Are you making the most of your website?

At the heart of Enterprising Women’s recent networking event, which brought together entrepreneurial women from the EW community, was an invaluable presentation on ‘Making the most of your website’ by Liz White of E-Design Consultancy. It’s not enough nowadays just to have a website – you really need to make the most of it especially as more and more people are using the internet as their main information, communication, entertainment and e-commerce resource. So how do we make our websites really effective? Here’s some tips from our event:

1) Build your website for your customer – not for you.
2) Know who your visitors are by analysing your website statistics.
3) Update your website regularly with new content – this will encourage search engines to visit your site and help to rank your pages higher in search results.
4) Personalise your copy, using ‘you’ instead of ‘they’.
5) Make sure it’s easy to navigate around your site.
6) Make your site accessible to alternative technologies e.g. readable text.
7) Use good quality copy, but try not to duplicate it.
8) Ensure important copy isn’t added to an image or in flash as search engines can’t read this.
9) Be page specific – incorporate keywords in the individual page copy, title, headings and links. Be careful not to overfill your copy with keywords as the quality is still more important.
10) Try to get links to your website added to good quality sites that are highly ranked and that are relevant to your business.

This is only the tip of the iceberg, so if you want to share your ideas, add them to our blog. We’d also love to know what your favourite websites are and why. To learn more about website development, visit the Enterprising Women Resource Centre.

Top of the class!

It seems that women are excelling in the area of intellectual pursuits, considerably outperforming their male counterparts. It has been reported that women are gaining a higher proportion of places at top universities and are achieving higher grades in their degrees in comparison to men. Is this because we now have more opportunities, are more focused on what we want, more determined or are simply smarter?

The Higher Education Policy Institute’s report challenges the notion that men dominate the top subjects and institutions, revealing that women outnumber men in high-status subjects including law and medicine. And staying with the subject of medicine, it has also been reported this month that in 4 years time, half of all GPs will be women, who reportedly make up 40% of all doctors to date. And by 2017, women will be in the majority.

From doctors to showbiz, women have also dominated the media with their impressive performances on a number of top shows; Yasmina fighting her way to the top in The Apprentice; University Challenge’s brain box, Gail Trimble, who was said to be the cleverest contestant of all times; and now Nancy Dickmann, winner of Mastermind 2009. Nancy Dickmann, a children’s publisher, boasted the highest score of the series after breezing through her specialist questions on The Lewis and Clark Expedition, 1804-06.

So what are your views on women being top of the class? Let us know what your experiences are.

Economic recovery or meltdown?

Over the last few days, we’ve heard contradicting reports about the economy. The National Institute of Economic and Social Research has suggested we are now recovering from the recession as the UK economy enters a period of growth. Reports from the manufacturing and property sectors support these claims and it has been predicted that the official GDP figures could now return to growth in the third quarter, ahead of the Chancellor’s own predictions in the Budget.

However, it’s also been reported this week that 350,000 jobs in the public sector could be cut, UK unemployment has reached a 12-year high and that the airline, British Airways, has asked its staff to work for a month without pay due to the economic crisis.

With this national picture developing, how do your experiences of running a business in the current economic climate compare? Do you feel you’re coming out of the recession? Or are you still finding new ways of working on a shoe-string?

Some of Britain’s top entrepreneurs are still preparing for a tough year ahead according to a report carried out by accountants, Baker Tilly. However, although most businesses appear to be taking a cautious approach, they are refusing to allow the recession to dampen their ambitions and plans.

Networking Success!

Yesterday, members of Enterprising Women came together in what was a vibrant and buzzing networking event. So many women entrepreneurs have extolled the importance of face-to-face contact in building successful business relationships. So our event was valuable on two networking fronts; it gave us the opportunity to meet with other members of the EW community in a relaxed and welcoming setting; and it also included an inspirational and interactive session led by EW member, Dee Clayton on networking success.

Connecting with people is at the heart of all our businesses and being able to communicate clearly helps to establish and grow business relationships. To connect with people more effectively, it’s good to put yourself in their shoes. Knowing who your audience is, matching your language to suit them, and finding the best way to get your message across, can help you all to connect. And humour can also be a great way to break down barriers and create a bond.

And I’m sure we’ve all experienced, at some time or other, self-doubts in our heads when we’ve had to present to others, casting up worst case scenarios. Dee referred to these as our ‘monkeys’ which affect our confidence, and need to be controlled through positive-thinking, planning, practising and praising ourselves.

A great example: What if your best friend had presented to a room of people? Would you say, ‘that was boring, you weren’t clear enough, it went on for too long’? No, in short. You’d be supportive and proud they had made a great effort. So why are we so unforgiving and hard on ourselves? We can be our own worst enemies, but in order to build confidence, praise your efforts and attempts. At least you tried which is more than some!

Let’s hear about your networking experiences and what works for you. To come along to the next EW networking event on 25th June, visit Enterprising Women. And contact Dee Clayton for more info on her presentation and courses.

Jobs for the boys? Claims of sexism in the government overshadow reshuffle

As Harold Wilson once famously said, "a week is a long time in politics". So Gordon Brown must feel he’s stuck in a nightmarish Groundhog Day with one disaster after another.

Last week saw minister after minister leaving the cabinet, as support crumbles away in the midst of the expense fiasco. Among those who resigned are 4 women ministers – Jacqui Smith (first woman to have taken up the post of Home Secretary), Hazel Blears, Caroline Flint and Beverley Hughes.

And they haven’t gone quietly. Caroline Flint accused the PM of treating her like ‘female window dressing’ in her extraordinary exit. This attack on alleged sexism has received mixed reactions with some believing she has undermined the long battle of equality in politics with her petulance. Others have supported her claims of casual chauvinism and sexism within the government.

Jacqui Smith raised the point that not enough women are in top cabinet jobs, which is certainly the case now. Since Friday’s reshuffle, only Yvette Cooper is in charge of a large spending department. And with less than 20% of MPs in Britain being women, has this reshuffle damaged women’s prospects within politics? But bearing in mind that the government is in a unique state of transition and instability, could women use the circumstances to their advantage?

Well, the reshuffle certainly hasn’t damaged Peter Mandelson’s prospects as he was effectively propelled to deputy prime minister status. Or some even argue he is the real PM now saying he’s been integral in influencing the reshuffle and supporting Brown who’s apparently ‘paralysed with indecision’. Whilst Blairites like Purnell turned against Brown, Mandelson has stayed loyal...so is it jobs for the boys?

Yasmina shows her entrepreneurial flair

At the end of 12 gruelling weeks of the ‘job interview from hell’, Yasmina was crowned Sir Alan Sugar’s next Apprentice. In Sir Alan's eyes, she's proved that she has the ‘indefinable’ entrepreneurial spirit, already boasting a successful restaurant business of her own. Sir Alan might have seen his own qualities reflected in her; considerable business acumen, leadership skills and a nose for finance...if not chocolate flavours.

This may also go someway to explaining his comment, 'My instincts are telling me that Yasmina's the right one for the job'. Although her determination and focus were etched on her face throughout, was she chosen on a 'gut feeling' and, if so, is this fair to her opponent, Kate, who performed flawlessly?

However, in some ways, her entrepreneurial spirit almost cost her the job. Throughout the process, it felt like Sir Alan was analysing why Yasmina was there. A successful entrepreneur who makes all her own decisions, who is her own boss – why loose this ‘freedom’ in order to work for someone else? Would you?

It’s been an exciting series and a testimony to the achievement of women in business. It was also announced this week that women are excelling academically with both more women attending University and getting higher grades than men.

So do you feel that the right woman became the Apprentice? Lets hear your comments!

Welcome to the EW blog!

Hello all! Welcome to the Enterprising Women blog where we’ll be holding lively discussions on everything from The Apprentice (if you get time to watch it!) to all the news and hot tips we hear about.

We know you’re all flat out with your businesses so we want to give you a really quick way to get your point across and share in our community discussions. So come and blog with us!

Let us know what you think of our website, which we’re currently redeveloping and the courses that we’re offering.

Visit our website at Enterprising Women and keep checking the blog for more updates and discussions – make sure you watch The Apprentice this week as it’s the final between two professional women battling it out to work for the Entrepreneurship Tsar, Sir Alan Sugar.