Wendy Kauffman: Winner of the 2024 Great Companies International Women Entrepreneur Award

Name: Wendy Kauffman

Business Name: Wendolyn Reputation Management

Location: Toronto, Canada 

Establishment (Year): 2021

Category: Advertising & Marketing

Profession/ Specialty: Reputation management and communications 

Website: https://www.wendolynreputation.com/

Social Media : LinkedIn

Company Detail:

Wendolyn Reputation Management is a consulting practice focusing on ESG communications, crisis communications, and spokesperson training. These specialized communications services are for organizations that:

1. Must showcase their corporate purpose and impact to investors, donors, governments, employees, customers, and advocates.

2. Have a material threat to their business operation or corporate/brand reputation.

3. Need a strategic and skillful manner to navigate media interviews, presentations, and other public-facing situations.
   

Unique Selling Proposition or Competitive Advantage:

Offering communications services designed for the next decade, along with first-in-kind services such as ESG in a Box, Verbal and Non-Verbal Communications Training, and a Thought Leadership Development Program.

Challenges Faced During the Journey:

The biggest fear an entrepreneur will face is believing in her abilities and having the conviction to know that she CAN do this and she will be successful. This applied equally to Wendy Kauffman. It took 20 years before she dared to take this step, despite people advising her to do this a decade prior.

Advice for Women Entrepreneurs:

Know your worth. Most entrepreneurs know approximately how much their competitors charge for similar services or products. So she must ask herself, "Do I want to charge on the range's high, medium, or low end?" If she chooses the low end of the range, she will always compete on price, and she must accept that her service/product is a commodity targeting the lowest bidders. Or does she want to charge on the higher side, basing the worth of her service/product on the value the client/customer will gain? Value is always a stronger positioning from which to start a negotiation.