A couple of years ago, I quit my 9-5 to create my own business in the beauty/tech space. Thinking that it wouldn’t be the best time to have a child, I started the process of freezing my eggs — only to discover I was already pregnant. Perhaps even more surprising — my cofounder was pregnant, too! So much for balancing the workload. But the benefit was we were able to support each other emotionally in a way no one else could — we both understood how strange it feels to be totally ecstatic while at the same time questioning everything you’d been working on up until that point: Could we do this? What extra challenges would we face as entrepreneurs and moms?

What we soon discovered was that having a baby and starting a company at the same time was actually the best thing that could have happened to us. That being said — we certainly learned a lot. If you’re facing this, these are the three questions you’ll inevitably need to ask — and how we responded to each issue.

1. How will my team react?

The hard reality is that a few of our male engineers immediately quit when they found out we were pregnant. Seriously. As depressing as that is, I was honestly expecting worse. But, surprisingly, it didn’t create the ‘abandon ship’ effect I thought it would. Valuable team members stayed. And we now had one very clear way to pick the right team members.

The people you hire, especially the first ten members of your startup, will have a major impact on how your culture develops. We decided then and there that two of the most important qualities we’d be looking for in new hires would be open-mindedness — they had to be okay with our situation — and passion. We needed people to truly care about what we were doing.

Even when you’re in the initial stages of creating your startup, you should already be thinking about company culture. What qualities will make up the perfect environment for your business to thrive? Then consider the qualities that could prevent your company from achieving its goals. Having a clear picture will help you hire the right people from the start.

2. Will being pregnant impact our ability to raise funding?

When we found out we were pregnant, our startup had just been accepted into the vigorous Y Combinator accelerator program. Some of our advisors warned us that being pregnant might actually scare off investors on demo day and convinced us to defer our entry to the program.

In 2017, female entrepreneurs only received 2.2 percent of all VC funding, demonstrating the strong underlying bias holding women back. At such a critical junction in the birth of our startup, we were concerned that being pregnant would add an extra layer to the bias we would already be facing.

What we found was that some people, like Odile Roujol (our advisor and former CEO of Lancome), were even more impressed with our drive and ambition to create a great company and be great moms. After all, why can’t we be both?

Making the right partnerships when it comes to investors can have an even bigger impact than hiring the right people. Investors will be there with you for the long haul. If you just chase after the money, you’ll be in for a lot of difficulties down the road. What you need are investors who really believe in you and your vision.

3. Will we actually have time to spend with our growing family?

They say when you’re an entrepreneur your business is your life. This doesn’t mean your family can’t be part of this life. My co-founder and I don’t distinguish between work and personal life; working in our own space we have the flexibility to combine both.

A startup is like a family, and that’s one of its competitive advantages. If you develop a strong professional and personal relationship with your team, you’ll be able to trust and rely on each other. But this isn’t just a one-way relationship; when you hire great people who are committed to helping you build your vision, you also need to give back by providing an environment that’s supportive and flexible.

I really admire companies that have been pioneers in pushing for actual work/life balance options. For example, Patagonia has provided on-site childcare since 1983. Parents work right next door to where their children are playing and learning, making it possible to check in on them and have lunch together every day. Netflix offers new moms and dads up to 1 year of paid leave.

It’s initiatives like these that are helping to change bias against mothers-to-be. Companies lose so much talent by not providing the flexibility that enables both mothers and fathers to continue their careers; offering that support is just good business sense.

Our final lesson…

When you’re an entrepreneur, your company is like your baby. Rather than harming your image as a CEO, being a great parent should be a further sign of your ability to develop, grow and nurture your business.

There are so many CEO/fathers, including Elon Musk, Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg. Their ability to lead a company is never questioned based on their parenthood, is it? Even if we believe that as a society we have evolved our thinking to include women as equal members of the workforce, this is still not the reality. Women still receive this kind of bias.

Ultimately, my co-founder and I learned that the best way to break down the “maternal wall” is by pushing through it — and proving that you can build a successful startup and be a mom.

Ming Zhao is the Founder & CEO of Proven, the world’s first skincare line to combine machine learning and data science to create customized products for consumers. She holds an MBA from Harvard Business School and has over a decade of experience in business strategy, investing and business development. She’s on a mission to support and encourage more women to take on entrepreneurial roles.

The post Balancing Babies with Your Startup: Lessons From a Double Pregnancy appeared first on HER Magazine ™.

While it might not be the most thrilling topic to read up on, it’s essential for your own success that you understand what this new law means for you and your business. Aside from the tax rate, here are four other areas of most people’s lives that are likely to be affected.

1. Self-Employed Persons – A Tax Deduction

One of the most significant sections of the recent tax reform is the addition of a Qualified Business Income Deduction, which provides a reduced tax rate to certain businesses. This deduction may be as great as 20% of the business net income.

However, calculating the actual deduction can be complex as Congress provided several factors, including income, the profession, amount spent on wages and property acquired as factors in determining the deduction.

2. Owning a Home

Owning a home in California, New York and in other high property value states has just become more expensive.

Deductions for state income and local (sales and property) taxes paid are now capped at $10,000 combined, which will profoundly impact taxpayers in states with high home values and property taxes. In California, for instance, the residents pay some of the highest state income taxes in the country. This means that their tax deductions for the taxes they pay are severely limited; thus, their tax bill will likely increase where applicable.

3. Having Children

Under the previous tax law, families could claim a $1,000 credit for every child under the age of 17. This credit began to phase out for couples earning more than $110,000 per year. The credit has now been doubled to $2,000 per child, and the phase out threshold has been raised from $110,000 to $400,000. For people who don’t earn enough in a given year to pay taxes, they can still claim the credit, but their child tax credit refund is now limited to $1,400 per year. Note that the new law also changes the guidelines for 529 education savings plans, which may now be used to pay tuition at private schools and religious schools, and to cover homeschooling expenses.

4. Getting Divorced

The new tax law makes a fundamental change in the way that alimony is taxed. In any divorce commenced after December 2018, the spouse paying alimony cannot deduct it and the spouse receiving the money no longer pays taxes on it. The IRS claimed that 361,000 taxpayers had claimed an alimony deduction in 2015; this new tax law eliminates that deduction. This may make negotiations regarding spousal support more contentious.

All of these big changes may require additional effort as you look to filing next year’s tax return, but don’t panic — overall, the new tax law gave much more than it took away, if you know how to take advantage of it! The tax penalty for lack of health insurance is eliminated, and individual tax rates are lower across the board, standard deduction amounts and the child tax credit increase, leaving more money in your pocket. However, if you rely on itemized deductions for things like state and local income tax, unreimbursed business expenses, casualty losses and spousal support [alimony] payments — all of which have been affected — to reduce your taxable income, you need to know how these changes affect you.

Thirty years ago, Steve founded what would become Moskowitz LLP (www.moskowitzllp.com) to help businesses and individuals navigate the complex tax code. Today, Steve and his team offer top-notch client representation because they want the new tax law to work for you. Contact Steve and his team today at 415-394-7200, or visit www.MoskowitzLLP.com to schedule a consultation and learn how to use the new tax law to legally minimize or eliminate your taxes if you qualify.

The post Headline: The Tax Code Has Changed: Have You? appeared first on HER Magazine ™.

It can be tempting for a new business owner to want to open a flashy new office to court clients and add legitimacy to the endeavor — it certainly was for me when I started KardZee.com. But I also knew that meant additional financial risk. I mean, it’s hard enough to start a business without adding unnecessarily to the inevitable startup costs, especially when receivables often lag behind the payables in the early stages.

KardZee was just an idea in 2015. It started out as a consumer app for handwritten cards that you could create on your smartphone and send it to friends and family. The idea morphed over time, turning into a full-fledged marketing company that now targets upscale businesses that want to build personalized relationships with their clients for increased sales and retention. Using our technology, businesses can integrate this into their automated omnichannel engagement platform to build their company.

A fluid business model is not unusual for a startup, particularly in the technology sector. But costs can really add up as you change your vision, so you have to look at how and what you spend your money on in different ways, in order to reduce expenses.

My husband and I looked at lots of options. The one that kept coming back to us was that we could rent a home instead of owning one. We could also forego the office space and go with a home office concept instead.

A few years ago, this would have been a bit of a challenge. Property managers frowned on renters who wanted to run a business out of their home.

For our startup, it was a tall order. After all, we needed to make a statement about our new business. Where we called home was also our base of operations. So it had to be business-friendly, and offer the amenities we needed like broadband and meeting/entertainment spaces.

The Cove at Tiburon in Marin County fit our needs to a tee. It was also conveniently located right across the San Francisco Bay. We knew from the start that it was a smart decision, both from a business and personal standpoint. The property offered us a nice blend of residential and business amenities, such as a clubhouse where we could film videos and podcasts for our KardZee YouTube Channel and LinkedIn page. The media room provided space for meetings where we could dock our computer and use the large screen monitor. As we continued to build our business, we found that our new home allowed us to reduce our reliance on coworking office spaces in San Francisco. Purchasing property, rather than renting this living space, simply wouldn’t have afforded us these options!

All these capabilities were on our wish list, but it took some legwork to find a good match. One of the big selling points for us was the marina. The Cove had a private marina, and we had a classic wooden 1965 sailboat that we used for both business and pleasure. We were able to move the boat outside our living room, and we’ve used it often to close a business deal with clients, investors, and partners.

Living and working in the same place has had its share of surprises — one of them being the realization that other entrepreneurs also lived at the property. I ended up connecting with several women entrepreneurs and before we knew it, we had formed our own support group to discuss issues and create connections!

When it comes to maintaining positive cash flow, renting a home was a no-brainer. In our case, a low deposit and monthly rent payments were far less than a mortgage on a comparable home. Much like renting a home, an investment in TIC real estate is a great option for real estate investors. Moreover, renting also gave us the flexibility and scalability we wanted, both in living and working space. Living in Marin County, we ended up paying far less than we did for a small apartment in San Francisco, especially since Bay Area apartments are much smaller than our apartment — we even had to buy more furniture to fill the space.

We also don’t have to worry about maintenance. Home maintenance can suck up a lot of time and money, something that entrepreneurs never seem to have enough of. As a renter, everything is included in the rent, from manicuring the grounds to keeping the roof in good repair and the pool clean. As such, we can budget more predictably, since there are fewer unexpected costs. And the profits can all go right back into the business.

Yes, there are some advantages to owning a home, especially on the tax side. But for many, renting can be a smart option when trying to build a business. Best of all, after a long day cutting deals and wowing customers, nothing beats the commute. While others are stuck in an endless snarl of traffic, a comfy bed is just steps away from the office. And that, perhaps, is the best thing about combining work and play in today’s hectic business world.

Keverne Denahan is founder of KardZee, an early stage startup that helps businesses build relationships with their clients that allows them to connect with their clients in new and memorable ways, improving customer service and generating more leads.

The post How Renting Instead of Owning Can Leverage Capital for Your Business appeared first on HER Magazine ™.

I have my own personal reasons for becoming a “serial entrepreneur” but I am also happy to join in this unpredictable journey alongside my partner. Starting a business is no easy feat. By launching multiple businesses with my wife, I’m often met with questions on how we fulfill a balance in our relationship and what other entrepreneurs should take into account if they’re thinking about doing so too.

First, I’d like to start off with the many benefits of running a business with my significant other:

• We get to do life together every day
• We implicitly trust each other
• We have each other’s back
• We get to share the struggles and celebrate the wins together every day
• We are best friends — and who wouldn’t want to work with your best friend?!

So if you’re ready to take on starting a business and keep your relationship intact, here are some tips to ensure you can have a harmonious relationship in business and in love.

Make Them a Priority

You’ve heard the quote about how rarely on someone’s death bed do they regret not spending more time at the office. Same is true for business owners — I doubt any will wish they spent more time cleaning the floors.

So, what do you do? How do you create space for those who mean the most to you?

Make sure that your significant other is always a priority and getting their needs met first and foremost. We get up, have coffee, exercise, always eat dinner together, and we take gratitude walks (or rides on our golf cart with a cocktail) each night after dinner where we both say three things we are thankful for that day.

Little moments like this make all the difference to establish each other as a priority and have some down time together.

Play on Each Other’s Strengths

I tend to be very detailed, whereas Stacey is not as detailed-oriented — except when she’s catering (a 20+ year business/hobby), planning an event, or planning a trip. We both know this about each other, so we set our expectations accordingly.

We both have our fair share of weaknesses and strengths, so we know how to distribute the workload and cater to where we excel. By working together on various projects, we’ve learned how to work alongside one another without getting in each other’s way.

Taking the time to sit down and write out a list of strengths and weaknesses will do wonders. As long as it is communicated in a healthy way, there should be no problem with determining which areas of the business will be handled effectively by who.

Create Boundaries

If you let yourself, you can always keep saying, “Just one more email,” “just one more class,” “just one more process to build…” Which means your partner just gets the leftover crumbs from your time. The work will always be never-ending. You’re a business owner, for crying out loud… that’s part of what being an entrepreneur IS. So push away from the computer. Walk away from the business. Put the To Do list down. And schedule in time for those who really matter. You schedule time for business, right? So schedule “date nights” for your person.

Be in the Moment

Now that you’ve scheduled in your date night and are committed to making your partner your priority, make sure to be present in those moments. It is easy for your brain to whizz through what else needs to get done, but this isn’t the time for that.

Put your phone down. Look in their eyes. Ask questions. Get to know them. Even after 50+ years of marriage, my mom and dad are still learning things about each other — and they will tell you they are more in love today than they ever have been, because they were serious when they committed to each other way back when.

Deeply embrace and invest in your chosen one while you have the time, and do whatever it takes to love them like they deserve. Your business will thrive with your significant other cohesively working by your side. Even if it doesn’t, isn’t it better to have your person to do life with — no matter what life throws at you?

We certainly think so.

Julie Weldon is not new to balancing multiple business endeavors. As both personal and professional partners with her wife Stacey Pierce, they co-host their own podcast GSD Entrepreneur, manage a business and consulting company A Salty Rim, and launched a Kickstarter campaign in September for O.M.E. Gear.

The post Tips For Running A Business WITH Your Significant Other appeared first on HER Magazine ™.

With virtually no initial investment, here’s how we took one pillow product sample and a 26 second video (that we shot ourselves at home with our kids on our phone)  — and turned it into $1 million in sales in 30 days. Yep. Really. But the hardest part was not making those sales — the viral video pulled those in. The hardest part was keeping our business afloat (and keeping our customers happy) in the process!

Our first product, a “mermaid pillow” for kids, existed only in our imagination in October 2016. The fabric, a soft, reversible sequin that ‘flips’ when you run your fingers over it, had existed for years, and “mermaid pillows” wrapped in this fabric had been created already. But we saw an opportunity to create a kids’ version of this “mermaid pillow,” so we sent an email to our manufacturer describing our idea — that we wanted these reversible sequins on the back of the pillow, and a soft cover for kids, with an actual illustration of a mermaid print on it.

Two weeks later, in early November, we got a knock at our front door from our mail carrier. Our 5- and 7-year-old rushed to the front door and ripped upon the DHL package that, in less than 72 hours, had traveled from China to Omaha. A few anxious seconds later, they unwrapped what has since become our best selling pillow: our *Imagine Mermaid Pillow.*

For the next hour, our kids were mesmerized. They drew words into the sequins; they played tic-tac-toe; and occasionally they even shared it with their younger twin brothers (occasionally — they were having a lot of fun themselves!).

The sample pillow was almost perfect. While playing with the sequins, our oldest daughter Alayna cooed, “I love the way it feels….” It just sounded so joyful, so authentic, that we thought, “Hey — let’s get that on video!”

This led us to scripting, shooting, and editing a :26 second video “commercial” with our iPhone, capturing how much our kids loved their new mermaid pillow.

That same night, we uploaded the video to Facebook. When we woke up the following morning, the video had been watched over 50,000 times. Four weeks later, it had been watched over 5 Million times. It spread almost entirely organically: friends sharing with friends, commenting, and liking it.

We had a viral video! Every business’s dream, right?

But with the success of our video, we also had a major problem. We had tens-of-thousands of customers wanting to order the mermaid pillow — and all we had was a single sample.

This is where your choices can make or break your success from virality. If we had sat back, overwhelmed, and just said we’d try again later — we might never have had the same chance. We might never regain those customers or sales. We had to take the opportunity before us.

So we came up with a plan. Using the e-commerce platform Shopify, we created an “Imagine Mermaid Pillow” product with a message: “This pillow is available for preorder and will be delivered in 4 weeks.” This allowed us to sell the product, collect payments, and then use the money from these payments to pay our manufacturers to produce the pillows.

We were so proud of this approach — and it worked really well at first. Then, two weeks into taking orders, we faced another challenge that almost broke us.

By then it was only weeks before Christmas, and all the sales were almost exclusively Christmas presents. We’d only imagined the product sixty days earlier, and we’d already sold 20,000 mermaid pillows — we’d taken the orders, and customers had made their payments.

Then, we got the email: “We’re sorry, but we can only produce 5,000 pillows for you before Christmas.” 

This meant that we were looking at the prospect of refunding 15,000 preorders, which would be a massive disappointment to our new customers, especially just ahead of Christmas. We could lose 75% of these customers and our new business might never take off. Again, we had to be agile. Which other companies could we engage?

After all-night conversations with multiple factories in the USA and China, the outlook was bleak. We even began putting together our own team of sewers and assembling the pillows here in Omaha. But getting the raw materials to Omaha, and getting the finished pillows to our customers before Christmas, was not realistic…there just wasn’t enough time.

Then, at the last minute, we were able to get commitments from four overseas manufacturers — and, incredibly, they worked together the following two weeks to get us the extra 15,000 pillows just five days before Christmas! Problem solved, right?

But one problem just leads to another.

How were we going to get the product shipped from Omaha to our customers? With only five days? Again, we could have given up — but again, that would have been squandering a serious opportunity. So we dove in and pulled out all the stops; we recruited about a dozen friends, and friends of friends, to help us package and ship these pillows to our customers. In one day, we shipped 7,200 orders. The next day we shipped almost 5,000, and the remaining shipped out just three days before Christmas. Our entire 1,500 square foot office was packed with pillows, and the post office sent semi-trucks throughout the day to pick up the packages. When the last package went out the door on December 22nd, we were were ecstatic, and exhausted, and we could sleep easy knowing that our customers would get their pillows before Christmas.

Over the past 18 months or so, we’ve created dozens of new pillow designs: dinosaurs, superheros, unicorns and others. We’ve added accessory products, such as matching bracelets, which later appeared on NBC’s Today Show. Our girls, now 7- and 9-years-old, and our 3-year-old twin boys, remain active in our business. To this day they continue to help with scripting and shooting the “commercials,” shipping the pillows to customers, and even jumping in on customer service.

We’ve also made giving back a big part of who we are. Donating thousands of pillows each year to Children’s Hospital, Ronald McDonald House, and others has really given us even more of a purpose — it’s helped us shape our “why.”

Looking ahead, we’ve got a number of new products we’re creating, but I’m most excited about a product we’re calling ecommkids.com.

This is an online course, for kids ages 5-14+, that walks them through creating and selling their own mermaid pillow on our website. We’re having more fun with this project than any other in memory — it’s energizing working with these kids, and we’re constantly amazed by their creativity.

None of this — our business expansion, charity, or ecommkids.com — would have been possible if we’d looked at that video and said ‘we can’t meet that need.’ None of it would have been possible if we’d allowed the growth from our viral video to smother us — and it almost did. As you develop your marketing plan, consider how you might deal with virality. Let me tell you, things would have been a lot easier if we’d done some prep beforehand. Can you establish a plan with manufacturers? With your PR team? With your employees? Every business is different, so figure out ahead of time what the best strategy for you will be — and you’ll not only survive a viral video, you’ll thrive.

Tom Sailors, founder of Mermaid Pillow, invested time in mastering entrepreneurship. With each product they’ve released, he has been the mastermind behind marketing and advertising to core demographics. From researching what sells, to designing with both parents and kids in mind, to targeting customers via Facebook ads, Tom is the definition of an entrepreneur and wears every hat.

The post How To Survive A Viral Video: From the Founder of Mermaid Pillow appeared first on HER Magazine ™.

While it’s impossible to entirely eliminate financial risk, it’s always possible — and preferable — to minimize it. Nothing in business is certain, but using sound financial practices can help you keep yourself safe when dealing overseas — and we’ve got a few important tips to get you started.

1. Spend a Long Time Courting People

You aren’t going to be able to make many surprise visits to your locations overseas just to see how things are doing; this kind of expansion means you won’t be able to just pop in to say hello. This is something we take for granted when we do business locally, but it’s a luxury people don’t have when they’re dealing with a client or a customer base that’s so far away.

Before you start doing business with anyone overseas, take your time to get to know them. This process should be a lot more complicated than a normal job interview since it’s extraordinarily difficult for you to oversee what this person is doing from such a great distance. That’s why patient businesspeople often wait years to formalize overseas business deals — they spend that time establishing trust.

While you’re vetting and courting people who can potentially help facilitate these overseas deals, start examining their professional performance. How are their companies doing? Do they have a tenancy in common agreement already or does one need to be formed? What does their reputation look like? Are there people you can contact as references? Leave no stone unturned. The longer you spend getting to know people, the more time you have to identify and assess any risk factors that may negatively impact you financially.

2. Keep the Operation Small Scale

The easiest way to minimize risk is to risk less. If you believe you’re comfortable enough to proceed with an overseas arrangement but you’re still risk-averse, just start small. Keep your transactions to a minimum for a while. Establish a better rapport with the other party while familiarizing yourself with their habits. If they prove to be reliable (even after a few adjustments or renegotiations), slowly increase the amount of money involved.

If things don’t go the way you want them to, you’re only losing out a little bit on a single transaction. It’s easy to put a full stop on the whole thing the moment you become uncomfortable. Slowly scaling keeps you from going in blind. You have the option to retract if you feel as though circumstances are less than ideal or you suspect some kind of improper activity is taking place on the other end. Even if you lose money, you have greater control over the total amount of money involved.

3. Hedge Your Currency

Some businesspeople fear doing business overseas simply because of the currency exchange rates. You can be wildly successful and have the best business relationships in the entire world, and it still won’t impact the value of another country’s currency. This is a risk that cannot be avoided by simply making smart deals and building fantastic relationships. Instead, the most effective way to mitigate this risk is through currency hedging.

Currency hedging is when you utilize a contract that protects the current value of the currency. If anything happens that affects the value of that currency, you’re locked into that exchange rate. This situation might be less than ideal if the value of the currency goes up, but it’s designed to protect you in the event that the value goes down.

There are several ways to hedge currency. Each method comes with distinct advantages and disadvantages, but the most popular method is through the purchase of forward contracts. These contracts lock in an exchange rate and swap currency on a particular date. You can make a deal when the exchange rate looks good to you, lock it in with a forward contract, and swap the currency at the agreed upon date.

4. Assume Less Responsibility

If you’re in the business of selling products, you don’t necessarily need to move into an overseas market completely. As an alternative, you can work with a foreign distributor. This business or person would purchase wholesale inventory from you. It would be their job to figure out how to resell it and what to resell it for – you’ve already been paid for your part of the deal.

If you can arrange your overseas dealings to primarily involve importing and exporting, the only things you need to worry about is receiving a single payment and the timely arrival of a package.

5. Consider the Political States of Other Countries

Changes in power lead to changes in the way business is conducted. New tariffs, rules, and regulations can be imposed that will cause you to lose money in other markets. The best way to minimize that risk is to avoid countries that are less financially stable due to volatile leadership.

Look at the histories of those countries and see if similar changes have happened in the recent past. Consider the future the country is coming into. Are things getting better or worse for international business based on that country’s trajectory? If things look bleak or uncertain, don’t make deals in those countries. Always stick to the sure thing.

Though doing business overseas may seem risky, it has the potential to be one of the most advantageous decisions you’ll ever make. Your earnings potential at home is limited – things only become close to infinite when you’ve made your way into every possible market. As long as you make informed decisions and pace yourself, you can minimize your risks — and maximize your rewards.

Amanda Singh is a project manager, working as a part of the team behind Sitecraft, an experienced materials handling equipment provider. Overseeing numerous projects and working with different teams has provided Amanda with experience, which she now shares with other team leaders and managers out there.

The post Doing Business Overseas: 5 Strategies to Minimize Your Financial Risks appeared first on HER Magazine ™.

When I made the difficult decision nine years later to separate from the military, I thought I was on a great track for finding the perfect job. I had graduated from college with a bachelor’s degree, and with my experience in the military — combat training, two technical certificates, and a security clearance — I thought companies were going to be begging me to work for them, that big paychecks were going to be a part of the deal.

I was completely and utterly WRONG.

The job opportunities in my area were there, but everything I’ve accomplished in the military, plus my college degrees, didn’t seem to do anything to make my resume more appealing. No one cared about this experience, and I couldn’t figure out why. Months went by, and my full-time job became applying for jobs. I felt like a cat chasing its tail! The problem?

Resources and visibility.

I was not armed with the right resources I needed to find the right job, and I was not visible to companies that were looking for someone with my skills. I had no idea that there were government agencies that have whole departments which solely focus on the needs of women Veterans, offering all kinds of resources to help them find employment. What’s more, there are also several non-profits who have made it their mission to educate the community on the benefits of hiring veterans. They work with military career centers in educating the human resources departments and employment recruiters on how military career field (job) descriptions translate into comparable civilian job descriptions. Basically, they’re teaching civilians military lingo. They also help prepare veterans, before they leave the military, to understand what civilian companies are looking for when hiring.

If you’re a veteran — especially if you’re a woman — the hunt for a job can be difficult. These agencies and organizations proved incredibly helpful to me on my journey, and I know they can make a difference for you on yours.

• U.S Department of Veterans Affairs – Center for Women Veterans (CWV) — This was the first place I should have looked for information. It was created 24 years ago, and their mission is “to advocate for cultural transformation to raise awareness about the service and sacrifice of women Veterans.” They are the information hub for everything a woman in the military needs access to — not just finding employment, but health care, VA benefit information, and a community of people who are there for support.
• Department of Labor — Their Women Veterans Program offers employment training programs and free employment services nationwide. According to their website, a recent study showed that when women Veterans used the employment services provided by the DOL they experienced less of a wage gap than women nonveterans using comparable services. This information makes me quite hopeful, but how many people know about these services? I sure didn’t.
• Veteran Jobs Mission — This is a coalition of 11 companies that have committed to hiring 100,000 Veterans by the year 2020. They offer a downloadable Transition Field Guide that prepares military members with a step-by-step plan beginning 12-18 months before they transition out of the military. What I like about this field guide is that it walks you through what you need to do each step of the way. It’s a map — or a guiding light — on your journey to finding a job that will bring you financial security and, hopefully, a job that you will enjoy.
• LinkedIn for Good — Once you’re armed with the resources, training services, and a community of people that are available to help you prepare for the kind of civilian employment opportunities you want, it’s time to let others know you’re looking for work. We’ve all heard of LinkedIn, right? Well, they’ve created a program specifically for the military and Veterans. This program will help connect you to companies by offering a free one-year access to LinkedIn Premium and LinkedIn Learning. A LinkedIn Premium profile will help you get noticed by recruiters, extend your network, alert you on new jobs that fit with your skills, and make it easy apply for new opportunities. And, with LinkedIn Learning, you have free unlimited access to over 10,000 courses in business, creative, and technology skills, all taught by industry experts. How awesome is that?

I’ve been out of the military for eight years now, and so much has changed about the job market and what’s available for Veterans. It seems that more companies have now realized the benefits of hiring Veterans and what they can offer the company. With all these resources, I feel my web belt is loaded up, my canteen is full, and my boots (or stilettos) have that perfect shine — and I’m ready to take on the job market! Let’s do this — Hoo-rah!

Suzy Suttle Willis is a veteran of the 165th Airlift Wing, Air National Guard, and a Health and Wellness Coach who works with women and veterans to find their true potential through a program that consists of workouts, a nutrition plan, and mindfulness training. Find her on Instagram or Twitter.

The post Finding a Job as a Female Veteran appeared first on HER Magazine ™.

Most of us don’t become an overnight success.

Sure, it’s possible to have that kind of success quickly — anything is possible. But everyone that I’ve ever spoken to or worked with (mentors, coaches, peers, clients) has had a very different experience. I know zero people who’ve had ‘overnight’ success.

More often than not it actually went a bit more like this:

• He ran a separate business for two years, and then started an online coaching business, which was successful ‘quickly’ — because he already had that two years of experience.
• She is finally where she wants to be in her life and business…but it took her five years to be able to say that.
• He did make six figures in 12 months…but before those 12 months, he was struggling BIG time for months or even years.

In 2017, 83.6% of small business owners had a salary of less than $100,000, and 30% didn’t even take a salary.

I don’t say this to discourage you or make you feel like something isn’t possible for you. It’s always possible. But it takes time for us to learn who we are and what we want to do. It takes time for us to figure out how to run a business. It takes time for us to find our groove and go after ONLY the things we’re passionate about.

Mike Dooley says in ‘Leveraging the Universe’: “If I knew then that it would have taken me 10 years to be living my ideal lifestyle I NEVER would have started. But looking back, knowing it ONLY took 10 years…it was ABSOLUTELY worth it.”

Because here’s the thing: once you reach that version of success you have for yourself ($100,000 a year, $30K months, the beach house, or traveling all over the world), it’s not going to matter how long it took. It will have all been worth it.

But we get it: that wait can be incredibly painful. Just remember that the journey is half the fun — especially if you take care of yourself along the way. Here are few strategies to deal when it’s taking longer than you thought it would.

#1 Celebrate your wins

It doesn’t matter whether it’s five new people on your email list, finally recording that video, or signing three $20K clients. They’re all wins!

Take some time to celebrate (go out to dinner, have a glass of wine, take a bath) so that you can feel the feelings of accomplishment before you run off to work on your next goal. Taking the time to celebrate your wins will not only make you feel great, it also reinforces the actions you took to get there — and your subconscious will be more willing to help you with the next goal when the time comes.

Why not make a list of “celebration activities” and celebrate every time you achieve a win?

#2 Get support

We weren’t born knowing how to have a successful business, and most of us need support. There are several ways to get support, and it really is available at any budget.

Connect with a coach, a mentor, a mastermind group, an accountability partner, or even books or podcasts to keep your head in the game — and to remind yourself that you’re not alone. Many of us don’t have this support from our family and friends (because they have no idea what we’re doing), so it’s crucial to find it elsewhere.

Find the support that works for you.

#3 Take action every day

Even if it’s just one action step, try to do something every single day that moves you toward your goal.

Procrastinating is the absolute worst, isn’t it? It keeps you from putting yourself out there, getting feedback, and then correcting your course. We never get better at what we’re doing if we aren’t trying different strategies and then learning from those strategies. It’s better to take action, make a mistake, and course correct than to not move at all.

Make a commitment to take one inspired action — every day.

I hear you if you’re frustrated that you’re not further along than you thought you would be by now. We’ve all been there. Every successful person you know has been there.

Only around 1/3 of businesses make it to the 10-year mark. Is your business going to be one of those businesses?

If so, your job is to Keep. Moving. Forward.

Your other job is to develop the tenacity and grit needed to make sure you become a successful entrepreneur. It doesn’t have to take a long time, but it might not happen overnight. That’s okay.

The only way we fail is if we give up.

Lacey Nagar is a confidence and visibility coach, author, and mentor. She works with entrepreneurs who feel uncomfortable in the spotlight and helps them with both the confidence and the strategy needed to put themselves out there and make the impact they’re dying to make in the world. Learn her secrets to embracing the spotlight by downloading her guide The Introvert’s Guide to Embracing the Spotlight here. You can also connect with her on her website, Facebook or Instagram for a daily dose of confidence and motivation.

The post How to Deal When You’re Not an Overnight Success appeared first on HER Magazine ™.

But today? Today, another change is taking place: CEOs and business executives are expected to blur the lines between boss and employee. It’s becoming more and more important to rely on your team for leadership and innovation, not just for their rote performance. Author and millennial expert Anastasia Button explains it this way: “In today’s workplace, millennials crave collaboration — a chance to shine and exercise their skills and ideas! Leadership today comes from the tippy-top of the ‘pyramid’. Turn the pyramid upside down and you will win millennials’ loyalty, energy, and eager contribution.”

But for executives who are new to this type of leadership — or even for millennial executives who are just discovering their CEO legs — this expectation can feel overwhelming and confusing. It’s a big responsibility! Where do you start? What works — and what backfires? How do you develop this kind of employee/employer connection?

Don’t worry — it’s really not as scary as you might think. Just start with a few of these seven strategies, and you’ll be well on your way to building a profoundly connected and successful team.

1. Be Human — Admit your failures and mistakes.  A good leader will falter, and then will openly learn and grow from those experiences. Jillian Michaels, President and co-founder of Empowered Media, admits that her first show did not receive high ratings and was cancelled after its first season. But she didn’t give up; she pushed forward to develop new opportunities for herself.  She doesn’t hide this initial failure, or keep quiet in the hopes that folks will just assume she aced it on her first try; instead, she uses this experience to be closer to her staff and her clients. Her ability to be human and relate to others makes her and her company stronger.
2. Be Humble — CEOs are confident and assertive decision-makers, which means it can sometimes feel strange to step back from our normal role to be more relaxed, easygoing, and grounded.  But that’s exactly what today’s workforce yearns for! Unfortunately, it’s typically seen in lower-level workers more so than the leader, but that’s got to change. Look at Oprah: as CEO of The Oprah Winfrey Network, she has every reason to not be humble, but her humility is one reason why she is so loved — and why she and her company have seen such exceptional success.
3. Be Approachable — In the past, the less approachable leaders earned more respect, but that’s not how it is today.  Employees prefer their CEOs to be approachable. Employees want to have the chance to be heard, have an impact, and have access to the person at the helm. They’re not blind followers, and if they don’t connect with and trust their leader — they’ll leave. Be approachable to build stronger relationships with your team, and they’ll have buy-in to stay and build the company up. Sheryl Sandberg, Chief Operating Officer of Facebook, has mastered this with her Lean In Circle campaign, offering chances for her employees to engage with her.
4. Be Ordinary — Show you have the same struggles as everyone else. We’re all human; don’t pretend you’re not. Don’t hide it, but rather use it to relate to others. Zhou Qunfei is the CEO of Len Technology, and she’s incredibly open about her experience growing up in poverty. She didn’t get a higher level of education, but she’s wildly successful — and her team can see and appreciate how she got there. Her journey allows her to interact with the employees on a very personal level while still strategically running a company towards success.
5. Be One of Us — Loneliness is a growing issue in our society. Peoples’ desire to be included and be a part of a community may be higher than ever. A business executive must find a way to be inclusive of their staff and help to meet this need, or the reality is their bottom line will likely suffer. Arianna Huffington, founder of Huffington Post and CEO of Thrive Global, has said she struggled with work-life balance and self-care. She subsequently developed a work culture to put self-care first, and she continues to share her efforts to be healthy mentally, emotionally, and physically, encouraging her employees to do the same. Build a culture of connectedness by being willing to connect and truly be one of the team — not some distant, unknown leader.
6. Be Transparent — Remove the secrecy barrier between the corner office and the cubicles. Transparency builds a workplace of trust, and encourages commitment from your employees. Stacy Brown-Philpot, CEO of TaskRabbit, is well known for being down-to-earth and sharing her experiences to help her team thrive. She’s transparent about her strategies and her humble beginnings, and her team feels more connection to her for it — and they know, more than anything, that they can trust her.
7. Be an Includer — Having a welcome mat for everyone at the entrance of your company demonstrates that everyone has value. Make sure anyone joining your team — or considering it — knows they’re valued. With that approach to business, it will be tough to create exclusivity between leadership and employees! Ashley Willington-Faley, founder and CEO of The Relish, built a business to make women feel important — and then she took it one step further by opening her door to a diverse workforce. She has made a conscious choice to ensure everyone can feel a part of her team, a leadership style that’s proven to drive success.

Working as the head of a company, which can almost automatically distance you from the rest of the team, and staying relateable can obviously be a challenge — but the reality is today’s work environment demands (and rewards!) this kind of connectivity. Every person is unique, so you’ll inevitably develop your own method to build trust with your team, but if you start with these basics, you’ll be well on your way. And the millennials on your team will love you for it!

Virginia Phillips is the author of  Yes, You Can!, the owner of The Academy of Entrepreneurial Excellence, a part-owner of Molder Rubber and Plastics Corp, a speaker, an entrepreneurial coach, a podcaster, and a survivor. She has been awarded as the VIP Woman of the Year Circle of Excellence Award, the Best of Colorado Springs nominee and the recipient of the Women Who Soar award.

The post 7 Ways To Build Trust With Your Employees appeared first on HER Magazine ™.

It’s time to take control of our savings and investments. Make the commitment to yourself to get started with a long-term investment plan now. Have questions about the process? You’ve come to the right place. Here are the most common concerns for new investors — and solutions to get you started investing now.

1. Where do I start?

Start by saving. Aim to put aside 15% of your income — if that amount won’t work for you, start where you can and work your way up.

When you’re just starting out, keep in mind that solid investing is about time in the market, not timing the market. Instead of checking your investments daily and trying to guess what will get you the best returns tomorrow, you should diversify your investments across market caps and market sectors and participate in what the market has to offer over the long term.

2. How much should I have set aside in cash?

Build a fund of three to six months of your expenses. Keep this amount in cash in a savings account, where it can be accessed in case of an emergency. Just be sure to remove it from your day-to-day checking account, so you won’t think of it as accessible for items outside of your monthly budget.

3. What should my long-term goals be?

By the time you’re 30, plan to have one year of your salary saved. By age 45, aim to have four times your annual salary saved, and by age 67 (traditional full retirement age), plan to have 10 times your annual salary saved. If you’re already feeling behind on this amount, there’s still time to catch up. Don’t underestimate the power of compound interest. Not only will the money that you invest be put to work, but the earnings on your investments will work for you, too.

4. How much money do I need before I start investing, and where should I invest?

Once you have three to six months worth of expenses set aside in your savings account, any additional amount can go to your investment accounts. To maximize your investments over time, you want to invest in three different “buckets,” or types of accounts: taxable, qualified, and Roth IRAs. The three-bucket strategy will allow you to manage your taxes while you’re making money, while your money is growing, and when you pull from your accounts during retirement.

Your taxable accounts are funded with money that you have already paid income taxes on. You will pay taxes on interest and dividends paid in these accounts each year, and also on any gains that are realized in the accounts. You will not pay any additional taxes when money is taken out of these accounts.

Qualified accounts include retirement plans, such as 401ks, that may be offered by your employer and IRAs. You will get a tax deduction in the current year for contributions made to qualified accounts. These accounts grow tax-free, and then when money is taken out of the qualified accounts, it is taxable to you as ordinary income.

Roth IRAs use your after-tax income, grow tax-free, and when you withdraw the funds you won’t pay income tax. Try to keep a balance of investments across the three buckets. As you build these ‘buckets,’ remember that there are restrictions for when you can take distributions from your qualified accounts or Roth IRAs without incurring penalties — which is another reason your goal should be long-term savings, not short-term payouts.

5. Is it better to pay down debt or invest my money?

Paying down debt and investing money will both help you out in the long run. Technically, if your investment rate of return is higher than the interest rate of your debt, then you would end up with more money if you chose to invest. If the interest rate on your debt is higher than the rate of return on your investments, then you are better off paying down the debt.

However, debt often weighs heavily on people’s minds, and it can be a relief to finally be debt-free. If you’ll sleep better without debt, then just pay it off! Then again, if you choose to invest, aim to make more than the minimum monthly payment on your debts, or that process could take a lot longer than you might realize.

6. My workplace has a retirement plan — should I participate?

Absolutely — especially if your employer offers a contribution match! An employer match is essentially free money, so take advantage of it. Workplace retirement plans represent the ‘qualified’ bucket. This is a great way to save and invest, and the money grows tax-free. If your employer does not offer a retirement plan, or you are self-employed, look into options such as a SIMPLE IRA, SIMPLE 401k, or an IRA.

7. I don’t know where to start with estate planning.

Understand your personal, and your family’s, balance sheet. Take stock of what you own and what you owe, and understand what will happen to your accounts when you die. For both qualified accounts and Roth IRAs, look at your beneficiary designations. It’s a good idea to make estate-planning decisions while you are alive, to avoid costly expenses after death.

8. How do I protect myself?

One of your biggest assets is your own earning potential. How would your household function without your income? Double check your insurance plans — how much will you receive in the event of disability, and how much will your family receive in the event of your death? It sounds grim, but it’s better to be prepared.

9. What about unexpected financial hurdles?

Having a strong financial plan in place allows you to stay on track in case of an emergency. If you have three to six months worth of expenses set aside in a savings account, you’ll be better able to handle unexpected challenges. These can include medical bills, household or car repairs, and even possible job loss.

Sarah Bird, CFP® — Sarah is a Certified Financial Planner, a NAPFA-Registered Financial Advisor, and a Master Graduate of Rapport Leadership International, working at Albion Financial Group in Salt Lake City, Utah. She is a passionate teacher who loves helping her clients understand their financial picture and is dedicated to leadership initiatives within her community.

This article originally appeared in our Fall 2019 MONEY Issue. Download for FREE here!

The post Your Investment Questions — Answered. appeared first on HER Magazine ™.