Elaine Slatter | She Owns It

How to Create A Great Brand and Step Into The Spotlight by @XLConsultingGro

February 5, 2019 by Elaine Slatter Leave a Comment

by Elaine Slatter | Featured Contributor

I often get asked, “How do I create a great brand?” There isn’t an easy answer to this question, because successful brands spend a lot of time figuring out how to launch and develop their brand.

Uber, Airbnb, Starbucks, Amazon all are fast growing brands worth millions, gazillions or billions. How did they get to the top of their niche, because quite frankly it’s not all about having a snappy logo! In the case of the Starbucks logo, I don’t see any relevance to coffee at all! Don’t put all your time, effort and money on designing your logo before you have a better idea of how your logo could reflect your brand.

How do you create your brand? It starts with answering these three simple questions

Who is my target market?
What does this market need, what are they concerned about?
What is my unique selling proposition to help solve the problems of my target market?

Who Is My Target Market?

For example, if you have a business idea to deliver healthy food to offices via a software delivery system, such as the company Feedr , invented by a young entrepreneur, Riya Grover, based in the UK, her target market group could be

Businesses in your home town that have 5+ employees
Businesses who have young employees (20-35)
Co-working spaces with limited kitchen facilities

Once you have figured out the next questions, you will be closer to developing your brand

What Does This Target Market Need, What Are They Concerned About?

Now that you have figured out your target market, the next question is, what do they care about? Sticking with our business idea example of delivering healthy food to offices, what problems do these young people working in offices or co-working spaces have? Here are some ideas

No time because they are totally immersed in work
Odd hours, because they have multiple deadlines
Care about healthy eating but don’t have any time to prepare their own meals
Like variety, and could be vegan, gluten intolerant etc. and have special dietary needs
Work on their phone or laptop and have no designated office space
Move around frequently

This profile now gives you a better idea of what brand you can develop and leads you to

Unique Selling Proposition

Understanding your target market and what problems you can solve, helps you come up with your unique selling proposition. Your solution can now be the foundation to a create a great brand.

To serve a target market of young people, who are totally locked into their devices, are on the go, have very little working space and no time, you can see that your unique selling proposition must solve the problems and serve up solutions to make their lives a lot easier.

In our example, there are a couple of business ways to solve it.

One, you could have a retail space(s) that makes delicious food, delivered to the target market or

Two, you might develop a software system that with the tap on the app you can order up your healthy meal and have it delivered to your designated spot of the day in under an hour. Perhaps it will be delivered by Uber!

Whether you decide on business model one or two, either one can give you great ideas to create your brand story.

Yes, Your brand Story Is The Base Of How To Create A Great Brand

Show the raw side, inject some personality of how you relate to your target market. You are probably part of your target market because that’s how you knew there was a problem because you experienced it yourself. Make a storyboard of your brand. Include all the touch points and then tell your story. And more importantly the story of your customers. How they interact with your brand, how they love your brand because it solved their problems.

Your Customer Must Be At the Forefront of Your Brand

Everything you do to create your brand must relate to your customer. How do they want to be treated? How do you create trust and cement trust with your customers? Over and over again, you must deliver in order to create a great brand that people love.

And as you create a brand you will develop a “brand voice”, that will be recognizable to fans of your brand. The Kardashian clan have that unique “brand voice” that makes them relatable to their audience. Love it or hate it, it is a unique branding style that they have developed over time. From their popular TV show, “Keeping Up With The Kardashians” the Kardashian brand has many offshoots with lifestyle, fashion and beauty products to create a mega brand and a loyal following. Kylie Jenner’s lips kits sold out in a matter of minutes and she has propelled herself into Forbes top 30 under 30 list. Look at the branding!

Now, back to your logo. It’s pretty simple from here. You decide what kind of brand you want to develop and how can you create a logo that speaks to your brand. One of my favorite logos is the Tour De France Logo. The font of the logo on the word “tour” and the sun create a racing bike. Pretty clever if you ask me. And because a yellow jersey is awarded at the end of each day of the Tour De France, the yellow sun is very significant on several levels! This logo is fun, has a subliminal meaning and is relatable.

Once you have created your brand identity and logo, the next step is to incorporate your brand style into everything else you develop, your website, your promotional materials, your advertising, your blog posts, your YouTube videos, Your Instagram, yes….everything!

If you want to create a brand with impact, we hope these tips will help. If you are a startup company and would like to read more about branding for startups, check out this Foundr blog post.

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Elaine Slatter

Elaine Slatter is a Small Business Expert, founder of XL Consulting Group and author of the popular book, “Fabulous Fempreneurship”, a complete business guide for women. XL Consulting Group helps entrepreneurs with market planning, strategy, branding, web design and social media. She has over 30 years of executive business and marketing experience and is ready to help you rocket your business to success. Elaine is passionate about mentoring women to become successful women entrepreneurs. To find out more, visit XL Consulting Group or join the Fabulous Fempreneurship mastermind.

https://xlconsultinggroup.com/

The Ultimate Guide To Embracing Life As A Successful Nomad Entrepreneur by @XLConsultingGro

October 22, 2018 by Elaine Slatter 3 Comments

by Elaine Slatter | Featured Contributor

What Is A Nomad Entrepreneur?

You could say I’m a digital nomad entrepreneur. I travel almost six months of the year while at the same time working. Recently I spent time in England, Gran Canaria, Florida, and Cuba. I can do this because all I need to work successfully is having access to a great internet connection. Well, that does rule out Cuba, because most places don’t have easy access to free wi-fi yet. So while I’m in Cuba I am truly electronically disconnected, but I can still look for interesting stories for future projects and therefore am technically working!

In today’s wired world, many companies are allowing employees to work remotely. Entrepreneurs have even more flexibility. Jobs that previously were anchored in a specific location now have the freedom to move around the world, still serving clients.

From my travel/work experiences, there are some key points to factor in if you would like to try this lifestyle.

1) Plan Ahead – Country Research

Depending on your citizenship, you may or may not be restricted to working in your country of choice. For example, as a Canadian citizen, I am not allowed to work in the UK and can only visit for six months. As a digital worker, with a business registered in Canada, I’m ok, but if I was a fashion designer and wanted to open a pop-up shop in the UK, for example, that would not be ok. If you were born in the UK as I was, you could re-apply for a British passport and then you would be able to work. In Gran Canaria (a Spanish entity) there was no such restriction.

Some countries, such as France, require you to register for a ‘titre de séjour’ for an extended stay if you are not an EU resident. Summing up, expat rules are different for each country, therefore it is important to check these out first.

2) Taking Care of Your Health

Nothing is worse than being sick abroad. It could be a simple problem due to dietary changes or a more complex situation requiring a hospital stay. No matter what the situation, having the right plan to help you while traveling is critical. You don’t want to be facing a mountain of bills because don’t have the right health coverage.

3) Financial Security

Will your business run uninterrupted while you work in a different country? Will your cash flow be continuous and can you access your cash whenever you need it? Taking care of your banking as efficiently as possible is another key factor in living abroad. Exchange rates can be a killer if you are receiving funds in your home country but living in a country where the exchange rate is not in your favour.

4) Cultural Adaptability & Having Fun

Living abroad isn’t always the utopia as advertised, especially if you haven’t had much travel experience. Before you make the decision to travel to a foreign country and commit for a long-term stay, why not do a sample trip to see if this lifestyle is for you.

Companies such as Venture With Impact specialize in setting up work/travel arrangements where you can also make an impact by helping the local community. These one month stays in either Colombia, Mexico, Thailand or Portugal can be a lot of fun, because the research has been done for you. To learn more about this, check out our podcast with founder Ann Davis.

For fitting into your new home, expat culture expert, Rachel Smets, specializes in training individuals and teams on how to fit in culturally abroad. Check out her advice here.

5) Permanent Move

After a trial run experiencing different countries or even different parts of your own country, you may decide to make a permanent move. Now it’s important to do a more in-depth study of your new location, especially if it involves more than just you. Up front, research can save you a whole bunch of heartache down the road because making the wrong move could be very expensive and hard to reverse. Relocation expert, Margaret Vandergriff, gives 6 great tips on how to relocate successfully.

If you are still in the planning stages of changing your life to move from your home to become a nomad entrepreneur, you can still do lots of online research to find the perfect location. Travel magazines such as Wanderlust have many articles for you to explore travel life.

A website such as Expat Focus gives detailed information on different countries that are very useful for expats to consider before they move.

Living in different countries or exploring new parts of your own country is exciting. You can become a nomad entrepreneur if you are open to new experiences. Travel can be addictive. There are so many places in the world to explore and travel is the best education and experience in the world on so many levels.

What is my favourite thing to do on my adventures? Try new coffee shops! Coffee shops are often the hangouts for fellow nomad entrepreneurs. Sipping a coffee and having a treat while chatting with someone from another country is the highlight of my day.

Why not embrace change and explore new cultures as a nomad entrepreneur it will change your life forever!

If you are already a nomad entrepreneur, tell us about your travel experiences. We would love to know how you navigated a successful transition to become a nomad entrepreneur.

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Elaine Slatter

https://xlconsultinggroup.com/

If You Want To Start A Business, First Test Your Product Ideas, Markets and Price. by @XLConsultingGro

September 4, 2018 by Elaine Slatter Leave a Comment

by Elaine Slatter | Featured Contributor

You have great product ideas for starting a business, but how do you know if your target customers want what you are selling? If you want to seriously start a business, then the first step is to identify your target market and test your product ideas and pricing.

Identifying Your Target Market

Your target market isn’t everyone in the world, even if you have a general everyday product idea such as natural deodorant and organic skin care items. Yes, men and women might both be able to use this product, but realistically narrow down your market to include the most likely buyers and the best age group for buying your product. In this particular case, your target market might make up the age group of 25-55 and mostly women.

What is your channel of distribution?

You can choose multiple channels of distribution or just one type of channel. In the case of organic skincare items, there are a variety of channels that can be chosen.

Direct to consumer (via own online shopping website or via Amazon and Etsy)
Wholesale (to shops, distributors, and wholesalers)

If you are choosing both direct and wholesale channels, your retail pricing must include the wholesale markup as the retail price is the end user pricing that both you and the wholesaler will use. You obviously make more profit when you sell direct to consumer, but the wholesale channel often has the traffic that will afford you quantity sales but at a lower profit.

Test Your Product Ideas

Before you spend a lot of money on product development, take a small sample of products and test them in your market channels.

What kind of questions should you ask? Don’t forget you are asking questions to get feedback only. So it’s just as important to listen to the negative feedback as the positive feedback. Here are nine suggested questions.

What do you like about this product and why?
What don’t you like about this product and why?
Would the benefits of this products be of interest to you or your customers?
What do you think of the price of this product?
Do you purchase/sell products like this on a regular basis?
What time of year to your stock/buy this kind of product?
Is the packaging and branding appealing?
Is the pricing right?
On a score of 1 to 10 (1= low, 10=high), how likely are you to purchase this type of product?

Once you have tabulated the results of your product testing you will know what areas you need to adjust BEFORE you go to market. Plus, you will know from the feedback you receive what benefits to amplify when you are marketing your products.

Tricks For Testing Product Ideas

Amazon is a great marketplace to find similar products and check out the popularity of items. Pinterest boards are another great way to test products. The number of pins is an indication of how many people are interested. Sometimes you can get ideas from watching the pitches on TV shows such as Dragons Den or Shark Tank.

Unique Selling Proposition (USP)

Whatever product you are thinking of taking to market, your version must have a unique selling proposition. All that means is a different twist on your products that will appeal to your target buyers, some unique feature that makes them stand out from the competitive product. This can be something as simple as the color array, multi-use, lightweight, or convenient for solving a nagging problem.

Keep your eyes open, something will pop into your head to start a business. But be prepared to test your product ideas before you spend tons of money on product development, only to find out your target market doesn’t want your products!

What kind of product testing have you done before you launched your business?

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Elaine Slatter

https://xlconsultinggroup.com/

Three Keys To Connecting With Prospective Customers by @XLConsultingGro

August 9, 2017 by Elaine Slatter Leave a Comment

by Elaine Slatter | Featured Contributor

A few weeks ago I interviewed Pat Duckworth an international author, speaker and NLP expert on my podcast. We had a really interesting and engaging conversation about connecting with prospective customers.

Pat talks about how people want to feel understood. Are we really listening to want they want and need? Although we may have all the answers ahead of time and can anticipate many of their questions, if we go too fast, they will feel no connection with you. Prospective customers have their own pace, so don’t rush them.

Mistakes When Connecting With Prospective Customers

A friend of mine said this very thing happened to her. She is an accounting professional who uses the latest cloud based accounting software called Xero. It’s pretty new software in North America and many people aren’t familiar with it, preferring an accounting program called Quick Books. When a prospective customer called her asking about accounting/bookkeeping services, she talked about how great Xero was, even though the prospect had never heard of it. He wasn’t interested in hearing about Xero as he had been using Quick Books for many years.

This is the bookkeeping program he is familiar with and was inquiring about. My friend realized when she had hung up the phone that she hadn’t connected with this potential client because she was way ahead of him. He didn’t end up becoming a customer.

What should have done instead? My accounting friend could have used this technique, recommended by Pat Duckworth.

1. First Ask A General Question

Start with something like

“Do you have a problem with your bookkeeping/accounting at the moment?”

Listen to the answer and then paraphrase the answer back to the person using their own words. This way they know you understand the question asked. Something like:

“You have explained that your current bookkeeper takes weeks to post the entries every month into Quick Books, is that right?”

2. Ask the Follow Up Questions One At A Time

Let The Customer Lead The Pace

“Can you tell me more about this?”

By asking the questions one by one you are clarifying each question rather than jumping ahead and assuming you know both the questions and answers. Jumping ahead can confuse your prospective customer because it can catch them off guard and down a path that is nowhere near addressing their immediate problem.

3. Developing Trust In Just A Few Minutes

Once you have let the prospective client truly explain their problem and they know you understand them, you have quickly established the trust factor. Once there is trust, it is easy to continue the connection and eventually turn the prospect into a customer.

Tune into the Fabulous Fempreneurship podcast to hear how expert, Pat Duckworth, leads you through the whole process of building trust with prospective customers. You will be amazed how simple it is and you aren’t selling a thing!

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https://xlconsultinggroup.com/

The Power Of Video And 9 Ways To Use It In Your Business by @XLConsultingGro

February 14, 2017 by Elaine Slatter Leave a Comment

by Elaine Slatter | Featured Contributor

YouTube has over a billion users and each and every day, people watch hundreds of millions of videos. It is the #1 place we go, because watching a video is so much easier than reading a blog article. YouTube also goes on to say that the number of channels earning six figures a year increases 50% year over year. The power of video can’t be denied no matter where you live.

How Can You Use the Power of Video?

#1 – Create your own YouTube Channel for your business

Your YouTube Channel is the repository for all your videos. You can also share them to other sites such as Vimeo, but nothing is more powerful than having them on YouTube. Why? Because YouTube is owned by Google and we should be loving everything that is related to “Google”.

Once your videos are uploaded to YouTube you can share it everywhere with the YouTube ‘share’ and ‘embed’ buttons.

#2 – Put a compelling video on your website homepage

If you don’t have your own video, you can still upload and embed a related video on your front page. It helps give you that “Authority” voice. Even if you are a startup.

#3 – Share your YouTube videos across your social media channels

Videos can be posted on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn. Make sure you broadcast the right video to the right social media channel. What is perfect for Facebook, isn’t necessarily the right one for LinkedIn.

#4 – Post your videos on your Facebook business page or your Facebook group

You can also use the Facebook ‘live’ mobile app to post your video straight from your phone to your Facebook page/group for the quick 1 minute video when you have a nugget to share or at an event that you want to share with your tribe. Videos don’t always have to be professionally created to be effective and powerful. Many times we are scrolling through our Facebook feed and come across an entertaining video of someone we know and we share it right away.

#5 – Nothing is easier than watching a “how to video”

If you have a complex topic, break it down into easy instructions and post. Using screen share techniques your audience can follow your point and click instructions and re-run the video or backtrack the video until the topic is clear.

#6 – The Explainer Video

These are animated videos that hold people’s attention and help them understand complex subjects in 2 minutes or less. Websites such as Powtoons let you make your own videos for free as long as you don’t mind their advertising tags. Video production companies often offer this service as part of a videographer’s package.

#7 – The Recorded TED-EX talk

The power of Ted-Ex talks is vast. Ted-Ex talks, the intimate one to many chats, have the power to go viral because of the popularity of the Ted-Ex channels and speakers. Could you become a TED-EX speaker?

#8 – The Video with no voice track

This kind of video with a recorded music background is for visual products such as real estate listings, home staging company videos etc. The power of video, in this case, is how many different places it can be repurposed.

#9 – The introductory video

Why not use the power of video as an introductory tool. This can be used in open or closed/private/secret Facebook groups. It is much more personal than reading the text and gives the feeling that participants are attending a live event.

You don’t have to have fancy equipment to make a video. Perhaps this is why the power of video is so attractive as a marketing tool. All you need is a cell phone, or a computer with a webcam (built-in or add-on), movie making software (free). Add to this a good microphone and lighting and away you go. The biggest hurdle is getting over the fear of being on video. If that is your number one fear, because you aren’t remotely like a spokesperson, then make your product or service the highlight and downplay your own role.

Is turning on the power of video one your 2017 business goals? Will we be seeing you soon on YouTube?

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Elaine Slatter is a Small Business Expert, founder of XL Consulting Group and author of the popular book, “Fabulous Fempreneurship”, a complete business guide for women. XL Consulting Group helps entrepreneurs with market planning, strategy, branding, web design and social media. She has over 30 years of executive business and marketing experience and is ready to help you rocket your business to success. Elaine is passionate about mentoring women to become successful women entrepreneurs. To find out more, visit XL Consulting Group or join the Fabulous Fempreneurship mastermind.

You can connect with Elaine on social media at: Facebook Group | Twitter | Facebook

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https://xlconsultinggroup.com/

Giving Back Makes You Healthier and Happier by @XLConsultingGro

January 5, 2017 by Elaine Slatter Leave a Comment

by Elaine Slatter | Featured Contributor

Sociologists Christian Smith and Hilary Davidson in their recent book, The Paradox of Generosity surveyed over 2000 Americans over a five-year period and found that people who give are healthier and happier. But giving back is a muscle and must be exercised on a regular basis, not just randomly.

Two enterprising entrepreneurs, Sarah Boville of Barefoot Travel and Mandi Neiser of Married by Mandi exercised their ‘giving back’ muscle with a simple wish

Fill a purse with love and a woman’s heart with hope

A simple wish to make the holiday season brighter for women at risk in the Niagara area becomes an explosion of generosity from women in the community.

The brainchild of friends Sarah Boville and Mandi Neiser, the project mushroomed from a modest goal of gathering 100 gently used purses filled with useful items. It ended up to be a mountain of over 600 purses. These purses were delivered before Christmas to the many agencies in the Niagara region that help women in crisis.

Adapting from other purse projects across the country, Sarah and Mandi, reached out through Facebook in early November to see if they could collect a few purses. Their Purse Project Niagara Facebook page became a popular place. Donors could find out what items to add to the purses and where to drop them off. But it also became a wall of generosity pictures, a wall of happy, smiling faces.

The Power of Social Media

And then Facebook took over. More posts got shared by friends and groups. Organizations like the Company of Women Niagara chapter and Fabulous Fempreneurship got on board and encouraged women entrepreneurs to donate. Drop off centres were happy to ask their customers to contribute and the snowball began.

Even the Girl Guides of Fonthill contributed to the project. And what about the guys? Yes, many were involved too. Josh at the Wine Rack in Niagara Falls, one of the drop-off points, was a willing helper. Husbands became enthusiastic packers and drivers transporting the purses to local women’s shelters. By December 20^th all the purses were delivered.

Sarah and Mandi are on board to repeat for 2017 and they have inspired many of us to start a similar project in our own areas.

A Worldwide Sisterhood of Supporters Giving Back

Worldwide, entrepreneurial women are becoming a sisterhood of supporters for other women. This can be giving employment to women in South Africa through social enterprise, building schools, educating girls. The list is endless.

Giving back is simple. Find out what is needed. Rally together a team of like-minded women who want to help and kick off your campaign. It will put a smile on your face and increase your health and happiness.

Tell us about your giving back initiatives.

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You can connect with Elaine on social media at: Facebook Group | Twitter | Facebook

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The Branding of You : Learn the 5 Secrets of Successful Branding by @XLConsultingGro

August 4, 2016 by Elaine Slatter Leave a Comment

by Elaine Slatter | Featured Contributor

Whether you are using a personal brand (think Mary Forleo) or corporate branding for your business is up to you, but here are the first three key questions to ask for establishing the framework for your brand messaging.

1) Who are you and what do you do?

2) Why do you matter?

3) What makes you unique?

Once you have established these basics, you can then move on to establish your key messaging:

Brand Promise

Can you describe what you do for your customers in ten words or less? This is your brand promise. We often see a brand promise in the tagline associated with a logo. Ones that come quickly to mind are Nike – “Just Do It,” Subway – “Eat Fresh,” Walmart – “Save money, live better,” Adidas – “Impossible is nothing.” The tagline is your brand promise, but brand messaging is more than that.

Brand Positioning

Your messaging should be customer-centric, meaning understand how your customers think. From here you can then create messages that will solve their pain points, through the key features and benefits of your goods/services.

A great deal of time is spent understanding your customers. Where do they hang out, what motivates them, what do they care about? Knowing as much about the demographics of your customers as you can will help you with this messaging. When you put your business plan together, market research was a big part of the plan. This initial market research will help you craft messages that are important to the prospects that will want to buy your products/services.

For example, if you are a “Marylou’s Fresh Food Market,” your audience includes people who want to eat healthy foods as a central part to their lifestyle. Your research may have indicated that the demographic profile of this type of customer is, say:

Between 20-40
70% female/30% male
Earns $40K-$100+K annually
Exercises 3x per week
Eats a low carbohydrate diet
Has a dog
Wears casual clothes
Follows sports
Has 2 children under 10.

This research then helps you direct your sales and marketing messages around these buyer demographics. This applies to both your online messages through social media and your print messaging.

Tone of Your Brand Messaging

Based on your customer demographics, what is the tone you want to use for your brand? Are you aiming for nurturing, fun, sassy, or more serious? A tone development trick for copy writing is comparing your business to a celebrity: ”If my brand was a celebrity, it would be Taylor Swift,” or “If my brand was a celebrity, it would be Richard Branson.”

Time to Establish the Pillars of Your Brand

Brand Pillars describe the key selling points of your product/service. Each of these brand pillars will be supported by a key benefit statement and supporting examples. These become the focal points of your marketing content.

A branding framework

This is a great exercise for your business. You can lay out your framework in a simple spreadsheet and refer to it as a reminder when branding you or your business.

Brand Framework for Marylous Fresh Food Market

Brand Promise: Fresh food you and your family will love

Positioning Statement: Marylous is the first fresh food company in your community

Tone of Voice: Light, bouncy, empowering

Elevator Pitch: Fresh food you and your family can easily prepare for a healthy lifestyle. A selection of premade, fresh dishes for those on the run or the fussy members of your family who want something different than the rest of the family!

Marylous Three Brand Pillars:

Easy

Fresh

Variety

Marylous store layout makes it easy to select your items

Store restocked night with produce from local food terminal

Unique items added, not the same boring items

Quick meal items at front of store

Quick meals made every day

Food from all over the world & we welcome suggestions

Deli has hot meals ready to go

Fresh fruits packaged daily

Use our website to give us feedback about new items

Fresh snack items at checkout

In season variety not found in other supermarkets

Use website or at checkout suggest new items

Now that your branding framework is complete, you have all the core details to develop successful marketing messaging. This can be online through social engagement on Pinterest, Twitter, Instagram & Facebook or print advertisements. Branding takes time. Remember Nike was just a swoosh logo at the beginning, until they developed their branding framework and key messaging.

Remember to switch up your messaging, commonly known as A/B testing. Use video and images, a few key call to action messages and keep it low on the word count. We only have a few seconds to engage our prospective clients, make every second count.

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You can connect with Elaine on social media at: Facebook Group | Twitter | Facebook

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