Congratulations on being a successful business woman. Or are you? How you think about yourself, is how you project yourself to others. You can transform yourself and your business by seeing yourself as a leader. Here are a few ideas to help you develop that persona.

1. Start small. Be a role model in your community. If you have the time, do something community-oriented. Volunteer and build alliances.

2. How you act is important. Walk your talk whether you believe it or not. Engage with others. Be seen as a doer.

3. Know the drill. Learn from employees who leave your company. Conduct exit interviews and find out from them what works and what doesn’t so you can grow both personally and professionally. They have nothing to lose at the point of leaving and you will gain valuable feedback.

4. Be seen as the person/company that goes beyond what is expected of them. Don’t be afraid to be different, to take risks.

5. Go for impact and never doubt your importance.

We need to feel comfortable in our own skin. When we are it shows in how we do business. Think about how you can utilize these ideas to grow.

Do people close to you think you whine or complain? Have you ever been accused of being a nag? Let this blog be your guide. Go ahead and complain. With these 4 tips, you will be proactive, not reactive in your communications.

1. The simplest way to effective complaining is to ask the right questions. Pick the right things to complain about. Some things we just cannot change. We need to accept them and move on.

2. Put things in perspective. Don’t waste time and effort complaining about petty things. Pick your battles carefully.

3. Be specific in your complaint. Make sure the person you are complaining to understands what the problem is so you can have an open dialogue.

4. Don’t just talk –act. People will believe you when they see you mean it.

Whether you invest in stocks, real estate or business, investing in today’s times is tricky. Here are 5 things to remember for your investing road map. If you can follow these, you will survive in any market.

1. Have a well thought out plan to help you not panic. When everything seems to be going in the opposite direction, your plan will help you stay the course.

2. Spend less, invest more. You must have a nest egg in today’s times. The first areas you should stash the cash? Your IRA or 401(k) which compounds wealth tax-deferred or tax-free.

3. Don’t get greedy. Now is the time to control your risk. Invest in what you understand and are comfortable with. Risk is just as important as the return.

4. Don’t go in blind. Research before you buy.

5. Don’t have your eggs in one basket. Now is not the time to be in just one investment type. Diversify.

1. Network to earn more. The successful woman works hard, but the ultra successful know to get out there and meet people. the more people you meet the more connections you will get, the more opportunity you have to get that better job, or that account.

2. Choose a field that pays. Want to switch careers? The following professions are desperate for employees and will be for years to come.
a. Accountant
b. Event planner
c. Environmental engineer
d. Sales/business development
e. School teacher
f. Financial advisor
g. Personal trainer
h. Advertising
i. Chef
j. Nursing

3. Spend less than you make. Put at least 10% of your income away. If you spend everything you make, you will never get rich!

4. Look before you leap…into that new business idea. Check out womanowned.com to help you plan out your new business.

5. Put in the time. Rome was not built in a day. It takes time and hard work to get where you want to go.

Take control of how you use energy and save money. With fuel costs rising, we need to do what we can to conserve energy this fall and winter. It is not too early to start. Here are some tips to help you do your own energy audit.

1. Improve your gas mileage. Keep current with car maintenance, try to keep your speed on the road at 55 miles per hour, which is known to conserve fuel, and if you do a lot of driving, consider an energy efficient automobile or a hybrid for the best gas mileage.

2. Save money at home. Reset your thermostat to 65 degrees in the winter months when you are not at home or while asleep.

3. Weatherize your home. Check heating filters now, caulk around windows that leak air, weather strip any doors, use less water, repair leaky faucets and insulate your hot water heater and pipes.

4. Use cooler water when washing clothes (use cold-water detergents), turn off lights in any room you are not using. Put outside lights on an automatic timer.

Common sense approaches with little effort that will help you save money and conserve resources.

I am sure all of us at one time or another has read books on the subject of networking and referral building. For many professionals and business owners, networking is a key to developing opportunities and growing your business. I have listed the top rated networking organizations for those who are looking to introduce a business or capture market share.

Breakfast Network
Breakfastnetwork.com
Entrepreneurs and professionals.

Entrepreneurs’ Organization
Eonetwork.org
Members must have reached a million in sales by age 50

Maverick Business Adventures
Maverickbusinessadventures.com
Entrepreneurs with revenue of $1million and up, or successful business people who earn $250K yearly.

Vistage
Vistage.com
CEO’s of companies of any size.

National Association of Women Business Owner’s
Nawbo.org
Professional Women Business Owners of any size.

Women’s Presidents Organization
Womenpresidentsorg.com
Leaders of companies with sales of at least $1-$2 million a year depending on the industry.

There are many other women only membership organizations that could be valuable to your networking efforts. Feel free to email me for the complete list!

Consider these facts recently published by the Center for Media Research:
• 83% of the retired adults in the U.S. now own their own home.
• 30% of retired adults have liquid assets such as cash valued at more than $100K
• The most affluent retirees can be found in larger cities such as Washington D.C. where the average retired adult earns $64K in household income.

You may be asking, “What does this have to do with IRAs?” Everything! As the economy continues to worsen, those of us who are trying to save to achieve these goals will have a much more difficult time. The fact is you can only depend on you to save for retirement. When you use your IRA or Individual (k) to invest, the profit earned from these investments returns back into your account tax-deferred or tax-free depending on what retirement plan you have. You get the opportunity to accumulate wealth faster when you are in control. When you invest in assets you select using a self-directed IRA (visit www.theentrustgroup.com to learn more about a truly self-directed retirement account), you take responsibility for managing your financial future today.

All of us have dreams and aspirations. Most of us want financial independence. Don’t you think now is the time to take charge of your future and make your own investment decisions?

1. If you send personalized bulk-emails from outlook, check out emailtemplates.com
Email Templates helps to create customized messages that are instantly availability from a pull-down menu in outlook. Great for a business that sends volumes of email.

2. For sending big files, check out yousendit.com. This is a virtual drop box for sending and receiving attachments of up to 2GB. Most e-mail systems will not allow you to send files larger than a few megabytes. Yousendit.com solves this problem and it works like a charm. I have sent manuals through them with no problem!

Check out my new internet radio show, Wise Women Radio! Each week, I will provide entertaining and informative interviews with women who have changed their destinies through their own efforts. Listeners will learn the real secrets from women just like you, who have leveraged their skills to achieve dreams! Join me every Tuesday from 10-11 a.m. PST and discover the radio show that helps you tap into the power to achieve your dreams!

As we take some time to relax today, I would like to encourage you to continue to find a work-life balance. How many women do you know who can honestly say they have enough time for work, family, and themselves? So many of us struggle to do it all, the cost, of course, being we hurt ourselves in the process and become frustrated and overwhelmed. I recently read a great quote I would like to pass on. “What matters is not the destination you’re traveling to but the journey it takes to get there.” Perhaps if we consider changing our perspective of what is expected of us and take the opportunity to enjoy our journey, we may discover wonderful things about ourselves along the way. Enjoy your labor day!