One look at their website will tell you that the 2010 Small Business BC Successful You award winners for “Best Business”, My Tech Guys, are not your typical “computer geeks”.  After having the privilege of speaking with co-founder Bob Wells, I was inspired by the creativity, dedication and passion that come across in all aspects of his business.

Here’s a snapshot of our conversation.

Tell us a bit about how your business got started.

The idea for our company began with me and my co-founder, Scott Swanson, feeling there really was a need in our community for a computer service that focused on residential customers, and, although we didn’t plan on it, it extended into small business as well.  They may not have servers, or IT departments and these things, but every small business has at least one computer.  Our market demographic was over the age of 30, and as more people retire, we knew it would create a real market for us.  When we opened our doors on October 28, 2006, we had a goal in the first year of making about $300K, which is about what we did.

It was important to us and our business that we focused on hiring staff that had good personal skills and had the ability to talk to customers while you’re waiting for that software installation window to finish, they could chit chat about kids or golf or whatnot.   We wanted our staff to not have the typical computer tech personality that many usually associate with ‘computer geeks’.

What we really hadn’t expected was the volume on the retail sales (computers, power bars, cables, etc.).  We estimated that we’d do about 30K in retail sales as we figured customers would simply go to the big box stores to get these things and wouldn’t really rely on us for it.  What we realized was that because we had developed such great personal relationships with our customers, they valued our opinion and the convenience it provides when the person installing and setting up the computers is also the company that will stand behind a product.  We blew away our estimate in the first year, by doing about 150K on the retail side of things.  We’re now the top reseller of ASUS, a premium brand of computers, and are in the top 10 Apple resellers in BC.

How has your business evolved?

Well, now we have become a bit of a boutique type atmosphere.  We have couches in the store, we are ‘geeks’, but we also want to keep that personal touch and help find the right solution for our customer and make sure the new stuff will work with their old stuff.  We want to make sure that when their new computer is up and running, everything is transferred over smoothly and looks pretty much the same as it was before.

We opened up a new store on November 1st, 2010. We didn’t want to go ‘big box’, just enough room to show our customers all our products.  Everything we do is customer-centered.  Every computer we sell comes with a one hour training session so that they’re much more comfortable taking the computer home and being much more productive. Whether it is learning the new  Windows, Apple or iPad, or how to upload to YouTube “We will personalize our time with what meets their needs.”

I noticed you have baby pictures of you and your staff throughout your website.  It’s seems very personable.  How did this come about as part of your marketing strategy?

It started back in my days of working in an IT department.  The title I was to put on my business card was “system administrator”.  I was adamant that if I had to have a serious title, I wanted to lighten it up by putting a baby photo of myself on it.

I think it helps to show the playfulness of our company and that we don’t take ourselves too seriously.  We don’t encapsulate that “computer-god” title and it shows that we have a good sense of humour.

Having fun is ingrained on our business culture as well.  One of our terms here is ‘play to learn’, which makes the learning process that much more fun.  The other term we use for our company culture is ‘warm and fuzzy’.  Whether helping a little old lady with her powerpoint presentation or a small business having problems with their point of sale system, we want them to not only get their technical problem solved, but to feel good too because we were nice to them.  For our company, it’s important to keep our relationship with our customers, especially when a key part of the job is people coming to us with their problems.

Looking back on the past year, how has winning the award impacted your business?

One of the big things from the event was that we got press right across Canada.  We had the ‘Times’ calling us, Vancouver Sun and their sister newspapers ran a story about us across the country, which really helped us locally.  It sounds kind of strange, but when you get that outside recognition from across Canada, it does help to bolster local credibility as well.  Sometimes when it’s just local praise, you don’t get the same appreciation as when you get that outside confirmation.

Our “customers serviced” number last year was 7,000, which is an astounding number for a community of 65,000 residents.  We only count one person per home as a customer.  Given that when we came into this market we were told it was somewhat saturated, it’s nice to know our initial belief that it was an under-served market was right.

What do you believe were the elements of your “pitch” that made you successful in winning the 2010 Best Business award?

I think it was that I knew more than just the day-to-day workings of our business.  Being able to address things like the economics of the business, where we were and also have a vision of where we are going in the future.  I was able to address such questions as how HST was going to affect us and not just be focused on the day-to-day activities, but to also have vision.  At the time we were looking at expanding and I knew our demographics.

Our presentation provided an overview of our history, key numbers, revenue, costs, profitability, really factoid slides.  But in between each of these slides I had a baby photo of one of our staff members.  I could tell all the judges the technical things about our business, but they might not be able to read everything on the slide. I thought they could get more out of the pictures and what it represents for our company culture.

One of my biggest pieces of advice for others making their “pitch” is not to put too much stuff in their presentation.  I had 10-12 slides which we covered in 15 minutes.  This allowed the judges 45 minutes to ask the meatier questions.

What advice can you give to other small business owners?

The biggest piece of advice I can give is know yourself.  It sounds simple, but it’s about making sure that the profession and business is your passion and you’re focusing on what you love to do.  I’m really good at talking, teaching, and fixing computers.  That’s the stuff I like to do.  I’m not so good at invoices, payroll, etc.  Make sure you either hire people or bring in experts to help you with what you’re not good at, whether it’s an accountant or a marketing company.  Filling in the gaps of where your expertise ends will help you provide the whole package as a business.

Having outside expertise involved can also help you measure if you’re on track or behind, and question you beyond the day-to-day tasks.  We had a business coach help us with the sales process.  Sales wasn’t part of our original business plan or part of our expertise, it was just about fixing computers.  When we realized that our customers wanted the whole package, we brought in a business coach who helped us grow our business.  Having that outside, critical view of the company was invaluable.

The 2011 Small Business BC Successful You Award ceremony was held at the Hyatt Regency Vancouver on March 29th, 2011.  Check back tomorrow for full event coverage.

It's official: the iPad 2 is here.

After many months of speculation about its features, a high-profile unveiling by Steve Jobs himself (who is supposed to be on medical leave) and massive line-ups for the new product across Canada on March 25, Apple's second-generation tablet is now available for $519 to $849, depending on wireless configuration and the amount of memory.

After spending nearly a month of hands-on time with the tablet, there are certainly a few impressive features worth noting -- but also some shortcomings and oversights, as well.

The following is a quick look at five reasons to buy an iPad 2 and five reasons you might want to hold off.

Five benefits to iPad 2

Speed: Powered by Apple's new A5 chip, iPad 2 offers dual-core performance, so you can expect much faster speeds than its predecessor when loading and running your apps. After comparing iPad 2 to the original iPad side-by-side, you can most certainly see and feel the difference – especially when playing 3D games.

Cameras: iPad 2 houses two cameras: a rear-facing one to snap pictures, scan barcodes or shoot 720p HD video (and the optional iMovie app to edit your footage) and a front-facing one for engaging in real-time video calls over the Internet via FaceTime. This feature should’ve been in the original iPad.

Smart Covers: This optional accessory ($45 to $79) magnetically attaches to right side of the iPad 2 to perform multiple functions: it protects the 9.7-inch screen; wakes up or puts to sleep the iPad when the Smart Cover is peeled back or closed, respectively; and serves as a stand to prop up the tablet for typing or viewing video.

App Store: Compared to other tablets, iPad 2 has the most software available for download at the App Store – nearly 400,000 apps, in fact – and they're aggressively priced (if not free), easy to find and simple to download. Budding musicians, be sure to try the awesome Garage Band ($4.99) for iPad, which serves as a full 8-track recording studio.

iTunes synchronization: While Android or BlackBerry tablets might be an appealing alternative to iPad or iPad 2, keep in mind Windows or Mac users can smoothly synchronize their media with the tablet by simply plugging the tablet into their computer's USB port. All your music, podcasts, audiobooks, photos and videos are automatically copied over to iPad 2.

Five drawbacks to iPad 2

Cameras are so-so: While the cameras can shoot video (HD for rear-facing and decent VGA-quality for the front facing one), the 0.7-megapixel still photos can look grainy or blurry. A $500+ product should at least have the same camera performance as found in the year-old iPhone 4. Be sure to take photos in a well-lit environment.

No expandable memory: Whatever you commit to at purchase – 16GB, 32GB or 64GB – is all you'll get for the life of the tablet. That is, there is no way to expand the memory further via microSD card slot or USB stick, compared to some other tablets that let you add more (should you begin to run out of room).

No Flash support: The latest iOS 4.3 software upgrade adds new performance tweaks – including a faster Safari browser experience – but you still can't visit websites with Flash-based video, animation or games. Apple's Steve Jobs has been vocal about not liking the plug-in, but almost all other tablets support it.

No Retina display: iPad 2's screen remains the same as last year's model – at 1024×768 pixels – therefore it doesn't sport the stunning 326 pixels-per-inch Retina display found in iPhone 4 or fourth-generation iPod touch. It's still a looker, mind you, but those hoping for a better-looking screen than last year's offering might be disappointed.

PlayBook is coming: On April 19, Canada's own Research in Motion (RIM) will launch its BlackBerry PlayBook (from $499), a 7-inch tablet with a lot of power, enhanced security features, dual HD cameras and support for Flash websites. RIM also announced this summer it will begin to offer Android apps, allowing PlayBook users to take advantage of up to 200,000 pieces of software.

Marc Saltzman is one of North America's most recognized and trusted  technology experts. Based in Toronto, Marc currently contributes to  nearly 50 publications, has authored 14 books and is the host of CTV  News Channel's "Tech Talk," CNN's "Tech Time" and Cineplex's "Gear  Guide" (seen in movie theatres across Canada).

Recently there has been buzz around 4G network technology, and HSPA+ Dual Cell technology. Let’s talk about Dual Cell technology, its impact to business and how it fits with the mobile network evolution.

Dual Cell technology essentially doubles the capacity of our network.  It offers twice the speed of HSPA+ by using advanced multiplexing techniques to combine two wireless data carriers into a single carrier. This carrier operates at manufacturer-rated speeds of up to 21 Mb/s each, with combined manufacturer-rated downlink speeds of up to 42 Mb/s. Dual Cell provides an improvement in performance and network experience for consumers on the Dual Cell network including those with existing 3G devices. Ultimately this means less likelihood of network congestion, lower latency and improved download speeds for all.

This network improvement is of particular benefit to businesses that are using portable WiFi devices or are using Android 2.2 devices as a hot spot enabling a connection for multiple WiFi devices.  Even with as many as 4 or 5 users sharing one data connection, the improved speeds will mean a fast internet experience for each device.

Now let’s switch gears and talk about how mobile technology has evolved and what the future holds. A few decades ago, the internet was a revolution that put every business on the global map. The next big step forward was internet on-the-go via mobile devices such as Smartphone, which has been evolving since, both in terms of speed and reliability.

We started mobile data with what’s defined as the “2G” or second generation. Data speeds were low and the network supported capability for activities like text-based email. During the 2G era, Smartphones like BlackBerry and Palm started coming to market.

Then the network evolved to 3G - third generation - that truly let people use the internet and applications on the go. Speeds were higher, with user experience closer to DSL speeds. This expanded the eCommerse market and allowed businesses to stay connected to their staff and their customers anywhere, anytime. Smartphones have become a must for the business. Mobile internet helps make flexible work possible.

The 4G - fourth generation - evolution brings mobile internet to a level offered by broadband. In rural markets, mobile technology has surpassed wire line technology by offering speeds that go beyond dial-up, DSL, and even broadband. The fastest commercially available mobile download speeds with new HSPA+ Dual Cell technology is 42 mbps – about 1000 times faster than 2G.

This 4G evolution converge network experience offered from the wire line and wireless. Video conferencing, high definition multimedia streaming, Web conferencing and cloud computing are now possible on the mobile devices.

The question left is where do we go from here and how do we see the network evolving. There are several technology paths available and LTE – Long Term Evolution - is one that’s been in the forefront. LTE would allow speeds of 100 mbps. It’s early to predict on how these super speeds with be used to run new applications. We will certainly see one connection powering several concurrent applications and data sharing. Personally I have never experienced network that’s too fast for me. The goalpost will shift and we surely see continued increase in business connectivity.

Mobile Network Evolution Roadmap

What part of your business could benefit from faster speeds?

Shishir has been with TELUS for more than 3 years with extensive experience in mobile networks, international roaming and complex IP-based solutions.

As a small business owner I have always felt a need to help others but in my early days of building two small business I was not always able to offer financial help to charities, healthcare facilities, educational institutions and so on. Over time I realised that I could help many organizations and even individuals and it’s really not always about donating money.

Firstly, let me offer you the background behind the word philanthropy. Here’s what Wikipedia has to say:

Philanthropy etymologically means "the love of humanity", in the sense of "what it is to be human", the essence of our humanity. In modern practical terms, it is "private initiatives for public good, focusing on quality of life"—balancing the social-scientific aspect emphasized in the twentieth century, with the long-traditional and original humanistic core of the word's ancient coinage.

In Philadelphia, Benjamin Franklin created perhaps the first personal system of civic philanthropy in America. As a young tradesman in 1727, he formed the “Junto”: a 12-member club that met on Friday evenings to discuss current issues and events. One of the four qualifications for membership was the “love [of] mankind in general”.

Wow, I think everyone must feel a tiny bit confused when they look up the meaning of the word philanthropy, so I am here to help you all out and share with you how you can become a small business philanthropist.

Without even knowing what I was actually doing (being a philanthropist) I have always liked to offer my help to others. I volunteer my time to various charity organizations and help raise awareness about their particular cause. Whilst I was building my own two small businesses I became an expert in many areas and this led me to offer my time to individuals in ways such as:

• Connections: introducing people to each other so that they could grow their business network
• Offering consulting services complimentary for a specific time frame to new and existing small business owners who are looking for tips and advice
• Speaking at events free of charge: organizations who have little or no budget and are from the non for profit arena
• Offering my published books as prize draws, gifts at events

As you can see philanthropy is not all about giving money. It is about helping others, either in your local community or globally. Donating your time or your products/services is equally as beneficial as donating money.

How can any of the above help you, the small business owner? Whether you are sponsoring a sporting event and you donated the tee shirts, or a charity event whereby you offered your IT services for free, everyone recognizes you are giving back and it creates a warm and fuzzy feeling. This in turn relates to more exposure and credibility for your small business. In some cases the press may be at one of the events you were helping to organize and your information appears in the local newspaper, this relates to free advertising. You can also raise more awareness about the organization you are helping by sharing the information with your contacts. This is a win-win situation for all parties involved.

How much time and effort needs to go into your philanthropic giving back? Again this is up to the individual and at this point I stress, if possible, to get involved with give back initiatives that you have a vested interest in. An example for me would be events focussed on health and wellness or small business. The time that I may put into an organized event might be when I showcase the event details on my social media networks and in my newsletter and blog; which is very little time in reality. If I am invited to speak at an event this would take more of my time, but the gain for me are the connections attending the event and those people will get to know more about me and take away my business card as a reminder of who I am.

Globally we all tend to give to charities we believe in. We may travel to another country to donate our time and energy in some way. Again you have not donated actual money, but in reality your time is money.

Most philanthropists who donate a lot of time or money to great causes do prefer to stay anonymous and that is their choice. There is nothing wrong with sharing the fact you do help others and you, the small business owner are a philanthropist. Be proud of this and encourage others to follow in your footsteps. Always remember it is not ultimately about what you get back in return: a good action given in good faith with no expectation of reward is the way to go. But, in the world today, it is rare to go unnoticed when we do offer our help.

"I always had the idea that philanthropy was important today, but would be equally important in one year, ten years, 20 years, and the future generally."
- Warren Buffett

Linda Ockwell-Jenner is a President of Motivational Steps and  Co-Founder of the Small Business Community Network (SBCN) based in   Waterloo Region. Find out more about Linda at www.motivationalsteps.com and www.sbcncanada.org

If you have anything to do with a contact centre you have obviously heard of one of the latest trends in our industry; At-Home-Agents. It seems like everywhere you turn now At-Home-Agents are top of mind for contact centre business owners, directors, managers, agents and IT and telephony architects. People are either talking about it, they’re planning for it, implementing it or they have it up and running. Have you ever thought of creating your own At Home Agent Program or if it’s the right thing for your contact centre?

At first glance this latest trend seems to be the ‘perfect storm’ for the contact centre industry. The business has a keen interest to continue to run their operation more efficiently while reducing overhead costs. Agents see this as the best of all worlds. They are saving money, saving time and achieving a far better work/life balance all without having to leave your job for something more flexible or closer to home. And the environment!! Who doesn’t want to contribute to fewer cars on the road and reduced emissions. Few things are as powerful as a contribution to the environment as not commuting to work everyday.

The truth is…Its all true. There is a reason why At-Home-Agents is such a powerful concept in the industry and when done right, it can be a ‘perfect storm’ for MOST contact centres … but it’s not for everyone. If you are thinking of embarking down this road consider the following literary advice...

“Just because he did it doesn’t mean you have to do it” – your Mother

The reasons for moving forward with an At-Home-Agent Program are as numerous as the benefits. Maybe you are nearing capacity (or in some cases reached capacity) for your facilities but you don’t want to build a new contact centre? Maybe you’re suffering agent attrition problems and you would like to hold onto your best agents longer? Or maybe you’ve heard that At-Home-Agents have even better performance metrics than when they are in the office?

While the reasons and benefits of an At-Home-Agent program may seem numerous and obvious, make sure you know exactly why you are going down this road.

Lesson: Before you decide that this is the best solution, clearly define what your problem, problems or future problems are and if the results of an At-Home-Agent program is the best solution.

“The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry” – Robert Burns

For all of you that have launched large programs or projects within a contact centre the ones that are related to the agents directly always seem to be the most intricate. The At-Home-Agent trend is no exception. The inter dependencies of every aspect of your contact centre will come forward in the planning of the program. Expect it to be far more complicated than you imagine. Being experts in Project Management will help but there is also a lot of new territory to cover. How do you manage remote agents? What are the legal ramifications of employees working from home (Workman’s compensation, fire extinguishers, security & confidentiality etc.)? What sort of new policies and procedures are required? What is the best technical solution to get all of your internal applications, data and voice channels to the agents’ house? Will my business tools work seamlessly (WFM, Quality Monitoring)?

Lesson: Large At-Home-Agent programs are complex; research, plan and execute accordingly. We all know the pain associated with not doing this correctly.

“If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it” – Contact Centre operation types

We all know that we work in one of the most measured industries in business today. The granularity of what contributes to shrinkage is getting ridiculous. We count things in seconds and have a metric for every agent behaviour.

Well, At-Home-Agents are no exception. Contributing to this ‘perfect storm’ is the fact that many of most important agent performance metrics move in the correct direction ( attrition, conformance, sick time, average handle time) or remain unchanged. These metrics in our interconnected contact centre world lead to great savings in recruitment, training and operations. This is a significant component when considering your business case for At-Home-Agent programs. I have seen many examples of business cases that capture the standard overhead assumptions but it’s more complicated than that.

Lesson: Construct a sound business plan. Capture all the relevant data you need and make sure it is accurate. There is no shortcut to good planning and on going analysis.

Ken Coopland has worked in contact centres in a variety of positions for over 22 years and is a Contact Centre Consultant with TELUS. TELUS has over 1100 agents working from home and started their program in early 2005.

My name is Evan Carmichael and I believe that the fastest and most effective way to build a business is to model the strategies of people who have already done what you’re trying to do. I call it Modeling the Masters. My last post was: 3 Lessons from Henry Heinz (from immigrant farmer to ultra-successful entrepreneur)

Today we're going to look at how a high school jock whose priority was partying turned his life around and built one of the most successful hotel chains in the world. This is the story of Issy Sharp from the Four Seasons and the top 3 lessons that you can learn from his success.

Must Watch Video

"Whatever you do, don’t ever use a crutch, and don’t ever think of having an excuse for not having said, ‘Yeah, I did my best.’ - Issy Sharp

Isadore "Issy" Sharp, (born October 8, 1931) is a Canadian businessman and founder and chairman of Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts. Sharp didn't have much stability in his youth and moved 15 times in 16 years. He also didn't care much for school. According to Sharp: “My life in high school revolved around sports. Partying became my priority.”

That all changed when Sharp was accepted into the architecture program at Toronto’s Ryerson Polytechnical Institute. He began to earn high marks for his creations and worked for his father building houses and small apartment buildings.

Yearning for more, at age 29 he founded the Four Seasons Hotel in 1960 and opened his first hotel on Jarvis Street in downtown Toronto in 1961. He built a reputation for luxury and sweating the details which allowed his business to flourish. In 2006, Bill Gates and Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bought control of the company for $3.4 bllion. Sharp's current net worth is $540 million.

Action Item #1: Inspire Your Employees

If you ever want to build a successful business beyond yourself you're going to have to have a team of people working with you who are inspired to give their best every day.

Sharp didn’t become the leading luxury hotelier in the world all by himself. In the over fifty years he has been in the industry, Sharp has developed a unique leadership style that has encouraged his employees to devote 110 percent of themselves to the company. By creating a working environment that is built on trust, credibility, and integrity, Sharp has inspired his team to work to realize their best efforts. In the end, he understood that this was the secret ingredient to helping the company realize its best results.

According to Sharp: "We do that, first of all, by establishing a meaningful goal, an overriding purpose that most people can relate to. If the goal is clear and the focus is sharp and constantly reinforced, we unify and energize through a sense of common purpose that inspires employees to ardent effort.”

Action Item #2: Really Service Your Customers

The best companies are based on happy customers and repeat business. You want to strive to create an experience where your customers love buying from you and tell their friends as well.

In each and every one of its worldwide locations, the Four Seasons tends to set the top hotel price for the area - it is usually about 20 percent higher than its closest competitor. How can Sharp risk such a pricing policy? He does it by guaranteeing that his “guests get a fail-safe experience so that a company is eager to pay the extra $50 to ensure a hassle-free trip for an executive who might be working on a $50 million deal.”

According to Sharp: “Our competitors interpreted luxury chiefly as dazzling architecture and décor, but how important is that to our customers? They are mostly executives, often under pressure, fighting jet lag, stress and the clock. We decided to redefine luxury as service.”

Action Item #3: Live By The Golden Rule

The Golden Rule is to treat people as you would like to be treated. It's not only a great way to achieve happiness as an entrepreneur, it's also a highly profitable strategy.

The driving force behind Sharp's success has been his desire to treat Four Seasons employees with the same level of respect that they in turn are expected to give their guests. The success of this policy has shown itself not only in terms of customer happiness but also employee engagement and satisfaction. For years, the Four Seasons has been the only Canadian company to land on Fortune magazine’s list of the 100 best companies to work for in the U.S.

According to Sharp: "We aimed to treat others as we would want to be treated ourselves. Enforcing our credo was the hardest part, and senior managers who couldn’t or wouldn’t live by it were weeded out within a few years... We hire for attitude. We want people who like other people and are, therefore, more motivated to serve them. Competence we can teach. Attitude is ingrained."

True Story

In 1967, one Four Seasons employee went to the extreme in demonstrating the kind of service Sharp was trying to encourage. A bellboy for the hotel, Roy Dyment discovered that a dignitary guest had left his briefcase behind after checking out. The guest soon called from Washington stating that the contents of the briefcase were essential for an upcoming meeting. Feeling responsible, Dyment bought a plane ticket at his own expense and personally delivered the briefcase to the former guest.

More Quotes

Long-term success is never achieved on our own. The phrase ‘a self-made man’ is a myth – all along the way we need support.

If someone had told me ‘Look, you’re going to start today and spend the next five years wasting your time trying to get this thing start’, I would have said I can’t do that. But you never think about what it’s going to take of you. Think: I’ve got it now.

Whatever you do, don’t ever use a crutch, and don’t ever think of having an excuse for not having said, ‘Yeah, I did my best.’

Contest

Congratulations to Tanya Freedman for winning the A.P. Giannini card from my Entrepreneur Heroes series by writing a this comment on my last post. Tanya, please contact me so I can get the card sent to you.

For this week's contest I'm going to give away a Jeff Bezos. Jeff Bezos chose the name Amazon.com for his company after the powerful and continuous South American river, and because, at the time, Yahoo! listed its search results in alphabetical order.

"If there’s one reason we have done better than of our peers in the Internet space, it is because we have focused like a laser on customer experience, and that really does matter, I think, in any business.” - Jeff Bezos

To win the card all you have to do is leave a comment below. One winner will be selected at random from the comments.

Are your employees motivated? What have you done or are you planning to do to keep them interested in giving their best? What part of Issy Sharp's message impacted you the most? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

Evan Carmichael

To learn more check out my list of Issy Sharp articles or my website, EvanCarmichael.com.

The motto of my all-girls junior high school was “Knowledge is no longer a fountain sealed” – the line adapted from the Lord Alfred Tennyson poem The Princess. The phrase referred to the springing of the intellect. In a more literal interpretation, imagine handing someone a fountain pen, that person becoming enormously creative writing calligraphy, sharing their skills with peers, then creating magnificent scrolls and selling them for great profit. Call it institutional knowledge that sprung from a fountain pen.

With this calligraphy collective top of mind, it was with great interest that I read the article “Managing Institutional Knowledge in Distributed Teams” on Giagaom.com recently.

The article notes that, in organizations where information used to be shared, say at the coffee bar or the water cooler, when an employee goes virtual (or the entire organization does), the risk of losing information is very high. Typically, you don’t know you need the information until you’ve lost it. You need a knowledge bank because you want your employees to be able to benefit from the experiences of others.                                                

I found it curious that the article didn’t give any examples of institutional knowledge, so I’ve included some here that could apply to your business and that you might consider recording: preferences of  high-value clients; nicknames given to important databases with suppliers’ information; how to make parts; where to find art, brochures, brand guidelines; who is Mr. Fix-it; crisis management information, employment records, historic presentations and speeches.

Another point the article makes is the importance of updating and maintaining institutional knowledge i.e. consistently adding to the databases you deem important. I’d add that in a virtual office situation, when someone new joins the team, it’s important to have real training and not just a few sheets that are emailed over to the employee in a welcome packet. Off-site employees need to be schooled in many things: the basics, such as how to access databases and add information to them; the tricky stuff, like which business silos overlap with their division and, therefore, their job.

I know it’s a busy world and employees are expected to come onboard and sink or swim, but step back and think about this for 90 seconds. When you enter the office environment you have the advantage of observing physical and verbal cues. You can wander into a colleague's office and ask for advice after a meeting. This applies if you’re an executive, middle manager who travels 70% of the year or work in the mailroom.

I firmly believe that just three days of in-person training will save your employees weeks of frustration before they return to their virtual office. It doesn’t matter if they held a similar job at the competition. This is a new environment and, in many ways, they’ll feel like they’re working in oblivion for a long time – that is until they begin to understand the ebb and flow of the virtual team.

Once your new employee is fully meshed with the team, she’ll start contributing to the institutional knowledge database (just as veteran employees have been doing on an ongoing basis). Which raises another important point – a single person shouldn’t be responsible for the information, because if that staff member leaves the company, they’ll take the information and how to access it with them. As the article puts it: “maintaining institutional knowledge has to be a habit.” A habit for all employees. A habit you don’t want to break.

Amber Nasrulla is an ex-pat Canadian writer based in L.A. who specializes in profiles from business leaders and scientists, to Hollywood celebrities. Her work has appeared in North American and British publications including L.A. Times, The Globe and Mail, Los Angeles Magazine, ELLE Canada, Chatelaine and London Weekly Times.

Does your company have guidelines in place to help flexible teams share information and keep databases current? Share best practices here.

By now you’re well aware the iPad 2 was officially unveiled at an invite-only media event in San Francisco last Wednesday.

Yours truly was in attendance, and got a chance to try out the new touchscreen tablet following the presentation.

And so how does the iPad 2 stack up against its predecessor and the increasingly stiff competition from the Android and BlackBerry camp? Quite well, in fact.

Arguably the biggest difference between the iPad 2 – out this spring in Canada, available in both black and white – and the first iPad is in the performance department. Running Apple’s new A5 chip, the iPad 2 features a dual-core processor (think two engines under the hood of your car), which delivers up to twice the performance over the original iPad. After spending some time opening web pages, flipping through iBooks, launching video and playing around with the new Garage Band for iPad app, you can really feel the difference in speed.

While we didn’t get a chance to test out any games, Apple says graphics performance is increased up to 9 times over the original iPad, in the company’s testing.

Not surprisingly, Apple has added two cameras to the iPad 2: one outward-facing for snapping pictures and shooting HD (720p) video and one front-facing camera for FaceTime video chats and for having fun altering your face with Photo Booth (both apps will be preinstalled on the iPad 2). FaceTime, in particular, tested well on the iPad 2. As opposed to using an iPhone or fourth-gen iPod touch, it was good to use the nearly 10-inch real estate to see who you’re talking to. Your face appears in a small picture-in-picture window when someone answers, which you can place wherever you want on the screen with your finger, if desired.

iMovie for iPad ($4.99) was announced at the event, and you can use the built-in video camera to shoot footage before editing it, adding effects and captions, and then sharing it online. Or share it on a television, as an optional $39 HDMI accessory will be available for those who want to connect the tablet to a HDTV, projector, monitor or other device – and supporting up to 1080p video playback.

While it’s less striking in person than on paper, the iPad 2 is one-third thinner (33 percent) over its predecessor, now just 8.8 millimeters thick compared to the 13.4mm-thick iPad. Still, this sucker is slim. Even less noticeable is the iPad 2′s reduced weight of 1.3 pounds, down from 1.5 pounds (about 15 percent). Truthfully, the iPad 2 feels only marginally lighter than last year’s model, so I’d have to respectfully disagree with Steve Jobs’ comment that the iPad 2 feels like it "almost floats in your hand." That said, I don’t have an issue with the first-gen iPad’s weight, though for those buying it strictly as an e-book reader could do much better with the feather-light Amazon Kindle.

While less sexy, it’s what Apple didn’t change that might be most impressive about the iPad 2. Despite the faster processor, thinner and lighter design and dual cameras, the battery remains at about 10 hours between charges, says Apple. This is a lot longer than any other tablet this reviewer has laid his hands on over the past year (and also better than the upcoming BlackBerry PlayBook, too). Starting at $549, the price also remains the same for iPad 2, which is great, while the cost of the original iPad has dropped between $100 and $150 among most retailers.

Along with the short demo on iOS 4.3, which adds a few enhancements and features to Apple’s mobile devices, it would be remiss not to mention the huge advantage Apple has over the competition in the software department: Jobs says there are more than 350,000 apps available at the App Store, 65,000 of which are designed or optimized for the iPad. That, and the fact the iPad (1 and 2) smoothly synchronizes with iTunes on a PC or Mac gives them a huge boon.

Speaking of software, arguably the most impressive demo was Garage Band for iPad ($4.99), which garnered the biggest applause at the event. Along with allowing you to connect your real instrument to record and mix music, a number of virtual instruments are ready for play including numerous piano sounds (including organs and synthesizers), drums, guitar and bass. Eight-tracking recording (including vocals) and easy sharing options make this a steal at under $5.

OK, so what wasn't included? Despite the many rumours leading up to the official unveiling, the iPad 2 does not have an integrated USB port or memory card slot, nor does it have a higher-resolution "Retina" display. And the Safari browser doesn't support Flash (therefore not all websites are supported).

Personally, I was hoping for near-field communications (NFC) support, a wireless technology with numerous applications ranging from mobile payments (swipe to purchase products) to touching another NFC-enabled smartphone or tablet to easily exchange contact information to tapping a sensor to automatically open a website or download media to the device. No such luck. Maybe iPhone 5?

Marc Saltzman is one of North America's most recognized and trusted  technology experts. Based in Toronto, Marc currently contributes to  nearly 50 publications, has authored 14 books and is the host of CTV  News Channel's "Tech Talk," CNN's "Tech Time" and Cineplex's "Gear  Guide" (seen in movie theatres across Canada).

In my last blog post I promised to share with you why I have found it beneficial to write on-line articles and how this can help your small business.

When I founded Motivational Steps in 2001 I was an unknown entity. I had no budget for advertising and I wanted people to know who I was. I realised that during the slow times in my business I needed to find ways to reach out to my target market, and build those all important foundations I keep on talking about.

One of my friends suggested I write motivational articles and add them to my web site and this would eventually bring more traffic and also showcase my expertise. As I got better at writing the articles I noticed that a lot of them were being re-published by other sites. I looked for opportunities that would allow me to publish my articles on other sites such as Evan Carmichael, Gather, and Facebook. This allowed me to reach out further, which in turn led to more exposure for my business. Online magazines are always looking for articles, as long as they fit with the theme of the particular magazine, and this also affords more chances that your readership will become quite diverse.

Newsletters are another great way to share your content: look for opportunities to contribute articles. This is something I do through my own monthly newsletter: Stepping Stone. This is a win-win situation for both the editor of the newsletter and the person offering the article. The owner of the newsletter gets to feature different viewpoints via the articles and the writer gains a wider audience.

Along the way, once you find your articles are becoming popular there are organizations that will pay you to write for them. This can be quite a commitment, especially if you are writing articles mainly for the credibility and not as a full time job.

Obviously not everyone likes to write articles but today more than ever, if you do like to write, most small business owner can benefit from sharing their expertise through their articles.

Some examples of articles of mine that have been of interest to many people and also offered me the chance to grow my business are:

• Inukshuk: an article I wrote about the Inukshuk story and how it relates to modern business networking.
• How Will The Roller Coaster Changes in Life Affect You? This article is about change and how people deal with it.
• Prevention Versus The Cure: is an article about health & wellness.

The three articles above offer my readers a chance to get to know me, but also showcase my expertise in public speaking, as all three examples relate to some of my keynote topics. Human resource professionals, Speaker Bureaus and a variety of organizations that are looking for professional speakers read my articles and this can lead to engagements for Motivational Steps. As an example: say your particular business focuses on Internet security, I would hope that your articles would feature such topics as ‘How to Protect Your Computer From Viruses’.

A comment to my previous blog post asked about more information on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). I am not an expert in SEO but do find online resources such as those offered by Google to be invaluable.

As with anything we do in life, but in this case our small business, our expectations can sometimes overtake us and we are left feeling we failed. In the early days of writing your articles may or may not get a lot of feedback, no comments to speak of other than spam, and you might think the entire exercise was useless. Patience is a virtue and it will take time for your articles to become known.

I have found TELUS Talks Business a fantastic resource. For example if you have an article that you think prompts debate and discussion, why not post it to the Ask The Community section.

Always remember there are many ways to grow your small business, lots of different strategies to create credibility and exposure, but always chose the best way for YOU. If writing articles appeals to you, your passion will shine through and your readers will gain a lot more insights about you. I offer ideas based on what has worked for me, and for other successful small business owners. But as with any popular recipe take what works for you and add your own ingredients!

"All achievements, all earned riches, have their beginning in an idea."

- Napoleon Hill

Linda Ockwell-Jenner is a President of Motivational Steps and Co-Founder of the Small Business Community Network (SBCN) based in  Waterloo Region. Find out more about Linda at www.motivationalsteps.com and www.sbcncanada.org