Please welcome back Carolyn Kepcher, who is here with the announcement of the Grand Prize Winner! Our Seeds for Success winner will receive an additional $10,000 and additional mentoring and web hosting resources.

Wow! What a fantastic ride the Seeds for Success grants program has been…for all involved! This grants program, designed to benefit women entrepreneurs, kicked off several months ago, when we began to review the 5500+ business plans submitted.

Through an intense judging process, we selected our three finalists, Dana Rubinstein of Dapple , Abby Port of Red Koala Canvas Co ., and Karla Duncan of Head 2 Toe Publications.

All three finalists have done an outstanding job in using the resources that have been given to them by Yahoo! Small Business and my fantastic team at fwm . The grant included $20,000 per finalist, up to $5,000 in free technical services from a Yahoo! Small Business partner to build a company web site, free Yahoo! Web hosting for two years, and promotional support from fwm and Yahoo!

Abby, Karla, and Dana have an essential quality in common – all three are very passionate about their businesses. I’ve always said that passion is first in starting your own business, so thank you all for confirming for me that we made the right selections when we chose you!

Our finalists spent six months growing their businesses, with the help of our expert team of mentors/advisors . Our mentors weighed in, along with the original fwm and Yahoo! Small Business judges, on the finalists’ progress. They were judged in areas such as marketing, partnerships, distribution, sales, and utilization of the Seeds for Success grant.

We also received invaluable help from the voting public, who cast over 650,000 votes on our website! What a response!

When all of the votes were tallied and the judging criteria was weighed, a clear choice was made:

Heartfelt congratulations to our winner, Dana Rubinstein !! Her company, Dapple, which sells a line of natural-based, baby-safe cleaning products ; is on a highway to great success. Dana and her partner have looked at their company from all angles and because of that, they have found numerous unique opportunities to get the word out about Dapple. Their creativity in this area is unmatched.

To our two splendid runners-up, we express our admiration and thanks for a job well done. Abby , a great lady with a great idea! After speaking with her I was immediately envisioning customized canvas art in my kids’ rooms – she had me sold. She, too, has the potential to take her business to a new level – and my advice to her is to think realistically and never skew from her initial passion.

Since the beginning of the Seeds For Success contest, Carolyn Kepcher has looked far beyond lending her brand and her image to this program. She views her number one role as providing the best mentorship team possible to the entrepreneurs who have been selected as finalists. Along the way, changes and additions were made as the finalists and their mentors identified their needs. 

Enter Scott Smigler. As President and Founder of Exclusive Concepts and primary internet advisor to Dana Rubinstein of Dapple, Scott has been on the team since day one of the contest, assisting Dana with all aspects of her website. When asked to step in and go well beyond his original commitment by now also advising Karla and Abby in SEO and internet marketing concepts, Scott immediately and graciously agreed. Here is what he had to say:

Recently I have been asked to spend some time with the other grant participants: Karla Duncan of Head2Toe, and Abby Port of the Red Koala Canvas Co.

I will tell you that after only two meetings with each of these individuals I find them both to be dynamic and principled women.

Let me start with Karla. Karla started her company with the principle that the products on the market for special needs children are inadequate because they focus on actual age, versus “developmental” age. The concept is strikingly simple: Teach and relate to children at their level. Karla assembled an expert team and launched a product that has the potential to improve the lives of special needs children throughout the world, and has already established partnerships with important organizations like Easter Seals.

As Karla stated in her blog, the current marketing strategy is simple: Put faith in the product. Now that Karla is armed with a truly fantastic website (created by fellow mentor, EY Studios), she is reaching out to influential bloggers and organizations who have large followings in order to request that they review her product and share their honest feedback with their database. Karla has persued this approach at a lightening-fast pace, and has already created relationships with influential professionals that have the reach to put her on the map. Karla clearly has the expertise, drive, and determination to make a big impact in her field.

Abby, armed with a website by another fellow mentor, Fast Pivot, is making critical strides as well. First, let me talk about the product. Moms and Dads can buy personalized wall art, birth announcements, wonderful words, growth hangers, seasonal door hangers, and birthday door hangers to hang in their children’s rooms - or they can custom design their own art. Red Koala’s products are different than anything I’ve seen on the market. They are not cheesy prints with boring designs and colors… they are beautiful, stimulating pieces of art that help to create a soothing and stimulating environment for young children.

One of the challenges that Abby will have is that her products don’t really fit into an existing category. Abby is not simply creating a better version of a product that consumers already seek out and buy. Rather, she has a unique offering, and the onus is on her to get the word out in a noisy marketplace. This is tough. Regarding the website, I suggested to Abby that she reduce the number of options that new visitors are presented at her homepage, and to be more aggressive about funneling visitors into the gallery to start viewing products. In addition, I suggested that Abby simplify how the internal pages were merchandised in a way that featured products more prominently. We were barely off the phone before Abby started working on all of the changes we discussed, in addition to pursuing numerous other opportunities to get the word out about her product. As I said above, getting the word out will be a challenge, but Abby has already made great progress. She has attended tradeshows in order to make new contacts and to build a mailing database, and is leveraging her personal relationships to build a small army of product evangelists. Finally, we are exploring pay per click marketing in an attempt to reach mothers and fathers who are designing rooms for their young ones. Abby has great talent and she is clearly a very determined and hard-working individual, and I can’t wait to see the results of her hard work.

In closing, I must say that all of these women are remarkable. They have families, children, and even 9 to 5 jobs, yet they pursue their goals with steadfast determination and a positive outlook. Dana, her partner Tamar, Karla, and Abby, all made a decision to turn their dreams and values into action, and they are wonderful role models for their families and for aspiring entrepreneurs everywhere.

Seeds For Success finalist Dana Rubinstein has had the opportunity to work with internet marketing expert Scott Smigler of Exclusive Concepts since the beginning of the finalist phase. As we move closer to the selection of the winner, Scott has closely monitored Dana’s progress as she grows her business, Dapple. Here is Scott’s most recent update:

Integrity and Entrepreneurship

The meaning of the word “integrity” may vary from person to person, but I understand it to mean something very specific: Acting in a way that is consistent with your values.

This can manifest itself in many ways. Individuals who value honesty can make a practice of always being truthful, even when it isn’t easy. Individuals who value time with their family can ensure that they reguarly set aside time to be with their parents, children, siblings and relatives…

… and individuals who say they value entrepreneuship can take a risk and join or start a new business that acts in accordance with everything else they value.

I am pleased to say that through the Yahoo! Seeds for Success program I have had the privilege of working with entrepreneurs who are willing to put themselves out on a limb in order to create businesses that enhance their lives, their family’s lives, and the lives of individuals all around the world who can benefit from their products and services.

I have been assigned as Dapple’s Internet Marketing mentor from the beginning, and I have watched them mature an idea into a product, a product into a brand, and a brand-new business into what now has the potential to become a signifigant company that services parents throughout the world.

Dana and Tamar worked with us to get their new website and web marketing strategy launched very quickly. We built the website on Yahoo! Merchant Solutions so they could transact business online while humanizing their company and showcasing their products in a positive light. We used Search Engine Optimization and Yahoo! Search Marketing to position them well in search engines for their brand and product names. We used social networks to bring hundreds of their supporters together under one roof… and that’s just the start. Simultaneously, Dapple built a number of strategic relationships with important online and offline channels. There’s a lot more great news, but I’ll let Dana and Tamar fill you in when it’s appropriate.

I’m impressed by Dana and Tamar not only because they are smart, dedicated business-women, but because they have remained true to their principles throughout this entire process. There were promises that Dana and Tamar made to their customers before the Yahoo! Seeds for Success program started, and Zeus himself could not have compelled them to renege.

Our Seeds For Success finalists are now well into the contest, and each has launched their website and made great strides in growing these three businesses. Along the way they have received coaching and mentorship from Carolyn Kepcher’s team of business experts.Yet another thrilling milestone for them was their recent opportunity to speak with the legendary Bobbi Brown, who offered the following advice for Karla, Dana, and Abby:

Karla Duncan:

Karla has such a great idea. Having been a speech therapist, she has had first hand experience in the industry and knows there is a need for these products. Karla has a clear understanding of how and where to express her ideas (trade shows, etc.) and has great networking skills she can put to use in these venues. She also has incredible follow through which is essential in order to maintain and build on the success of her products after they launch.

When I spoke to Karla and gave her advice she was like a sponge, open to learning everything she could from me.  I talked to her about the importance of developing a press kit and press contacts. I told her that public relations is integral for the successful launch of a product.  In other words, don’t underestimate the power of word-of-mouth and buzz.  I advised her to create products that were different from the competition, and to call out these points of difference in all of her communications to the press and consumers.

Karla’s campaign is one that pulls on your heart strings and that’s something that’s going to strike a chord with consumers. I know she has sold me on her idea and I wish her the best of luck in her endeavor.

Dana Rubinstein:

I was impressed with Dana and how ahead of the game she is in her planning to start her company. She is now at the point where she has to determine who she wants to target and just go for it! Also, she has done her homework and has a very good grasp on the market for natural products for babies.  She recognizes the need for her products and I have no doubt that she’s going to be wildly successful. When I launched my line I introduced the concept of brown-based lipsticks, which was a novel concept at the time. I thought I was going to sell 100 lipsticks in a month and I ended up selling 100 in a day! One piece of advice I gave Dana was to minimize her expenses by hiring people in her family to help get her business off the ground. I had my sister in law handling my expenses when I first started out!

Abby has an advantage because she has previous corporate marketing experience. Because of this she is great at networking and understands the necessity of public relations to launch her business. Something that really impressed me about Abby was that she really knows where she wants her business to go and is extremely organized about getting there; she sees the whole picture which is really significant for long term success. I told her to make sure she stays on this path and always follows her gut. My advice for Abby, as she is well on her way to success, is to stay true to the essence of who she is and what she is trying to accomplish with every product she puts out on the market. Also, she should always be aware of her competition and focus on her point of difference.

Having spoken with Karla, Abby and Dana, it was clear that they were very capable women, each with a great business idea.  It was also clear they needed to know the difference between a Coach and a Mentor.  As a Coach, my role is help them learn enough about themselves to help them develop  “personal mastery”  and to transfer some basic skills so they could continue to grow into successful business people by also knowing themselves better and asking the right questions:
 

• How do they like to make decisions and why?
  

• What are their preferred styles of leadership?
  

• When do they need to listen to their inner voice and when do they need to seek advice?
  

• Who can they turn to when they need support?
  

• Why is their “personal mastery” a vital key to their individual success?

Being an Executive Coach as well as a successful business consultant in two of the world’s largest firms, CSC and Accenture, where I managed over 859 people on three continents, I learned that at the root of every business success was a leader who took the time to learn about themselves.  We call this discovering your inner strength.
 
Step 1
My first job as a Coach (not just a Mentor- or someone who tells you how they did it and how they were a success) was to provide each of the winners with a personal profile to help them understand themselves well enough to be able to ask the right questions and to increase their awareness about who they were as decision makers and leaders.
 
If you are interested in a personal profile you can certainly take mine by going to www.h2cleadership.com, but you may also go to the American Psychological Association Website and looking at all the profiling tools available.  Most companies who have your best interests at heart and want to help you bring the best of your skills to the workplace will have you take a personal profile assessment at some time in your career.  These are not used for hiring or firing but for helping “apply your strengths” on the job. Many of these tools are also available in management and leadership books you may have on your shelf. 
 
Here are some examples and places to get a personal profile or assessment tool:
 
www.authentichappiness.com offers a list of free tools to assess happiness as well as personal style which can also be found in their book: Authentic Happiness, by Martin E.P. Seligman, PhD.
www.truenorthleadership.com offers a host of tools and assessments on leadership style and emotional intelligence both on their site and in their book, The Leaders Playbook by R.Nadler, Ph.D.
 
Step 2
To learn more about coaching and personal style for business success you can go to the internet or your local library for these books on the subject of coaching and performance.
 
Personal and Executive Coaching: The Complete Guide for Mental Health Professionals by Jeffrey E. Auerbach, PhD.
Coaching for Performance: Growing People, Performance and Purpose by John Whitmore.
The Psychologists Book of Self Tests: 25 Love, Sex, Intelligence, Career and Personality Tests Developed to Reveal The Real You by Louisa Janda, Ph.D.
The Power of Self Coaching: The Five Essential Steps to Creating The Life You Want By Joseph J. Luciani, Ph.D.
What Happy Women Know: How Findings in Positive Psychology Can Change Women’s Lives for the Better, by D. Baker, PhD. and Cathy L. Greenberg, PhD.
 
All of these books are easy to read and are readily available at Amazon as well.
 
By tooling yourself with information about “you” and how your style impacts others through buidling your  “emotional intelligence” you can increase both your life satisfaction and your job effectiveness by more than 50% in just one session.
 
Step 3
Happiness is a critical factor and a key to success both personally and professionally.  When your talents and skills are matched to your role and your responsibility, your happiness and satisfaction on the job increases.  When you are delivering on your “talents” through the role you have in the job you are in your happiness increases by as much as 93%.  Research just released in 2008 shows that there is a .89% correlation between optimism and leadership success.  At h2c, LLC we believe that the bottom line on personal profiles and success is “Happiness=Profit”! 
 
When we combine Steps 1, 2 and 3 we can begin to see why self knowledge and having a personal executive coach can make all the difference in being a “happy leader” who is successful.  That’s my job and I love it!  So join in and take the challenge to learn about yourself on the journey to being a successful business owner,  business leader or entrepreneur….your success is tied to your ability to develop “personal mastery” where the new science of happiness can make a dramatic difference in your long term success.  Stay tuned.  As I help our Seeds For Success Winners develop their plans for personal success, I will continue to share insights with you as well. 
 

Oft-quoted workplace communications and leadership expert Peggy Klaus recently brought her whirlwind energy and brilliant advice to our Seeds For Success finalists…and they happily report that they will never present themselves or their businesses the same way again!

Finalists Karla, Abby, and Dapple partners Dana and Tamar graciously allowed me to push and prod them during our coaching time together. In each session, the focus was on how to effectively present yourself and your business, including learning how to brag (the right way, of course!) to the media, the investor community and to family and friends. While we’ve all been raised to think that brag is a four-letter word and that talking about our accomplishments is a big no-no, in today’s competitive business world self-promotion is a necessity, not a choice. And entrepreneurs especially need to be able to toot their own horn because no one is going to do it for them. So, knowing how to talk about yourself and your company in a conversational, story-like fashion– as if you were telling a good friend about an amazing trip you’ve just taken– has become a must-have skill. The following advice given to Karla, Abby, Dana, and Tamar will benefit any entrepreneur when it comes to presenting and self-promoting:

1. Complete the Take-12 Self-Evaluation Questionnaire at www.peggyklaus.com/brag/ questionnaire.htm

2. After the questionnaire, it’s time to create what I call a bragologue. Ranging from thirty-econds to three-minutes, bragologues grab the listener’s attention. You’ll want to have your bragologue equally ready for an elevator pitch at a moment’s notice or a carefully orchestrated meeting with an investor.

3. Spend time putting your bragologue together in different ways for different audiences. Continually update and hone them to keep them current and fresh. By doing this you will be armed and ready to promote yourself in any situation.

4. Whether talking to a reporter, a group of investors, colleagues at a networking event, or any audience that make us feel anxious or judged, most of us dial down our level of energy a few notches when we present. To prevent this, practice going OVER -THE -TOP by delivering your content in a highly exaggerated fashion. That way when it’s show time, your energy and enthusiasm will be at exactly the right performance level.

5. Using an upward inflection at the end of your sentences (i.e., turning a declarative statement into a question) confuses the audience and makes you appear unsure of yourself and lacking authority. Before speaking, prompt yourself with the words “Declare” and “Convince” to force a downward inflection and create an impression of confidence.

6. Be ready for the zingers—those unexpected questions that challenge you and bring up your weakest areas. Before each meeting, think about what the zingers might be. Write them out, answer them, and practice them aloud. Then you’ll really be ready to zap those zingers.

7. Watch yourself on video or listen to yourself on audiotape, then critique your performance for both content and style. Did you get in your core message? Were you interesting, concise, energetic? Warning:  Vocal speed does not need to equal your level of passion!

And remember, in the famous words of Dizzy Dean, or Satchel Paige, or Walt Whitman, and whomever else this quote has been attributed to:

It ain’t bragging if you done it!

Abby Port of the Red Koala Canvas Co. has had the great benefit of ongoing mentorship from her primary Seeds For Success mentor, Christina Blenk. Christina is the CEO of WomanOwned.com, a wealth of information for entrepreneurs at all levels. Here is a recap of Christina’s recent advice to Abby’s questions about marketing her web site and setting up an affiliate program : 

An Affiliate program (using one website to drive traffic to another) is a great idea as long as your expenses to manage it are low.

The amount of payout offered is really up to each business owner. In Abby’s case, since the margins could vary, I would suggest doing a straight dollar amount (such as $25 per sale), rather than a percentage of each transaction.  The percentage might be better for the affiliate, but it is an unknown, and adds up to more variables to manage to determine the commission checks.  Abby will want to look at the cheapest order possible and determine what she can spare to the affiliate on that size order. She will then have the amount to set for all orders. The larger orders provide better margins and the smaller orders are still tolerable (profit).

Some affiliate programs payout for “leads” (and even “clicks”), but I don’t recommend either one of these.  Abby should avoid paying out money without having made some on a sale. She’ll want to use the CPA (cost per action) model so the affiliate makes money ($20 - $25 for example) when their link or banner leads to a sale on her site.  She will, of course, need to put tracking code in her Yahoo Store to make sure that sales are tracked correctly and then pay out checks when affiliates’ commissions reach a certain point (like $50).

Abby plans to check out the Yahoo! Search Marketing Affiliate Program right away. We look forward to a progress report! For more on internet marketing, we’ll discuss SEO (search engine optimization) marketing in a future post.

1.  Take every single meeting seriously and over-prepare for it.  As a business owner, potential customers or clients will judge you by how much thought you’ve put into the meeting topic, have you brought the information or materials needed to conduct the meeting efficiently, and whether you make good use of their time.  It is better to err on the side of being over-prepared than to appear ill-prepared. 

2.   Be careful about taking in partners. Dana wondered if she should bring in a business partner to complement her own skill set.  From experience I know that business partnerships can be very difficult and my recommendation was to contract for or hire the talent she needs rather than bring on a business partner.  This would allow her to maintain control over Dapple while at the same time getting the talent she needs to grow the company. 

3.  Develop a personal vision statement.    You may already have one for your business, but you also need one for yourself.  As I told Karla, there’s a word on the street about all of us and, as entrepreneurs, it’s critical that we manage what people are saying about our personal brands.  People do not only buy our products, they buy us .   In one sentence, write down what you want people to say about you when you leave a meeting and include 2 - 3 ways you’re going to make that happen.  For example, Karla came up with this statement that will help to guide her actions with Head2Toe:  “I am an entrepreneur who is consistently on top of her game and exhibits that by 1) being current on all the issues related to the unique learning needs of gift and special needs children and 2) staying abreast of current global affairs related to consumer needs.”  Wow!  That’s a tall order but Karla is up to the challenge and will be motivated by it.

4.  Don’t “re-invent the wheel.”  Abby wants to get Red Koala into large retailers such as Pottery Barn Kids and Pier 1 Kids, as well as some catalogue/on-line stores like Land of Nod.  The problem is she doesn’t know how to do it.  This is the time to cast a wide net, call in some favors, do some reseach, and ask for help.  Certainly there are people who have been there and done it so why re-invent the wheel?  I suggested she start by tracking down the owners of firms that have already sold their products to these stores and ask how they went about it, what’s the usual financial arrangement, etc. 

5.  Pay in advance for capacity .  All three of these women have great products, but the public’s image their company is just as important.  There’s a saying I learned early in launching my own business, “You pay in advance for capacity.”  This means you need high quality marketing materials; a business space that’s not your home and an address that’s not a PO Box; and staff or outside consultants to help you achieve your goals.   Investing money upfront in these kinds of things pays dividends down the road provided you have a good product or service.   For example, I believe Dapple is on the verge of something huge but Dana needs a seasoned and trustworthy business advisor to help her get there — and that’s going to cost money.  Abby needs to pay for to-notch sales brochures.  And Karla may need to find funds that will allow her to leave her full-time job so that she can focus more on growing her business. 

6.  Think and speak in headlines.   Carolyn asked me to provide the women with some media coaching so I tested them by asking them to tell me about their businesses.   None of the three could give me a concise, cogent, pithy answer (which isn’t unusual with new entrepreneurs).  So I taught them the headline speaking model:  the first thing out of your mouth in response to a question should be no more than 2 - 3 sentences that grab the listeners attention with vivid words and enthusiasm.  That’s followed by just 2 - 3 subpoints and finished with asking if there are any questions.  With just a little coaching, Abby came up with, “I’m the President of Red Koala and we sell personalized art and other items for decorating kid’s room.  We have three primary products:  baby announcements on canvas in your choice of colors; slim signs where you can write your own words on canvas; and create it yourself art where you design your own piece using downloadable images, colors, and fonts.” 

7.  Short sounds confident.    As I told all three women, more words always soften a message; fewer words strengthen a message.  Of course there are times when you want to soften a message but that’s not when you’re answering investor questions or pitching your product. 

Lois P. Frankel, Ph.D.

www.drloisfrankel.com
www.thethinpinkline.com
Author of the international bestsellers
Nice Girls Don’t Get the Corner Office
and See Jane Lead

This week I spoke with two entrepreneurs, Karla Duncan from Birmingham, Alabama and Abby Port from suburban Atlanta. Both women are so grateful to Yahoo! and Carolyn Kepcher for both the grant and the ongoing advice.

Abby has started a business of personalized canvas art for children’s rooms where the customer can design the actual piece of art herself online. My advice in particular to Abby was to focus on her business plan so that she had a benchmark to measure her progress against and to think smaller so that she can get a track record of success. It seems to me that it is easy for entrepreneurs to get caught up with the big ideas that stimulate other big ideas but then the little details don’t get attended to. We talked a lot about how she can do some simple market research by visiting high end baby boutiques and asking the store managers their opinion on her product ideas as they are the ones closest to the customer. We also discussed the Pottery Barn store for kids and debated whether she could get an entrée there and how to best to that. PB is beginning to offer customization to its customers; this could be a significant area of competition for her.  Abby feels that she has a unique program to offer; hopefully that is true. What she should focus on is how to drive traffic to her website, as that is her only method of distribution currently. We talked about ideas for that.

Today I spent time with Karla, who is making big strides with her business. She had been a national sales manager in the past in the special needs area, so she seemed very comfortable with the business aspects of the job. Her products, special learning aids and publications for learning-challenged children, will be manufactured in China, with the first hopefully being available in September. We talked about utilizing the resources of Birmingham both from the women-owned business aspect as well as tapping into the colleges there for both design talent as well as business interns. We even talked about her making contact with business school professors there to see if she might talk to a class and maybe get an MBA student to work with her as an intern perhaps leading to a case study. All for free! We talked about her budget to support herself and making sure that she has adequate funds to get her through the early start-up phase. She is still holding down a full-time job so at least there is income coming in there.

I told both women to give me a call or email in a month or so to check in and evaluate progress.

Carol Frohlinger, Esq., co-author of Her Place at the Table: A Woman’s Guide to Negotiating Five Key Challenges to Leadership Success and co-Founder of Negotiating Women, Inc. is back with some final negotiation tips for our Seeds for Success finalists.

In addition to the negotiation planning process I wrote about earlier, I also offered some suggestions to the Seeds For Success finalists about negotiation process.