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Greetings!
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Amalia Moreno-Damgaard, WeMN President
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I would like to start by expressing my deep appreciation for your support during the past years. As our 5th Anniversary approaches I want to take the time to recognize your time and contributions as well as your participation in our various events and programs. I also would like to acknowledge our board for their hard work and dedication and for making these 5 years possible. WeMN is currently repositioning with the purpose of reasserting our brand and value proposition. During 2012 and beyond, we aspire to deliver high quality events and programs that our members want and that are current and relevant.
During 2011 WeMN has gone through a transition period. As our first board members completed their terms, some gradually transitioned to a secondary board called the Honorary Advisory Board. WeMN now is stronger than ever with two boards that support our Strategic Plan and ongoing needs. The primary board is responsible for carrying out our plans and goals and our secondary board supports our endeavors by continuing to contribute on specific activities and special projects. WeMN truly appreciates the assistance that our Advisory Board provides as they possess invaluable insights into WeMN.
WeMN is the only organization in the Twin Cities that is totally dedicated and focused on women entrepreneurs. We are proud that our members come from all industries and backgrounds with varying levels of experience. We provide a hub for these women not only to network and learn, but to develop meaningful relationships. Please spread the word, bring a friend and invite an associate to our events. Our remaining events for the year are on November 7th and December 5th. For more information or to register, please go to wemn.org/events. The broader our membership becomes, the more resourceful we are to each other.
WeMN is a non-profit organization that came into being in 2007 with the mission to provide personal, professional, and business growth opportunities for entrepreneurial women leaders in our communities through networking and education. We strive to offer our members more than just networking and relationship building, but to contribute in other meaningful ways such as providing help on specific challenges or projects through our Monthly Events, Mentoring Program, and Leadership Talks and Biennial Conference. Please mark your calendars for Visionary Women 2012 - The Conference, which will be held on November 29, 2012 at the University of St. Thomas School of Entrepreneurship (more details to follow in the coming months). Once again, thank you. We look forward to continuing to count on your support and to making a difference.
Best regards, Amalia
P.S. In the coming months, watch for special promotions in celebration of our 5th Anniversary. |
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Not a WeMN Member?
Join Today!
information on membership benefits.
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Why Does Branding Matter?
By Angie Williams, WeMN Marketing Director
Brand managers at large companies will tell you that branding matters, and they will spend millions of dollars promoting and protecting their brands, as seen in recent coverage of Abercrombie and Netflix. But for a solo entrepreneur or small business owner, does branding really matter?
Effective branding serves many important functions including that it
1) helps customers understand who you are and what you do and
2) creates a preference in customers' minds (or "hearts") for your product or service.
Spend a few minutes thinking about your brand. What are its attributes as you would define them? Is it fun, smart, friendly, trustworthy, sophisticated, sexy, efficient? Write down some adjectives and keep them as a reference. Now put your brand to the test. Send a few close contacts your website, marketing materials, or just your elevator pitch. Ask them what words they would use to describe your brand. Are you communicating your brand effectively?
If you have some work to do, consider these tips on developing a meaningful brand:
Stay Simple: People have a difficult time connecting with brands that are complex or try to do too much - not to mention the fact that in the information age no one has time to try and figure out what exactly you do and why it matters. In your communications, materials design and advertisements, keep your message simple. Think of Target, whose tagline, "Expect more. Pay less." is short and to the point, and yet it completely captures Target's brand and offerings of affordable, good quality products.
Stay Consistent: Maintain consistency in your branding and communications, including your website, social media, email marketing, advertisements - even your email signature. Be consistent in your language as well as your use of fonts and colors, with one caveat - make sure your web-based content is easy to read. On the web, use fonts that are unique to your brand for headers, but stick to web-safe, user-friendly fonts for most content.
Stay True: As a solo entrepreneur or small business owner, much of who you are is reflected in your brand, and that is a good thing. Refine what parts of your personality should become a part of your brand, and don't try to be someone you aren't. Equally important, stay true to your customer. Understand what they are looking for and how your brand satisfies that need. Vera Wang may have lost some brand loyalists who viewed her brand as exclusive when she developed a line for Kohl's. As you build and manage your brand, keep tabs on how your customers are responding to it and make sure you are still relevant in their minds.
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Upcoming Events
11/7 WeMN Peer Advisory Group
12/5 Three Cups of Coffee: Expanding Your Social Capital |
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for leading our work/life balance yoga class in September!
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Advertise your
company here!
- - -
for more information.
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 Member Spotlight Interview by
Margaret Cronin,
WeMN Advisory Board
Becky: Since I joined WeMN my business has evolved tremendously from having a few individual clients, dipping my toes in the water of group classes and being a hopeful writer without a clear business plan. Now I am a national award-winning author, still coaching individual clients, collaborating with top researchers and colleagues in the eating disorders field, speaking nationally (and getting paid for it) and I have a solid business plan. My book is being converted to an e-book and I hardly have time to attend all the WeMN events I'd like to attend. WeMN: Your area of expertise-serving families of people with eating disorders-is a newly emerging field. What challenges have you faced in educating consumers about your service? Becky: I'm so grateful for this question as the shame and stigma that still surround eating disorders play a major role in my challenges to educate consumers but also in people getting the diagnosis and treatment they need to recover. Read Margaret's full interview with Becky, which includes insightful business tips from a successful entrepreneur. |
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 The value of your WeMN membership
Karen Emanuelson, WeMN Membership Director
As a fairly new member to WeMN, my goal this year it to continually strive to enhance the value of your WeMN membership. The WeMN board agreed with this goal at our October 12 meeting. As a result, you will begin receiving monthly email correspondence from WeMN. In addition to event notices, watch your email box for WeMN newsletters that will contain member spotlights, tips and suggestions for your entrepreneurial life, information about upcoming WeMN events, and sponsorship opportunities for you to promote your company to the WeMN membership. Please add info@WeMN.org to your address book so you receive our correspondence. The Board is already planning a number of valuable events.
In addition to quarterly member-only Peer Advisory Groups and quarterly education-packed events, 2012 will also feature a half-day seminar Visionary Women 2012 in conjunction with the University of St. Thomas Schulze School of Entrepreneurship. We're also evaluating ideas for incentives to current members who invite their connections and friends to WeMN events and additional incentives for new member registrations. I look forward to meeting you at a WeMN event. In the meantime, please connect to me on LinkedIn and join our WeMN LinkedIn group.
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WeMN Board
Membership Director Treasurer and CFO Marketing Director |
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| WeMN Advisory Board
Former WeMN Founding Board Member and Secretary
Former WeMN Marketing Director
Former WeMN Technology Director
Former WeMN Founding Board Member and Treasurer
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Contact Us
Women Entrepreneurs of Minnesota Connect with Us   
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