She Takes On The World Has Moved!

She Takes On The World has officially moved! Thank you for your patience as I have migrated over to Wordpress. Please subscribe to the new feed here or visit the new site at www.shetakesontheworld.net. Thank you for reading and I hope you will enjoy the new site! As always, any questions or comments you have can be directed to natalie[at]shetakesontheworld.com. Thanks for your support! :)

10 Questions to Ask Yourself About Your Business or Blog

The all new She Takes On The World is almost ready! In the meantime, I've been asking myself some important questions about my business (and blog) and putting together a plan. I think these 10 questions are important to revisit from time to time as somewhat of a check-up for your business or blog.

1) What is my competitive advantage?

2) What tools or ideas can I take from my competitors?

3) What new tools and services could I be using to get my message out there?

4) What words do I use to describe my business or blog?

5) Who are my mentors?

6) Who can I ask for help and advice?

7) What motivates and inspires my target market or readers?

8) Who could I partner with to grow my business or blog?

9) Can I make any improvements to the look of my website, blog, or branding package?

10) What is my ultimate goal that I’m working towards?

She Takes On The World Update

Dear readers,

Thank you so much for subscribing and being part of She Takes On The World. I am in the process of moving over to Wordpress to prepare for a relaunch of She Takes On The World toward the end of next week. Making the transition to Wordpress and revamping the blog will make it an even better resource for entrepreneurial women around the world. I am currently looking for guest bloggers who have an area of expertise that they would like to share. Guest blogging is a great way to promote your business too! If you're interested, please email me your post idea at Natalie[at]SheTakesOnTheWorld.com.

Lastly, She Takes On The World has been nominated for the Social Luxe Lounge Blog Awards. I would really appreciate your vote! Please click here to vote. Voting is allowed once per day for the month of June so please vote early and often ;)

Thank you all for your support!

Natalie MacNeil

Stress-Test Your Financial Future

This is a guest post by the ladies at Women & Co. about planning for retirement. You are never too young (or too old) to plan for retirement or financial freedom. I aspire to be financially free by the time I'm 30 and I have a plan in place that keeps my eyes on the prize. If you haven't started thinking about that day where you no longer have to work (although you may still want to work), I hope these tips will help.

Summer is just around the corner, but that’s no excuse to take a vacation from checking up on your retirement plan. A recent Women & Co. study found that women feel personal traits — hard work, discipline and intelligence — are more important to financial success than external factors such as education, family and luck. So when it comes to achieving a comfortable retirement, it’s up to you to stay in the driver’s seat.

Lisa Caputo, Founder, Chairman and CEO of Women & Co., and Linda Descano, CFA®, President and COO of Women & Co., offer the following 5 steps you can use today to help ensure financial security tomorrow:

1. Know Your Numbers: Calculate how much retirement savings you will need in order to live comfortably for an average of 20–30 years. Remember, women typically spend more years in retirement and need to plan accordingly. Inflation will lessen the value of your money over time. Historically, the inflation rate is about 3% so be sure to factor that into your calculation*. Once you know your number, determine how much you should be saving monthly and annually to achieve it.

2. Maximize Contributions: Contribute the maximum amount to your employer-sponsored retirement plan each year and take advantage of any employer match that is available to you. This is particularly important for women who are more likely to take time out of the workforce to care for family members. Take advantage of “catch up” rules — if you’re 50 or older — that allow you to put even more money into your retirement plan.

3. Review Your Benefits: Make sure you know the types of benefits you will be entitled to from your pension plans (from both current and past employers), as well as the Social Security Administration (ssa.gov), once you reach retirement age. Check your annual Social Security benefit statement for accuracy.

4. Cover the Long-Term: Plan for the unexpected. Be aware that Medicare, health insurance, and/or disability insurance often do not cover long term care costs (e.g., nursing home and assisted living). Learn about long-term care insurance and evaluate whether it is suitable for your situation.

5. Make a Date: Your retirement plan should evolve along with you so it’s important to evaluate it regularly. Meet with your financial advisor a minimum of once a year to reassess, and perhaps rebalance, your retirement plan in response to your changing life goals and needs.

*Inflationdata.com, 2009

About Women & Co.

Women & Co. is a financial resource program from Citi, dedicated to helping women achieve their financial goals. Women & Co. provides members with education on a vast array of financial and investing topics, which members access through womenandco.com, where members can read newsletters, listen to audio conferences, and find out about Master Class seminars in major metropolitan areas.

How To Find a Mentor on Twitter

Mentors have been an invaluable part of my success. The best mentors are those who are successful in your industry, brutally honest, and can teach you some powerful lessons. Thanks to web 2.0 platforms like Twitter, connecting with mentors is easier than ever before. Everyone is on twitter these days. If you’re not –you should be (get started by signing up for a membership here).

If you are using twitter properly and engaging in conversations rather than just using it for self promotion you can make a good impression on experts in your field by retweeting and replying to their tweets. That’s not to say self promotion is bad –it’s certainly not. You just have to keep it balanced.

Try this: Find 5 new successful people who you admire and can learn from in your industry. Follow them on twitter. Take time to respond to their tweets and engage in conversation so you show up on their radar. Think of a few questions that you would like to ask an expert about your business or industry. Pick the person who you think could best answer your question and direct the question at them. Chances are you will get a response and learn something new. I have met so many fabulous people by doing this on twitter.

How are you using twitter to build your business?

***Connect with new people on twitter by leaving your twitter url in a comment below. Follow me @nataliemacneil

How to Make Marketing Decisions as an Entrepreneur

My awesome business partner, Eric Janssen, put together this post and slide show about entrepreneurial marketing and the information you need to know in order to make marketing decisions as an entrepreneur. As entrepreneurs and freelancers, I feel that sometimes we need to go back to the basics and this slide show will hopefully help you do that and find your focus.

Marketing for entrepreneurs isn’t as simple as it used to be. Marketing media is changing daily, and under the influence of social media, marketing will never be the same. This post is not a cutting-edge way to advertise your new business, it’s a look at the information you need to know to make marketing decisions. Marketing is the connection that you have with your customers. You need to understand your customers in order to reach them effectively.

Entrepreneurial Marketing

View more presentations from guest435ee66.

Personality Type: The Secret to Finding a Truly Satisfying Career Part 2

This is the second part of two guest posts by Paul D. Tieger. Read the first post on personality type here. The author of five books on Personality type and the preeminent expert in this field, Paul has helped over one million people find career satisfaction and success. Paul is also the creator of PersonalityType.com and the PersonalityType.com Assessment, a quick and accurate instrument which has been validated by over fifty thousand online users.

Personality Type is not new. It’s been around for more than fifty years. Nor is it some whacky pop-psychology fad. If it were, it wouldn’t be used daily by eighty-nine percent of the Fortune 100 Companies to help their employees be more productive and successful in their careers.

You might ask: “If matching a career with my values, interests and skills doesn’t work, how does knowing my Personality Type help?” For two reasons: first (unlike the other three) your Type does not change. Sure, you mature as you grow older, but your core needs, the way you’re hardwired to think and act, what motivates and is important to you, your natural, in-born talents as well as those activities that energize and drain you, all remains constant. For example, the quiet, thoughtful five-year old who loved reading science fiction and assembling model space ships, might grow up to be a very satisfied and successful scientist. Likewise, the outgoing, persuasive seven year-old who sold more Girl Scout cookies than anyone else in her school, may well turn out be a top business development person.

Second, when your job is a good fit for your type, it energizes you. You look forward to going to work and are much more likely to succeed. The opposite is also true. When your job is not a good fit for your type, your work drains your energy, makes you prone to burnout and you’re much less likely to be successful.

Maybe you’ve overheard people talking in what sounded like an “alphabet soup” of letters: “ESTJs…”INFPs”….These actually stand for two of the sixteen types. Learning about your type can help you in real and concrete ways including, understanding just what you need in a career for it to be satisfying, determining which careers work best for you, knowing how to capitalize on your work-related strengths compensate for your weaknesses, and using your strengths to conduct a much more successful job search.

If you’re curious to know your type and which careers are right for you, simply log onto personalitytype.com to take a free, quick and accurate personality type assessment. It will definitely change the way you think about work… forever.

I would just like to thank Paul Tieger for writing these posts. Knowing your personality type gives you an idea of what kind of business you would be good at running as well for any entrepreneurs out there who are still wondering what type of business you should start. What is your opinion on personality type and career satisfaction? Do you think knowing your personality type can help you make a better decision about what you want to do in your life?

Knowing Your Personality Type Part 1: The Secret to Finding a Truly Satisfying Career

This is the first part of two guest posts by Paul D. Tieger. Paul Tieger changed how career counseling is conducted around the world. The author of five books on Personality type and the preeminent expert in this field, Paul has helped over one million people find career satisfaction and success. On any given day, Do What You Are is the most or second most popular career book on Amazon.com. Paul is also the creator of PersonalityType.com and the PersonalityType.com Assessment, a quick and accurate instrument which has been validated by over fifty thousand online users.

Until recently, career professionals believed a satisfying career was one that matched a person’s values, interests and skills with the job. While this sounds good, there’s one problem: it just doesn’t work for most people. For two reasons: as it turns out, these “big three” – values, interests and skills – are not the most important factors, and they all change over time.

In the United States people are asked to make important career decisions way too early. In high school, students have to decide whether or not to go to college, and once in college, are required to declare a major by their sophomore year. Thus at twenty-years old, students routinely make important life decisions that set in motion a career trajectory that many find difficult to change. (This is not a knock on twenty-year olds! I’m just suggesting that most people don’t usually get a handle on who they are and what’s really important to them, until much later in life.)

So, the lucky ones graduate, land a job in “their field” and begin working. As they get married and have families, understandably the values they held at twenty are often replaced by new ones. And as they experience more of life, they also develop new interests and skills.

Before they know it, they’re in their forties with other mouths to feed, a mortgage and car payments to make with fresh worries about how to pay for their kids’ education and their retirement. And although studies show that less than half of all workers would choose the same job if they could have a “do over”, there are many good reasons why so many people stay right where they are: looking for a job can be a full-time job in itself, society applauds stability and disapproves of risk-taking, people grow accustomed to a certain lifestyle, and many just don’t see a lot of viable options – especially in a tight job market.

So, they stay in unfulfilling jobs and “run out the clock” looking forward to retirement. Unfortunately, due to the sharp economic downturn, it’s not unusual for people to continue working well into their sixties and seventies. The point is: most of us will have to work for a long time: we might as well enjoy it!

“So, if matching a job with my values, interests and skills will not lead me to a satisfying career, what will help me find work that uses my natural talents and really excites me?”

Enter personality type...

You may be surprised to learn that everyone is born with one of sixteen different Personality Types. And although all individuals are unique, people of the same “type” are remarkably similar in important ways – especially with regards to their “career satisfiers” – those elements in a job they need in order to find satisfaction and success.

Stay tuned for part two of this post. I find personality type to be so interesting. My personality type is ENFJ which stands for extravert, intuitive, feeling, judging. The description and "suggested careers" fit what I am doing perfectly. No wonder I love my job so much :)

What do you think about personality type and career?

Leveraging Your Femininity to Build You Inc.

The latest issue of Personal Branding Magazine is here and this issue is unique because it's all about female power brands and features some fabulous women entrepreneurs. I was asked to write an article for the issue about femininity and brand building. Here's an excerpt from my article, Leveraging Your Femininity to Build You Inc.:

...Leveraging your femininity has a lot to do with your image but it’s also about leveraging the inherent differences that make us unique from our male counterparts. According to a study by scholar Lesley Sykes, female leaders score higher than male leaders in areas like empathy, interpersonal relationships, and social responsibility. Women’s interpersonal skills are necessary for developing business partnerships and client relationships while empathy has been directly linked to stronger business performance according to The Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organizations. Ultimately, the feminine leadership style is the epitome of trust building which is the most crucial part of building a respected brand...

I believe that femininity can be a huge asset to building your brand and should be embraced and flaunted. Agree? Disagree? I'd love to hear your thoughts.

You can get a free sample of this latest issue of Personal Branding Magazine here.

Happy Earth Day!

I try to do my part for the earth and reduce my ecological footprint by doing things like walking to work and buying local produce. One of my goals this year was to use more eco-friendly products in my day to day life. Many friends and colleagues share in this goal. If you read Fabulously Broke in the City, FB talks about this once in awhile. I’ve spoke to many people who have not been 100% satisfied with the eco-friendly products they have tried and say they aren't as effective as chemical based cleaners. I’ve been trying products since early in the year and I have finally found a winner and being that it's Earth Day I thought I would share it with you. ATTITUDE is a line of cleaning supplies by a Montreal based company, Bio Spectra and you can currently get a $1 off coupon if you go to the site.

The grapefruit and bergamot dishwashing liquid is one of my favourite products. It has a really nice grapefruit smell that makes the kitchen smell clean and citrus-y. I also like the passionfruit natural air purifier. It's a block that contains activated carbon and essential oils that absorb smoke, mildew, chemicals, paint, etc. According to the World Health Organization, indoor air pollution causes 1.6 million annual deaths worldwide. I believe our homes should be the safest places in the world and having clean air to breathe is essential for good health. I've also been using the disinfectant and bathroom cleaner and I am just in love with these products. I've actually enjoyed cleaning these last few weeks which is something I thought I would never say!

I also started reading Go Green, Live Rich by David Bach today. It's amazing how much money you can save by being more environmentally conscious. He talks about saving money by sealing leaks and doing home repairs, adjusting your thermostat and then investing the money that you save. How did you celebrate Earth Day and what are you doing on a regular basis to live "green?"

In Her Heels: Interview with Linda Ockwell-Jenner

You can find out more about Linda and Motivational Steps at www.motivationalsteps.com. While you're there, listen to one of her motivational podcasts, Motivational Moments. A special thank you to Linda for taking the time out of her busy schedule for this interview.

Failure Leads to Success

"Entrepreneurs average 3.8 failures before final success. What sets the successful ones apart is their amazing persistence. There are a lot of people out there with good and marketable ideas, but pure entrepreneurial types almost never accept defeat." ~Lisa Amos

One of the biggest lessons I've learned as an entrepreneur is to never be afraid of failing. I find it ironic when I meet entrepreneurs who took the risk and started a business but are terrified of failure.

On the Garage Entrepreneurs blog this week we argued that the best entrepreneurs to learn from are not the ones who did everything right. A few people disagreed while others shared stories about learning from failure.

One of my businesses failed for many of the classic reasons why businesses fail -undercapitalization, wrong team, lack of a solid plan, and trying to do too much. Looking back, I learned a lot about how not to run a business. I feel that the bit of success I am having now is, in part, owed to that failure.

My Rules of Failing

1. Fail fast- but not too fast. Try something new but when your gut is telling you that it isn't working, admit it, accept it, and move on. If, however, you have a lot of confidence in the product and your gut instinct is to stick with it, I believe in listening to your intuition. Case in point: 3M's Post-It Notes. The adhesive for Post-Its was invented in 1968 by Dr. Spencer Silver at 3M. In 1974, Art Fry developed Silver's invention into the "sticky note." It launched in 1977 but failed. A year later they learned from the mistakes that were made with the first launch and tried again. By 1980 the product was a success and continues to sell around the world as one of 3M's top selling products. If 3M would have completely given up on this idea that failed in the beginning, I may not be looking at all these colourful "to do" Post-Its on my computer and desk right now.

2. Fail cheap. The last thing you want when you invest in anything is to lose money but failing often costs money. The key is finding low cost ways to test the products among your target market to see if it has potential in the first place. A local company wanted to test a product last year. They invited people to come to a "test party." Each guest was paid $50.00 cash to go to the party and provide feedback on the product. This is a pretty affordable way of testing your product. The internet makes it even more affordable to test a product. If you have read The 4 Hour Workweek by Timothy Ferriss you might remember him discussing how he tested his product using Google AdWords. If you're curious about how to do this, read Steve Barsh's series, 5 Surprising Ways to De-Risk Your New Idea Using Google AdWords.

3. Conduct a post mortum. Look at what went right and what should have been done differently. Talk about it with your partners. Write it down and make a "fail report." Own your mistakes and don't be quick to place blame. Be forgiving. Review your Fail Report before launching your next venture or product.

4. Move forward. Don't dwell on what could have been. Plan your next move and...

5. Don't be afraid to fail again.

Interview with Janine Keller Ng of Blue Skies Yoga

Janine Keller Ng is the Chief Dreamer at Blue Skies Yoga and the Eco Store. It is a fitting title for this passionate entrepreneur who writes in a dream book. When I sat down with Janine she told me that 5 years ago she had this dream to one day have a Yoga and Wellness Centre like the one she has now but didn't think it would happen so quickly. With the success of Blue Skies Yoga and the online Eco Store, Janine is proof that dreams really do come true.

How did Blue Skies Yoga get started?

It started when I was in university. I didn’t know what I wanted to do so I went to a career counselor. We did an exercise to connect my passions and one of the connections that came up was children and yoga. That really hit me and I knew that’s what I was meant to do. I did my certification and started teaching. I was fortunate to find a husband that also loves yoga and we began running our own business and renting out studio rooms to teach classes. The space we have now was presented to us through a persistent real estate agent. When we saw it we knew we had found our home. It was meant to be.

Do you specialize in teaching children or do you offer classes for everyone?

We like to specialize and children’s yoga is a lot of fun. We “bark” when we do the dog poses and we read and sing throughout the class. We have an instructor that specializes in yoga for children. I teach post and pre-natal classes. We also have a variety of classes for adults so there is something for everyone.

What are your goals moving forward?

The main goal we have is to work with people of all abilities. Our space is wheelchair accessible and that is really important to us. We also want to visit schools because it’s a good age to share health and wellness practices so that healthy living becomes a routine. We want to work with community organizations that are making a difference and offer free yoga classes to volunteers as a way of giving back to people in the community.

The Eco Store is an integral part of Blue Skies Yoga . Can you tell us more about that?

We started the Eco Store because my husband and I had a difficult time finding products that are environmentally friendly and reduce your ecological footprint. We have relationships with our suppliers which allows us to offer great customer service. If you buy a water bottle from any store and it leaks, chances are you'll need to buy a new water bottle. If you buy one of our SIGG bottles we can get you replacement parts and if there is a problem with the bottle we can send it back to the manufacturer. The Eco-Store has grown the fastest for us and we ship a variety of eco-friendly products around the world.

Do you have a favourite product from the store? I know you have a lot of delicious teas, do you have a favourite?

My favourite tea is the 100 Mysteries tea. It has almonds in it so we make sure people who have nut allergies don’t drink it. The company that makes these specialty teas call the teas a “journey in every cup.” The teas have high notes and low notes and they are so flavourful. You won't want to drink other tea after you try these. The other thing I enjoy are the Reisenthel carrybags. They fold flat so you can travel with them and keep them in your car for when you need them. All of the products are available online at www.BlueSkiesYoga.com/EcoStore.

What is a day like in your heels?

My husband and I wake up and do yoga. We eat breakfast together and then I usually go into the studio to teach a class. Some days I get to go home for lunch and other days I have administration work to do. I also have to ship orders from the Eco Store. In the evening I teach again. When I get home I walk my dog and then I get to lay down.

Thank you Janine. I wish you continued success!

With Earth Day just around the corner, Blue Skies Yoga and the Eco Store have some great products available that can help you live a more eco-friendly and balanced life. They offer worldwide shipping so you can order these great products from wherever you are in the world. Visit them at www.blueskiesyoga.com.

Rock Your Best Body For Spring

This is a guest post by health contributor, Vesna Dodevska. Vesna is also offering some of her iPod workouts to you for free! These workouts are perfect for busy women. You can download the workouts here.

The truth is, nearly all women have cellulite. It sort of looks like an orange peel. It is not related to obesity and can be found in both skinny and overweight women. It normally stores itself on thighs, hips and the buttocks. It is more common in women than men. Let's be honest: It is very hard to get rid off! Even though it is extremely difficult to get rid of entirely, here are some tips to minimize it.

1. Drink H2O: Drink 6-8 glasses of water per day to keep your blood circulating and reduce toxin accumulation. If water is too boring then try herbal teas or add a slice of lemon to your water. Watermelon is really good as well as it is 90% water.

2. Exercise: Putting on a few pounds on can make your cellulite appear worse. A combination of leg toning exercises with cardio activity is the best for keeping that cellulite off. Try to exercise daily if possible.

3. Eat more protein: Water retention can be a part of your cellulite problem. Protein can help as it contains albumin, which helps absorb excess fluid. Try eating fish, lean meats, chicken, tempeh or tofu.

4. Quit Smoking: Smoking can worsen cellulite as it cuts off your skin's food supply and floods your body with toxins. This can have a detrimental effect on the elasticity of your skin, worsening cellulite. Smoking will also damage your skin by causing premature wrinkles.

5. Body Brush: A body brush helps remove dead skin cells, stimulates blood circulation and boosts your lymphatic flow. Use 3x a week to help with cellulite.

6. Essential Fatty Acids: Their benefits are enormous. In terms of cellulite, they help to strengthen the connective tissues around fat cells making them less dimply. Take 2-3 teaspoons of fish oil daily.

Vesna is a personal trainer in the Greater Toronto Area and is the founder of Trainerpack.com, a website that offers personal training for women using the convenience of an iPod. Vesna holds a CHEK Institute Exercise Coach Certification, as well as a Nutrition and Lifestyle Level 1 Certificate. She also is a graduate of the Ted Rogers School of Business Management at Ryerson University, having earned a Bachelor of Commerce Degree with a major in Entrepreneurship.

To Incorporate or Not To Incorporate?

That is the most important question when it comes to structuring a business. I have run a business as a sole proprietorship, partnership, and corporation. In Canada we don't have the LLC structure so I can't give much insight into an LLC.

I love the ease of a sole proprietorship. This is the simplest business structure and can only be used when the business is yours and yours alone. You aren't "double taxed" like a corporation. All income is considered to be your income and you pay income tax based on the tax bracket your income falls into. There are a lot of things you can claim when you own a business and you should work with an accountant to pay the least amount of tax possible. The downside to being a sole proprietor is having unlimited liability. This means your personal assets are put at risk if you are sued or default on loan payments. This is the easiest and most common structure for freelancers and people running small businesses from home.

A partnership is similar in structure to a sole proprietorship except with more than one person obviously. The business isn't taxed but you are each taxed individually depending on what income bracket you fall into. The partners decide the percentage of income that goes to each partner. At least one partner will have unlimited liability but you may choose to bring on limited liability partners as well. If there is an investor involved, they will often want to be a limited liability partner. There are a couple important points to make about partnerships. Choose partners that complement your skills and can handle a different aspect of the business than you. Working with family or friends isn't always a good idea because you may get along great but not complement each others' skills. Also, a partnership agreement is a must even if you're working with people you know very well. You need to protect yourself.

A corporation is the most complex business structure and the paperwork can seem overwhelming but the corporate structure offers you the most protection. For small businesses, the biggest disadvantage is having to pay corporate taxes on profit as well as personal income tax on your earnings. Corporations are separate entities and therefore offer the founders a lot of protection especially if the business is sued. Some people mistakenly believe partners are not liable for any loans of the corporation but this is usually not the case. Try getting a loan for a corporation from a bank without having to personally back it. You probably won't have much luck. One last note about corporations: if you want to land big contracts or be a consultant to established companies, operating as a corporation gives you much more credibility. Some companies even require you to operate as a corporation to work with them.

Deciding on a structure for your business is something you should not take lightly. Do a lot of research and discuss structure options thoroughly with your partners if you have any. If you have further questions about these structures or my experience with each structure, feel free to ask. I'd be more than happy to help.