Grow My Small Business | Sales, Marketing and Business Growth Strategies for Faith Based Female Entrepreneurs

52. Sales 101 for Small Business: What is a Sales Funnel?

Sales 101: What is a Sales Funnel?   
Hello & welcome back to Sales & Business Growth for BUSY Women. I am your host, Lindsay Fletcher.  I’m a wife, mom of 4, dog mom, business owner x2, former top performing sales rep in corporate america, and I’m here to help you sell more, get time back in your day, and grow your business.  On this podcast we talk about sales, marketing, business growth, and time management so that your business doesn’t take over your life!
Fill out the survey to be entered to win a $50 gift card!
In today's episode, I explain what a sales funnel is, some terms that you may need clarified, and outline some steps for you to build your sales funnel for your business. 
Business Growth | Sales Growth | Revenue Growth | Scaling Your Business | Business Strategy | Market Expansion | Customer Retention | High Performance Sales Team | Sales Planning | Sales Strategy | What is a Sales Funnel | How to build a sales funnel
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51. What are you most thankful for in your business? Women in Business Online Community Responses

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What are you thankful for in your business? Women in Business Online Community Responses
Hello & welcome back to Sales & Business Growth for BUSY Women. I am your host, Lindsay Fletcher.  I’m a wife, mom of 4, dog mom, business owner x2, former top performing sales rep, in corporate america, and I’m here to help you sell more, get time back in your day, and grow your business.  On this podcast we talk about sales, marketing, business growth, and time management so that your business doesn’t take over your life! 
 
Today is the Tuesday just before Thanksgiving and we are all preparing for get togethers and the madness of the holiday season to officially start!  I’m so thankful that you are here and would love some feedback on this show, and I know you might need a little bit of motivation to fill out a survey for me, so when you fill out the survey linked in the show notes, you will be entered to win a $50 Amazon gift card. The survey will be open until December 5th, and then you’ll have to come back to listen to the episode on Dec. 6th to see if you win.  FILL OUT THE SURVEY HERE --> LINK TO THE SURVEY
 
Today’s episode is going to be a little bit different than what we usually do because I want to encourage some listeners who might be in the beginning stages of their business or maybe are in a hard season of business.  We are doing a Thanksgiving “what are you thankful for” episode.  I asked the women in my online community what they are most thankful for in their business and of course all of them said their customers and clients who allow them to stay in business, but beyond that, they had some pretty awesome responses, so I thought I’d read them to you on this episode because if you are new to business, or maybe it’s not where you want or need it to be just yet, or maybe you are in a hard season, these ladies brought up some amazing benefits of owning business these might give you some fuel to keep going!
 
I'm praying for you and your business!
My best,
Lindsay
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LET’S CONNECT!
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50. Quick sales tip to grow your small business - How to ask for more business

Join my Women in Business Community for support and free education in 2025!
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Hello & welcome back to Sales & Business Growth for BUSY Women. I am your host, Lindsay Fletcher.  I’m a wife, mom of 4, dog mom, business owner x2, and I’m here to help you sell more, get time back in your day, and grow your business.  On this podcast we talk about sales, marketing, business growth, and time management so that your business doesn’t take over your life! 
 
If you are a woman in business looking for community, support, and free education, join my online Women in Business Community!  This community is about 1000 women strong and growing everyday, so join us because we are going to be doing some big things in 2025 that you need to uplevel your business in all the ways!
 
Today we are talking about one thing that people miss when they are trying to build a pipeline of customers or clients and grow their business, and that is asking people to tell their family, friends, and neighbors.  I’m not talking about getting reviews, I’m talking about asking your customers to recommend and refer you to people in their circle.
So here’s the easiest way that I’ve found to do this. Ask.I’m serious. You have to ask for more business, so in this episode I walk you through a theoretical customer interaction in both B2B (business to business) and B2C (business to consumer) scenarios and how you can ask for this. 
 
Have a question? >>> Leave me a voice message here: https://speakpipe.com/lindsayfletcher
Email >>> hello@lindsayfletcher.co
 
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49. Time management for women in small business - Tips for planning a successful holiday season

Hello & welcome back to Sales & Business Growth for BUSY Women. I am your host, Lindsay Fletcher.  I’m a wife, mom of 4, dog mom, business owner x2, and I’m here to help you sell more, get time back in your day, and grow your business.  On this podcast we talk about sales, marketing, business growth, and time management so that your business doesn’t take over your life!  
 
Before we get into today’s topic, a couple of things: 
Please hit that follow button wherever you are listening to this podcast
If you haven’t joined my Women in Business community, you need to be in there with us!  We are at almost 1000 business women, and growing each day!  If you listened to the last episode, you know that I have some big things planned for 2025. I’m bringing on a leadership team of women that are experts in their fields that will be offering training to you at no charge inside the group - things like taxes, investing, business law, and of course sales, marketing, and time management.  It’s all free, literally no dollars will be exchanged inside this group - if you want to level up in 2025, join the group today!
Today's episode is about setting ourselves up for a successful holiday season.  Here are 3 tips to managing your time:
1. Set aside time to plan for the holiday season, and then set aside time to plan each week. 
2. Decide what your limits are for your business and your personal life.
3. Enforce those boundaries. 
 
You can do it!!!  You can take back your holiday season and it can look however you want it to look - you just have to be intentional with your time and effort.  
Thank you so much for listening to another episode of the podcast.  I’m so happy you are here with me!  I’m praying for you and your business!  Talk to you next time!
 
Time Management for women in business | Task Management | Productivity Hacks | Time Blocking | Task Prioritization | Delegation Tips | Avoiding Burnout | Daily Routine | Workflow Optimization | Productivity Tools | Time-saving Tips | Time management strategies | time management for busy women 
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Have a question? >>> Leave me a voice message here: https://speakpipe.com/lindsayfletcher
Email >>> hello@lindsayfletcher.co 
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Need community?  Join Women in Business >>> https://www.facebook.com/groups/367731782244780 
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48. Gender gaps for women owned business

Hello & welcome back to Sales & Business Growth for BUSY Women. I am your host, Lindsay Fletcher.  I’m a wife of 18 years, mom of 4, multi-business owner, and your resident sales and time management nerd. I’m here to help you sell more, get time back in your day, and grow your business.
 
Please hit that follow button wherever you are listening to this podcast - it really blesses me big time and I’d love for more people to find this show because I know it can help so many women out there - maybe you could share it with a business friend?  Just a thought and I’d be so thankful if you did!!!
 
In the last episode of the podcast, I talked a little bit about this study that found that women-run businesses are 11% less productive than male-run businesses. One of the contributing factors to this low number is high household work allocation and other cultural norms that make women less available for business matters than men, and the article I referenced suggested that we as women have to learn more effective ways of time management so that we can start to make-up some of that 11%.  
 
There were 5 categories where women-run businesses performed poorer:
Impacted by crime.  
Adverse business environments, like power outages.
Digital economy is key for women-run businesses.
Lack of access to foreign investment.   
Firm age. 
In this study, women-owned businesses shined in 2 categories and challenges this productivity gap:
Smaller size when compared to male-run organizations showed to be an advantage.  
Female run businesses had an advantage in the retail sector of business.
 
So here’s where my head goes - my experience as a woman, while this may not have been your experience, is that I was not taught how to manage money, make it grow, how to build a business, and everything that I teach on this podcast I’ve either figured out myself through trial and error (you win some, you lose and learn on some) or sought out education to better prepare myself for business.  I still have a lot of gaps in business like financial literacy, investing and learning investor driven business, business law, taxes, etc. And I know from talking to many women in business that they have gaps in knowledge too but can't afford to spend thousands of dollars to get the education they feel they need. 
If that's you, then join my Women in Business Community because you'll want what I've got planned for 2025.
I’ve talked about my online women in business community briefly on the podcast before, and I have big plans for 2025 inside there. I’m bringing on a leadership team of business experts that will be providing weekly training on a variety of topics, and you'll have access to these experts and will be able to ask questions inside our community so that you can grow your business, better manage your finances, do things the right and legal way, sell more, market better, manage your time and energy better.  All of this training will be for free, provided at no charge to you.  I personally know these leaders. We’ve spent time together. They are women that I trust, and I believe that this leadership team will help you take your business to the next level - wherever that is for you!!!
So again, if you haven’t already, join my online Women in Business community - you don’t want to miss out on the happenings inside that group. 
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I'm here to support you and help you grow!  So let's connect! 
Have a question? >>> Leave me a voice message here: https://speakpipe.com/lindsayfletcher
Email >>> hello@lindsayfletcher.co 
Free Resources >>> https://lindsayfletcher.co/free-resources 
Need community?  Join Women in Business >>> https://www.facebook.com/groups/367731782244780 
Follow me on IG >>> https://instagram.com/lindsayfletcher.co
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I'm praying for you and your business!
- Lindsay
 
Business Growth | Sales Growth | Revenue Growth | Scaling Your Business | Business Strategy | Market Expansion | Customer Retention | High Performance Sales Team | Sales Planning | Sales Strategy | Time Management for women in business | Task Management | Productivity Hacks | Time Blocking | Task Prioritization | Delegation Tips | Avoiding Burnout | Daily Routine | Workflow Optimization | Productivity Tools | Time-saving Tips | Time management strategies | time management for busy women | Women in Business | Female Entrepreneurs | Business Success | Small Business Tips | Entrepreneurial Success | Business Coaching | Professional Development | Business Coaching | Business Consulting
 

47. Effective time management strategy for Women in Small Business

Effective Time Management Strategy for Women in Small Business
 
Hello & welcome back to Sales & Business Growth for BUSY Women. I am your resident sales and business nerd Lindsay Fletcher, and this podcast is the place for small business owners to learn how to make more sales, have more time, and grow your business.
 
I recently found an article that intrigued me on Forbes’ website.  It was about effective time management strategies, and they suggested the following:  Time is infinite but energy is renewable,and they suggested that managing your energy will improve your time management. 
 
This article talked about a couple of studies. One study where data was collected between 2009-2016 showed that female-run businesses are 11% less productive than male-run businesses.  I’ll let you read the article if you’d like - I’ve linked this study in the show notes. But basically, women-run businesses performed poorer than men-owned in 5 categories when controlling for a variety of firm characteristics. One factor called out in this study is high household work allocation when compared to men and other cultural norms that make women less available for business matters than men.
 
Another Study in the Harvard Business Review done in 2006 took 106 employees at 12 regional banks in southern New Jersey through a curriculum of four modules, each of which focused on specific strategies for strengthening one of the four main dimensions of energy. These four dimensions of energy are body, emotions, mind, and spirit.  Before diving into increasing these four areas of energy, they took an “energy audit” of sorts.  They were given 4 questions on each area, and most of the participants answered 8-10 out of 16 questions that they were doing things that were counterproductive to creating and having positive energy.  
So how do we use this information to better manage our time?  Based on this information, we start with managing our energy.  Speaking in simple terms, let’s ask ourselves what tasks give us energy and what ones take energy away. We can take a week and log our tasks and energy. You can probably categorize some of your tasks right now into energy-giving and energy-taking. Then schedule your tasks by pairing a -giving with a -taking one, and give yourself short breaks in between.
 
Start the week by making your to-do list, and instead of just checking the items off as you go, you’ll want to categorize them into these two categories and then pair them together on your schedule. 
 
I think this is a really interesting way to think about your day and the tasks that you need to complete, and I am interested in applying this to my time management or rather energy management skills.  
 
I’d like to continue this conversation about gender gaps in the next episode, so be sure to hit the follow button where you are listening to this episode so that you don’t miss it!
 
I'm praying for you and your business!
 
My best, Lindsay
 
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LET’S CONNECT!
Have a question? >>> Leave me a voice message here: https://speakpipe.com/lindsayfletcher
Email >>> hello@lindsayfletcher.co 
Lots of Free Resources >>> https://lindsayfletcher.co/free-resources 
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46. 10-Minute Sales Tip - How to make time for sales and marketing in small business

Hello & welcome back to Sales & Business Growth for Busy Women. I am your resident sales and business nerd, Lindsay Fletcher, and this podcast is the place for small business owners to learn how to make more sales, have more time, and grow your business.
Please hit that follow button wherever you are listening - it will bless me big time because your podcast listening app will know to push this out to more people!
 
Today, let’s talk about making time for sales and marketing in your small business. This is something that a lot of women struggle with because there are always going to be a million and one things to do…taxes and BOI forms, customers to call or text or email back, the actual work that your business does in addition to sales and marketing to get people into your funnel and moving though.  It’s important to do, right?  But there may be some resistance if this isn’t your lane or zone of genius.  
 
So let’s talk about it.  How do you find the time to market your business and have sales conversations?  Here are  questions or points that I want you to think about:
Are you putting these activites / sales and marketing items on your schedule?
If you don’t know what is working in your business, you need to start tracking your sales and marketing activities and revenue to see what actually work and do more of those things.  I have a free downloadable Sales Growth Tracker that you can find on my website at lindsayfletcher.co/free-resources - click on Sales Growth Tracker, enter your email address and I’ll send it over to you!  
There are a million fires that could occur in your small business at any given moment that you’ll feel the need to tend to immediately, so if you need help deciding what you actually need to do right now versus what needs to go on your schedule, go back and listen to episode 20 where I talk through Eisenhower’s Matrix 
It may be time to hire someone to help you with tasks that are taking up your time when you could or should be focusing on revenue generating activities.  This is something that my business coach - shout out to Lani Jackson - we talked about this often. What items could you delegate that you could pay someone else, or perhaps get an intern, to do?  Again, Episode 20 will help you decide what could be delegated. 
Finally, the third thing I want you to think about is this - you are responsible as a business owner, especially if you have a team, to ensure that revenue generating activities are being done for your business, your customers, and your team.  Whether that’s you that’s doing them or you have someone on your team doing them, it is your responsibility to ensure those things are getting done.   
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LET’S CONNECT!
Have a question? >>> Leave me a voice message here: https://speakpipe.com/lindsayfletcher
Email >>> hello@lindsayfletcher.co 
Lots of Free Resources >>> https://lindsayfletcher.co/free-resources 
Need community?  Join Women in Business >>> https://www.facebook.com/groups/367731782244780 
Follow me on IG >>> https://instagram.com/lindsayfletcher.co 
 
 
Small Business Growth | Sales Growth | Revenue Growth | Scaling Your Business | Business Strategy | Market Expansion | Customer Retention | High Performance Sales Team | Sales Planning | Sales Strategy

45. How to overcome mistakes in Small Business

Hello & welcome back to Sales & Business Growth for Busy Women. I am your host and resident sales nerd, Lindsay Fletcher, and this podcast is the place for small business owners to learn how to make more sales, have more time, and grow your business.
Please hit the follow button wherever you are listening - it helps Apple, Spotify, and all of the major platforms know to push this to more people, and I really really appreciate it your help!
Today, I’m preaching to myself with this episode, maybe more than I’m preaching to you. I hesitated to talk about this but I think it's important to share the hard things.  I also think it’s super important to talk about as we roll into the end of the year, and especially the upcoming holiday season, and things get super busy.
As a small business owner x2, I know that schedules get full, small and large fires come up, and things slip through the cracks. I woke up on Saturday morning with a pit in my stomach…I missed publishing Friday’s episode for this podcast and my newsletter last week.  Last week, my schedule was a bit wonky and not typical, and I didn't schedule in time to create podcast episodes and . So first off, I’m so sorry if you were looking for an episode from me and it wasn’t there. Secondly, I’m only human and while it’s definitely not my intention to mess up and miss sending out content that I promise to deliver, I know it won’t be the last time that I mess up.   
 
So let’s talk about how to best handle mistakes or misses in our businesses - whether it’s free content like this podcast or my weekly newsletter, or it’s with a paying customer.  I believe how we handle these types of things can make or break our businesses. So here are our 4 steps on how we handle these situations:
 Acknowledge that you made a mistake, or missed something that you should have delivered.  So we acknowledge that we made a mistake.
We fix it if it.  That’s pretty self explanatory, right?  
We review where things went wrong or how we (or I) got off track, and a create a plan forward to avoid making the same or similar mistakes in the future.
Give yourself some grace. You are human, after all.
To download my free Sales Growth Tracker to track your sales and marketing activities and revenue, go to https://lindsayfletcher.co/free-resources and enter your email address. I'll send it to you immediately! 
 
Here are some other important links:
Have a question? >>> Leave me a voice message here: https://speakpipe.com/lindsayfletcher
Email >>> hello@lindsayfletcher.co 
Free Resources >>> https://lindsayfletcher.co/free-resources 
Need community?  Join Women in Business >>> https://www.facebook.com/groups/367731782244780 
Follow me on IG >>> https://instagram.com/lindsayfletcher.co
 
 
 

44. How to overcome Imposter Syndrome in Small Business

Hello & welcome back to Sales & Business Growth for BUSY Women. I am your host Lindsay Fletcher, and this podcast is the place for small business owners to learn how to make more sales, have more time, and grow your business.
Please hit the "follow" button wherever you are listening! 
Join our online Women in Business Community HERE.
 
Today, we are going to have a conversation around imposter syndrome.
Do you ever get it?  I do. Often. Like way more often that I’d like to admit.  I used to get it about this podcast. I get it about the Women in Business Online Community that I’m building. I get it about our local small business sometimes. I’m just going to assume you’ve had imposter syndrome types of thoughts. Mine typically sounds like "Who will listen to me?" and "Who will hire me?".  
Here's how I handle this when it creeps in…
I ask myself “what’s the worst thing that could happen?” Most of the scenarios in my head aren't real, so I remind myself that "nothing" is likely the answer to that question.
I remember that God has placed big dreams in my heart, and if He called me to it, He’ll walk with me through it.  I wouldn’t need Him if I were qualified, and quite frankly, that's just not a place I want to be.
Here’s where the magic happens...I ask myself “what could go right?” and then my mind jumps to impact that I can make in the lives of women and their families, their businesses, and how they spend their time. Focusing on the impact keeps me motivated to push through the imposter syndrome (because Satan wants me stuck in my own head) and I take action on moving this ship forward!
I'm praying for you and your business!
My best,
Lindsay
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LET’S CONNECT!
Have a question? >>> Leave me a voice message here: https://speakpipe.com/lindsayfletcher
Email >>> hello@lindsayfletcher.co 
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43. Selling your products or services from Your Booth at Conferences, Trade Shows, Community Events for Small Business

Hello & welcome back to Sales & Business Growth for BUSY Women. I am your host Lindsay Fletcher, and this podcast is the place for small business owners to learn how to make more sales, have more time, and grow your business.
Today we are talking about how to get ready for a trade show, conference, community event where you will have a booth and want to connect with potential clients.  This is something that I have recently helped a small business team with and thought I’d share these tips with you!
 
Here are 5 tips on selling from your event booth:
Know your goals for the conference
Have a succinct way to describe what you do - a micro elevator pitch
Have a question that you can ask most, if not all, of the people who pass by or come to your booth - something like “What brings you to today’s event?”
Ask if you can share what you do and how you can help them (if you find a need/want)
Close the conversation
Listen to the full episode for more details on these tips!
 
LET’S CONNECT!
Have a question? >>> Leave me a voice message here: https://speakpipe.com/lindsayfletcher
Email >>> hello@lindsayfletcher.co 
Free Resources >>> https://lindsayfletcher.co/free-resources 
Need community?  Join Women in Business >>> https://www.facebook.com/groups/367731782244780 
Follow me on IG >>> https://instagram.com/lindsayfletcher.co