Business Profile: Kimora Lee Simmons
I had to highlight Kimora Lee Simmons, President and Creative Director of Phat Fashions, because she is a member of my generation, a Mom Mogul, and from St. Louis! Since I’m just putting my Mom Mogul boots on, it’s important for me to see that there are people who are doing it quite successfully. Her industry and way of life is different from mine but I am impressed by her ability to balance it all.
Kimora started her career in fashion as an international teenage model. Over the last 12 years, she has created a fashion empire – a lifestyle brand – with Phat Fashions and its labels. She has a diverse income stream with a career product portfolio including the previously mentioned fashion empire, a highly reviewed book Fabulosity: What It Is and How To Get It, highly rated reality show Life in the Fab Lane, and several other business ventures… she has a total of 20 businesses! Finally, she’s philanthropic and gives back to several causes including a scholarship to young ladies in our hometown.
Check out this recent interview with Access Hollywood with words for how she views her life at this time:
Lessons to learn from Kimora Lee Simmons:
- Consistency is key to establishing a lifestyle brand. Although the products are different, the message is the same throughout – fabulous!
- Maintain relationships that keep you grounded to keep your head on straight and give you a calm spirit.
- Appreciate all that life has for you and go after those experiences you want.
- Do not be afraid to walk away from a partnership that is not good for you.
- Always think of fresh ideas for your business and include others in this brainstorming.
- No matter what your background is, be confident in what you are doing.
Keep up with Kimora on her official website: www.kls.com.
11 Friends You Haven’t Met; but Need to Know
Today we have a guest post by A. Michelle Buckley, a fellow member of Black Business Women Online. You can find more information about here at the end of the article. Enjoy!
- Barbara Lopez with Brightfarm Introductions – Barbara masterfully helps you create an introduction to your business that reflects your specialty and your personality. Her capacity to ensure that your introductions are fresh and memorable is exceptional.
- Deena Pierott with Mosaic Blueprint – Deena has a connection for whatever ails your business. Although she is a cultural diversity expert, her vast and dynamic social network of women, urban entrepreneurs and corporations is built on collaboration.
- Ayesha Mathews-Wadhwa with PixInk – You are your brand and Ayesha’s brand development ensures that your brand identity and personal values are not only in sync but clear and well defined. Her brand cultivation genius helps discover what makes you unique.
- Natalie MacNeil with She Takes On the World – Home of all things “women entrepreneur.” Natalie features successful women entrepreneurs, entrepreneurship articles, valuable resources, and a free directory for women-owned businesses. She has received numerous awards and mentions for her work and blog content and is a constant source of fresh ideas and encouragement.
- Sylvia Browder with Browder Consulting – Sylvia empowers women to achieve success through entrepreneurship. In addition to running her own consulting practice, she volunteers as a SCORE counselor and provides women entrepreneurs with the resources and tools they need for continued success. Her support for women entrepreneurs is personal and heartfelt.
- Adrienne Graham with Empower Me! and Fearless Networking. This power broker provides a variety of platforms that enable women to maximize the value in their networks and connections. Adrienne is all about the power and empowerment of women entrepreneurs and the author of “Go Ahead Talk to Strangers: A Modern Day Guide to Fearless Networking.”
- Yolanda Webb with E’Lon Beauty – Yolanda publishes an amazing and unique online beauty magazine. Her magazine not only presents all that is beautiful on the outside, but her publication also nurtures the inside beauty of all women.
- Patricia Weber with Professional Strategies – Pat is the consummate sales coach for introverts. She understands the anxiety and apprehension introverts have in operating their business and skillfully coaches them through practical communication, sales and networking techniques.
- Jacintha Perrera with Island Getaways – This is not a “fly by night” travel service. Jacintha is a travel expert specializing in South Pacific getaways and special interest retreats. Her customized travel expeditions are once in a lifetime experiences. Be sure to check out her travel blog and virtual tours. When you need to getaway, you need to contact Jacintha.
- Crystal Martin with Crystalwashington.com – Crystal is a social media and social networking guru. Her simple tips and tools will get you up to speed with effective and efficient marketing strategies that will enhance your capacity to meet and acquire appropriate clients.
A.Michelle Blakeley is the Founder and CEO of Simplicity, Inc.; a progressive small business development firm. She manages her clients’ business expectations and prevents information overload via Micro Business Therapy™ and Micro Business Action Plans. She is featured in Forbes.com and the Financial Post as one of 30 Women Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter and the host of Simple Truths for Women Entrepreneurs on BlogTalkRadio.com.
The Chain of Revenue
Over the last few weeks, I have been reviewing the services my company offers and where the greatest potential sources of revenue are. Determining my company’s value chain and its place in it will allow me to better explore where I can capture a higher profit margin or even determine a new service/product offering, to enhance the service I provide for my clients (and capture more revenue).
The value chain can best be defined as the link of activities involved in creating, distributing, and maintaining an end product or service. These activities range from the acquisition of raw materials to providing after-market service. This business framework was made popular by Harvard professor Michael E. Porter in his book Competitive Advantage.
Understanding your value chain helps you understand your competitive advantage and can enhance the way you do business. You may want to add to your offerings by adding a couple of services that you could easily do but your customers currently go elsewhere for. Maybe there is a firm that you usually refer business to but never receive a return from – could you service that business yourself and capture the entire transaction? Subcontract the other firm to still provide the service but include the service as a part of your package, adding a little on top to make sure it is profitable for your firm. Doing this would relieve your customer of having to deal with another company and portray you as more of a lifesaver than you were before – WIN!
Leave a comment to let us know the results of your value chain review and how it will affect your business.
What is the business equivalent of the Olympics?
Over the last week, I have really been into the 2010 Vancouver Olympics. I have never really watched the Winter Olympics before, but from the opening show to pair figure skating and so on, these games have really caught my attention. I have been impressed with how many of these athletes have competed and end up giving their personal best (according to the announcers). The camaraderie of the country teams and their pride to represent their country is outstanding. Outside of when I participated in sports in high school, I don’t think I have heard the US National Anthem so much, not since I was in elementary school in Illinois.
I have watched these games wondering where the business equivalent is. I know the Grammys and Oscars are for entertainers, but what about people in business. Is our success only measured by the amount of profit we bring in? There are competitions such as SBA National Small Business of the Year and top lists here and there that measure so many different factors (from Working Mother‘s and Black Enterprise‘s many lists to Inc. 5000 to Fortune 500 and so on) – would these be the equivalent?
On another (and even greater) note, these games really say a lot about being a part of a team. This evening, I watched the Super-G Alpine Skiing competition with Team USA’s Lindsey Vonn. After winning the Bronze medal (she won the Gold medal in Ladies’ Downhill skiing a few days ago), she was interviewed, discussing how supportive Team USA has been for each other. Paraphrasing, she explained how their individual wins encourage each other to keep competing at their best.
Realizing this motivation is one reason I am so excited to be a part of a newly formed “team.” Remember when I discussed creating your own community? Well, the group has been formed and we are in the midst of creating our individual goals so that our respective businesses will be the best we can have them be at every step. None of our businesses are competitive and that was really by happenstance… they are actually quite complementary but that isn’t what we are in it for. We know that we can perform better by motivating each other and holding each other accountable instead of working in silos.
Maybe THAT is the equivalent of the Olympics, business and otherwise – performing at our personal best!
When You Give, You Receive
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Tonight, I went to see the movie Invictus and was blown away by its storytelling, its overall message, and most of all Clint Eastwood! In case you do not know, Invictus is based on the true story of how former South African President Nelson Mandela used the game of Rugby to unite his nation after the fall of Apartheid. As I was watching the movie, I saw lessons that could be used in business and any other leadership role. Really, I just gathered lessons on how to be a better human being.
One lesson that I would like to share with you is about giving. This rugby team was struggling in the beginning of the movie. At one point, President Mandela ordered the team to do rugby clinics in the local neighborhoods – teaching others the game they were so passionate about. The team unwillingly participated but ultimately had a good time and began winning some games! I drew several nuggets from this storyline, but want to highlight one…
When the rugby team gave their time to the community, they gained more accountability and a harder push to succeed. Of course they already had fans, but they never got so up close and personal with them. In this part of the story, they were teaching kids the game of rugby – they had to follow through with their lesson and not let the kids down by continuing to be a losing team. Children are ones you really do not want to disappoint – they could carry that disappointment beyond your lifetime.
To translate this into business, when you contribute some portion of your resources to the community, there becomes more at stake for you than simply making a profit. Others are depending on you to help them get to a place where they can do more for themselves. That could be learning a new skill, getting much needed attention and advice, receiving donated resources… any number of things that can help a person go to a higher level than where they are. This act of giving not only helps your community as a whole, but hopefully gives you more gumption to create success within your firm.
One business owner I know who epitomizes this is 2009 SBA North Carolina Small Business Person of the Year, Lisa Pineiro. She successfully owns and operates Technical Services, Inc, a construction staffing company based in Durham, North Carolina. Her way of giving back is by training at-risk youth and young girls about the construction trades. Although her business is doing very well and she is receiving more accolades than ever for what she does in business, she started these programs before the recognition and I believe they contributed to the overall success of her business.
Although there is talk about the validity of some parts of the storyline in Invictus – this is Hollywood – I believe we can all learn lessons from the movie on how to be better humans and even on how to run better businesses.
Have you see the movie Invictus? Share any lessons you may have learned from the storyline, or even from what you know about Nelson Mandela’s style of leadership.
