Getting on the Same Page
As a professional women in leadership, it is especially important to be able to communicate effectively with your assistant.  Being able to avoid and to manage the event of a communication break down is critical. When communicating with your assistant, it can sometimes seem like the two of you are speaking different languages. But the importance of clear communication can’t be overstated. You must be able to provide your employee with direction and feedback, and he or she must alert you to challenges or concerns to avoid missed meetings, forgotten deadlines and similar problems. One of the best ways to prevent communication breakdowns is to understand how they occur in the first place. Here are some principal causes to watch out for: Frequency: How often is too often? Your assistant is helping you plan for an important meeting, but she doesn’t tell you that everything is on track until after you’ve sent her half a dozen e-mails requesting status updates. If you and your employee hav...
Author: Dave Willmer

Make Networking a Way of Life
In this economy in which large companies are growing at a slower pace than in the past and given the highly transactional marketplace, workers are changing jobs more frequently either by choice or by necessity. People who previously have targeted only large corporations are looking elsewhere, often to smaller companies. This job climate makes networking even more important. Now, more than ever, it is a necessity, not an option. But because time is truly a precious commodity for many professional women, networking, unfortunately, has often been put on the back burner. The busier the woman, the more networking has lagged behind in priorities. Often it has been done only sporadically for a pointed purpose. Or it has been done in an ad hoc way when convenient. In both cases, women have missed tremendous opportunities to grow their careers exponentially. Professional women can no longer afford to neglect this critical, strategic career builder. There are many preconceived notions about ...
Author: Marny Lifshen

Cashing Out! Preparing Your Business for Sale
Savvy women business owners know that to run a successful company you need to be a great marketer, able to control costs and deliver unbelievable customer service. However, when it comes time to sell your business, it’s important to plan a strategy that will leave you and your company in a great position. Creating and implementing an exit strategy for your business can provide you with less stress and greater peace of mind knowing that when the time comes to sell, you’ll be ready.   The sale of your business should be a planned process to yield you the highest possible price for the company—not a knee-jerk sale based on uncontrollable circumstances like health problems, financial issues or an untimely death.    Developing a successful exit plan should begin well ahead of your targeted exit date. (I recommend at least three years). Here are some things to consider as you get started: Get your personal financial picture in order.  As a future seller, be sure that you have adequ...
Author: Julie Gordon White

Business Travel Made Easy
Cancelled flights …  lost luggage …  presentation programs that won't run …  the list of potential business trip challenges is virtually endless. In fact, when it comes to business travel, it seems that problems and delays are the norm, not the exception. The key is to be prepared for anything that comes your way. Only then will arriving at your destination be as simple as your morning drive into the office. Unfortunately, most business travelers are unprepared for even the smallest of travel glitches. And although they may have made numerous business trips in the past, each with its own problem or two, people still don't plan for setbacks when the next trip rolls around. As a result, they get frustrated when traveling and view business trips as a hassle they wish they could avoid. If you have to travel for business, take the approach that everything will go wrong. That way you're prepared to handle whatever comes your way and no challenge will derail your business plans. Following a...
Author: Christi Youd

Damned or Doomed - The Double-Bind Dilemma for Women
Gender stereotyping, one of the key barriers to women’s advancement in corporate leadership, leaves women with limited, conflicting and often unfavorable options no matter how they choose to lead, according to a recent study. "The Double-Bind Dilemma for Women in Leadership: Damned if You Do, Doomed if You Don’t" was  released  by Catalyst, a nonprofit organization working to advance opportunities for women and business. This report, the third in Catalyst’s in-depth series examining the pervasive and damaging effects of gender stereotyping in the workplace, focuses on the consequences of gender bias and three specific “double-bind dilemmas” frequently experienced by women business leaders. The study also suggests organizational solutions to counter the persistent effects of gender stereotyping. Catalyst findings strongly suggest that gender stereotypes lead organizations to routinely underestimate and underutilize women’s leadership talent. The 2006 Catalyst Census shows that, even th...
Author: Site Contributor

C-Link Suite Interview: Nina Vaca
Nina Vaca, CEO of Pinnacle Technical Resources, Inc., two-time winner of Hispanic Business Magazine’s Entrepreneur of the Year Award as well as Ernst & Young’s 2005 Entrepreneur of the Year award for Technology and Communications for the Southwest Region among other prestigious awards, founded Pinnacle in 1996. Pinnacle is an information technology services provider to the Fortune 500. The company’s client base includes industry leaders from the telecommunications, financial services, health care, technology, consumer products and business process outsourcing sectors. Pinnacle’s services include enterprise data warehousing, custom application development and architecture, system/network integration and installation, and call center technologies. Under Vaca’s leadership, Pinnacle has become the second fastest growing firm in a $20 billion dollar industry, and now includes approximately 1,500 consultants across 38 states. She is a graduate of Texas State University with a B.A. in Speec...
Author: Jean Lewis

C-Link Suite Interview with Faith Moore
Events build business by connecting people in a splendidly rich communication context in which they freely express and bond over nuances, ideas, and subtleties that other forms of communication simply do not afford. Faith Moore, CEO of Faith Moore and Associates, Ltd, Special Events, Tours, and Destination Management is a leader in the industry and honors w2wlink.com by accepting our invitation to be a C-Link Suite Sunday Interview guest. w2wlink.com: What about events do you believe has such a tremendous business building quality or benefit? Faith Moore: The face to face contact supports the achievement of business goals such as networking, marketing, incentive, acknowledgement of people’s performance. Events are a $103.2 billion dollar industry. w2wlink.com: What kinds of face to face business goals are supported at the annual WPO conference here in Boston? Faith Moore: At the WPO conference, networking is an enormous component. The importance of it is to provide the opportunity ...
Author: Jean Lewis

Recruit and Manage Millennials: Interview with Lis Steklis
Born between 1980 and 2000, millennials make up a generation nearly as large as the Baby Boom, and they’re full of potential. In an interview with Elisabeth (Lis) Steklis, 26-year-old executive at a full-service residential interior design firm and graduate of Drexel School of Design, features of the best millennials compared to other generations, as well as other millennials become clear. Traits of millennial overlap with those of other generations when they are going through similar life stages. For example, early career seekers usually look for positions offering opportunities for career advancement. They require strong leadership, and wish to be believed in and given a chance. Differentiating characteristics of millennials include cohort experiences such as greater technical savvy from more Web exposure. The shared 9-11 experience invokes patriotism. They tend to find comfort in networks and team experience. Since they have the benefit of a large network and vast opportunity at ...
Author: Dr. Cathy Greenberg

Creating an Exit Plan for Your Business
It is estimated that somewhere between 7 and 20 trillion dollars of value in businesses will change hands in the next 10 - 20 years. All business owners will exit their businesses at some time. The question is not if but when and on whose terms? Now is a good time to review your "exit plan." There are several good books for business owners and leaders seeking more information on exit plans.  Consider John H. Brown’s  How to Run Your Business so You Can Leave it In Style or Richard Jackim’s  The 10 Trillion Dollar Opportunity. Each gives the business owner or leader an overview of how to plan for the opportunity to "monetize" the investment they have spent their life’s work on. Brown now heads the Business Enterprise Institute (BEI), a network of professionals who practice exit planning. Likewise, Jackim heads the Exit Planning Institute (EPI.) Much more information is available from their Web sites; BEI’s www.exitplanning.com and EPI’s, www.Exit-Planning-Institute.org. A High Level L...
Author: Simone Velasquez-Hoover

Visibility vs. Credibility: The Difference in Networking
Networking is a good thing, right? It is a great way for professional women like you to meet people, build relationships, find opportunities, expand your skill sets and establish a reputation. So is there really too much of a good thing? When it comes to networking, the answer is definitely yes. If you stop and think about it, you can probably identify at least a couple of people in your business community or industry that are over-networked. These individuals tend to belong to many organizations, attend tons of events, serve in multiple leadership roles, and participate in speaker and awards programs each and every year - and do anything else that gains them visibility. While each of these networking activities in a reasonable amount is positive, doing too many can lead to a case of quantity over quality. Anyone can be visible – if you are in enough places often enough, people will begin to recognize you, and your name will become known. Being credible, however, is a higher leve...
Author: Marny Lifshen

Build Your Business Through Smart Networking
Many of us still have a negative perception when we hear the word "networking," and, as I always say, it's a misunderstood word. My theory is that good networking skills build links and alliances with people we meet along our career path. The opposite of networking is not working. You can learn from everyone you meet and also be a resource to them. If you are lucky, down the road something may come back. Here are a few questions that I am  often asked about this "new philosophy" on something that has been around since the beginning of time. Is networking just about finding customers and growing one's business? Networking is all about developing and building relationships first. When this happens with hard work and sincerity, customers will come. It's like a garden. When you meet new people for the first time, it's like planting a seed. When you stay in touch by meeting for coffee or sending a holiday card, it's like watering the seeds. Finally when there is a genuine reason for yo...
Author: Andrea Nierenberg

What an Exit Strategy Isn't
Let’s get this out of the way right now. A severance package is not an exit strategy. A severance package, which is basically the terms of disengagement, may be the culmination of an effective exit strategy, but that will be determined only after the rest of your strategy is firmly in place. In addition, an exit strategy is not just a plan to leave your current company, and it doesn’t have to be a terminal farewell. So what is it? An exit strategy is simply a long-term plan that sets a course for your career. It answers the question, “What’s next?” What all executives must realize is that you aren’t limited to asking that question only after you get downsized or something else happens to you. It is often best to ask, “What’s next?” when your career is moving forward successfully. Let’s say, for example, that you were part of a team that just finished turning around a failing division, and, in the process, you realized that you have a passion for that kind of work. It provides the kind...
Author: Elaine Eisenman

Career Resolution Tip
Often professional women focus on re-evaluating  professional aspirations at the beginning of the year.  To keep the momentum, one key tip is to make a detailed plan to achieve resolutions.  Developing detailed plans is a proven way to help keep committed. The detail provides a path to reach the goal, and creating the plan puts the goal and how you are going to meet it more prominantly in your mind. You may have already made career resolutions.  To make sure you get results, ensure there is enough detail.  It’s not too late to reassess or refine your career goals and make changes that will benefit your career or overall job satisfaction. Here are a few examples of career resolutions and how to refine them to be specific: Learn something new. Skills enhancement is a top professional priority for many professionals as it’s one of the most effective ways to position yourself for a new job or a move up the corporate ladder. And acquiring a new skill doesn’t have to be difficult; many pr...
Author: Diane Domeyer

Cash Flow is King in a Business Plan
Of the many ways to tell if an entrepreneur has a good idea, one of the best is its ability to generate cash flow. Although profit is the difference between income and expenses, cash flow is the difference between incoming and outgoing cash. A cash flow forecast or analysis shows when cash goes out and when cash comes in, on a regular basis. Why is cash flow king in a business plan? Dr. James Stancill, professor of entrepreneurial studies at the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California, compares it to gasoline for a car.   Stephen Spinelli Jr., vice provost for entrepreneurship and global management at Babson College in Wellesley, Mass. who advises small and medium-size companies, recommends having at least enough cash to cover one purchasing cycle. "Then if a key customer has to cut back on orders," says Spinelli, "or another unexpected disruption occurs, there is time to recover." Knowing cash flow helps prevent running out of cash while waiting to be a...
Author: Jean Lewis

Professional Women: Starting a New Assistant
As a professional woman, presenting objective, clear information about your new assistant's job both helps your assistant start, and builds the impression that you can be relied on as a solid boss with strong and sensible guidelines. How your assistant perceives you is reflected in even the subleties how they communicate to others about you, and as a professional woman, building your reputation as a diligent and appropriately detached professional is ever important. Creating and executing a good start plan is critical to starting off right, and avoiding bumpy beginnings. Since your assistant interacts with you on a daily basis, makes certain your professional life is organized and takes care of work that allows you to be even more productive, the start plan has to enable your assistant to feel confident helping you. You’ll want to have the most constructive relationship possible with this person. Getting off to a rough start can set a precedent that may not ever resolve itself. Three ...
Author: Dave Willmer

C-Link Suite Interview with Lesley Harris
As president of Travelocity Business, Lesley Harris leads one of the fastest growing travel management companies in North America. From its origin in 2003 serving unmanaged business travelers, Travelocity Business now has more than $800 million in travel spend under management. Prior to Travelocity Business, Harris was vice president of sales and customer care for Travelocity, responsible for leading Travelocity's offline global call center enterprise in support of consumer sales and service. Before that, she was vice president of the small business division for Sabre Travel Network where she transitioned the small business division from direct account management to a service center structure. Prior to her experience in sales, Harris was vice president of North America operations services for Sabre Travel Network. Harris started her career with Sabre in 1995 and held various positions in finance, operations and sales at Sabre Travel Network before transitioning to Travelocity in the ...
Author: Jean Lewis

You’re Ready to Sell … Now What?
Now that you are ready to spin off a business unit as a business leader or to leave or transition out of your own business, how do you do it? It is a question that many executives and women business owners ask – but often when it is too late. Whether you are ready to move on to retirement or a new business, a successful exit strategy should start three years before your target exit date. Many companies are forced to sell without an exit strategy because of burn out or financial issues. When you sell your business without a plan, you run the risk of falling hostage to poor financials and bottom-feeding buyers. The sale of a business should be a planned process to yield a business owner the highest possible price for her company. I see business owners make the same common mistakes when it comes to planning for the next phase of their businesses. The good news is that with a bit of planning, these "land mines" can be avoided. Don’t become emotional and overprice your business. ...
Author: Julie Gordon White

Making the Most of Networking Events
When you think about a networking event, what do you envision? Perhaps a crowd milling around a hotel banquet room with cocktails in one hand and business cards in the other? In fact, there are many types of networking events, ranging from breakfast meetings with a dozen people, to speaker luncheons with 100 attendees, to black tie dinners with more than 1,000. Each can be a valuable experience if you make the most of the opportunity. Attending events is only an effective use of your time and money if you do so with a plan. Ask yourself: What do I hope to gain from attending? It may be to learn from the speaker, meet prospective customers, increase your visibility or network with your peers.  The key is to think about your goals ahead of time, as the more tangible your plan is, the more likely you are to see results.  If you are not sure why you are going to an event, or if your heart just isn’t in it, your time is better spent elsewhere. Many people show up to events late, sit ...
Author: Marny Lifshen

Three ways to Get the Credit You Deserve
How to view it: Men are really good at taking credit for everything. Women are not so good at taking credit for what they deserve. When I give workshops on secrets to getting ahead for women, one of the hardest exercises for participants is what I call "the owning your own worth exercise." It actually is very simple. The participants have a few minutes to write down their thoughts about what makes them great or valuable in a specific work context. Then she must stand in front of the group and tell the group in a first person declaration. "I am a great sales person because …" For many women, this task might as well be walking on hot coals. On the other hand, it is also very common that when a woman is given a compliment at work about her success, her immediate reaction is to say something like, "Well, I could not have done it without Jenny and the team." A common and pleasant ritual among women is the "No, it’s not me, it was you." Exchange. It goes like this: MANAGER: Great Job Be...
Author: Robert Schwarz

Application of Sophisticated Management Practices
This article is the third in a series that addresses the characteristics of high-achieving women entrepreneurs and fast growth businesses. The following will detail the second characteristic, application of sophisticated management practices. To read the introductory article, “Characteristics of Accomplished Women Entrepreneurs,” please click here. To read “Investment in Professional Advisors,” please click here. What constitutes a sophisticated management practice? As the founder and president of the Women Presidents’ Organization, I’ve had the unique opportunity to learn from successful, fast-growth entrepreneurs over the last 11 years. In this role, I’ve discovered that regardless of their level of education in business, the most successful over time apply what are commonly referred to as “sophisticated” management practices. To clarify, “sophisticated management practices” are those developmental and management strategies that create structure, internal effectiveness and fi...
Author: Women Presidents' Organization

National Conference
NAWBO 2008 Women's Business Conference -Together: Rising In 2008, women business owners will create a rising tide of entrepreneurship, shaping the larger business environment as they build greater success for themselves. Uniting around their common goals, these powerful women will define new standards of ownership and prosperity, changing the social, political, and economic landscape forever. In celebration of this rising change, NAWBO is holding its 2008 Women’s Business Conference June 12-14 at the Arizona Biltmore Resort & Spa in Phoenix. This premier event will draw women entrepreneurs from across the country looking to grow their businesses, advance their leadership skills, and create lasting change in the business culture. Make plans now and plan to attend this essential event.  For more information: www.nawbo.org/section_70.cfm 
Author: Site Contributor