After55:

Gaetan Benson has a wonderful day job, but she has been making jewelry for years.  Often she would sell her necklace right off her neck.  For a part-time entrepreneur, Etsy.com is a wonderful way to have her creations seen by a much larger audience, and have the delight of creating new pieces and branching out.

Gaetan started with jewelry and soon added her incredibly adorable baby hats. She’s now adding beautiful knit cowls!  She is having a ball, learning new skills and adding customers–all in her spare time. Could life be any better?  Probably not.

One of the important steps in building a business is letting the world know that you exist and what you do. I heard of  HARO about three weeks ago, and it has proved valuable for me and for my daughter (yes, we are a family of entrepreneurs–each of my daughters owns her own business) and a columnist on SilverVixens.com.

If you haven’t heard of the site, either, it is a quick way to get into the conversation about your particular business.  HARO is an acronym for Help a Reporter Out.  Three times a day you receive an e-mail listing 25 to 30 inquiries from reporters, writers, whatever.  If one is related to what you do, you contact the writer and go from there!  Easy, quick, free!  Three wonderful words for an entrepreneur.

I was talking with Gillie Haynes, speech coach extraordinaire, the other day.  As business owners, we are constantly “presenting” our company, products and ourselves, yet public speaking is ranked very, very high on the list of stress-producing activities.  As someone who loves to talk, I don’t quite understand it, but Gillie sure does.  I asked her to give me three points about public speaking that would be of instant help to all of us.  Here they are:

1. Trust Yourself. It’s important to be confident in your area of expertise. You should feel extremely comfortable talking about your specific area.

2. Do Not Over-Think It. In your presentation, share the information you would want to receive without the extras that sometimes take away from the real message.

3. Have a Great Time. Begin with the intent to truly enjoy sharing information and ideas that you are passionate about and expect that your audience will be just as excited to receive the information.

Good points, aren’t they?  If that isn’t enough to get you comfortable in front of your chamber of commerce, contact Gillie at gilliehaynes@aol.com and find out what it will take to raise your star power.

Sorry for the delay in this post.  As you have been seeing in my sidebar, I spoke last Thursday at the 5th Annual Sacramento Conference of Professional BusinessWomen of California.  I am eager to share what I learned and the feeling I had coming away.

First, the conference was a huge success by the numbers: More than 3,000 women attended, and there were four outstanding keynote speakers–Naomi Tutu, Jackie Speier, Lucy Liu and Lynne Twist.  Each speaker spoke to us at our highest level as businesswomen and women.  I met women ranging from senior executives in huge multinational corporations to women involved in not-for-profits both large and small, a dairy farmer and a woman who has cleaned houses for 20 years and loves her business.

Second, watching the connections being made among women from all over the country, across areas of expertise, finding commonality through family and values was heartwarming.  One of my passionate delights is connecting–both people and ideas.  As I wrote to my daughter, it was Candyland for me.

Third, the prevailing attitude about the economy was realistic, but also tired of all the unremitting gloom and doom in the media.  Yes, things are challenging, but there was conversation about looking for the good news and tapping into our huge creativity to develop alternative programs and ways of meeting the challenges.

Fourth, the 250 women who attended my session, “We Don’t Retire, We Reinvent,” were a really thoughtful group.  They delighted in looking both forward and back and planning for a future that will bring them delight and fulfillment. It was a pleasure to help so many proactive women look at the next phase of their lives.

I was also delighted to see the wide age range–there were a lot of After 55s, and they were leading the pack in sharing, teaching, connecting and learning.  I was a proud respresentative.

I attended the JWTBoom LiveWire conference about marketing to boomers last week. What a terrific experience–and even better in retrospect. What I learned will appear here and in my column for months to come.

What is most on my mind today is how important it is to know your market. Whom do you think your product or service will most benefit? I was fascinated to hear attendee after attendee (and if the truth be told, almost everyone was male!) ask how to reach the boomer market! As if boomers are one market!

There are left-handed boomers, blue-eyed boomers, boomers who like Birkenstocks, boomers who like earrings. You get the idea. When we come up with our great idea for a business, we imagine hoardes of people lining up for it, but we stand a far better chance if we take the time to understand clearly our best potential customers and get to work with them in mind.

Today you are You, that is truer than true.
There is no one alive who is Youer than You.
Dr. Seuss

This quote appeared in my inbox this morning (thanks to AsAManThinketh.net/Daily Insights). Being a huge fan of Dr. Seuss and his wild creativity, both visual and verbal, I chuckled and then started to think.

Questions as you go about your work today:

1. Are you putting all of you into your enterprise?
2. Do your customers feel connected to you?
3. Does your passion for your business come through?
4. Is there something holding you back or is it you?
5. If you could do anything, what would you do?

One of the best parts of being an entrepreneur is doing something you think is worthwhile and trying different ways you think it should be done. This is one of the things that sets you apart.

So today what can just you do?
No one can make your business youer than you –

My apologies, Dr. Seuss, but I couldn’t resist.

Do your customers think about you? Sure, they buy from you, but do they think about you as you would like them to? The quickest–though not the easiest–way to keep in touch with your customers is an informative, reliable, regular e-mail or newsletter.

Make it informative by letting them know about one of your services they might not be using, an issue they may not be aware of or a new product that can help them. Ensure that it’s reliable by doing your homework so you know the information you are sharing is true and helpful. Keep it regular so they will come to expect hearing from you. That is one of your goals : to become a trusted resource.

The content needn’t be long or in depth, particularly if writing does not come easily to you. What’s most important is that you bring something of value to your recipients. Your sincerity will shine through. And use Spellcheck to make sure you are putting your best foot forward.

You probably already know about Constant Contact, a widely used program for just this purpose. Constant Contact will help you design professional looking missives easily. The company’s support is excellent. Sending a crisp simple e-mail will also work, but it’s not as eye-catching.

Like we tell our kids–keep in touch. The rewards are great.

I had the fun of interviewing Nell Merlino today. I told you about her Make Mine a Million $ Business in January, but something she said today really struck a chord. When I asked her what one thing she really would want me to say in the Spotlight article, she thought a second and said, “Don’t Settle for Small!” What fabulous words to hear. How many times have we been told not to be too pushy, not to look too smart, not to bother with big dreams at our age? Plenty of times. Nell went on to say she wants women to know how much fun it is to have a million dollar business. To date, 14% of M3 winners are After 55s! Just a reminder, if you are anywhere near Phoenix, get yourself over to Make Mine a Million on Tuesday, March 4. Both Nell and I will be there. Come on down! Let’s make yours a million dollar business!

On Wednesday I went to a delightful business luncheon. One of my tablemates said she could almost join SilverVixens because she is 53, though not really happy about it. Fortunately, I stifled the old saw, Think of the alternative. We “After 55″ women entrepreneurs MUST get the word out that being older than 55 is great fun, is energizing, and we are not on the slide to a boring life! If we look at the women I have written about over the months, every single one of them has started a thriving business after the age of 55, and many of them have started several. We have a “bad rep”–let’s start a conversation about how to change our image to reflect the truth: We are vital, vibrant and accomplished. What are good ways to get this started?

Happy Valentine’s Day. One of the many wonderful aspects of being “After 55″ is being able to follow our passions. At this time of life we are also able to express our passions in terms of our work–starting and building a business that expresses our creativity and commitment to running a business the way we think it should be done.

As I talk to “women of a certain age” entrepreneurs around the country, I hear excitement in their voices. We are captivated by bringing our product to the attention of the marketplace. We delight in the connections we are making with others. We hum with the electricity of problem solving. Okay, sometimes we are also tired and frustrated, but that is part of the process that brings out the best in us. We enjoy the stories of our trials, tribulations and triumphs.

So, today let’s do a “passion check”–Do you love what you are doing? Is it worthy of your affection? If your answer to either of these questions is not a resounding “yes,” give thought to what needs to be done to get it there.

Here’s to passion!

By now everyone knows I am a reading junkie. One business magazine I particularly like and read cover to cover is PINK magazine. In this month’s e-mail newsletter, the following item appeared: “It is really frustrating that after years of hard work and vigilance, we cannot let up. Though we think we have gotten legislation passed to help level the playing field, we then find out it has been ignored. Now we read that they are planning to make it harder for us to compete again. Please read on and click through to lodge your protest. Now the younger women will know what we have fought for so long.

“PINK Slip Update–and a Call to Action

“The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), former recipient of our notorious PINK Slip, has yet to comply with a 7-year-old law that would reserve 5 percent of government contracts for women-owned businesses. Although women-owned firms account for 41 percent of all privately held firms in the U.S., they currently receive only 3.3 percent of these contracts. ‘The difference in federal spending between 5 percent and 3.3 percent was $7.5 billion based on 2006 numbers,’ points out Linda Denny, president and CEO of Women’s Business Enterprise National Council, the nation’s largest third-party certifier of women-owned businesses.

“The SBA has now proposed a rule to Congress that would only allow federal agencies to implement the program for women-owned businesses in four out of more than 2,300 business categories. ‘This rule would make it virtually impossible for any woman business owner to take advantage of the 5 percent set-aside, completely invalidating the intent of Congress,’ says Barbara Kasoff, president and CEO of Women Impacting Public Policy (WIPP).”

“To get involved:

1. Click here to contact the SBA and ask it to rescind the proposed rule. Deadline: February 25. (WIPP asks that you forward a copy of your response to Anna at alubiner@wipp.org.)

2. Congresswoman Ellen Tauscher has written a ‘Dear Colleague’ letter asking members of the House to join her in asking the SBA to work with Congress to redraft the proposed rule. Let your representative know how you feel and cc WIPP.”

Within the last week I have learned about Make Mine a Million $ Business from two sources, and am I glad I did. M3 (to those of us in the know) is a program of countmein.org, founded by Nell Merlino. She is also the founder of Take Your Daughter to Work Day. This woman moves mountains.

M3 is for women whose businesses are established, but who are ready to commit to taking them to the million-dollar level. As you explore the website, look at all the ways you can learn and benefit. I was particularly pleased that several awardees are “of a certain age,” and that means you can benefit! The next event is in Phoenix on March 4, and it will be co-hosted by Valerie Morris, the financial columnist for SilverVixens.com.

I, too, thought this sounded nearly too good to be true, but the program is backed by such rock-solid companies as American Express, Dell, FedEx, Cisco and Marriott. I will be at the Phoenix event: Be sure to say hello.