A few months ago, I was contacted by reader Elizabeth Gordon about the possibility of the Shotgun Marketing Blog being a stop on her Virtual Book Tour for her new book, The Chic Entrepreneur
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The Chic Entrepreneur is an entertaining read with lots of great advice for both new business owners as well as businesses that need to rethink their business strategies. I liked that the book is full of case studies and examples that show the points are not just academic, but work in the real world.
Much of it is the same advice you have probably heard before (so why are you not doing it!?), but Elizabeth has repackaged it into this female focused perspective. While the female of the species will see many of the analogies immediately, I (as a man) lost my way at times in the girliness. I’ve seen the book described online as the “Sex in the City” version of a business handbook and I think that’s a fair comparison. (in a good way!)
Over the past few weeks, Elizabeth and I have held an e-mail interview about the book:
Chris: Clearly, the book is geared toward a female audience. Why did you niche it to that market?
Elizabeth: After starting my small business consulting firm in 2005, I noticed a trend among my female clients: they were having similar issues with their businesses because of the ways they formed them and those issues were culminating into one big problem – an inability to grow. Their businesses got to a certain point and then they weren’t able to take them beyond that. Most of my women business owner clients had not scaled their business beyond the stage of successful self-employment, nor did they know how to do so. The more I worked with them, the more I saw the need for a strategy guide that would speak to women’s challenges in being able to leverage their business such that it no longer relied so heavily on their own individual efforts. And I realized that as a young woman business consultant (a near anomaly) I had the unique ability to bring a much needed perspective to the table and could teach these important business lessons in a manner and voice that would speak directly to female entrepreneurs. I am very passionate about the potential that I believe resides in current and emerging female entrepreneurs. I think this sector will be an integral part of a much needed pivotal point in our global economic development. I continue to be excited and energized about what is possible if more women start building businesses using a methodology such as the one I teach in the book, and create inherent assets of value that can flourish economically and lead them personally to greater fulfillment and freedom.
Chris: Can other groups (like men!) benefit from the information in the book?
Elizabeth: Absolutely! The Chic Entrepreneur teaches business lessons through comparisons of Fortune 500 companies and fictional small businesses. While some of the imagery and language might be more appealing to women, the lessons are universal. I have had countless men tell me that they bought the book for their wife, read a couple pages “just to check it out” and ended up reading it cover to cover. The great thing about the field of business is that nearly 85% of all challenges growing businesses face are universal, regardless of industry, ownership makeup, size or structure. Business is business.
Chris: What are some of the challenges that you have personally experienced as a businesswoman that influenced the book?
Elizabeth: When I initially started my business, I was in my twenties. While I’m in my thirties now, I’ve always had a young look, which is a blessing and a curse at times. I had a hard time being taken seriously when I first started. I’ve been told by others that I was too young to own my own business, or had people assume that it must be my husband’s business. It is amazing to me how much those silly but very real presumptions still exist today. Rather than try to fit in with the rest of those in my industry, I choose to emphasize my uniqueness and turn it into a strength. I think an opportunity exists for all of use to turn what could be perceived as negatives into positives.
Like most service businesses, I also had to give some major thought and planning to how I was going to be able to scale my business beyond my own individual efforts. This is the same challenge that holds most female small business owners back from breaking the million-dollar mark and beyond. But while this is challenging, it is certainly very doable when you have a solid methodology as a guide. Once you get your fledging business off the ground and it is sustainable in the short term, turn your attention to building a saleable business model. The next step is defining the personality of the company beyond that of just the personality of the owner and translating that into a branding strategy and a consistent and cohesive image that can permeate all of your activities, materials and communications.
Chris: I think many people dream of starting their own business. Do you think that anyone be an entrepreneur?
Elizabeth: This is a question of repeated debate. It is my personal opinion that the ability to create a business is inherent within all humans. Of course, people vary in the depth of their capabilities in this area. Some people are more natural entrepreneurs than others, just like some people are more natural athletes than others. But I think everyone has it in them, just like we all have the capability for love within us. It’s just a matter of whether it is the right time for you to explore it. A business takes much more than just an idea to begin. Having a plan, a market and a way to reach that market, and enough capital are other important factors to consider before beginning an entrepreneurial journey. A person also must be willing to risk failing in order to succeed in business, a courage or luxury that not everyone has. After creating the flourishing business methodology and applying it to hundreds different businesses, I know from experience that if you set up a business the right way, it doesn’t matter if you’re sixteen or sixty, you can be a successful entrepreneur.
Chris: You discuss the dimensions of a flourishing business in the book. Obviously, I was most interested in the sales/marketing one. What do you think is the biggest problem/challenge that entrepreneurs have with sales/marketing?
Elizabeth: I’m quite passionate about the sales and marketing side of things as well because this is what really drives the growth engine. I think the most difficult part for entrepreneurs is figuring out how to get their message heard by the right people and then getting those people to take action. There is so much out there these days that cutting through the clutter and getting a message in front of the right people continues to be a marketing challenge. However, I also believe that this is where the biggest opportunity lies for those that take advantage of a properly executed web and social media strategy. Getting heard is only the first step though, so it is important not to stop there. Having a compelling message that excites and shows value to the buyer and a motivating pitch that drives someone to take action is critical to the success of your marketing program. Small companies shouldn’t be advertising for branding purposes, all of their marketing efforts need to be results and action oriented.
Chris: You make the points of what to do to market a business in the book. But you also make the points of what NOT to do. What do you think is the biggest mistake that entrepreneurs make in marketing?
Elizabeth: They don’t charge enough. And by “enough” I mean a fair price for the unique value that they’re offering to the marketplace. And this is why you hear so many small business owners bemoaning “I can’t afford to spend a lot of money marketing my business.” You see, your marketing costs, and all of your other overhead costs all need to be factored into your pricing decisions. Most companies don’t spend enough time thinking about the pricing decisions, they just arbitrarily pick a middle ground where they feel comfortable. But you can be far more strategic with your pricing, and you certainly need to make sure that your prices are in line with your overall marketing and business strategy.
Everyone wants to “sell more” but all sales are not created equal. While it may seem logical to slash prices or meet a competitors prices in order to sell more, this is often a mistake and it can lead entrepreneurs to bankruptcy. You see, if you have created a truly unique value for the marketplace, then what you’ve got is different from your competitors, so the price you charge should also be different. If you have a quality product, you shouldn’t undercut the value with discounting or giving away anything for free. This automatically devalues your product or service in the minds of your customers. You want your customers to appreciate all the value that you provide, such that they will repeatedly re-buy from you. So you don’t want to get it in their head that your product or service is not worth its price. People know you get what you pay for. Big luxury companies like Jaguar are not going to lower their prices in a recession just because Carmax is. However, this is the hardest lesson for entrepreneurs to understand and remember when it’s time to close a deal.
Chris: How can entrepreneurs get their marketing message heard?
Elizabeth:I often see entrepreneurs that do what I like to call “Buckshot Marketing.” This is not to be confused with Shotgun Marketing, which I find very useful 🙂 Buckshot marketing is when a business owners sprays out as much material and information as possible without properly branding and thinking of what their message is, what they want consumers to glean from it and where it should go in the future. In the absence of a thought out plan, often in the form of a business plan, I see this kind of spraying of marketing information. And even though it might be high in volume, it is usually low on results. Marketing is speaking to people, specifically consumers. You want to make sure your message is a cohesive story that can be easily read, is appealing to the eye and urges consumers to read more.
Chris: I have found in my consulting and speaking business that businesspeople are always excited and eager about business advice like this. However, when they get back to the daily grind of business, they push it all to the back burner. What advice do you have that might help people actually implement the ideas in the book?
Elizabeth: Form a peer advisory group with other business owners who are in a similar position that you are but in totally different industries. This should be a group that you meet with regularly, that has read and subscribes to the same methodology that you have and that wants to see you succeed. I’ve actually started creating and facilitating these peer advisory groups. Accountability works at the gym and it works in business, too. I meet with my group once a month and we often site my book or the teachings of other well-respected business gurus when we give advice. These people can be a great sounding board and a wealth of ideas and support to keep you on the path to reaching your goals. They will hold you to your tasks by asking you if you accomplished what you wanted since the last meeting and you’ll do the same for them. It can be a very symbiotic relationship that is well worth the investment.
You can read Elizabeth’s Chic Entrepreneur blog here or take a look at the Chic Entrepreneur on Amazon.
That short e-book (about 6500 words) is now available on Amazon as “Kentucky Dirt: A practical guide to vegetable gardening”. The book takes you through a year in the garden with tips and common sense advice on how to grow a garden and why the effort is worth it.
canon in this post. However, there are two of his books I consider fundamental reading.
I distinctly remember when I was honored to receive one of the 1st copies of 
The other essential Godin book is 
While he’s not a marketer, per se, the other prolific business author who has multiple books that could be on this list is 
are important books to read to understand this better.
I’m a big proponent of the idea that strong brands are created by consumers, not marketers. But the majority of the time in order for that to happen, the marketer must have a solid brand strategy in place. 
Closely related to Positioning (literally) is 
If I’m recommending marketing and business books, I suppose I would be remiss if I didn’t mention 
I have two tchotchkes, both given to me by wife, that have similar mantras. One has a quote from Thoreau that says, “If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.” The other one has Dan Zadra’s simple quote of “Trust your crazy ideas.”
I spoke on a panel with 
Another good resource for job seekers or would-be entrepreneurs is Dan Miller’s 
While it covers visual presentation in general, I feel it should be mandatory to pass a test on Garr Reynolds’ 
e-book.)
Up in the “branding” section of this post, the books will tell you repeatedly to avoid brand extension, but Jay Conrad Levinson has successfully milked his 
At any given time, there are a lot of good books about social media marketing. Everyone wants the answers to social media presented as a neat package in a book. But the trouble with printed books about social media is that they’re outdated by the time they roll off the press or even onto your Kindle. You need a big picture overview of the fundamentals BEHIND social media that you can apply to any platform.
I have to stop myself from using Zappos too much as an example of how great corporate culture and employee empowerment can contribute to a strong brand and a healthy bottom line. In 
Successful long term businesses have a strong moral code at their foundation. I have found that the 
Robert Waterman / Tom Peters’ 
, Niccolo Machiavelli’s 
, and Adam Smith’s 
. All these have valuable business insight, but I would challenge anyone to find someone who is not a MBA nerd who has actually read these books. Put them on your shelf, but read the Cliffs Notes version of all three.
Chris Houchens 