You’ve started your own business, built a website—maybe even created an app. You’ve used social media, friends and relatives, neighbors and acquaintances all to help spread the word. Maybe you’ve hired an employee, maybe a bunch. You’ve got a lawyer, an accountant, but the one thing you don’t have is a profit.
Today on ‘Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg’ Whitney Keyes, author and Member of the National Women’s Business Council, and Ritu Narayan, the CEO of on-demand childcare company ZUM discussed how to propel business forward:
“There’s so much focus on women bringing kids to work. I love seeing a man in a powerful position standing up for his family.”
“Women need to ‘lean into’ the child care space by helping it grow.”
“Businesses are in the business of making money and they need to do it in a more responsible way.”
“Passion for me has ebbed and flowed.”
“My first job was to be out in the community and help small business stay in business.”
“I had a fantastic female employer who taught me how to be passionate in government and business.”
“About 10 years ago I left Microsoft and starting exploring helping minorities in business—women, youth, people of color.”
“I was working on big, important projects but I felt there was no challenge to working to working in a major corporation.”
“I like a little bit of a challenge.”
“I read a great book called, ‘Now Discover Your Strengths.’ I wasn’t using my core strengths.”
“Propel was my company tied to my book. I saw a lot of common mistakes being made where time, money and resources were being wasted.”
“People called me ‘Miss Robin Hood’ because I took business ideas from big corporations and gave them to small business.”
“The National Women’s Business Council shows growth and development trends.”
“10 million women own businesses. 91% of women owned businesses have no employees.”
“Even when I worked in corporate America I worked in entrepreneurial pockets.”
“A lot of research is out there on how women and men do social networking. Even face to face networking.”
“It’s important to focus on quality over quantity. Women are good at going out and meeting people, but what they need are connections.”
“Women are not very good at cultivating diverse partners, which means even gender. Women sometimes need men to be powerful allies.”
“Women are not very good at continuing to build ongoing relationships. We can’t just stop.”
“NWBC created a free social networking toolkit to help identify and fix gaps.”
“The first thing I focus on is strategy.”
“As you grow, get clear on your story and your message.”
“Sometimes as we grow we get too busy to manage our story. Cultivate your message on social media.”
“The ability to propel business also comes from additional funding.”
“The Small Business Association has hundreds of resources for women small business owners.”
“I love the combination of old technology versus new tech.”
“Before I started Zum I was working with Oracle, Yahoo, and eBay. I gravitated toward new projects.”
“You can make an impact if you have the infrastructure of a big company. They provide intra-preneurial opportunities inside the company.”
“My daughter was transitioning to school, my son was already in school. I needed a trust-worthy nanny to take them to school and various activities. It impacts your career.”
“If we have an online marketplace for products, why can’t we have one that is for trustworthy child care.”
“We have iOS and Android apps which give parents a Family Assistant.
“We vet all of our drivers and do background checks.”
“Parents need consistent help, not random people at different times, so we have a small pool of drivers that each family receives.”
“Parents can track their child’s ride, alert teachers.”
“Trust is the number one concern. It is our underlying theme for Zum.”
“Growth has been primarily through word of mouth from parents.”
“The service is local in nature, so you have to balance the drivers and parents.”
“We have identified 16 different cities we’d like to grow in. Our plan is definitely to expand.”
“We are using digital media and social media to gather the demand.”
“7% of total venture funding goes to women businesses. The numbers are not at an advantage.”
“Initially our thoughts were increase the number then go for funding.”
“Have the confidence to raise the funding in various stages.”
“Communicate your vision clearly to funders. It’s very important.”
“I took whatever skills I had in financial modeling and got a lot of help.”
“Whatever skills you don’t have, partner with others who do to create a solid pitch.”
“It is harder for women—especially if you’re starting a business that can relate to women—to get funding.”
“Just go for it. You have an itch about a problem, if you don’t solve it the problem won’t be solved.”
“If you passionately get up every day about your cause, passionate people will join you.”
Join ‘Dot Complicated with Randi Zuckerberg’ as she rounds out Women’s History Month with Alicia Carr of Purple Evolution and Elizabeth Ferrao, co-founder of Women Who Code NYC. Wednesday, March 30th at 12pm ET only on SiriusXM Business Channel 111.
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