Three Upcoming Beauty Entrepreneurs accelerated by Sephora’s Program

2017-01-16

Meet Three Incredible Women Entrepreneurs Who Are Taking the Beauty Community by Storm!

Lisa Mattam, Danielle Cohen-Shohet, and Naa-Sakle Akuete are three hard working entrepreneurs that took their ideas and put everything on the line to make their ideas a reality.  The beauty industry is one of the hardest, most competitive industries to break into, but it hasn’t changed these three women at all.  At the Sephora Accelerate Program Event, they were nothing, but kind and supportive of people who aspired to be like them.
For Lisa Mattam, it all started when she saw her daughter covered in face cream.  It worried her that her daughter was putting all those chemicals in her face.  So she showed her the natural and plant-based oils and creams she used as a child.  It was a continuation of a tradition of Lisa’s family, who came from Kerala, India.  Kerala is a place rich in Ayurvedic tradition. It is a 5000-year-old system of medicine, developed in ancient India, and practiced to this day by over 80% of the population. With that came Sahajan, products inspired by Ayurveda but grounded in science. It’s a way to incorporate tradition into everyday life and moving forward while finding balance (without worrying about the ingredients!). 
 Self-confessed beauty junkie, Danielle Cohen-Shohet, did freelance make-up while in college, but after spending months, juggling multiple gigs, Danielle realized independent beauty professionals were particularly jammed.  However, they’re one of the fast growing segments of the freelancing economy and generate a significant amount in revenue. With that, Danielle created GlossGenius to give these pros the technology to overcome the stress, associated with managing and growing their business. GlossGenius is a smart, automated personal assistant that helps beauty professionals manage and grow their businesses.
 
After her mother was diagnosed with cancer in 2014, Naa-Sakle Akuete partnered with her mother to create Eu’Genia Shea, which was dedicated to all natural premium shea butter moisturizers. Its high concentration and quality can help you reap all the benefits of nature’s wonderbalm.  Akuete’s mother Eugenia returned to Ghana, in 2000, to take care of her ailing mother. That same year, Eugenia started Naasakle Ltd., a bulk shea butter company, that has since become a major player in the industry, selling 100 tons a year.  Naa-Sakle knew there was a market for this, and decided the world needed to know about shea butter.  After the first few months, the company received so much press, that Akuete decided to leave her full-time job in finance, and her 401k, to work at Eu’Genia Shea full-time.
These women’s stories show that if you have a good idea, and you know the market is there, you can succeed!  Their drive and initiative should inspire all women entrepreneurs.  Now because of their success, Lisa, Danielle, and Naa-Sakle are paying it forward to present and future entrepreneurs by sitting down with us for a one-on-one interview!
-Maureen L.

Women Entrepreneurs are taking over

2017-01-15

Women are founding companies at very high rate. Since the passing of the 1974 Equal Credit act, women have made such high strides in the entrepreneurial industry. There are just over 9 million women-owned companies in the U.S. Women owned firms have grown at the rate of 1.5 times small businesses and estimated to provide 5.8 million jobs by 2018.

Businesses led by women only make up 30% of the businesses around the world. There is clearly much more work to do.

Here are some stats according to USC Marshall’s Info-graphic about women Entrepreneurs. Along with some great numbers, check out the top women ran businesses!

Top 5 ways to overcoming Fear

2017-01-06


Fear. Fear is something that is caused by insecurities in our mind. There are two ways that we all known that people react to fear;  One way is to run and one way to face it. Today I’m going to tell you 5 tips to overcome these fears.

1.  Proactive

You should do something, Fear is fed on not being active. As an entrepreneur, you need to be acting you need to be out there and you need to constantly move. This does not mean you’re not human, that you are not afraid. This only means that you are free but you were trying to do something about it.
2. Indecisiveness

When we are afraid we tend to make bad decisions or just not any decision. It is good to look at choices sort through the good and bad that those choices come with. Then make a decision. This allows you to move a step forward.

3. The Unknown

Fear is not knowing what exists next. And that unknown causes anxiety. Look at unknown as something good not bad. It is something to discover something to research or find out. Because to know, everything isn’t always great as well.

4. Negativity

Negativity is the biggest food for the soul of the fear. It is like fried chicken and beer. Fear a lot of negativity. They go hand-in-hand obviously, but we can get rid of negativity and lessen the chances year to grow. Think positive even when things are down, even when you’re unsure. Embrace the good side of everything I’m just focused on that.

5. Impossibility

Impossibility is just a place in mind. We must try we must give something a chance and see whether it is actually impossible. Here is where positive thinking comes in please and helps.  If we think positive and think that we can actually make one dent maybe not concur everything but at least make one move, that is a challenge to impossibility.

 

Looking at all these top five ways to conquer your fear, remember that it all starts with you and ends with you. It is the way your mind thinks and what you believe in that actually either works for you or against you in this journey. You need to look within yourself the most, be your best friend, beers on support and once you have yourself on the same page you are able to conquer any obstacle along your way. Never give up, it’s OK to feel, it’s OK to hurt to be afraid that it’s most important to constantly move forward. This is what beer is. It is when you’re still, not moving, stagnant that for your lives and thrives and grows. I have been there,  darkness and it’s very difficult to come out. I have been as an entrepreneur afraid and not know what was next but today I am learning that is OK.

Never give up, it’s OK to feel, it’s OK to hurt, to be afraid; but it is even more important to move forward. This is what fear is. It is when you’re still, not moving, stagnant that for your lives and thrives and grows. I have been there, in the darkness and it’s very difficult to come out. I have been as an entrepreneur afraid and not know what was next but today I am learning that is OK.

This is no place for fear!

Mavens Start now and Procrastinate Later

2017-01-02

My recent feed on Instagram shows my exact mantra in life to always begin. Most people say that I am impulsive and have no patience. That may be true in multiple levels, but I’ll tell you one thing that my impulsiveness has helped, it is my drive in the world of Entrepreneurship. As a beginner with no ways where to go, what idea to chase, my impulsiveness to start has helped me. It just makes me to go and do. It is not that I do not have fears, challenges, anxiety or a plan. It is that if I keep contemplating on what to do with this idea that has popped up in my I will be too late. I  may miss my opportunity and along with this I will not be able to do what I want.

I am an expert at networking, resources, and motivating people to reach the highest at their potentials. All Mavens are great at something, it is for that you should jump into your idea, into the next step in your company. Stop overthinking yourself, and attack the problem and or situation head on.

Beginning something does not mean it will be done in a day. It means you have started, you have proactively taken a step and made into something real. That itself, is enough to make you move and push you to test waters. A beginning is a beautiful thing , it is birth, rejuvenation, overcoming obstacles, or simply an addition. Wherever that you may be in your companies, maybe it is not a company yet or perhaps it is worth millions, start with your thoughts now. This means to investigate, research, become curious of.

Procrastination, holds us back. It is a negative thing, laziness, a trap that our mind itself creates to distract us. It maybe because you are afraid. It may be because you are cautious and are not open to new things. It is okay whatever reason that your mind makes up to hold you back. But retaliate! You are not ordinary! You are a Maven, and mavens do not wait, let alone procrastinate.

As Mavens of Nyc you are all part of a community where you will form bonds and strengths to push one another to overcome whichever obstacles that may come your way. As Mavens you will rise and defeat these procrastination, the quick sand that is holding you back from your success to be nothing short of amazing!

That is exactly the meaning of the word maven, not just an entrepreneur, but a doer a go-geter.

Top Tools to Create Automation for Business

2016-12-30

At some point when you are doing multiple things for your small business, it helps if you have a few hands on board. That is exactly one of the goals for automation, it is to come in and help out with distributing your content and marketing at the various point that you can set at one time. It helps to enhance your digital presence and marketing campaigns. By leveraging email, social media, and web services these tools can help leverage your business.

Social Media 

Hootsuite :

Enhances and automates your social media engagement across more than 35 global networks.This tool identifies social influencers in your market and automates social marketing strategies.

99 Dollar Social

does all that work for you by creating fresh, custom-tailored posts for your business and sharing them on your Social Media accounts like Facebook and Twitter. This automates your social media posting and allows you to get back to doing the most important things you need to.

Email/Communication

MailChimp

Mailchimp is a great tool for email marketing. This is one of the most affordable automation tools among others on this page. You can use its marketing automation features to target customers based on specific data, including behavior, preference, and past sales.You can also use APIs to create custom workflows with scheduling and segmentation tools.

Slack

Slack is a great way to communicate with your team.  Slack offers a free platform for streamlining communication between team members. All of the conversations are threaded and visible by everyone in your organization. This is a powerful automation tool that many businesses are using as an alternative to all the email conversations that take up too much space and create a havoc.

Digital Marketing 

Spokal

Inbound marketing platform can enhance and distribute your content for your WordPress blog. Spokal provides advanced content management and SEO tools to your WordPress site so that it is getting all the buzz that you want it to.You can use this platform’s automated social sharing service to leverage your company’s digital presence across social networks. This platform also integrates with Mailchimp and ActiveCampaign for email campaign and customer retention automation.

Needls

Needls offers you many features, including landing page generation, social media reporting and comprehensive analytics to keep track of your company’s digital presence and outreach. This platform provides a service to “automatically create, target and optimize your digital advertising.

If you have any tools that you find to be helpful and that you love please share! Also, let us know if you like any of these and if they have been helpful to you and your business.

Top 5 Growth Strategies for Small Business

2016-12-27

Growing a small business can be tough. You are managing multiple tasks at one time while trying to make money. These strategies will help you to expand, make more money, provide efficiency, and save time on a small budget. In business, always try and fail. It is a process of trial and error. If you do not try multiple avenues then you will not know which one works and which one does not.  This strategy on its own will help you to grow your business. Always keep your customers in mind. Ask your customers what they want and look for what they are truly interested in.

  1. Segmentation
    This is just that. Do not stick to one method and one avenue. Try multiple ways to reach out to your customers. Although your product might be composed of one hat, it still has multiple designs for that one hat. Meaning, each customer has their own preference within what you are offering. Look into this and then create categories, which will simplify how to reach those group of customers. Segment your market by specific interests, then from there based on what your customers really like and offer them exactly what they are interested in.Segment people into categories of what kind of content they are interested in rather than having a one size fits all.
  2. Automation
    ” First rule of any technology used in a business is automation applied to an efficient operation will magnify the efficiency. Automation applied to an inefficient operation will magnify the inefficiency.” -Bill Gates

    You need to have the process perfected before automation. There are many internet tools to help us to automate. Before we start to just let the machine take over, we must make sure that you have a system intact.

    Some great Automation tools are:
    – Hootsuite
    -Hubspot
    -Infusion Soft
    -Mail Chimp
    -IFTTT

  3. Prioritization:
    Every small business requires one person to put on multiple hats with multiple tasks that are endless. I have found myself sitting at my desk or couch needing to do a list of 20 things. When attempting to do 20 or even 10, I can barely finish 10% of it all. This causes inefficiency and gets nothing done.
    Hence 80/20 rule: 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. For example, if you are doing 10 tasks, 2 of them are more important. Focus on your top two. Pareto Principal, tells you how the 80/20 rule and how it works. How some productive and successful entrepreneurs work and get things done. Eliminate, automate or outsource the rest and only focus on your top two or three.
  4. Narrowing options:
    Giving your customers a few amount of options when starting out is the best way. Kissmetrics blog has written an article about how having too many options. ” Are you losing sales by giving customers too many choices”

    Conversions of how people buy more when you give them fewer choices than more. There is a study on this on kissmetrics. The power is in giving your customers fewer choices.

  5. Diversify Marketing:
    “Content Marketing is the only marketing left” Seth Goldin
    Don’t rely on just paid marketing or customers walk-ins. You must diversify how you are reaching out to your customers. Those ways can be through Content Marketing. Diversify! Social media is the best way along with podcasts, blog, youtube, Instagram, and FB page. People are more interested in content rather than ads.

What is the role of a Leader?

2016-12-24

I have come across many bosses working in different companies and dealing with many people of high positions. The thing about work and business is that anyone can be a boss, but that is not what we need in a stable, healthy company environment. The truth is that we need a leader, not a boss. As Entrepreneurs, we need to have a great grasp at this state of being. What is a leader? What is a leader’s goal?

Having to run few companies myself this is what I have come down to:

  1. INSPIRATION

Your most important role is to provide your team inspiration through thick and thin. One needs to be a constant cheerleader, pushing each and every member to believe in themselves, in the company and the goal of the company.

2. LEAD BY EXAMPLE

This a build on inspiration. When you inspire, you also lead by example. I do not tell my team what to do but rather I work with them or “command” not demand. Most people believe that to be a CEO or owner means to tell people what to do, this couldn’t be furthest from the truth. You need to work along with your team, guide them, push them forward and work along with them. The key to major success. This, in turn, provides a positive environment where you and your team can overcome any obstacles in order to succeed. Also, you need to do as you preach and not just preach, this is a very bad example. The last thing you want your team to think and feel is distrust and not believe in your words.

3. OWN YOUR MISTAKES

Everyone makes mistakes, we are all human beings and that is completely fine. The best part about mistakes is that we get a chance to learn from them. In business, and as an entrepreneur you will make many mistakes, it is part of learning. You grow and become amazing from these mistakes. Therefore, it is important to own up to your mistakes and accept them. A leader always takes full accountability for his/her actions. Be able to apologize as well, it is important to be humble, and have no problem apologizing. It is human, most people relate to humans. Show gratitude, empathy and be “real”. No need to be negative and criticize unless it is constructive criticism.

4.UNITY

It is highly important to have unity in the workplace. There needs to be a form of unity and togetherness. When you have cohesiveness, you rise, you conquer obstacles no matter what. People at work, all need to feel like they are part of a team working towards the same goal. With the right inspiration and empowerment to your team, you will get their loyalty back. Loyalty has no price! Hence the saying ” United we stand, dived we fall”