We're not sure, dear readers, but we expect someone will correct us if we error -- but, this week's Fit by Five comes from Canada. That makes us international, doesn't it? We like the idea of being international.
About a month ago we found this great article in Globe and Mail, a Canadian newspaper out of Toronto, just over the lake from Jane, "Small business driving growth, and women are in control." The article is by Rob Shaw. Though we went to the Globe and Mail website, we could not find a link to the article and no mention of Rob Shaw. More's the pity.
We offer you these 5 reasons you should be targeting women: (as written in Rob Shaw's article, as well as some stats from this blurb on women entrepreneurs.)
1. According to CIBC Small Business Banking, "[Women] are a key part of the fuel that is driving [the small business marketplace]." Women entrepreneurs are expected to jump to at least one million by 2010, up from 800,000 now, so the article says.
2. And, "Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce says the number of women entrepreneurs has been growing at an average annual rate of 3.3 per cent since 1989. That's 60 per cent faster than the growth in the number of small businesses run by men." But we bet a lot of men have a stake in seeing those women owned businesses be successful.
3. According to a 43-year-old mother of one, quoted in the article, "Women are becoming more and more confident and assertive." Hear, hear!
4. Seniorpreneurs, a term coined by the CIBC, "represent the fastest growing slice of self-employed Canadians." These are women over 55, btw.
5. Now, for a last stat, please sit up and take notice: women have been putting up with this for centuries, and we're not going to do it anymore. If you don't take us seriously, as business partners and as customers, we're going to start our own country. You heard it here, first.
So, here's the last reason to get your mind around marketing to women who shop online, "41% of the female small-business owners say they are taken less seriously than their male counterparts."
These stats are not exclusive to the women in Canada. Our stats here in the states may vary, but they're pretty dang close to those shown in this blog post. The bottomline: you're either with us or agin us...which is it? Are you going to market to us as if we matter, or -- are you going to keep glancing around us looking for a man? Worse yet, are you going to paint the columns in your store pink and think you've covered the basics?
Be aware, be real, look us in the EYE -- if you want us to shop at your store or your website.
What's not to like about that?
I was at a meeting last night where two male business consultants gave speeches. The first centered on "Using the right side of the brain" and the second was "How to Simplify and Win Sales". BOTH used sports stories and bullet points to illustrate their points. Both referred to men making the business decisions while the wives remained at home...
One women stood up later and said that half of her staff wouldn't know what they were talking about--they had no wives--only husbands.
Roxie Dean said it best in her recently released CD "It's a Girl's world, you're just living in it..."
Posted by: Mary Hunt | August 16, 2005 at 08:30 PM