My dear entrepreneurial friends, do you know the government is expanding opportunities for certified woman-owned businesses to get into federal contracting? This means if you have a product or service the government buys, there are opportunities to grow your business. And if you follow me you know that I often say “it takes just as…
Category Archives: Business Success
How to Find New Customers Using Market Research
It’s the start of the New Year and within our company we’re getting ready for a strategic planning retreat to focus on future growth and what we need to do to get there. Key to that is revenue and profitable growth – either from current customers or new customers. As a business owner, it can…
Slow Down to Lead
During a recent strategic meeting with my team, they spent some time without me talking about the mission and vision I had just laid out for our company. I asked them to discuss our strengths and weaknesses and share with me their observations and recommendations. I made sure they knew it was important to be…
Why It’s Important To Hire Slow and Fire Fast
Recently while speaking about lessons learned as an entrepreneur at the California Women’s Conference, those of us on the panel were asked about dealing with employees who aren’t working out. The discussion prior to the question was about us as women, and generally speaking, how we treat our employees like friends or family. And when…
5 Must-Have Business Apps For Entrepreneurs
Productivity is key when we have so much on our plates and too little time. Recently during a trip to the airport, I found my time to be very productive (and pleasant) using the following apps. I used Uber to arrange for a driver in a town car to pick me up. And it didn’t…
The Best Non-Traditional Way to Make Sales without Selling
During a breakfast event recently, I sat next to a woman business owner who recently founded a technology company and I asked her what was her biggest challenge. “Selling my products and I’ve taken a course but I’m not comfortable, you know, selling” she responded sighing. After a couple of more questions, it was clear…
How to Create Winning Proposals
Preparing a proposal whether to bring in a new client or obtain a contract can be daunting. And too often, as business owners we fall back on a template proposal we’ve created and we just fill in the blanks. I’ve learned some strategies that I use as part of my strategic consulting firm, Ruiz Strategies, which…
The Gift of Meditation and Why as Entrepreneurs We Should Meditate
One of the most significant aspects of my daily routine as an entrepreneur is meditation. It allows me to get in touch with my creative energy. Steve Jobs was known to do it. Hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons practices it, and many other highly successful leaders do as well. For me it’s integral to my ability to…
Making the Holidays the Most Productive Time Period
The week between the Christmas and New Year’s holidays is usually very productive for me as an entrepreneur. Not having the daily distractions of dealing with the urgent, email overload, and business calls allows me to structure in time to focus on what’s important that I haven’t been able to get to. This holiday break,…
Tips to Grow Your Small Business into a Multi-Million Dollar Business
I had the extraordinary opportunity to co-host the Coca Cola Tour: Adelante empowerment event for Los Angeles area Latinas. As part of this event, the brainchild of Media Entrepreneur Nely Galán, several speakers inspired hundreds of women. One of them was Nell Merlino, founder and President of Count Me In for Women’s Economic Independence. The non-profit organization is…