Co-Promotion is Effective Marketing

In this challenging economy, we all wonder what we can do to give our business a marketing boost without investing a lot of money into advertising. You may want to consider co-promotions.

Co-promotion is simple - you promote someone else’s business and they, in turn, promote yours.

We have used co-promotion to foster mutually-beneficial business relationships across the country. As small business owners, we understand the value of preserving capital. Co-promotion is a creative and inexpensive way to promote your business. It has worked for us and it can work for you too.

Here are our top five co-promotional initiatives that you can use to amp up your business – and they are free.

• Link-sharing with Like-minded Businesses – list your link on our website and list our link on yours.
• Newsletter Spotlight– highlight each other’s business in company newsletters.Coupons - offer a coupon that adds value to another business. We offered a coupon for a free half-hour of career development coaching for all attendees at business networking event.
• Coupons - offer a coupon that adds value to another business. We offered a coupon for a free half-hour of career development coaching for all attendees at business networking event.
• Gift with Purchase – offer a gift from your business inside another business' product. We offered a free coaching download with the sale of a nationally distributed product.
• Email Promotions: trade email promotions by forwarding to each other's contact lists. This can instantly double the reach of your emails promotions.

You may have used some other co-promotion strategies. Let us know what has worked for your business. And, if you are interested in co-promoting with DKS , we are always open to new ideas.

You’ve Got Talent! Assess Your Career Strengths with Free Online Tools

When you are making a change, especially a career change, you need to get a good firm grip on what makes you the fabulous, talented person that you are.

Are you kidding, you say?

I’ve got a good firm grip on my faults, but my strengths? That’s hard.

Acquiring a solid understanding of your strengths doesn’t have to be hard. In fact, it can be fun. As career coaches, we spend a lot of time with women just like you teasing out a detailed list of all their skills, strengths, and talents. Then, we begin the process of developing a career path that is energized by their strongest abilities and passions. However, you can begin to discover your strengths on your own with a number of free, online tools. In fact, we often suggest to clients that they use these online assessments to supplement our work together.

One popular online tool is the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator – the gold standard in the industry for assessing strengths and, even better, how those strengths map into different careers. Monster.com, that job search powerhouse, created a quiz based on the Myers Briggs called Discover Your Perfect Career Quiz that you can do in less than 10 minutes.

Click on: http://resources.monster.com/tools/quizzes/perfectcareer/

Another fabulous source for learning about your strengths is the University of Pennsylvania’s Authentic Happiness website. Those happiness gurus at UPenn have developed a number of scientifically validated surveys, questionnaires and scales to provide you with insight into your character strengths and emotions. You need to complete a short registration (for free) to have access to their questionnaires. Try their Brief Strengths test as a way to get started.

Click on: http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/Default.aspx

Still want more?

How about this. If you’ve ever wondered if you have what it takes to become an entrepreneur, try this scientifically validated test called Can you be an entrepreneur? It provides you with information about which parts of your personality are suited to starting your own business. It takes about 15 minutes, and you will get an interesting snapshot of your results for free. The detailed report costs $14.95.

Click on: http://www.queendom.com/tests/access_page/index.htm?idRegTest=694

We meet with so many smart, poised, articulate and accomplished women who look at us completely puzzled when we ask them to list their strengths. (However, they can rattle off a list of weaknesses in seconds.) We tell them that to move forward you must begin from a positive place and acknowledge the strengths, skills and talents that you already have. So, whether you turn to the web, an old friend, or a career coach, you need to assess, catalogue, and write down a list of all of your skills, strengths and talents. Then, carry the list with you to your next interview!

Thinking About Starting Your Own Business?

Women are starting businesses more than any other demographic, and you may be thinking about it too. The lure of controlling how you spend your time, money, and energy is motivating more of us to become entrepreneurs. And the range of businesses is very broad - from home based jewelry and craft businesses, to restaurants, computer/technology and law offices.

Six years ago, we created DKS Consulting Group to provide career coaching and small business consulting to women. Although we each had 20 plus years experience in our respective fields of psychology, management consulting and law, we had a lot to learn about promoting and marketing a small business. Here are three things we learned about moving a small business forward:

1. Is is vitamins or aspirin? Ask yourself, is the product or service I am providing something people want, like vitamins, or something people really need, like aspirin? (When you have a headache, you really need an aspirin). This question is really important. When the economy is flush, people spend a lot of money on things they want. But, when times are tough, people tend to pull back and spend mainly on things they need. The bottom line is that during a recession, it is easier to sell a product or service that people really need. You can still create a business based on something people want - just understand that you will have to invest extra time, energy, and money to market it.

2. You may have a great idea, but does anyone know about it? You may have a brilliant concept, a unique service, or a gorgeous product, but if no one knows about it, they are not going to buy it. There are many great ways to market your business that don't cost a lot of money. A simple but professional looking website is the place to start. Creating a facebook group, writing a blog, and sending email newsletters and promotions are easy and effective ways to get the word out.

3. Is is What you know, or Who you know? Answer: What you know is important, but it's Who you know that will catapult your business from great idea to profitable enterprise. And, we believe that it's important to network with anyone who will meet with you. Over time, we have learned that people who you least expect to be helpful for your business, turn out to be just the ones who help you move it forward. Ask the mom who volunteers with you in the classroom to have coffee and learn that she has a friend who owns a store and is dying to have your product. Networking is essential to getting your product or service promoted.

Network with us on our blog and share the lessons you have learned about promoting your business!

What am I going to put on a resume?

This is the number one question women who have been out of the workforce for awhile ask us.

"It's been ten years since my last paying job so what can I possibly put on a resume?"

We say plenty.

Women tend to craft their resume around their last paying job rather than the real experience and strengths they have. So many of us have done non-paying, but important, skill-building volunteer work. Just because you didn't get paid, doesn't mean that the skills you developed aren't valuable AND marketable.

Take Joan for instance. She told us that in the five years she's been out of the job market, she's only changed diapers and did some volunteer work for her church. But, when we dug a little deeper into her volunteer work, we learned that she organized a huge Hurricane Katrina relief effort - coordinating labor, supplies, shipping and distribution of goods - all marketable skills that she could put on her resume.

And what about Cheryl? She came to us when her husband lost his job and she needed to jump back into the job market after 12 years at home raising her sons. However, Cheryl DID manage her son's hockey team which involved managing the budget, fundraising, keeping player statistics, coordinating travel and lodging for 20 families for out-of-state tournaments as well as organizing the many details of hosting a large hockey banquet for over 200 attendees. Based upon her volunteer experience, Cheryl was able highlight "event planning" as a key experience on her resume.

Don't know what to put on your own resume?

Here is a strategy for thinking about skills you have been developing since your last paying job -

Apart from the work you do for your family, what is the single most significant activity that you have engaged in, in the last few years? It doesn't matter how big or how small.

Be honest.

What activity have you engaged in that you are truly proud of?


Readers, we would love to hear from you! Share some of your own proud accomplishments. We want to know!

Welcome

Welcome to "Success on Her Own Terms" - a career coaching blog dedicated to the belief that everyone can define success and achieve it on their own terms.

Are you a stay-at-home mom ready to jump back into the workforce?

Or maybe you are trapped in a job you no longer love and want to move on?

Or perhaps you have been thinking about starting your own business and don't know where to begin?

You have skills, knowledge, experience, and a good work ethic - but don't know what to do or where to go next.

This blog is a great place to start.

We are experienced career coaches specializing in helping individuals get "unstuck" and moving forward in their careers. We will share tips, strategies, things to think about, and success stories of people who were able to achieve success - on their own terms.