Woman Owned Business

[mannequin-lady]

My dress form site always has women customers, however, the foil art site seems to be the black sheep in the "family". The only sales I make from it are from the maps, even though I have several other foil prints that are great for women and kids.

If I prominently display at the top of the foil art pages that it's a woman owned website, would being a woman owned business attract more women to a retail site? Or does that not matter at all?

Going further into this, if you see a site that is described as "Disabled Woman Owned Business", is that too much? How would you phrase it?

It can be read in more than one way. It can be read that it is owned by a disabled woman OR it may look like the business is disabled (not good!). :D

Thanks,
Steph

[SemAdvance]

Hi Steph

How many stores in the real world do you with signs saying they are owned by women???

There is your answer.

Good luck!

[crankydave]

I think it's more a matter of how you are targeting your product.

How many folks search for, or go shopping for "foil art". It seems to me that you're focussing on something that's far too niche to attract searchers/shoppers.

I'd be more inclined to focus a bit more on the kind of art rather than the medium.

Dave

[Tubby]

A google search for 1909 Vauxhall find your page at position no 5 at google.
take a look at that page and ask yourself should it be trying to sell this item. or saying a woman runs this site

[mannequin-lady]

Hi Steph

How many stores in the real world do you with signs saying they are owned by women???

There is your answer.

Good luck!

:rolleyes: (I just wanted to use this smiley!) Brick and Mortar stores don't have to say they are owned by women. Women are attracted to what's in the store windows and then what's in the stores.

Good luck to you, too!

Steph

[mannequin-lady]

I think it's more a matter of how you are targeting your product.

How many folks search for, or go shopping for "foil art". It seems to me that you're focussing on something that's far too niche to attract searchers/shoppers.

I'd be more inclined to focus a bit more on the kind of art rather than the medium.

Dave

Hardly anyone, as far as I know, even knows what foil art is! I didn't either until I saw it at a Christmas show in the mall. I should have stayed home that day. :)

What I'm wondering is why they can't find my angels or fairies, etc, but yet everyone finds my maps, men and women.

I may end up moving the contents of the foil art site to alldressforms like I did with my prints site and jewelry site.

That's another project to add to the list.

Thanks, Dave!

Steph

[mannequin-lady]

A google search for 1909 Vauxhall find your page at position no 5 at google.
take a look at that page and ask yourself should it be trying to sell this item. or saying a woman runs this site

Of all the prints on my site, you had to pick that one!

No one has ever bought that foil print so I've been giving it away for free with orders generated by men. The women get the ballerina. For Christmas, I gave some baby fairy with Christmas Ornament prints or the Twelve Days of Christmas print.

I keep including these foil prints as free gifts in almost every order, but that doesn't seem to work, either. I thought that if people saw them in person and saw how beautiful they are, they'd want to order them. A few people did.

I had the idea that if women see that the site IS owned by a woman, they may be more inclined to buy from me.

[Tubby]

"Of all the prints on my site, you had to pick that one!"


I picked that one because I have many Vauxhall owners / restorers using my site. These people collect Vauxhall memorabilia. they hang old Vauxhall pictures under their houses. It is hard to stop them buying this sort of stuff.

I thought about placing a link to the page. but the image simply looks like an image. I saw nothing that would tempt anyone to buy. No value for me in linking to that page. It does not attempt to sell anything. basically it just contains an image.

If this is typical of pages on site, a little work should return some great results.

[Tubby]

also you said
"I thought that if people saw them in person and saw how beautiful they are, they'd want to order them"


YES! that would probably be right. So why not get as close as you can to the above situation. make an attempt. get out the camera, create the best image you can. create a page that will sell the item. .

has to be better than giving them away.

I have no problem pointing a selling page at my Vauxhall users

[crankydave]

Hardly anyone, as far as I know, even knows what foil art is! I didn't either until I saw it at a Christmas show in the mall. I should have stayed home that day. :)

What I'm wondering is why they can't find my angels or fairies, etc, but yet everyone finds my maps, men and women.

I may end up moving the contents of the foil art site to alldressforms like I did with my prints site and jewelry site.

That's another project to add to the list.

Thanks, Dave!

Steph

Question is "how" they are finding what they find? What are they searching for? Where are they coming from?

I'd be inclined to some keyword/market research to find out how people who are interested in say fairies and angels, are searching for and potentially finding what interests them. If they're not finding you now there's either no or little interest or they simply can't find you because you're not targeting what it is they're looking for and how.

BTW... I don't see angels listed anywhere in your nav. Am I missing it?

Dave

[mannequin-lady]

"Of all the prints on my site, you had to pick that one!"


I picked that one because I have many Vauxhall owners / restorers using my site. These people collect Vauxhall memorabilia. they hang old Vauxhall pictures under their houses. It is hard to stop them buying this sort of stuff.

I thought about placing a link to the page. but the image simply looks like an image. I saw nothing that would tempt anyone to buy. No value for me in linking to that page. It does not attempt to sell anything. basically it just contains an image.

If this is typical of pages on site, a little work should return some great results.

That was a very nice thought. Thank you even though it can't be done for now.

Chalk that up to a bad decision to hire someone to do the site for me. Totally bad all the way around. All the foil art was on my first website, which I got rid of after I had them do the site for me.

Mainly, I'm discussing the dress forms site in this forum but I certainly welcome advice I can add to the ever-growing to do list! The dress form site has a LOT more than dress forms!

For instance, old time car repair garage prints (http://www.alldressforms.com/artshop/transportation.htm)(REGULAR ART, not foil art), etc:

Now, you'll notice that the design is completely different for my entire art shop, also.

I'd better explain this. I had one big site. I decided to break up the old site into four new sites - three were done by others, at varying times (over years!).

Some day, the whole site will look similar. I finally got the top, left and bottom nav bars from the dress form site onto the jewelry shop (site).

BTW, that Vauxhall print is beautiful, or I wouldn't have bought it for my site.

What do you mean they hang them up UNDER their houses??? You trying to see if read every word? :-D

Thank you. Your opinion is highly valued! (I don't say that to everyone.) :grin:

[mannequin-lady]

also you said
"I thought that if people saw them in person and saw how beautiful they are, they'd want to order them"


YES! that would probably be right. So why not get as close as you can to the above situation. make an attempt. get out the camera, create the best image you can. create a page that will sell the item.

has to be better than giving them away.

I have no problem pointing a selling page at my Vauxhall users

Thank you. It takes days and days to get the photos just right. Foil art is VERY difficult to take pictures of that are actual representations.

When I take the photo and add info to the page, I'd love to have a link and put yours on that page. I presume that's the best thing.

That site needs a lot of work. I'll have to fix it up when I integrate it into the dress form site. I can see there are too many time consuming things I have to do for it.

And, I agree with you about that photo (you were polite). It stinks!

[mannequin-lady]

Question is "how" they are finding what they find? What are they searching for? Where are they coming from?

I'd be inclined to some keyword/market research to find out how people who are interested in say fairies and angels, are searching for and potentially finding what interests them. If they're not finding you now there's either no or little interest or they simply can't find you because you're not targeting what it is they're looking for and how.

BTW... I don't see angels listed anywhere in your nav. Am I missing it?

Dave

Dave, I'm sorry, I have angels in the art shop of alldressforms. I should have used a different example, such as religious and fairies. People do find the Native American prints, lucky for me.

The foil art site needs work but it's lower on the totem pole than my main site (ADF). I'm surprised no one has brought up the fact that I don't even have a search box on the foil art site! (shhh)

Steph

[Tubby]

"Hang up under their houses."

Quite often, people who's hobby is restoring cars look for a house that suits their hobby. This is surprisingly often a house with an expanded garage underneath.

Simple matter of walking downstairs. If you owned several cars that you were restoring I am fairly sure your eye would pick out the style of dwelling that would suit. a garage under the house. maybe a room adjoining where you can play with your cars.

here is a nice house for keeping stuff under
http://newgulfhomes.com/newgulf/images/Rockbridge01.jpg

P.S. for a warmer climate (naturally)

[earnest]

Man, I would say it's a great under to have a house to go with it :)

Actually, this thread turned out of extraordinary educational value for me personally - now I know where Vauxhall aficionados hang their things, and what foil art is, for that matter...

As to the point of this discussion, I believe everything has already been mentioned, and the solution is here, intact. Steph, you were really lucky to have guys like this hanging around here :)

Just move on, sister (I assume that you have solidly realized the initial idea was kind of lame, and - dangerously close to - offensive).

All the best.

[mannequin-lady]

here is a nice house for keeping stuff under
http://newgulfhomes.com/newgulf/images/Rockbridge01.jpg


Hi, Tubby,

That's some house! Way out of my league.

When I can work on the foil art site, I'll enter the descriptions. I mentioned that the foil art site was done for me, taking the info from my old site, however, they neglected to add the descriptions and other pertinent info.

I thought about sending you a bunch of the Vauxhall foil prints but I'm not sure what the postage is all the way over there! :)

Steph

[mannequin-lady]

Just move on, sister (I assume that you have solidly realized the initial idea was kind of lame, and - dangerously close to - offensive).
All the best.

Earnest, I believe your comment is offensive and lame. The idea is "solidly" very important:

Google search: 1 - 10 of about 44,500,000 for woman (http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.answers.com/woman&r=67&ei=vrsKSs3iAYjFtgfTv_WjAQ&sa=X&oi=dict&ct=D&cd=1&usg=AFQjCNE3OSjmcG3Zt8-Ijw4ZvHvqu4tMzw) owned (http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.answers.com/owned&r=67&ei=vrsKSs3iAYjFtgfTv_WjAQ&sa=X&oi=dict&ct=D&cd=2&usg=AFQjCNGoYWNAM9e-hM6ZuzE2-JQyPT6Imw) business (http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.answers.com/business&r=67&ei=vrsKSs3iAYjFtgfTv_WjAQ&sa=X&oi=dict&ct=D&cd=3&usg=AFQjCNFiqtWl5ZFDJI1yBcrtINWl8nZFSg).

woman owned business - Google Search (http://tinyurl.com/q4ggtl)

[Tubby]

You can always send me a link to any web page that is dedicated to a specific car, Year, make, model, format.
Send it via any form on any page of the sites listed in my signature.


P.S. you wrote "I don't even have a search box on the foil art site! (shhh)"
I saw on another thread you are starting use adsense - Install the google site search on both sites - I use it.

[mannequin-lady]

You can always send me a link to any web page that is dedicated to a specific car, Year, make, model, format. Send it via any form on any page of the sites listed in my signature.

I saw on another thread you are starting to use adsense - Install the google site search on both sites - I use it.

Thank you. I appreciate that! Would you like some of your site information on my 1909 Vauxhall page, tin signs page of a red 70's GTO (http://www.alldressforms.com/all-collectible-tin-signs-wall-decor.html), etc, page and / or any of my other car pages? (I have cars on both sites).

Yes, I'm adding adsense to my pages and using the google site search for the foil art site is a GREAT idea.

Can you and I talk about AdSense in that forum, please? I'd like to hear about your results with the site search, etc.

Steph

[Tubby]

Steph the red Pontiac page suffers from the same problem as the Vauxhall page. It covers everything from Marylin Munroe to railways.

I follow a strict format here for classic cars, I link out to year, make, model, specific, pages. A lot of webmaster will not link to pages that are not specific to the content of the page they link from.

I will take another look in to the adsense forum Steph.

[earnest]

Earnest, I believe your comment is offensive and lame. The idea is "solidly" very important:

Google search: 1 - 10 of about 44,500,000 for woman (http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.answers.com/woman&r=67&ei=vrsKSs3iAYjFtgfTv_WjAQ&sa=X&oi=dict&ct=D&cd=1&usg=AFQjCNE3OSjmcG3Zt8-Ijw4ZvHvqu4tMzw) owned (http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.answers.com/owned&r=67&ei=vrsKSs3iAYjFtgfTv_WjAQ&sa=X&oi=dict&ct=D&cd=2&usg=AFQjCNGoYWNAM9e-hM6ZuzE2-JQyPT6Imw) business (http://www.google.com/url?q=http://www.answers.com/business&r=67&ei=vrsKSs3iAYjFtgfTv_WjAQ&sa=X&oi=dict&ct=D&cd=3&usg=AFQjCNFiqtWl5ZFDJI1yBcrtINWl8nZFSg).

woman owned business - Google Search (http://tinyurl.com/q4ggtl)

Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Again, sorry if that turned out rude.

[weegillis]

It's no surprise that a search for "woman owned business" would turn up 44 million results--in Canada, anyway, over one-third of all small and medium sized businesses (nearly a million) are owned by women.

would 'Company's Coming' have been as successful if it were owned by a man? Can't say. It's safe to say that people took to Jean Pare like a bear takes to honey, her cookbooks are all best sellers. But I don't remember her ever promoting herself, or her business as a woman owned business. Her product (tried and proven original recipes) is what sold. People bought her books, not her image.

One cannot easily quantify such a question: dissenting opinion can easily sway an audience if there are no hard numbers.

CrankyDave makes his point very clear: Sell your product, and make it easy to buy. If a business fails it will be because the business model either wasn't properly tuned, or the public are not interested in its product lines. It should succeed based on the same.

Success or failure cannot be attributed to the gender of the owner, solely, or even more than lightly. Too many other factors weigh in more heavily.

[mannequin-lady]

You can always send me a link to any web page that is dedicated to a specific car, Year, make, model, format.
Send it via any form on any page of the sites listed in my signature.

I saw on another thread you are starting use adsense - Install the google site search on both sites - I use it.

I installed the Google Site Search box on every page of 3dfoilart along with making several other changes.

New photos and your link are here 1909 Vauxhall (http://www.3dfoilart.com/transportation.htm)

Tubby, thank you for all the advice!

Steph

[mannequin-lady]

Sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings. Again, sorry if that turned out rude.

Well, that does sound like an "earnest" reply, :-D so thank you. I appreciate it.

I have teachers and instructors who have budgets that have to be spent in a certain time frame, or before a specific deadline.

Since those customers have to justify what they want to buy and why they are buying that many dress forms for their students, I want to make it easier for them to have justification for why, what and when.

There are some government agencies, public schools, etc, that want to buy from women owned businesses. I want to increase my chances of getting those sales.

From the SBA.GOV website:

The Office of Women’s Business Ownership (http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/onlinewbc/resources/WBC_RESOURCES_FOR_WOMEN.html)collaborates with many organizations to make the best possible resources available to women entrepreneurs.

Useful information and links specifically focused on the woman business owner interested in doing business with the federal government. (http://www.womenbiz.gov/)

That was the original focus of my question. At least I hoped it would be and probably should have said that at the beginning. I also hoped that there would be more women in this discussion. :D

Thank you for giving a nice reply back.

Steph

[mannequin-lady]

It's no surprise that a search for "woman owned business" would turn up 44 million results--in Canada, anyway, over one-third of all small and medium sized businesses (nearly a million) are owned by women.

One cannot easily quantify such a question: dissenting opinion can easily sway an audience if there are no hard numbers.

CrankyDave makes his point very clear: Sell your product, and make it easy to buy. If a business fails it will be because the business model either wasn't properly tuned, or the public are not interested in its product lines. It should succeed based on the same.

Success or failure cannot be attributed to the gender of the owner, solely, or even more than lightly. Too many other factors weigh in more heavily.

Hello, weegillis,

The point of the discussion I raised will become a little clearer when you see the reply to Earnest.

The focal point is to get sales from Federal Agencies, etc, via the special programs available for women, minorities and the disabled. (Unfortunately, yes, unfortunately, (due to disabilities), I qualify for all of those.)

CrankyDave is right on the money, (pun intended), however, there is no harm in extending your chances of getting more business. That's what I need to do.

Thank you,
Steph

[mannequin-lady]

Steph the red Pontiac page suffers from the same problem as the Vauxhall page. It covers everything from Marylin Monroe to railways.

I follow a strict format here for classic cars, I link out to year, make, model, specific, pages. A lot of webmaster will not link to pages that are not specific to the content of the page they link from.

I will take another look in to the adsense forum Steph.

That page is a tin signs page. I wasn't asking for a link for that; it was just to show you the pretty pontiac image.

My "strict" linking format is that it has to be related to the topics my website and links pages cover, which is quite diverse. :p

[weegillis]

While [we/I] may be waffling over this question, it occurs to me that you could join an association of women owned business and then prominently display their medallion on your site along with any other important badges. This would clearly indicate to a visitor that yours is a woman owned business.

I rather doubt that the government is searching the web to find suppliers... the suppliers find the government. Clearly the SBA is there to assist you in obtaining government contracts, so you are right to follow that avenue.

[earnest]

Well, that does sound like an "earnest" reply, :-D so thank you. I appreciate it.

I have teachers and instructors who have budgets that have to be spent in a certain time frame, or before a specific deadline.

Since those customers have to justify what they want to buy and why they are buying that many dress forms for their students, I want to make it easier for them to have justification for why, what and when.

There are some government agencies, public schools, etc, that want to buy from women owned businesses. I want to increase my chances of getting those sales.

From the SBA.GOV website:

The Office of Women’s Business Ownership (http://www.sba.gov/aboutsba/sbaprograms/onlinewbc/resources/WBC_RESOURCES_FOR_WOMEN.html)collaborates with many organizations to make the best possible resources available to women entrepreneurs.

Useful information and links specifically focused on the woman business owner interested in doing business with the federal government. (http://www.womenbiz.gov/)

That was the original focus of my question. At least I hoped it would be and probably should have said that at the beginning. I also hoped that there would be more women in this discussion. :D

Thank you for giving a nice reply back.

Steph

Hi Steph,

Thank you for your reply - I really felt quite uneasy about having made that post, so it was a relief to get the above feedback. As it turns out, I really missed the whole point you were originally making, so I appreciate the clarification.

I think Weegillis is making a valid point here: you might consider joining an organization of some kind, or even form one if these are non-existent :).

Good luck with your site, and sorry again about the misunderstanding.

BTW, there are women participating in this thread!

[mannequin-lady]

While [we/I] may be waffling over this question, it occurs to me that you could join an association of women owned business and then prominently display their medallion on your site along with any other important badges. This would clearly indicate to a visitor that yours is a woman owned business.

I rather doubt that the government is searching the web to find suppliers... the suppliers find the government. Clearly the SBA is there to assist you in obtaining government contracts, so you are right to follow that avenue.

Hello, weegillis!

I thoroughly researched many associations and their PRICES a few years ago and then again, recently. The "subscriptions" are out of my budget. That is what kept me away from those (terrific otherwise!) organizations.

I don't seek out huge government contracts (whoa!). I brought up this topic to see what other options I may have to let interested parties know about my site. The SBA is wonderful but I'm a sole proprietor and don't plan on going further than that.

Thank you for the excellent suggestion, in any case!

Steph