Are you looking for new business prospects? If so, you can either join the crowd or stand out from it. A surefire way to stand out is with great customer testimonials.

But a lot of women I meet don’t think to ask for testimonials, or if it does cross their mind, they feel uncomfortable doing so. Here is a surefire testimonial process.

Five Steps to Gain and Use Testimonials

You probably don’t have a big advertising budget, but don’t let that prevent you from spreading the word about yourself and your business. You can get great—sometimes even more effective results—from a strategic PR effort.

Here are five low-cost approaches you can use to get the word out.

Five Ways to Promote Yourself and Your Business

I recently participated in the Enterprising Women of the Year Annual Awards and came home with over 100 business cards.

As I looked through them, I struggled to remember who some of these women were because they had plain, boring cards.

If you want people to follow up with you, you have to be memorable, and to do this, your card has to stand out. If you don’t have GREAT cards—ones that people comment on—revamp them today!

Here are five ways to create a great, memorable card.

As a business owner, you’ve likely got more material wealth than the average person. With that in mind, consider how you can help others while benefiting your business. One way to do this is by donating your company’s products or services.

As a professional speaker, I provide one pro-bono speaking event a month. And I often give my books and other products to disadvantaged women. Besides helping these women, I gain from being in front of individuals who have not heard of me and become my raving fans.

Is there a way your products or services can help others while adding value to your business?

Here’s a process to “do well by doing good.”

When was the last time you looked at your marketing materials? Not just the printed pieces, but online items like your website and LinkedIn profile. Are they formal and technical? Do they go on and on about your products or services?

Most marketing content I read is terrible stuff, written from the seller’s perspective. The goal of marketing material is to convert readers into solid leads, who can then become customers. And the best way to do this is by presenting interesting, usable ideas written in a conversational style. In short: market like a friend.

Five steps to move your readers to customers.

Branding is the personality of your business. And, it’s especially important for a small business to get branding right because tight budgets require creative ways to tell your story. You can overcome the large budgets of major competitors by focusing on branding. But to do so, it’s important to get that branding right.

Here are five points to develop a great brand.

Five Points to Develop a Great Brand

One of my pet peeves is women who represent themselves as professionals, but use headshots that are seven years old, or were taken by a friend in the break room. Pictures that scream AMATEUR!!! Your headshot is the only image that many people have of you or your business, so you owe it to yourself to have a great one.

You know without my telling you if you need a new headshot. If so, bite the bullet and schedule one today. If you consider the number of times you can use it over the next several years, a professional headshot is a real bargain. And while you’re at it, give the business to a woman-owned business.

Five Steps to a Great Headshot

I’ve lost track of the number of interviews I’ve done in the past year. But there’s not much point in investing all this media time unless it provides business results. Lots of businesswomen are obsessed with gaining PR, but you don’t want PR for the sake of PR. You want to be focused to ensure that you gain the right kind of PR and that you come across in the right way.

Here are five keys to gaining the right kind of media attention.

Five Keys to Gain Positive Media Attention

I recently returned from the International Conference of the Women Presidents’ Organization, where I met hundreds of women who own multimillion-dollar businesses. Naturally, I collected cards from several of them. Here’s the amazing thing I discovered about those cards: with the exception of two or three, they are all “same-old-same-old.” Why would the most successful women in the world have business cards that are as boring as a white wall?

Of course a business card should identify you, but it should also enable you to stand out from the crowd. If you’re part of a corporate conglomerate, you may have to go with the boring flow. But, if you own your own business, you’ve got the opportunity to reflect your personality on your card. Here are five ways to do that.

Five Ways to Create a Great Business Card

Do you find yourself with great referrals that you are often unable to convert into new business? Just what is the problem with turning these referrals into customers? To do so, you need a referral process. It doesn’t have to be complicated but it does need to be a formal process that you execute every time.

Here’s a quick five-step process to enhance your chances of converting those referrals into revenue.  

Five Steps to Capitalize on Every Referral