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Smart Women Are Like Harry Potter

Written by: Joy Chudacoff

Article Overview: This article is about women in small to mid-size businesses and how they should reflect on their products and services periodically. When we begin our journey as entrepreneurs, we may start our business with just a few products or services. In the beginning, you create your core product or service---your brand. As the business grows, it’s essential that you begin to dewant tosign or create other products and services that compliment your brand and that your valued customers would benefit from. J.K. Rowling has done an amazing job at creating a series with her core brand (Harry Potter) and then adding more characters and storylines that readers every where want to follow. The same applies to any successful business.

Smart Women Are Like Harry Potter

Recently, my son Jack and I went to the local bookstore in search of the book Harry Potter 4. We have an agreement that we will read each Harry Potter book in the series together and then watch the movie. This has two wonderful benefits: One, I get to spend quality time reading a great series with my son and, two, I’m hoping it will increase his love of reading as much as Greg and I enjoy reading.

When we located the book, I picked up the hardback edition (which was extremely heavy) and then chose the paperback version, as it would be much easier to hold. I compared the fourth book to the first book in the series and noticed how much thicker the books become as the storyline progresses. This got me thinking about how smart women build businesses in the same way.

When J.K. Rowling (a very smart woman) wrote Harry Potter 1, she created an amazing story with a handful of characters that you wanted to follow and know their every move. Each book is more captivating than the last. When women create a new business from their Big ideas, they typically begin with a single idea or two and take action to make it happen. The “story” begins to unfold with one or two products or services and from there, the business has the opportunity to grow and become much larger. One example that quickly comes to mind is Bobbi Brown cosmetics. If you know her story, she was a makeup artist that was dissatisfied with the product lines she was working with and went on to create her own line of cosmetics. To make a very long story short, Bobbi Brown cosmetics is owned today by Estee Lauder. Her single idea turned into a multi-million dollar enterprise. Your business is like a story that continues to grow, adding new and interesting products and services over time.

As J.K. Rowling began to write the series, she continued to add more interesting characters and add more depth to the plot. Of course, the books became heavier and heavier, due to the nature of all the adventure going on inside the book. Each book in the series offers you more characters to love, dislike, and laugh at. This is certainly the case in my business. As I reflect on my journey to the present and the plans for the future, my “story” and its “characters” have certainly grown and will continue to grow. If you are planning, strategizing, and taking action to make your goals and dreams come true, then naturally your business will change over time. You begin to notice what products and services are doing well and you begin to add on or take away.

How about you? Are you adding new products and services that will compliment your original brand or is it a new venture where the products and services are just now beginning to take shape? It’s essential that you continue to evaluate your business and make changes or additions along the way so that your “series” will continue to grow and your customers will want to follow you as you create and add to your business.

Successful businesses rarely operate with just a single product or service. They build their ‘core” brand (in J.K. Rowling’s case, it’s Harry Potter, Ron, and Hermione) and then find other products or services that compliment that brand (think Dumbledore, Snape, and Hagrid).

I’m not sure if J.K. Rowling knew in the beginning how all of the characters would unfold in the series; however, I am sure of one thing: When she completed Harry Potter 1 and saw the world’s reaction to her creative writing, she very quickly went to work on realizing a bigger vision. I invite you to think about your biggest vision moving forward and how you can add new products or services to your already existing core business.

*****

Related Articles
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  Lesson #5: Do Not Lose the Core Essence of Your Product
  Lesson #3: Every Spare Second Counts For Success
  Lesson #1: Slay the Dragons Standing In Your Way
  Unleashing the Magic: How Potter Wrote Her Way To Billions

Article Tags: bobbi brown cosmetics, bookstore, dollar enterprise, estee lauder, handful, hardback edition, harry potter, harry potter 1, harry potter 4, harry potter book, interesting products, j k rowling, love, makeup artist, new business, paperback version, quality time, smart woman, smart women



Related Forum Posts
Re: Should authors have a monopoly over their work? - [quote="BuzzAroundBooks":259l8osu] While authors maybe should have a monopoly over their work, I'm not sure that RDR Books is doing anything illegal. RDR Books isn't promoting that their "Harry Potter Lexicon" is an "Official" reference and customers can choose if they want to waste their money on an unofficial and possibly inaccurate compilation. For instance, on MuchMusic, they have this stupid program called "The Totally Untrue History of ...." where they spend 30 minutes telling lies about a music star's life history just for fun. However, a music celebrity who is featured on the show can't sue MuchMusic for slander or using their "image" without authorization because it's considered a "review" and they've advertised that their show is fake anyways. Either way, I wouldn't waste a penny on an official or unofficial Harry Potter Encyclopedia since I can get the information for free on the Web.[/quote:259l8osu] There are many many people who will buy it because it is about Harry Potter and they want a copy. If they didn't think it would sell they wouldn't have put the work into putting it together and getting it released. If your comment were true for the majority of people, then ebooks would sell much better - they are far less expensive (in most cases) than print books and you can access thousands online for free. Shri
Re: History of Women in Business in the United States - Yes. Women have increasingly made positive economic contributions to society and their position is being recognized more and more as seen on the Forbes List of Executive Women. In general, women can be a bit more practical in their approach as entrepreneurs too.
A ton of Great Women - You might want to profile Teresa Cascioli of LakePort Brewery. She has an amazing story! I met her at at the celebratory luncheon for the Profit/Chatelaine Top 100 Women Business Owners. The Top 100 list is also a great resource for inspirational stories of Women Entrepreneurs.
Re: Are entrepreneur women more organized than men? - Women are generally more organised than men. They have good instincts more than men. Women are generally aggressive when it come to business. You don't want to mess up with them.
Re: Are entrepreneur women more organized than men? - The issue of women being more organized than men is true, start from you home, just see how messy the boys are. Women are also very cautious, unlike men who take any risk, a woman will analyze the risk first. Women are also go getter when it comes to business, once they make their mind, then they go for it.


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