Marketing 2 Women International is conducting a summer long event, Metropolitan Business Woman Marketing Forum, to foster the growth of cross marketing partnerships. One of the cross marketing projects assigned to participants is a 3 part joint business or lifestyle column.

California business woman Michele Broad and North Carolina business woman Darlene Crumbaugh were paired up to create a lifestyle column. Darlene has a background in the banking industry. Michele is a RN. Both are supplementing their incomes via direct sales.

They stepped up to the challenge to create a unique lifestyle / business column that merged their direct sales companies by providing consumer and business information. They are the perfect example of how women can come together to create something fresh to market to each others’ client base. Read their first column by clicking here.

Attract More Female Clients

Cross marketing at its essence is nothing more than joining forces with compatible companies so that everyone involved can more effectively capitalize on each others’ existing client base.

Marketing 2 Women International is pleased to introduce its new business partner matchmaking service, the Cross Marketing Circle, for busy business people who want increase their female client base.

The Cross Marketing Circle is an invitation only collaborative business event that brings together 5 – 10 complementary business people from either the same metro area or state in non-competitive business fields to team up to support each others’ marketing efforts. They engage in high powered networking while laying the foundation for a mutually beneficial local, national and or international cross marketing campaign.

Why sell to one person at a time when you can collaborate with non-competitive companies who are already catering to your target audience? Participants of the Cross Marketing Circle will work together to funnel clients to each other while sharing the time and cost of marketing together on future projects to attract new female clients.

Once a territory is selected, Marketing 2 Women International issues a one time only invitation to business people in that area. They are given 5 day window of time to sign up. The spots in the Cross Marketing Circle are on a first come first serve basis. After the reservations have been filled, the businesses will coordinate their schedules and go through an assessment process to determine the appropriate cross marketing project to showcase their businesses.

Jerrilynn B. Thomas, Founder of Marketing 2 Women International, will serve as facilitator for the Cross Marketing Circle as well as conduct the pre-event assessments. Jerrilynn has fine tuned her business partner matchmaking skills over the past 15+ years by giving small group workshops and networking events for business people with the desire to team up to generate a buzz.

The Cross Marketing Circle is priced affordabely at $80 per person. The fee covers the pre-event assessment and the event. Companies are invited to add themselves to the waiting list if they would like to receive advance notice when a Cross Marketing Circle is forming for their area.

Why Market to Women?

Women start businesses at a faster pace than men every year. They generate $3 trillion in revenue. Now add that amount to what the overall women’s market spends in the U.S. on personal products and services — $5 trillion — and you see why companies should focus their marketing dollars on attracting women in business. They need business as well as consumer products and services. In short, they control the purse strings of their businesses and households.

Add Yourself to the Waiting List

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The smartest and most economical way to thrive during and beyond the recession is by cross marketing. Cross-marketing at its essence is nothing more than joining forces with compatible companies so that everyone involved can more effectively capitalize on each others’ existing client base. To increase awareness of the benefits of forming collaborative business relationships

Since time is money, being able to shorten the amount of time it takes to prospect for collaborative business partners can mean the difference between a company making their sales quota and not being able to pay their bills. To draw attention to the benefits of cross marketing Marketing 2 Women International will be conducting virtual mixers for every region, assembling a grass roots speakers bureau to visit local business groups, providing a video and audio format for companies to share their cross marketing stories, showcasing women on the Women’s Collaborative Forum, and more.

The Details

A 90 minute mixer will be conducted for US West business and professional women during National Entrepreneur Week (Feb. 20 – 27) on Wednesday, February 24, 2010 from 4 – 5:30 PM Eastern. 20 women will have the opportunity to present a 3 minute company showcase to attract prospective cross marketing partners. An international guest speaker will share her insight on how to tap into her metropolitan women in business market.

The special guest speaker for the West Women Partner Virtual Mixer is Cheryl Antier. Cheryl will educate participants about France’s women in business market.

Cheryl Antier is the CEO and founder of Dream Weaver Enterprises (appropriately named, since she’s living her ‘dream life’ on the French Riviera)…

As a business consultant, Cheryl works exclusively with women-owned, service-based businesses. Her clients are entrepreneurs whose definition of ‘success’ comes from building a business based on their purpose, passion and vision. Using her proprietary system highlighted on MicroenterpriseSuccess.com, her clients develop an ‘ultimate outcome’ mindset, and implement incremental business and marketing strategies that deliver consistent and measurable results designed to help them weave their dream business into ultimate reality.

As a ghostwriter, Cheryl specializes in working with doctors who want to become authors and have their book ready to be published in as little as three to six months. (www.ghostwriterfordoctors.com) She’s known as the only ‘Ghostwriting CoMentorSultant’© that helps doctors create a strong platform and marketing strategy while their book is being written, so when it’s published, there is already a strong fan base in place, and a promotional strategy that helps sell more books.

As a copywriter, Cheryl enjoys working as the ‘in-house’ copywriter for several website design companies. She also accepts small business clients in B2C and B2B markets. Her clients enjoy personalized services that ensure work is done on time and on budget and they can check the status of their project online 24/7.

At the end of National Entrepreneur Week, participants will be sent a slide presentation that includes everyone who participated in the mixer and will be assigned a joint marketing project. They will also receive a 30 day profile on the Women’s Collaborative Forum in honor of Women’s History Month. The cost to participate is only $20. The cost to participate is only $20.

Register today to secure your spot in the West Women Partner Virtual Mixer for US West business and professional women.

Register NOW!

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President, Set for Life Insurance

Most of us become very dependent on the things we love and wonder how we could have ever lived without it. Imagine having to wash your clothes by hand. Or remember the days of the pay phone? Personally, I can’t imagine how I ever survived without my beloved iPhone! Sometimes even our luxuries feel like necessities.

To take care of our important assets that we couldn’t live without, we leverage our risk with insurance. This includes homeowner’s insurance, auto insurance, and even life insurance.

However, have you considered covering your most valuable asset—your income? Imagine surviving without your income. How would you survive? Do you have enough money in savings to cover you if you couldn’t work for 6 months? What about 2 years? Or longer?!  Most people overlook protecting their income. However, most people could not survive without it.

Chances of becoming disabled are actually pretty steep. Between ages 30 and 65,  a third of us will become disabled. Yet most people don’t take care of this need. It’s much more likely to happen than a flood or fire to your home and the ramifications are much greater.

Disability insurance is designed to pay you a monthly benefit if you become sick or injured and can’t work.  A personal policy is non taxable (if paid with after tax dollars) and typically kicks in after a waiting period of 90 days or longer.  You may choose a benefit period of 5 years, age 65 and lifetime. The longer the period, the more expensive the policy.

There are various types of definitions and policy provisions.  These include definition of disability (try to purchase a policy that covers you if you couldn’t work in your specific occupation), partial disability, inflation riders, and the ability to purchase more in the future without further medical underwriting.

It is important to work with an expert that can help guide you through the process and find the most suitable policy for your needs. The underwriting process requires a look at your previous medical history and a paramedical exam (blood and urine test).  Look for an independent broker that works with multiple companies instead of an agent that will only show you one company that may or may not be the best fit for you.

Premiums will vary based on gender, age, occupation, geographic location and policy definitions and riders. Rates are 30-40% higher for women than men based on risk. However, there are ways to create discounts if more than 3 people from the same employer apply.  Also look for discounts available through membership associations.  Plan on spending approximately 1-3% of your gross income to protect 60-75% of your take home pay.

For more information about protecting your most valuable asset, contact Set for Life Insurance at 888-553-3559 or visit www.setforlifeinsurance.com.  You’ll be glad your income is protected. It’s hard to survive without it.

Change will not come if we wait for some other person or some other time. We are the ones we’ve been waiting for. We are the change that we seek. — Barack Obama

The world stopped on January 20 to watch the 44th president, Barack Obama, get sworn into office. During his speech he told everyone that we need to “pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off, and begin again the work.” It is going to take all of us working together to fix this financial mess.

We have to start creating new opportunities for ourselves by effectively marketing our companies to boost our bottom-lines and outsourcing work so we can direct the flow of money into the women in business community. A lot of self-employed women have had to step up to the plate as the bread winner because their spouse has been laid off. It is more important than ever for us to cross market, engage in JVs, and form alliances.

Marketing 2 Women International and its partner companies are here to help you navigate through the recession. Contact us if we can be of service to you. Please post your introduction in the comment section.

Women Collaborating to Help Other Women Thrive Instead of Survive the Recession

Marketing 2 Women International is pleased to announce the prelaunch of US West Women Partner. Take a look around to acquaint yourself with our unique concept.

The Business and Career Reinvention 2.0 section is going to be a “work of business art”. The business relocation section will allow local business and professional to recommend the “best of” in their metropolitan area while plugging their own company.

US West Women Partner will be “manned” by a high powered team of distinguished business and professional women from the West Region of the US. Not only will they help women in their state thrive during and beyond this recession, they will serve as door openers for women from other US and global metropolitan areas who want to tap into their local women in business market by utilizing their products and services.

Women who want to step out from the crowd by engaging in outside the box cross marketing activities are invited to submit an application for Marketing 2 Women International membership.

Over the next few weeks, our center will be filled with information supplied by local magazine publishers, leaders of women’s organizations, and owners of companies whose products and services are building blocks of the Western region’s marketing infrastructure. Please register as a user on our main blog and click the link above to subscribe to our RSS feed. We welcome your thoughts and ideas on what you would like for us to cover to truly make this center beneficial for your company.

Marketing 2 Women International is looking for seasoned US West Region business and professional women who want to become known as the #1 expert in their field in their state that can help women owned companies keep their doors open during and beyond this recession.

We are seeking companies that offer essential business products and services — Marketing, PR, Accounting, Event planning, Sales coaching, Advertising, Business development, e-Business consulting, Business coaching and Publishing for our women’s business consortium.  Involvement is limited to one person per category.

While your competition is participating in the recession by cutting staff and marketing costs, you will be able to keep your company in the spotlight by sharing the cost of marketing with other companies who want to crush their competition. You can participate in expos together; buy full page ad space in the top business and consumer magazines; send out tip post cards; conduct joint workshops; purchase cable advertising; and more.

Advertise like a BIG corporation on a tiny budget by pooling your marketing dollars with complementary companies and watch your visibility and profits grow in 2009.   You will cross market with companies in your state to expand your client base as well as with companies in other states and countries so you can grow your client base in over 200 metro women in business markets.

If you are looking for a new business association that will help you stretch your budget and market your company in 2009, click here to find out how Marketing 2 Women International can help you build a $1 million + company in spite of the economy.

Download an application

Ask how you can cross market with one or more of your business associates to reduce the cost of signing up.