Women-Owned Business Series: Anya from AnyaKeren Consulting

Welcome back to our Women-Owned Business Series! Today we’re highlighting Anya from AnyaKeren Consulting & her workshop series, “From White Page to Website.” Anya is dedicated to helping business owners curate their web presence in a fuss-free way + provide other consulting services to people ready to start their entrepreneurial journey. Read on to see what her best advice is to female business owners & the benefit of risk-tolerance to lead a more fulfilling career!

First, tell us about your business and anything special we should know about it or you.

As a marketing consultant (AnyaKeren Consulting Inc.), I’ve worked with countless early-stage business owners and startup founders who struggled to organize and execute their website creation projects because of tech overwhelm, information overload, or lack of funds to hire a freelancer.
These new entrepreneurs told me that all of the how-to articles and videos out there are incredibly insufficient and overwhelming. They either tell you how to complete one specific micro-task, like writing your site’s meta description, or they provide a high level survey of all the steps you need to take, and don’t go very in depth into how to actually execute any one step.
So I created From White Spice to Website: an online accelerator program designed to help new business owners–and, in particular, women–cut through the noise and create a business website that generates incremental revenue for their businesses in 6 weeks or less.

Why do you feel a connection to your work?

I helped big brands sell goods for the first half of my career and the work was very unrewarding. Now, I feel energized knowing that my marketing courses help people get “un-stuck” from dead-end careers, earn more, and experience the freedom of running their own successful businesses. I feel like I’m putting a degree of good back into the world. And there’s NOTHING more rewarding than hearing students’ professional and personal success stories after finishing one of my courses.

As a business owner, community is everything. In what ways do you serve your community and how has your community served you?

My business community is a digital one. I get so much out of the hive mind of alumni Slack channels, where we share ideas and business opportunities. The value of these groups extends long past graduation dates.

What advice would you give to young women who want to start a small business?

It’s not for the faint of heart! It takes a certain level of risk tolerance to not know that your next paycheck is coming in 2 weeks. But if there’s anything that recent layoffs and the current job market has taught us, it’s that nothing is a sure deal. If Meta and Twitter can lay off thousands of top notch tech employees, so can any business. The tradeoffs for tolerating that risk are:
-knowing you’re in charge of your own destiny, not some CFO in a corner suite
-being able to say “no” to opportunities that down align with you energetically
-being in control of your own schedule, setting your own hours and vacations, etc.
-challenging yourself to do things that scare you, which leads to all kinds of personal growth

What women inspire you and why?

So many! I think about this quote from Michelle Obama on an almost-daily basis:
“I have been at probably every powerful table that you can think of, I have worked at nonprofits, I have been at foundations, I have worked in corporations, served on corporate boards, I have been at G-summits, I have sat in at the U.N.: They are not that smart.”
This quote has single-handedly cured my imposter syndrome as a woman in business, time and time again!

What do you think are the most significant challenges for women business owners or women in leadership positions?

Oh gosh, they are many and varied. I think the biggest thing is mindset.
Most of us were sent subliminal and explicit messages growing up that we shouldn’t take risks, that we should tamp down on our assertiveness for fear of being seen as bossy, that we should be nurturers first and foremost.
Whereas, many if not most of the boys a grew up alongside were taught that the world is their oyster, that they should take big risks, fail upward, that their role is to earn.
De-programming that mindset is hard work that I do on an almost daily business.

Click here to learn more about Anya + she has a free workshop is happening on Wednesday, December 14, at 2pm EST!

Click here for the Registration Link!

From Anya: Do you feel overwhelmed at the number of website builders our there and don’t know where to start? Are you not a “tech person” but can’t afford to hire a designer or developer? Do you have tab after tab open in your browser full of website how-to articles? SO MANY business owners I know struggle to build their business website because of tech overwhelm, a missing skillset, or limited funds to outsource. But it doesn’t have to be such a challenge!

Together, we’ll unlock 3 secrets that will empower you to create a website that generates $$$ for your business: The most important factor for success BEFORE you even begin building your website. A simple formula to convince site visitors of your value BEFORE you write your site copy. The crucial step most new owners don’t complete BEFORE doing SEO. PLUS, I’m gonna share a 4th, bonus secret: how to avoid the biggest mistake I see new business owners making when it comes to their websites.