Canadian Youth Business Foundation's (CYBF) Linda Morana Discusses the Qualities of Good Mentors

Linda Morana’s new job as Mentor-in-Residence at the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) is to act as mentor to the mentors. “It’s a unique role that focuses on the mentoring methodology as opposed to business skills and business techniques,” she says.

The CYBF – which provides comprehensive support in the form of coaching and financing to Canada’s young entrepreneurs as they launch or build their business – has 2,000+ active mentors and is always seeking business professionals looking to make a difference.

“A mentor is not a consultant,” Morana notes, “They are there to ask questions and help the entrepreneur think out of the box.” TTB spoke to Morana about the mentors training program she is designing, which focuses on soft skills.

How does your role help CYBF mentors?

From a mentor survey, we saw that 72% wanted mentor resources, best practices and learning opportunities. In response, the Mentor-in-Residence role was created. I’m creating and designing an online, self-paced learning program, in a modular format that will help mentors enhance their mentoring skills. Some of the training covers role clarity; how to build trust; and help the entrepreneur find the motivation.

How do you determine the needs of CYBF mentors?

On a quarterly basis, our mentors give a status update through an online forum and they share their challenges and needs. We also have a peer-to-peer networking event called Entrepeer Experience and this is where mentors and entrepreneurs and community partners of CYBF meet and network.

What are some of the challenges?

At around the six-month mark, entrepreneurs get into a challenging time because they may have started testing out their business and they may have to rework it or find a new model. Sometimes they lose sight of the big picture and that’s when the mentors provide a supporting role and encouragement. And if they were keyed into the motivation of the entrepreneur at the beginning, then they can remind the entrepreneur of why they’re doing what they are doing.

What do mentors take away from the experience?

They tell us that they’ve learned to be better leaders. There’s an inter-generational exchange that takes place where mentors are exposed to new technology as well as social media and new business trends that entrepreneurs are introducing to the market; innovative strategies to gaining new business; new business development.

What are the qualities of a good mentor?

One of the key qualities of a mentor is having patience and understanding that it takes time to build a strong trusting relationship. Sometimes it takes time for the entrepreneur to share all the details of the dream they have as its something they’ve been working on for a long time.

Second, be willing to be vulnerable. When mentors share what’s worked for them and, more importantly what hasn’t worked such as recent mistakes and failures, it helps bring the mentoring relationship to an equal plain. It helps the entrepreneur understand that failure, sometimes, is a part of being successful. That opens the door for the entrepreneur to share their current challenges and they don’t feel embarrassed.

We really encourage the mentor to help the entrepreneur solve their challenges and problems so that they aren’t dependent on the mentor for advice and solutions at all times. It’s about giving them options about the process that one would take to solve a problem, so they can be independent and empowered. Also key, the ability to listen and question.

What are the first steps in establishing a successful mentoring relationship?

At CYBF, before the match is official, the mentor and mentee have an introductory meeting to see if there is good synergy; if not, either can opt out. From there it’s about setting expectation and accountability. We have an online orientation program called Meant To Be, which they complete together. It helps them set the stage for the mentoring relationship, [and] it identifies the expectations for the mentor and entrepreneur and helps clarify their objectives.

Sometimes we don’t put thought into the logistics [such as] how often will we have meetings and how long will meetings be and who is accountable for what, so Meant To Be takes them through that. At the end of the online program both have a customized mentoring agreement, not a legal contract, but they agree to do certain things. A development plan is also key; the entrepreneur has an opportunity to discuss what his or her goals are. Ultimately they have a plan about how they are going to achieve these goals and it helps create direction for future mentoring meetings.

For more information on CYBF's mentoring program or to start the process of becoming a mentor, complete an online application form.

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 numerous publications including the L.A. Times, The Globe and Mail, Los Angeles Magazine, ELLE Canada, Chatelaine and Reader’s Digest Canada.

Today, TELUS and the Canadian Youth Business Foundation (CYBF) announced a milestone campaign to help young entrepreneurs launch businesses  across Canada.  In celebration, TELUS Talks Business correspondent Amber Nasrulla interviewed Vivian Prokop, chief executive officer of the Canadian Youth Business Foundation.

“We’re huge job creators,” says Vivian Prokop, CEO of the Canadian Youth Business Foundation. No kidding. The organization dedicated to supporting young entrepreneurs (YE) launched 617 YE businesses in 2011 and is on track to set 720 in motion this year. And, since 1996, the CYBF has provided start-up financing and business mentors to 5,000 young entrepreneurs and those successful businesses went on to create 19,000 jobs across Canada in many sectors including healthcare, real estate, and technology. Those are the numbers.

Prokop says she wants CYBF’s portfolio to have a greater percentage of high-growth businesses. She points to Communitech’s new $30-million Hyperdrive start-up fund, which was launched on April 10, and notes that the CYBF is one of several angel and venture capital backers behind it. The Waterloo, ON, technology incubator gives entrepreneurs up to two years of support including mentorship and access to early stage financing.

Prokop says, “We’re hoping to get a lot of learnings from the Hyperdrive program and then launch that across the country in different creative ways with partners.”

Aside from creating thousands jobs, how does the CYBF champion entrepreneurship in Canada?

We’re where the rubber hits the road. We work with young people who have really brilliant business ideas but cannot find the commercial means to start the business – they need money and advice. We really focus on the startup phase and start the entrepreneur into the growth and expansion phase. We’re the organization that hands off the entrepreneurs to organizations in Canada that help them grow. We have strong partnerships with the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC), so the entrepreneurs can get access to BDC funding for the second stage.

We also provide young entrepreneurs opportunities to advise key government officials on entrepreneurship in Canada; we’ve had roundtables with the Minister of Finance, with the Minister of State for Small Business and Tourism. We’ve had roundtables with the Prime Minister of Canada. We have introduced 43 mentors and entrepreneurs to Prince Charles (CYBF is a member of the Prince’s Youth Business International).

I know you don’t like to pick favourites but can you highlight a couple of success stories?

Harry Chemko runs Elastic Path software in Vancouver. He started about eight years ago and he could not find anyone who would support his business idea, which was a digital financial platform. Fast forward Harry now has offices in London England, well over 200 employees and he also was able to get the bid for the Vancouver Olympics and had an online store for the Olympics. He also sits on an advisory board to the Canadian Council for Small Business and Entrepreneurship that reports to Industry Canada.

In Moncton, N.B., there’s PropertyGuys.com. They like to tell the story of being so poor that they used to lift up the sofa cushions to look for quarters. They had an idea of starting an online real estate company where you didn’t need an agent to sell your house. They now have more than 300 franchises across Canada. We gave them $15,000 and a CYBF mentor. (CEO Ken LeBlanc sits on the Canadian Franchise Association’s Board of Directors.)

Since 2010, when you founded the G20 Young Entrepreneur Summit (and the G20 Young Entrepreneurs’ Alliance) how have Canadian delegates maximized being part of this ecosystem?

It doesn’t matter what the content of the summit is, just bringing 500 entrepreneurs together in one venue, you can get up to the clouds on the energy. Entrepreneurs are essentially lonely because they’re opening up these businesses and when they first start they are the janitors to the marketing to cutting the cheques to the strategy. And as the business grows you get more people around you. What this (summit) does is give you a community and that’s amazing. It’s a great networking opportunity to hear from successful entrepreneurs around the world and there’s a lot of international business that goes on.

What value does it bring to Canada to champion such an initiative?

The delegates can impact public policy at the national and regional level. Last year, three of our delegates were able to get in front of their provincial premiers to talk about entrepreneurship strategy in their provinces. They talked about ‘what do you have in your budget; what programs do you have here; how does taxation affect me’. The very fact that they can make it into that level is outstanding when you think that’s it’s only been 20 months since we started the whole initiative.

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.

Why do good employees quit? How can organizations reduce burnout, improve productivity and, ultimately, keep workers from jumping ship? Bailey Vaez, founder of Toronto-based Proactive Movement, a strategic workplace wellness and productivity firm, looks for teaching opportunities in stressful situations, even when it seems inevitable the employee will leave. For example, if a worker is having a hard time working with a difficult client, yet enjoys all other aspects of the job, Vaez says, “The best thing to do is to recognize the interactions with a client as a personal learning opportunity to enhance patience, communication and conflict resolution strategies.”

TELUS spoke to Vaez, an industrial engineer, for ideas about employee retention. Proactive Movement’s onsite services include de-stress workshops and health challenges. Its diverse clients include Novartis Health, Harlequin Novels, and Esso, among others.

Let’s start with the basics, what are the factors that make employees stay put at a small to mid-size company while others move on?

By comparing our employee opinion survey results from one organization to the next we’ve seen how much organizational culture truly matters. Sure, rewarding work, compensation, and personal development are vital to employee retention; however, being valued and recognized as a part of a bigger movement with positive culture is key.

The way I see it, if the leaders and management groups of an organization truly care about the advancement and well being of their employees, their employees will replicate and go above and beyond what is expected of them.

At my small company I recently had to lay-off three people. What are some affordable wellness initiative options to head off burnout in the staff that remain?

Keys to success are to get employees to eat right, rest and keep physically active and they will thrive no matter what type of environment or workload.

From a programming perspective that involves awareness, knowledge and action.  First, implement a health-check survey to evaluate current stress and energy levels and to identify if employees are at high health risk. Second, empower employees by giving them applicable tools and knowledge on what to do with regards to burnout; suggestions on what to eat (or avoid) in highly stressful times, how to manage stress when working on tight timelines, quick steps to enhancing energy levels, and time management tips. Third is action. As an employer, enable healthy activity for your employees such as a 30-minute lunchtime yoga class, after-work group boot camp or a 10-15 minute chair massage at the office.


What are the tangible benefits of employee wellness programs?

At the organization level there are cost reductions. Healthier employees translate into a reduction in the use of benefits and drugs and less sick days. Employees, meanwhile, can achieve a personal health goal (losing weight; becoming more active) through workplace services or simply feeling better.

How else do you recommend I keep employees motivated?

Employers can keep motivation high by listening, communicating, recognizing, and connecting with their employees. High impact, yet low effort suggestions for organizations include:

• Personal & Career Development leading to advancement opportunities
• Regular feedback and dialogue with superiors
• Positive working relationships with peers, superiors, and subordinates
• Inspirational leadership equipped with effective internal employee communications
• Recognition for great work done and rewards to motivate
• Celebrating success & failures
• Creating balance and enabling opportunities to renew in the midst of the day

I manage 30 remote workers around the country. What can a company do to retain them?

Create human connections: Working remotely can create isolation so it’s best for organizations to include remote workers as often as they can in both business and off-hours events and activities. For our clients we’ve created company-wide online/mobile health challenges, which advocate employee engagement, team work and healthy competition and gets all business units and employees involved.

Keep a culture of learning: Often remote employees can’t reap the benefits of onsite training but it’s vital that the organization includes remote employees in its training and development plans.

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.

TELUS challenged entrepreneurs on the TELUS Business Facebook page to share their best to-the-point and convincing elevator pitch for a chance to win one of two business productivity prize packs. With more than 100 submissions, Dani Gagnon was one of the finalists.

Dani Gagnon wanted an unforgettable logo when she launched her social media management company, TheLike Button. One that would capture the multi-faceted nature of her business. She chose an octopus. “The message is that we take care of a variety of things.” In just one year she’s amassed a diverse client list – not-for-profits, real estate firms, insurance companies, restaurants, chiropractors, business and life coaches. Gagnon, the president/CEO is also chief strategist. She employs five writers known as content creators, and four content curators who manage clients’ Facebook (FB), and Twitter accounts.

What was your process for developing the elevator pitch?

I explained what we do: which is create long-term social media plans that are affordable for small businesses and deliver cost saving for bigger businesses while giving them quality care.

How did you decide which social media tools to use?

As a company we only use FB, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube and Foursquare. We want to be really good at what we do and not ‘sort-of-good at everything’. That’s allowed us to find our niche market.

How do you measure the success of social media initiatives?

We use Google analytics and can see that our top two traffic sources are FB and Twitter. But we don’t guarantee anything and ask businesses to take responsibility of measuring how well our project is working.

What’s your advice for businesses struggling to build a customer base?

Get on social media or call me!

In 2011, what technology did you rely on to grow your business?

We use Google documents religiously. It’s allowed us to communicate and share documents with our staff and clients in a way that isn’t messy because there are no emails. I go through my content documents and see where my clients commented or where something was curated. It records every time and date a change is made to a document.

What do you regard as your greatest success in 2011 and how did you make it happen?

We did the social media strategy for The Property Show in Toronto; it brought together hundreds of realtors and mortgage brokers. I became a sponsor and there were giant screens behind the speakers projecting logos – BMW, Hilton Hotels – and every five or so slides there would be a picture of The Like Button’s octopus. It was wicked! Great branding.

Imagine you’re starting a new business. Given your experience what are two things you’d advise yourself?

I would split my business up differently – a division for small business and one for corporate. I wouldn’t choose the name I did because as soon as I try to trademark TheLike Button I know I’ll run into trouble with Facebook. If [FB founder] Mark Zuckerberg gets mad, I’ll use it as publicity. I’ll make a contest like ‘Choose a new name for TheLike Button’. There might be an FB page that says, “Mark Zuckerberg let TheLike Button keep its name!” We’ll see.

What are your business goals for 2012?

We’re moving to Vancouver in August so I can assemble another team out there

When I’ve covered Central and Western Canada and I hit the 150-account mark [currently have 70 accounts] then I’ll say we’re changing our name. I hope to do that in the next six months.

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.

To follow TELUSBusiness on Facebook go to facebook.com/telusbusiness.

TELUS challenged entrepreneurs on the TELUS Business Facebook page to share their best to-the-point and convincing elevator pitch for a chance to win one of two business productivity prize packs. With more than 100 submissions, Carmen Mason was one of the finalists.

“Anything you need we can do it,” says Carmen Mason, art/creative director and founder of Fuel House of Design in Vancouver. The company specializes in creating branded websites, posters, handbills, logos, merchandise, boxes, banners, and billboards, for clients including Joe’s Apartment on Granville Street, 99.3 CFOX-FM and bands of all genres.

How did you come up with your elevator pitch?

I ask my clients on a day-to-day basis, what is it that you are trying put forth with your product? What is the first thing you need people to know about your brand? I got to a point where my pitch came naturally: “What is it that I do? How can I help people?”

When did you start using social media and how did you pick which social media tools to use?

Years ago when I started, it was the era of MySpace so I started a profile and stuck to my genre, which at that time was music. A band would post your profile on the comments section and automatically everybody would add you. I had more than 1200 friends. Then Facebook (FB) came out and I decided to stick with a profile [rather than a group page] because it gives you the opportunity to chat with clients about future or current projects.

How do you measure the success of social media initiatives?

Facebook has been a vital part of my business and so has Twitter. The yardstick [of success] is that 90% of people who contact me via FB become my clients and have me on contract within 48 hours.

Many businesses struggle to build their customer base and attract new customers with limited funds and resources. Your advice?

Use social media to the best of your advantage. Search out businesses, follow the links on FB, look for flaws in their marketing and advertising. Is their website up to par? Do they have social networking links? Contact them, don’t push but let them know you are there. Stick within your niche and beat the pavement because everything is possible.

What do you regard as your greatest success as a business in 2011?

I came in second out of 3,200 applicants in the Edward Burns poster contest for his new movie Newlyweds. He sent a message out on Twitter and said anybody could join this contest. Every time I Tweeted “Go vote for me”, Edward Burns would retweet it. I jumped 800 people in three days. Now I have Ed Burns and Morgan Spurlock (Super Size Me) following me.

How do you motivate your team to keep them focused on business goals?

I don’t have to do very much. I respect and trust the team.

I have 16 contract employees, some in Scotland, some in L.A. I have a guy in Florida and Hawaii and three here. An example, heavy metal music is not my thing. So I have a guy in Australia who lives and dies by that music and I will forward the clients directly to him. I don’t play middleman.

What are your business goals for 2012?

We’re opening a storefront in September. I’d like to compartmentalize the company so one division is music and then there’s everyone else. I want to become known for being able to help anybody who has an idea or product and bring it to street level where it has great marketing and advertising behind it. I love music but I want to branch out.

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.

To follow TELUSBusiness on Facebook go to facebook.com/telusbusiness.

TELUS challenged entrepreneurs on the TELUS Business Facebook page to share their best to-the-point and convincing elevator pitch for a chance to win one of two business productivity prize packs. With more than 100 submissions, Jeff Fung was one of the finalists.

Jeff Fung knew the key to successfully launching mylawbid.com was people. He networked at his alma mater, Queen’s University and, later, sponsored the annual conference of the Federation of Asian Lawyers. “We are referral based and relationship-based and that is crucial to our success, even though we are online,” he says. The service allows lawyers to bid on consumer jobs (at no cost to the consumer. No more random, frustrated Googling.) The site, launched in July 2011, is in beta phase, meaning lawyers can sign up for free. (Fung hopes to institute a monthly or annual pay structure by Q2.)

In December, The Globe and Mail’s Small Business LinkedIn group ranked mylawbid.com in the Top 10 “must have resources for entrepreneurs.”

How did you develop the elevator pitch?

I wanted to demonstrate the value of the company to everyday users and I targeted them rather than investors. I believe I can provide services that are useful to individuals and small business that, maybe, aren’t plugged into the legal community and need help finding a lawyer.

When did you start using social media?

We’re still working on our social media strategy. I’ve been using Facebook and LinkedIn since I started. I was experimenting, joining groups on LinkedIn, and I’d post interesting legal articles on FB. I can’t say we’ve perfected it as I’m still learning how to properly approach users. I also joined Twitter last fall. And we’re trying to create instructional and promotional videos for YouTube. I haven’t figured out user acquisition so if you have any ideas I’m all ears!

Many businesses struggle to build their customer base and attract new customers with limited resources. Your advice?

Figure out what you need on your website to attract people and then focus on that before you start spreading the word. We really needed lawyers to respond to people’s inquiries, so our first phase was reaching out to them. We are province-wide and have 100 lawyers in the GTA. (Including Devry Smith Frank LLP, Gardiner Roberts LLP in Toronto and Borden Ladner Gervais LLP in Vancouver.) We also have lawyers in Ottawa, Kingston, Kitchener-Waterloo and Smith’s Falls. We’re working on building a presence in Vancouver.

What technology was crucial to building your business in 2011?

It’s not about technology for us. The way we built our network of lawyers so far, besides through social media, has been by building relationships – with legal organizations, or organizations that service small businesses, or channel distributors like real estate agents.

What was your greatest success in 2011?

As a business owner who is just starting out it was really exciting to get the validation that the idea was going to work and that people valued it. That really happened after we were profiled in The Globe and Mail in December. We got a lot of traffic on the website.

Imagine you’re considering starting a new business. Given your experience, what are two things you’d advise yourself?

I’ve learned patience. There aren’t going to be 1,000 lawyers signing up for your service; even if you think it’s a great idea, you need to sell people the value. It’s about working hard and putting in the hours.

I could have fleshed out the business plan. I knew how I would acquire lawyers but was less clear on how I would acquire non-lawyers. And having an SEO strategy when we launched, so we would have older web pages and appear in search results in a better position.

What are your business goals for 2012?

The main one is to transition from beta testing to the revenue-generating phase. And to expand into other cities, Vancouver and throughout B.C.

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.

To follow TELUSBusiness on Facebook go to facebook.com/telusbusiness.

TELUS recently challenged entrepreneurs on the TELUS Business Facebook page to share their best to-the-point and convincing elevator pitch for a chance to win one of two business productivity prize packs. With more than 100 submissions, Dark Acre was one of two winners and was awarded an iPhone4, iPad2, and $1,500.

Christopher ‘Jack’ Nilssen’s diverse job experience includes security guard training, working in a restaurant kitchen, and computer science studies. He also taught English in Japan for 10 years. Though his career path was eclectic and exciting, he says, “I was totally unfocussed.”

There was one constant: “Games have been a huge part of my life. Playing video games, playing board games, cards, you name it.” So Nilssen followed his bliss by studying game design at Vancouver Film School (VFS). In September 2010, he launched Dark Acre, developing video games for mobiles and PC. A small business owner with high energy, Nilssen also writes eBooks.

Small businesses struggle to develop the pitch. What was your process?

In my first year at VFS, there was an entertainment business management course and you had to define yourself in one sentence, to let someone know what you are about and what you are doing. I had that in the back of my mind for a couple of years.

How did you test your pitch? How do you know that it does your company justice?

The pitch wasn’t the thing; it was the mechanics of the contest itself. It was how much I pimped it across my social networks and told people to go there. I directed people to the TELUS page and reminded them to go there everyday because they could!

When did you start using social media and how did you pick which social media tools to use?

Social networks like Twitter and Google+, are absolutely critical for me because I don’t have an advertising budget…and I need to get a grassroots social media following. I’m not a social media snob so if a new network comes along I’ll jump on it and create a profile and start gathering people towards it. I’m using Diaspora, which is a competitor to Facebook except without the sense that your privacy is being invaded and data is being mined by corporations! It’s still very small. There’s also Good Reads for indie authors. It’s like a mini-Amazon without the storefront.

Quite a few businesses struggle with building their customer base and attracting new customers with limited funds and resources. Your advice?

The secret to success is creating the best product you possibly can and if you’ve positioned it on the Internet according to where you audience goes, the word will get out. It can be done.

You have to be very niche and, by nature, end up with a small audience. My approach has been to try to provide different content on different social networks and gather different audiences of people. On Twitter I find it’s mostly game developers or spambots; on Google+ it was actual people. It allowed me to do long-form posts, or a blog post with a video link into it. There are all these formulas and metrics, say, if you Tweet at 4 p.m. on Monday, that’s the sweet spot to get all the time zones.
 
What are your business goals for 2012?

I want to make Dark Acre into a complete gaming studio with a full staff, similar to Tim Shafer’s Double Fine Productions. He’s a successful developer from the classic days and his game studio has a bunch of mini studios. As creative director he helps smaller teams realize their visions. I want to create larger and larger products and eventually get onto Xbox and PlayStation, which are the gold standard. I guess I’m talking through to 2020!

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.

To follow TELUSBusiness on Facebook go to facebook.com/telusbusiness.

TELUS recently challenged entrepreneurs on the TELUS Business Facebook page to share their best to-the-point and convincing elevator pitch for a chance to win one of two business productivity prize packs. With more than 100 submissions, Hailey’s pitch was one of the top finalists.

After 10 years in the corporate trenches Hailey Van Wyk was primed to launch her own business. She wanted the flexibility to set her own hours, look after her two young boys, and to nurture her passion for marketing. Two years ago she launched Concept Marketing Consulting in Edmonton. Her clientele are small business owners, from music teachers to IT businesses. She parachutes in and helps devise strategies that will increase revenues, generate new clients, and improve customer service.

How do you know your pitch does justice to your business, especially to people hearing about it for the first time?

One of the things about being self-employed is that you you can’t go to the next cubicle and ask your coworker about an idea. I try to maintain relationships with business people I respect and they vetted the elevator pitch for me. If I do any proposals or work for clients I generally have two or three people I consult, “Hey I need a second opinion!”

When did you start using social media?

From a business perspective I’ve been struggling with it. I don’t want to start a business FB page until I have a strategy. You see a lot of small businesses that jump on the social media bandwagon and they don’t have a strategy to support that long term. I don’t want to be that person. I’m working on a social media and cross marketing strategy. I’m making sure it’s comprehensive and succinct and has longevity associated with it. I hope to launch in first quarter 2012.

Which social media do you prefer?

Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn have to be intertwined. There are a plethora of small business associations already established and I need to leverage those groups in order to find the right client that fits my niche market. Online networking is the initial stage. I want to be the person who goes in and says, “I can help you increase your sales. I can help you improve your customer service and it won’t cost you a huge amount of money.’

Many businesses struggle to build their customer base and attract new customers with limited resources. Your advice?

Get back to grassroots marketing. We can’t expect that our online ad is going to reach the target market. We need to get our feet on the street; we need to hand deliver or do a targeted direct-mail campaign. We need to do a better job of better honing in on who our customers are, what their specific needs are and how we’re going to be able to help them in their business.

In 2011, what technologies did you rely on to grow your business?

I work on the go with my BlackBerry and laptop and of course a wireless connection wherever I am. People will think you are rude when you’re on your Smartphone but I am really just trying to get work done. I’m so glad I was born in this century because I don’t think I could operate any other way.

What do you regard as your greatest success as a business in 2011?

With any small business owner, it’s about maintaining momentum. When I look back at the last year the biggest success is that we’re still in operation, maintaining focus and we keep moving forward. It’s not one thing – it’s seeing the foundation come together.

Let’s imagine you’re considering starting a new business. If you could talk to yourself before embarking on this new business given your experience, what two things would you tell yourself?

Have a plan. If you start without a plan it’s a waste of time and money and it’s mentally it’s exhausting. Get advice from people who have experience in other areas of business. I have a passion for marketing but I’m no accountant or IT expert. Second, have courage, because, at the end of the day things aren’t going to go the way you thought. Set realistic expectations for your business so you don’t feel unmotivated.

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.

To follow TELUSBusiness on Facebook go to facebook.com/telusbusiness.