Join my guest, Olga Adler, Founder of Austin Business Woman, as she shares how she created a unique and effective way to promote woman-owned businesses in Austin. Olga's story is one of creativity, innovation and determination. A Life Story to Empower Your Mind.
The Journey - Turning an idea into reality, creating a community, and changing lives:
Time Stamp:
00:06 Meet Olga Adler
00:58 Journey to creating Austin Business Woman Directory
05:31 The Uniqueness of the Directory
09:10 Overcoming Obstacles
10:50 Two Steps to Move Forward
14:29 Online Directory Benefits
18:44 Directory's Impact
19:56 What's Ahead
22:04 Social Media and Contact Information
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Austin Business Woman: https://www.austinbusinesswoman.com
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ROSIE, HOST
Welcome to Season 2 of Life 100 Podcast. In this season, we share inspiring stories on how our guests turn an idea into a successful reality. And today I have the pleasure to welcome Olga Adler, an accomplished entrepreneur and the founder of Austin Business Woman, an online directory for women-owned businesses right here in Austin, Texas. The way she brings her vision to life, her analytical background and business knowledge, makes this directory a unique, a valuable resource for all of us. So Olga, my friend, welcome to the show.
OLGA ADLER
Hi Rosie. Thank you so much for having me. It's such an honor.
ROSIE, HOST
The honor is all mine. When I learn about what you have created, I was so empowered because now I know how to access all of these resources that are so much needed. So tell me a little bit about your journey. Tell me what brought you to this particular business venture.
OLGA ADLER
I realized many female entrepreneurs and women-owned businesses suffer a lot from not getting enough exposure, from not being able to market themselves and advertise this products and services unless they have a four or five digit budget for it. And unfortunately, a lot of local businesses don't have it. It's really hard to start your own business, let alone allocate so much money for just the promotion part. And honestly, a lot of people who are good in their own trade, they're not necessarily experts in social media, advertising, marketing, or promotion. So it's really hard to get the word out. And especially now with coronavirus, when we're at home, you don't have your regular venues where you can go and meet people. Talk about your product and advertising is really not affordable for a lot of us. So I thought about creating a directory of women, owned businesses located in Austin and Austin metropolitan area where female entrepreneurs can create the accounts, which are publicly visible. So everyone can browse, can go on the website and find them, see information about them, see their contact information and if need be, they can also advertise their services. And it would look like social media because it will have a feed with products or services or your coupons, events, your portfolio, which is any kind of media files like pictures, videos, or music files. And you can create your account for free and start advertising at as low as $1.
ROSIE, HOST
That's what I was just waiting for the opportunity to talk to you because it's such a wonderful resource. Not only it is aesthetically pleasing, also the resources are very easy to find. I know that you have an analytical background, how did you merge that idea that you have into the reality. How did you use your background and apply it to create in this particular business?
OLGA ADLER
I think like many female entrepreneurs, with a little retrospective, we took a step back and look at that ourselves and we try to figure out what exactly do we need for our business, for our projects to succeed. And I've been involved in business administration and entrepreneurship since I was 21, right after college, I started my own company. I studied linguistics in college, so I started a translation company and it was pretty successful. I was very proud of it, but when I moved to America, it wasn't viable. I couldn't keep managing it from another continent, so I just sold the company. Then I worked in America for a furniture imports company. I was in a managing position, I worked in different industries and administrative roles and I realized that the hardest part for both businesses was to advertise, to bring attention of your target audience, to your products and services, to make them believe in your offer as much as you believe, because we all believe in our product.
OLGA ADLER
We all believe in what we do. We know it's amazing. We know that as soon as the customer gets to use your product or service, they will love it, but they don't know it. So this step from being anonymous, someone who nobody knows, to being a product that everyone loves, takes a long journey. And I started to think about making this process easier for local businesses. Of course, all businesses suffer, not only local businesses and not only female businesses, but there's only as much as we can do. And so I decided to focus on my own market, which is woman owned businesses located in Austin who need help because right now they are competing with entire world. They're competing with huge corporations. They just need some helping hand to put them in the spotlight to showcase their product in the way that will help them in this particular year and be successful in the future.
ROSIE, HOST
Sure. That's right. Amplify their product, their services, and their stories because every business has a story. The way that you divided your content, tell me about the uniqueness of your directory, how not only the business woman benefits, but also the person looking for those products and services that they provide.
OLGA ADLER
The uniqueness of the directory would be its openness to the public so everyone can access it. I saw other industry organizations who help women on businesses and many of them do not disclose directories in public. You can access them if you contact this organization and you ask for information, sometimes it's a free service. Sometimes it is not. But if you want to know all the women who do business, who sell something in your area, it's really hard to find. Especially if you try the traditional way, like if you Google it, if you try Googling a woman-owned businesses, most likely you will either see women who are very prominent, who have big companies, who have been in business for a long time, who already got a lot of promotion on the internet and on social media. But you will probably not find a woman who lives next door and who bakes amazing cakes.
OLGA ADLER
And you don't ever know her. But with this directory, with Austin Business Woman, you can see all the businesses on the map. So you can even find business located in your area. You can see what they do. You can click on their links. You can see what events they are having, they can even publish their own blog posts that will be in the main feed. So women have opportunity to share anything they want to promote their business, whether it's pictures or videos, or just a product with a price or a coupon, block posts, it creates this community of women to make their dream come true. And you can find them.
ROSIE, HOST
And you can support them. Even if you are not in Austin, like a friend of mine, for instance, she is in Pennsylvania. And I told her about this directory. She used to live here in Austin. And when I told her about it, she's like what I can't believe it, this is great. And she went and looked and told me, this is amazing because even though that I move away from Austin, I still want to support fellow business woman in Austin, which is where she grew up. So it's very accessible and it's beautifully made. What is the feedback that you have received from business owners and from the people looking at your directory?
OLGA ADLER
The feedback has been really good. And the directory has been well-received, many people who had known about the directory coming before it went live, people who pre-registered, they were pleasantly surprised because they imagined something simpler and people thought that it would be more of a spreadsheet with contact information, I'm really trying to combine resources that we usually use to find what we need. And it would be services like Yelp, where you have directory of businesses, or search engines or social media. And I'm trying to put it all together in one platform where you can showcase, search by category. You can read the digest because we also have a digest, which is a magazine and important parts of our directory, which helps us feature and highlight prominent women entrepreneurs from different industries. I've been interviewing a lot of women and there are a lot of interviews that are scheduled to be published soon.
ROSIE, HOST
Turning ideas into reality, because there is a lot of work and determination and obstacles to overcome. Anyone who has tried to do something that didn't exist or you want to do it better than the way it is, people know that it takes work. What are some of these things that you had to overcome, in general, to make this idea into reality?
OLGA ADLER
Well, of course, a lot of bias because many people who you share this information, the information about the new idea, they take it with a grain of salt because they care about you and they want you to do well. And when they hear about something very unusual and innovative, they get suspicious. And they think that it's too risky to try to create something that people haven't come up with before, because they say there is a reason why the service didn't exist. Maybe nobody needed it. And I thought, well, this is what we can say about all new things. Why are they being invented? Why did we invent the wheel? Why did we invent aviation? We can say they didn't exist before. Maybe they weren't needed. We should think outside the box. So I want to wish to all the beginning entrepreneurs and startup women on businesses to think outside the box, think five years from now, look back and think, what will we want to have five years from now that we don't have now? And I know it's a little hard. You kind of have to be very creative and delve into science fiction mentality, but sometimes it works. You just think about, we don't have something now, but I really wish we did, and go for it.
ROSIE, HOST
And go for it, because sometimes we don't have it figure it out, how everything is going to come out. And that is one of the things that I hear the most, but how am I going to do it? And I said, go ahead and start with one step. And then one step will take you to the next step, and then you will figure it out because you will learn. You look for resources, you hear ideas. You can join communities. You can look in directories like yours, about people providing services that you can benefit. And then you will figure it out one step at a time. So based on that one step at a time, what kind of two tips you have for people who want to make a reality these ideas that comes to their mind that you think they are simple steps, but powerful steps anyone, in any circumstances, can take to more forward?
OLGA ADLER
This is a very good question, and I really appreciate you asking me that. With my experience, a lot of people who start their own business, they fall in love with the idea, and it can't be otherwise you have to be passionate about what you do, and they think that once the product is out or the service is out, people are gonna come rushing and sweeping you off your feet, buying everything, making it a huge success. Unfortunately, it doesn't work like this. Even if your product is amazing, you will save yourself so much disappointment and heartbreak if you just keep one simple formula in mind that when you start your own business, nobody cares. It's the hard reality. And it's very hard to accept, but you should be prepared that the moment you open the doors to your store or your online business, you should be prepared that nobody will come and look at it because people are busy with their own lives.
OLGA ADLER
People tend to be drawn to something familiar. They take everything new with a little bit of suspicion and skepticism. You should be prepared. You might get lucky and people might just discover you and think that you're great. And just your business will take off right away, but be prepared that people won't do it. So this would be one piece of advice which leads to the second one. You need to promote your business. And it is also a hard truth because people really want to do it. People who want to do promotion and advertising, they work in promotion and advertising. People who don't, they work in their own business. They do their own product, but they kind of have to be jacks of all trades. They have to know basics of advertising, basics of social media management, marketing. Networking is very important, just spreading the word out, just talking to as many people as you can, talking to them about your offer and your business. So get ready to do this. If you don't spend considerable amount of time every day promoting your business, it will probably not succeed. Unless you find an investor and you have a million dollars worth of advertising budget and you can delegate it to someone else.
ROSIE, HOST
Yes, because the bottom line is that it needs to be promoted. Either you do it, or you hire someone to do it. People need to know what do you offer, and how to find you, and where to find you because these ideas, we nurtured them and we want them to come successful because we know that it's going to do so much good. But the truth is that other people might not even have the same ideas or may not think that it could work. So you need to work purposely. And what do you tell new business women on the directory, how this will benefit them.
OLGA ADLER
There are several ways in which the directory can benefit you. First of all, it's a website, that's not a part of social media. It means that it's search engine friendly. So when you post about your products or services on social media, it's mostly just the users of that social media who can get access to this information and even find a way to locate it. But search engines like Google, they have trouble locating your content with regular search. While this directory is open search engine, all the pages are accessible. So if people start Googling and searching for a service or a product in Austin, they will find it on the directory. And the directory will have links to all your products, to wherever you want to drive the traffic. So people will be able to go from the directory to your website or email you, call you, go on your social media and find whatever you want them to find.
OLGA ADLER
Also, apart from the general public who are interested in buying from local businesses, you advertise within the directory because unlike industry-specific directories, for example, a directory of the dentist or a directory of car dealerships, you get a directory where you see women of all trades, who can be customers of each other. For example, if you are an accountant and you create your account and you advertise your products and you just brought us through the directory, you will be interested in services of your fellow members. For example, a beauty salon or a baker people on the directory are not your competitors. They are your second target audience. So it gives you the opportunity to advertise to a lot of different segments of the market. Also, if you want to take advantage of advertising and posting content on it, you can put out your portfolio. For example, if you're a photographer, you can put your whole gallery on it and it will be public.
OLGA ADLER
And it will be featured on the front page, in the streaming photo albums, same with YouTube or email videos or deals, coupons, blog posts. And we also have a new section, which was based on feedback. It's a very recent introduction and I want to thank my dear friend, Lorrie Meyer, who suggested that we have it. It's a, collaborations page, where you can post all kinds of inquiries about searching for a person to fill a particular need in your business. For example, there are categories like mentorship, partnership, sponsorship, donation, networking, being business bodies is another thing, so you can find people to connect with on different levels and see how your two businesses can be useful to each other. And this new thing, business buddies is another idea I just got recently, since I was talking about how hard it is to instill this love to entrepreneurship to your friends and family.
OLGA ADLER
And sometimes it might not share it. It's good to find someone, a trusted person who has the same mindset you do, and other business owners who might be either ahead of you in their business or who can be at the same beginning step. And you can share your progress with them and they can help you keep track of that. Because if you are starting your own business and you have your own milestone to reach, you can take it at your own pace. And sometimes you lose motivation and you think, well, I'll just do it tomorrow. I just don't need to do it. But when you have a business buddy and other business owner, and you share your plans with them, they can keep you stay on track because you will have someone to answer to, they're like, well, so how about the promotion you were talking about? Are you working on it? So they will give you this friendly nudge in the right direction. And you can actually support each other in this journey of starting or developing or scaling up your businesses.
ROSIE, HOST
The way that you have built the directory, keeping all these things in mind, it really helps so many of us, what keeps you moving forward day after day?
OLGA ADLER
It's the feedback I'm getting from people. It's the ability to provide value and ask for nothing in return. Because a lot of what I do is free, registering your account is free, and when I interview people and I publish the features, it's also free. And I reach out to people, offering them to promote their service, to promote their event. For example, this month of December, a lot of local vendors participate in holiday markets, or they have their own popup sales and events, and they don't know how to tell people about it. So when I see something like this on social media, on someone's Facebook page, that they are hosting a market or some event, a garage sale of their homemade product, I always post this event on our event, calendar on the website, helping them amplify, helping them get more exposure, and the way people respond to this, is just the best part of my work. The way people are grateful. And if it helps them bring at least one more customer, I'm happy, this is what makes my day.
ROSIE, HOST
So what are you looking forward to? What is ahead on this journey?
OLGA ADLER
So I'm looking forward to building more than a business directory. I'm looking forward to creating a community because it is important to belong somewhere. It's important to have people around you who share your values. And when you tell someone about your business, your project, your startup, that you're very passionate about, many of your friends and family won't share the same values. They live by different scenarios. And sometimes you alone in your journey, but meeting other women and collaborating with them, networking with them, seeing that they do exactly what you do and they love exactly what you love. And when they go to bed at night, they think about their business. There's crazy about it. And they can get up at 3:00 AM the morning and write down that idea that they just had to make their business better, this is what makes us all one family. And I'm looking forward to this directory, being a step towards that, the Austin Business Women community, sharing the same values.
ROSIE, HOST
I'm just so excited about it, to learn about all these women. Yes, learn about all these women and everything they have done, you know, their stories of what brought the business. And I see your interviews and I learned so much, and I invite all the listeners to go to your Instagram and see all your live interviews that you do with other business women, because they are amazing. Their stories, you just want to go and do business with them. You just want to create that sense of community that, oh, wait a minute, I need to go there because this is awesome. This is something that you cannot find in businesses that sometimes are nationwide, this special touch, this getting to know the business owner that is such a great opportunity and a great experience. So, the next thing that I want to ask you is how to get in touch with you, how to find all these resources, your social media, and all the places that this information is available?
OLGA ADLER
The main go-to place would be the directory, the website is AustinBusinessWoman.com, very simple, altogether AustinBusinessWoman, and our Instagram account with the same title. On the Instagram account, you can also see the link tree to all other social media channels that you can follow. And you can reach out in any way. You can email the website or call or DM on social media or comment.
ROSIE, HOST
Thank you so much for making your ideas, your dream into reality. Thank you. Because now we all benefit from it. This particular directory that you created is not only to let people know that you are there and that the product is available, but how to take it to ultimate success, and mentorship, and guidance from people who has been where you are and who has succeeded at it in all supporting each other, all being in collaboration. And that is exactly how business succeed in a way that it would build a community that we envision. So this to me is so exciting, and so amazing, is just go on and look at all the pages and everything that you have there, because it has evolved. It has created just like you said, your vision of having a community. And I am so appreciative of it. I go there and I looked and I find, an every time is just a great surprise.
ROSIE, HOST
So if you're familiar with the directory and you've been there before, I invite you to go again, because you will be pleasantly surprised, and go again and again and again, because as you can see, Olga is implementing all these great ideas and every time you will see something that perhaps you didn't see before. So it's just amazing. As you can see, I'm excited about it. I share your excitement because I can see how much benefit we all can get from it. So Olga, such a pleasure to have you here. I hope this is not the last time that you are going to be here with us. I can't wait for the time that we can be together again in person. Can you imagine all of us together in one place, just greeting each other and sharing with each other, how our business ventures are going all under one roof one day, maybe we can get together and do that.
OLGA ADLER
I can't wait to events, in person events.
ROSIE, HOST
Yes. In person events, you know, things that maybe sometimes some people shy about at the beginning, but now that it has been taken away from us, is something that we know that is so important for grow as we know. So with a new perspective in life, thank you so much for sharing with us your life journey, your business ideas, your directory, and everything that is in the future for you and for all the women who are part of this magnificent directory. Thank you so much. And until next time Olga.
OLGA ADLER
Thank you, ROSIE, HOST. Thanks for supporting women entrepreneurs. Thanks for empowering, elevating, hearing our voices. You're doing so much for our community, and it is another favorite part of my work is meeting people like you. I'm just happy and I'm honored. I'm humbled to be now friends. I'm looking forward to working with you in the future all the time.
ROSIE, HOST
The feeling is mutual, and I'm just looking forward to where we are going to go together as a community. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Great insights and information Olga shared with all of us. She is a true visionary who embraces opportunity and I am honored to be her friend. So keep listening to your inner voice and dream big because you too can be the one. So until next time, thanks for listening and like comment, subscribe on the website or on Instagram. Go ahead, stay in touch, because Life 100, here we go!