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THE Network Cork Businesswoman of the Year Awards takesplace next week. A total of 31 women have been shortlisted across eight categories. The winners will be announced on May 27 at Fota Island Resort.

Over the next two weeks in WoW!, we chat to some of the finalists. Here, we speak to some of those shortlisted in the Creative Professional, Shining Star Employee, STEM and Solo businesswoman categories.

CREATIVE PROFESSIONAL:

Monika Nowakowska, Lady of the Valley

ACCORDING to her certificates, Monika Nowakowska is a technician, specialising in industrial gas appliances and installations, and is also a trained journalist.

In reality, she is a self-taught dressmaker, designer and textile artist.

And to pay bills, Ive worked in a fair share of shops and restaurants, as an interpreter, and enjoyed a 15-year career similar to that of Mrs. Doyle from Fr Ted! said Monika.

Born in Krakow, Poland, she moved to Ireland in 2004.

Every male in my immediate family was or is an alcoholic. Households were run and held together by women, said Monika.

In her early 20s, she availed of counselling for adult children of alcoholics, before deciding to leave her native country and coming to Cork.

Currently, I live in the Mealagh Valley (outside Bantry) with my 15-year-old son James, a dog, and two cats, she said.

She launched her business, Lady of the Valley, in 2021 and creates everyday clothes as well as special occasion wear.

I believe clothes should make everyone happy and be used as a tool to express individuality.

"As I make everything myself, size and gender does not matter in my workshop what matters is comfort, happiness, fun and style for everyone, she said.

After years of working from home, she is looking forward to opening her sewing workshop in Schull at the end of the month, and the Network Ireland Cork Businesswoman of the Year award nomination is validation of all shes achieved so far, her determination and perseverance.

Cork is full of great talent and entrepreneurship, so being considered for a Business Woman of the Year award is a great honour, said Monika.

It is also a personal achievement that boosts my confidence greatly. If I win, it means that I will be a big step closer to achieving my dream of growing my business to its full potential.

Being part of Network Cork is like finding your tribe. Im only in my second year of membership and yet the support and encouragement I received is incomprehensible. After years of listening to naysayers I know now I can follow my dreams. There are ways to achieve my goals, there are women who stand behind me, sharing their strength, knowledge and expertise to push each other forward to the better and brighter future.

Also shortlisted in this category are:

SHINING STAR EMPLOYEE:

Helen McGonagle, Cork City Council

HELEN McGonagle is a firm believer that music, books and culture should be freely available to everyone.

Her goal as a librarian with the city council is to keep libraries at the heart of communities, providing a warm welcome and support and encouragement to everyone, whether youre borrowing books or music, using a computer, or just relaxing in a safe space.

Originally from Westmeath, Helens been living in Cork for the past 23 years, and is married with four grown-up children.

Her journey to becoming a librarian was a slightly meandering one.

On graduating from UL in 1988 with a BA in European Studies (Law), I began work with a major international law firm in London. In October, 1990, disillusioned with corporate law, I joined classical music magazine, Gramophone. In 1998, we relocated to Cork and, to support the change in our lives, I became as stay-at-home parent.

I joined the Parents Association of my local school and was subsequently elected to the schools Board of Management.

In 2007, I graduated with an MA in Womens Studies from UCC. Encouraged by that, I joined the City Library as a library assistant.

I was granted funding from Cork City Council to study for an MSc in Information Science in 2010, and in 2015, was appointed acting Librarian and my MSc thesis was published as a book.

"In 2017, I was awarded PhD funding to continue my research on gender construction in early 20th century reading material, said Helen.

She returned to work around the time the last promotion embargo was introduced, so she concentrated on broadening her experience, volunteering on music and cultural projects, improving her Irish language skills, and gaining membership of the Library Association of Ireland.

Diagnosed with breast cancer in November, 2017, Helen continued with her PhD research while having treatment and gained promotion shortly after returning to work.

I am a Public and Patient Involvement participant with Breakthrough Cancer Research, using my skills and experience to advocate for cancer research, she said.

I am so grateful that my work as a public servant has been recognised. It highlights the amazing facilities that public libraries are. It also allows me to acknowledge and thank all those cancer researchers who have so immensely improved the prognosis for people like me, and to highlight the need for more research on the causes and treatment for cancer.

Helen said being part of Network Cork is like being wrapped in a warm, comforting embrace of kind and supportive women.

And winning her category prize would be an acknowledgement of many things.

It would underline the varied content available through the libraries and their commitment to providing free, rich and exciting cultural programmes.

"It would show the possibility of being a successful career woman while raising a family and undertaking post-graduate study, and would highlight that career progression following the intrusion of a serious illness is possible.

Also shortlisted in this category are:

STEM:

Hilary Quinn, Proximo Web Design

MAGIC plays a big part in Hilary Quinns life as shes married to a magician, but theres no trickery involved in her own business, which is all about making things visible.

Shes the powerhouse behind Proximo Web Design, which is focused on increasing organic traffic to clients websites using search engine optimisation (SEO) techniques.

Having specialised in web design via St Johns Central College in 2005, Hilary was hired as an in-house web designer for a local travel agent.

I incorporated SEO into these redesigns, and once the work was complete this company became the first client of Proximo Web Design which I established in 2007, she explained.

And what she quickly realised in her web design career her lightbulb moment was that a website is nothing without traffic.

A website without SEO was invisible. I also noticed that when it came to web development services, businesses often neglected front-end aspects like user experience (UX) and had little or no knowledge of SEO. This left many business owners frustrated and under-served, they had invested all this money in a new website, so why wasnt it generating leads or sales? I knew I had the solution, she said.

Since that first client, she has been trusted by some of the most respected brands in Ireland to increase organic traffic to their websites using SEO techniques.

Almost 15 years in business, she is proud to have maintained relationships with long-standing clients who have been with her since the very start.

This alone makes me really proud and happy with what I have built. I have watched small businesses grow as a direct result of our work together on their website. Seeing my clients businesses grow and succeed is incredibly gratifying and motivating.

As well as that, Hilary has had an impact on her industry over the years, taking part in Girls in ICT events, and has been featured by the Women in Tech SEO newsletter. She has also performed SEO workshops for the Bite the Biscuit creative community in Ireland of more than 10,000 members.

This nomination for STEM Businesswoman of the Year means the world to me. I have worked incredibly hard over the years, not just to survive The Great Recession, but to build my business back up, to get a reputation for incredible quality and transformative work that actually results in sales, and to elevate all of these incredible businesses Ive worked with. To get outside recognition of that is really special.

Having this category as part of the Network Cork awards raises the visibility of women in STEM, and that is so powerful, to inspire the next generation of women to join us in what has, for me, been a lifelong passion and fulfilling career.

Also shortlisted in this category are:

SOLO BUSINESSWOMAN:

Melissa Curley, SocialBe Communication

SECONDARY school teacher turned entrepreneur, Melissa Curley describes herself as a passionate educator, but admits she felt confined in the classroom.

The Youghal woman says she has never sought security in a job, but instead chased work that she loved, that continuously challenged and engaged her, and she certainly found that with her business SocialBe Communication.

After spending five years teaching in New Zealand, she returned to Dublin, where she started her first business, a vintage-styled events venture.

She combined that with a postgrad in Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

After six years, she returned to her native Cork and began SocialBe, a professional skills and future of work training company, in 2018.

She was motivated by a desire to empower people through education and upskilling to have impact in their professional lives.

Skills that can be developed should never hold us back from achieving all we want to be in life, said Melissa.

She runs a number of programmes that focus on upskilling in the transversal skills that are essential for todays world of work, as well as bespoke workshops and programmes designed to meet clients specific training needs.

What makes the work so interesting to me is that the training needs of my clients change regularly, in line with the changing world of work.

At the beginning of the pandemic, for example, we mainly delivered resilience training. In 2021, hybrid working workshops were in demand.

Unconscious bias training is a hot topic, and a complex one to deliver.

Remote leadership and authentic leadership programmes are also emerging areas.

As well as delivering resilience training, shes shown a lot of it herself: leaving one business to start another, moving back to Cork where she had left to travel the world 18 years earlier, and starting all over again.

During the pandemic, she also adapted her business model so that it is hybrid, delivering training as effectively online as well as in person. And she further diversified, training as a pilates instructor in early 2021.

Just three years on, she has a business that is thriving, thanks to her hard work, creativity, and determination.

Winning the Network Cork award would show me just how far Ive come, and how much I have achieved.

I loved teaching, but I felt confined by the classroom. I can honestly say that in my three years of building SocialBe, I have never once woken up not looking forward to work.

Also shortlisted in this category are:

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Network Cork Businesswoman of the year finalists celebrate how far they have come... - EchoLive.ie

Attackers are using search engine optimization (SEO) techniques to improve the ranking of malicious PDF files on search engines including Google and Microsofts Bing, according to a Netskope report.

The findings indicated that cybercriminals are leveraging various social engineering techniquesincluding SEOand different Trojan families, including those delivered via PDF, to target victims more effectively.

The report found Trojans accounted for 77% of all cloud and web malware downloads, used to gain an initial foothold and to deliver a variety of next-stage payloads, including backdoors, infostealers and ransomware.

Ray Canzanese, director of Netskope Threat Labs, said the most concerning finding is the malware being spread via major search engine results, adding that phishing downloads are on the rise.

This is a relatively new and uncommon malware delivery vector that people are less familiar with; therefore, theyre more likely to fall victim to it, he said. We do a lot of training around email, text and social media. But not so much with search engine results. Users might be more likely to have their guard down.

He said for a phishing attack or scam to be successful, you must be able to reach your victims and, if you reach them somewhere where their guard is down, they might be more likely to fall for the attack.

This PDF-plus-SEO technique is exactly thata way in which attackers have demonstrated success in reaching users when their guard is likely down because they are actively seeking out information, he said.

Canzanese pointed to two key solutions: First, educate users that this is happening. Users should be extra careful when clicking on PDFs in search engine results.

If the PDF contains what looks like a CAPTCHA, it is probably a phishing attack or scam, he said.

Second, put technical controls in place. A web security solution that inspects all web traffic will be able to intercept and block this type of attack. He added that attackers will continue to adapt and find new ways to reach their victimsthe rise of the SEO PDF attack is just one example.

At the same time, we saw a decrease in the number of malicious Office file downloads, as new security controls introduced by both Google and Microsoft made it more difficult for attackers to launch successful attacks using those platforms, Canzanese explained.

Nearly half (47%) of malware downloads originated from cloud apps compared to 53% from traditional websites, as attackers continued to use a combination of both cloud and web to target their victims.

Most malware downloads originated from servers located within the same regions as their victims, as attackers stage their malware throughout the world to evade geofences.

Patrick Harr, CEO at SlashNext, an anti-phishing company, said cybercriminals work much like any traditional corporation, offering employee benefits, taking weekends off and optimizing their productivity to be more successful.

The most concerning element of this survey is cybercriminals improved tactics, in general, he said. They are organized and use all the latest technology to be more successful, including SEO, trusted services, machine learning and automation tools.

He explained that optimizing search engines to improve results using SEO is a key component of improving the visibility of a product or service, and for a cybercriminal, their product is phishing, malware or rogue software.

Its no surprise this is happening. For this to be successful, the malicious URLs need to be obfuscated so the search engines cannot see theyre malicious, Harr said. This is why we have seen a large increase in the use of trusted cloud services to hide malicious URLs.

He explained that security technology that uses domain reputation URL rewriting and trust graphs will not be able to detect these types of malicious URLs that are hiding on trusted services.

Harr said SlashNext has seen a 200% increase in trusted domains used to deliver malicious attacks because these tactics have been very successful for cybercriminals; most security technology has not caught up to these types of attacks.

He added the use of AI-powered security services that use computer vision and real-time scanning will find these types of techniques and using these security services in the browser will help keep an organizations employees safe.

Savio Lau, staff security intelligence researcher at Lookout, a security service edge (SSE) provider, said the most concerning finding is the use of SEO to target victims.

Most people trust the results given by search engines, so they dont pay as much attention to comparing the links they receive from other means, he said. This also explains why attackers are turning to SEO techniques to improve their effectiveness.

This exemplifies how attackers use trusted sources or data points against victims to increase the effectiveness of their malicious campaigns.

Security teams need to be vigilant about the latest attack trends and remove the attack surface, such as having a security solution to detect these attacks and limit the file types allowed, he added. It is also important to educate users about the dangers of online materialseven if the results are from a search engine. Even as attack techniques change, educated users are still less likely to fall victim to attacks.

He added that one particularly interesting data point is the success of changes made in Microsoft Office that were put in place to limit attacks that leveraged malicious Office documents. After these changes, cyberattackers shifted their approach to use other available methods, he said.

We have already seen attackers change their tactics and shift to using PDFs as part of these attacks rather than Word documents or spreadsheets, Lau said. Both attackers and defenders continue to adapt their tactics as security improves and new vulnerabilities and tactics are discovered.

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Surge in Malware Downloads Driven by SEO-Based Techniques - Security Boulevard

Free business training webinars are available from the College of the Canyons Small Business Development Center. The SBDC is the Small Business Administrations largest service program and provides high quality business and economic development assistance to small businesses and entrepreneurs. It provides no-cost business advising and low-cost training to existing and new businesses.

To see a list of all available courses visit COC SBDC.

Upcoming courses include:

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Learn tips for importing into the U.S. Do you want to start or expand an import business? Its important to follow all laws and regulations to avoid an import business nightmare.

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May 25: COC SBDC Hosting Free Webinars to Help Grow Your Business - SCVNEWS.com

When folks around Huntsville, Madison, Decatur and Athens, Alabama, hear the name Matt Curtis, more often than not, the old adage about thinking globally and acting locally comes to mind. With 15 years of real estate experience under his belt, Curtis and his staff go above and beyond to serve their clients while giving back and supporting both local and international humanitarian service projects through the firms MCRE Cares initiative.

Curtis faith-based motivations are summed up succinctly on his companys Facebook page, which states that Curtis believes to whom much is given, much is expected. He is the largest donor to Habitat for Humanity in Nicaragua, supporting his vision to build 1,000 homes for families in need.

Its my concept, but its really our companys big visionand why we exist, says Curtis, broker/owner and chief visionary officer of Matt Curtis Real Estate, Inc., a fast-growing team of real estate specialists based in Madison, Alabama. Nicaragua has the second-highest poverty rate, with most folks living on less than $200 a year. And a lot of kids are dying because of inadequate shelter, says Curtis.

Being in the housing industry, and an investor myself, you cant get a much better return on investment than spending $6,000 on a home that will change the future of a family forever, he adds.

What began as a goal to build 100 homes in Nicaragua multiplied tenfold after Curtis was challenged by his then eight-year-old son to up the goal to 1,000.

Weve built 141 homes so far, and were going back soon to build several more, says Curtis (at press time), who goes on to explain that the experience has changed his life.

But it doesnt end there, as MCRE Cares also makes a huge impact at the local level, right in the neighborhoods where Curtis and his team are helping clients buy or sell homes by supporting the local Kids to Love orphanage, sponsoring a backpack drive with Downtown Rescue Mission and supporting local youth leadership training and youth sports.

We helped build cottages on the Kids to Love property as a transition space when theyre getting ready to leave, explains Curtis, and our most recent peanut butter drive for our House of the Harvest food bank brought in over 800 jars.

Taking care of business on a philanthropic front, Curtis points to the firms partnership with Real Estate Webmasters as a key piece of the puzzle as far as the brokerages real estate success is concerned.

In the past, we had a nationally ranked website, so Im really excited about Real Estate Webmasters Renaissance platform, which we recently launched. It has a great framework, built-in SEO, and its easy to design and make changes, says Curtis.

Real Estate Webmasters was flexible in giving us a unique product that worked with our Salesforce CRM system, and theyre cutting-edge when it comes to providing the latest SEO tips and tricks to keep us ahead of the other guys out there, he adds.

After briefly considering a custom design, Curtis says that he decided to go with the Renaissance platform because it saved the company money and provided better SEO results. It gives us a custom look, but its built on a proven framework.

Partnering with Real Estate Webmasters has given Curtis and his team the best of both worlds, allowing them to continue their faith-driven mission of helping improve things for others in their service area and around the world.

For more information, visit http://www.realestatewebmasters.com.

Read more from the original source:
Changing the Future of Real Estate on a Global Scale - RisMedia.com

Image source: Getty Images

When Cindy Kelly first heard about the coronavirus, her concerns werent for herself. They were for the German Shepherd puppies she raises.

My biggest fear was, because its a respiratory infection, if my puppies catch it, they would die, Kelly says. I was more concerned about them than I was [for] myself.

To protect her puppies, Kelly knew she needed to limit the number of people who visited her business, Regis Regal German Shepherds in Spring Grove, Illinois. But that could have severely harmed her in-person dog training business. Kelly had a plan, though. She moved quickly to adopt virtual training, and, by doing so, she was able to limit interaction and continue training dogs.

While COVID threatened Kellys virtual training business, it ended up driving what she called an insane demand for her puppies. Fortunately, she had built a tech backbone with a robust website that prepared her business for the surge in interest. To properly vet clients, though, she also needed to improve some old-fashioned phone skills.

When Regal sells a puppy, the transaction includes comprehensive training and consultation.

When we sell a puppy, we sell not only with our lifetime guarantees on temperament and the first year of shots, but we also provide full comprehensive training, Kelly says.

Usually, after nine to 11 months, the puppies will return to be with Kelly and her husband for that training. Since socialization is essential to a German Shepherd puppy, every Saturday many clients also come back with dogs from 12 weeks to 15 years old.

In the beginning, I was just panicked about bringing people on the property, Kelly says. But I have lots of clients whose puppies were 12 weeks to eight months. And thats such an incredible time for socialization. Its such a huge time for emotional development. That was when we decided that we had to go virtual to keep my thumb on the pulse of every one of our puppies.

In the training sessions, Kelly teaches her clients how to give commands and how to hold the leash properly and evaluates how the dog responds.

Clients can book a one-hour session, and she will also provide one-on-one private advice through Skype, WhatsApp, FaceTime, Facebook, or just about any other platform someone wants to use. She paid for a premium Zoom subscription, but otherwise, the transition has been relatively easy and without a lot of extra costs.

It took me a couple of times to really get good at it where I could put six clients on at the same time, Kelly says. One client isnt difficult at all, but when you get six or eight, its harder to manage because you cant get everyone on the screen at the same time.

Since so many people have been locked down across the country, some of them suddenly decided to adopt a dog. Whether it was a single person wanting companionship, or parents needing a distraction for their kids, getting a pet became a popular thing to do. In the early weeks of the pandemic, New York shelters reported a 10-fold increase in applications, according to Bloomberg.

Before selling a puppy, Cindy Kelly spends a lot of time evaluating potential buyers. Image source: Author

Regis Regal German Shepherds was a beneficiary of this trend.

[The interest] has been expansive, Kelly notes. I assumed business was going to slow down after the pandemic, but weve never been busier.

Right now, her reservations for new dogs are backed up until November 2021.

To get the word out about Regis Regal German Shepherds, Kelly has relied on digital advertising. Facebook was once a focus, but she has moved in other directions.

It doesnt seem to really work for me, she says. I have a lot of followers on there, but I very rarely ever sell a puppy on Facebook.

Kelly hired Winston Digital Marketing to expand her reach by optimizing her SEO and upgrading her website. That gives people the ability to check out her facility from the comfort of their homes. In all, the website generates about 15 inquiries a day, she says.

Im selling all over the country, Kelly says. So I will walk people around my state-of-the-art kennel, let them see the property, and let them see five generations of my dogs.

She thinks the quality of her website, in conjunction with her reviews on Google, has also helped to give Regis Regal German Shepherds credibility.

I couldnt sell a $6,000 to $70,000 dog without them meeting me if they didnt have the kind of confidence they do, Kelly says. So having my website completely up to date and user-friendly is absolutely essential moving forward.

Kelly is considering other technology investments as well.

Currently we don't use back office software, although we are looking at implementing a more modern system, like a [customer relationship management], to make things easier to manage, she says. Right now I have a lot of papers and a filing system, so it would be great to make better use of technology in that regard.

While Kellys business has benefited from the COVID-related puppy boom, she does harbor some concerns that people will grow bored with their dogs once things are back to normal again.

My biggest fear is that once this opens up and everybody gets back to their normal life of going to work, they are now stuck with a dog they didnt do any research on, Kelly says. That is really scary to me.

To make sure that her customers can provide good homes for her German Shepherds, she puts them through a rigorous vetting process.

Kelly estimates that about six of the 15 inquiries she gets per day through her website are serious.

I could probably sell six puppies, but usually three of [those interested] are probably acceptable to own one of our dogs, she says.

In the past, Kelly relied on a series of questions and her intuition to determine if people would offer a good home for her dogs. But as more inquiries are coming via digital methods instead of in person, she has had to improve her phone skills. Shell spend 45 minutes asking a series of questions about their knowledge of German Shepherds, their lifestyle, and whether they have kids.

Ive had to get really good on the phone, recognizing whos teachable and who isnt, she says. If theyre not teachable, I wont sell them the dog. So Ive had to get really, really good at recognizing that on the phone when Im talking with them.

Quickly pivoting to adopt technology, having a good website, and knowing what works helped Regis Regal German Shepherds grow in difficult times.

While you wouldnt think that dog training would lend itself to instruction over video conferencing services, Kelly has found a way to make it work, showing that its always a good idea to investigate if any of your in-person services can be moved online.

After upgrading her website and investing in SEO, Kelly received strong interest from customers interested in purchasing a dog. When COVID hit, that digital storefront became absolutely essential to establish her businesss credibility.

Kelly tried Facebook advertising, but she didnt find it effective, so she directed her advertising in other areas. Its important for small businesses with limited resources to avoid throwing good money after bad if something isnt working.

When COVID made it dangerous for customers to visit Regis Regal German Shepherds, Kelly used video conferencing services. That approach, combined with a previous decision to upgrade her website, set her business up for continued success.

See more here:
How a COVID Puppy Boom Boosted Sales for This Pet Business - The Motley Fool