Female Business Owners: It’s Time to Start Promoting Yourself
Learn how companies can benefit from YouTube.
I’ve recently been contemplating ways to promote myself and my “brand” to help my company, Violet PR, gain more exposure as a top boutique public relations firm in northern New Jersey. Since I started the business as a home-based freelancer in 2010, we have grown to include four full-time professionals and several part-time employees based in a hip loft space in downtown Montclair, N.J. As part of our marketing plans, my staff and business coach have encouraged me to do more public speaking, post more on LinkedIn and Twitter, and generally talk about my accomplishments.
This is harder than it sounds. Generally, I’ve shied away from promoting myself – preferring instead to promote my team’s accomplishments using words like “we” and “us” – and avoiding photos with me taking center stage. Part of my rationale has been that I’m comfortable behind the scenes: after all, as a PR person, my goal has always been to promote my clients—not to become part of the story. Also, I genuinely want to give my team, partners and clients credit for their creativity and hard work.
However, after reading my friend Jessica Broome’s new survey about the “self-promotion gap” – which explores women’s fear of promoting their accomplishments – I now understand there are deeper, cultural reasons why I haven’t felt comfortable doing so.
The 2019 survey of over 1,000 adults found that most women, in fact, avoid talking about their strengths and accomplishments. While 83 percent of women are inspired by hearing other women talk about their successes, seven in 10 women would rather minimize their successes than tell people about them. In fact, 42 percent of women said they’d rather clean the bathroom than talk about their accomplishments!
So why should we care? Well, for one thing, even though more women than men have been graduating from college since the 1970s, men are still earning more money. In 2019, women earned just 79 cents for every dollar that men made, regardless of job type or seniority. Men also dominate the C-Suite: women held just 6.6 percent of Fortune 500 CEO roles in 2019. And male entrepreneurs are the ones getting their businesses funded: CrunchBase reported that only 3 percent of global venture capital dollars went to companies led by a female founder during the first three quarters of 2019.
And in my field, women make up 70 percent of the industry, yet hold only 30 percent of the leadership positions, according to The Holmes Report. Female PR salaries are also lower: in 2017, white females were reported to make about $6,000 less than white males with comparable education and experience. This gap increases with people of color.
So, before you stop reading this post in frustration, there are a few bright spots in the “self-promotion gap” survey. Women aged 18-34 are more than twice as likely as women 55 and older to say they want to stand out. Moms and black women also show higher rates of willingness to talk about their accomplishments.
This gives me hope.
So, in the New Year, as I seek to grow my business and inspire younger women, I am pledging to be more intentional about promoting myself, my brand and my company. Here’s the first one:
In less than a decade, I’ve successfully built a profitable, award-winning boutique PR firm from scratch, without any outside financial help or loans, while always paying myself and my staff competitive salaries.
Whew!
(OK, now I also want to say I have had amazing clients, fantastic staff, exceptional mentors and some good fortune as well along the way!)
To my female colleagues, clients, friends and moms, cheers to a successful 2020!
About April Mason
An expert in economic and real estate development, April brings over two decades of experience developing public relations campaigns for clients large and small. She founded Violet PR in 2010 to shine a light on community leaders, developers and designers making a difference in the world.
About the Self-Promotion Gap Survey
The Self-Promotion Gap is a 2019 survey exploring women’s fear of self-promotion, commissioned by Mighty Forces, Southpaw Insights, Upstream Analysis and Grey Horse Communications. Read more at www.selfpromotiongap.com.
About Violet PR
Whether it’s rebranding a city, drawing attention to a revitalized neighborhood, or promoting a new sustainable development, Violet PR helps clients make a difference. Through a combination of news stories, social media, and compelling content, our NJ-based boutique public relations firm helps clients attract more dollars and supporters.