that your IT and technologies are secure and protected against malware. Malicious software can cause problems to your network, damage data, and can move around on machines that aren’t protected really easily; who knows what information could be taken or damaged. So it is pretty essential that you take some of the following steps to help keep your computers and devices protected.

Use a firewall: While it is not enough to do anything on its own, then your router’s firewall will provide a first line of defence for your business. So make sure that you switch it on.

PC protection: There are many security software protects that can be used on your computers, but luckily they don’t cause any problems to your computer or the network. You should make sure that you are protected, as they can help with identity theft, hacking, and suspect-looking websites.

Check emails: For all emails, make sure that it has some anti-spam software that helps to protect against any unwanted emails, as many can come through with attachments or links that can cause problems if they are opened up. So have some precautions in place and it will help to stop the dodgy emails in their tracks.

Keep Your Wireless Network Secure

If you have a network for your business that is wireless, then you need to beware; hackers are waiting to jump on it, without any kind of warning. Something like an encryption key can be a good idea to confuse any potential hackers. So you need to think about strengthening your router so that the encryption settings are their strongest, so that you can help to protect your business. Making the network invisible can make a big difference, because when you think about hackers, they simply aren’t able to hack the things that they are unable to see.

You could also look into a VPN for your business, perhaps like looking at an Avast VPN review. The reason why a VPN (or virtual private network) can make a difference for your business, is because business VPNs help to safeguard information that is sent and received online. It can help to protect your internet connections, which is how it works to protect your data. So for any business, it is definitely something to look into.

The final thing that you need to do is to make sure that your team and all the people in your business understands company...