Blog Posts From Talking Business Tagged With lindaoj

My First Few Weeks with the BlackBerry® Z10

2013-03-12T12:30:13Z

I am a creature of habit, and I tend to learn as I do, not learn by the book. So, how excited was I when I started using my brand new shiny BlackBerry® Z10? I was way excited! At first I just looked at it, the actual phone is gorgeous, so sleek and well designed and at first I was afraid to use it, silly I know but that’s me.

Luckily for me I was invited to the TELUS Learning Centre where we enjoyed an interactive learn-as-you-go session with lots of useful help and TELUS people on hand to guide me when I was not sure what to do. But, as I said earlier I feel more comfortable using my new smartphone and working out how to use it slowly.

Here I am at the TELUS Learning Centre in Toronto

Finding My Way Around

The really great thing for me is the swipe action, which is (or so I thought) so easy to use even I could not get it wrong. But I did, I just could not get the hang of the simplicity and made it more difficult than it really was. Swiping from the bottom up is so simple but I would swipe half way up the screen when really I should have been starting where it says BlackBerry at the bottom of the screen. I found swiping from left to right easy enough when I wanted to go to the Hub where all my messages are kept.

Apps

I don’t use many apps, apart from various social media tools, such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. My life was made easier by the fact that the apps worked very much the same as the ones on my iPhone.

I find the camera is useful when I’m at an event and I’m taking pictures of speakers on the stage, or when I happened to be in an airplane just the other day! Now I’m getting used to the camera features, such as nighttime and action modes, and time-shift, the picture quality is much better than when I first started.

Having heard a lot about BBM (BlackBerry Messenger) from my daughter and her friends I was quite excited to get it at last! I like sending short messages really quickly to my BBM contacts and know that they have got the message. At this time, I haven’t had the experience of using BBM Video as the phone is still quite new and not many people I know have it yet.

The Keyboard

The keyboard feels really nice to type on and I love the autocorrect feature which saves me a lot of time. Quite a funny thing, which happens on my iPhone and the new BlackBerry: speech recognition really doesn’t understand my English accent… but it appears to understand Dave’s.

Likes & Dislikes

Here are some of the best things I like on my new BlackBerry:

Having multiple apps running on the screen at the same time. If I can see everything in front of me without having to flick around, it makes my life easier.
The keyboard is easy to use and accurate
I love the different modes on the camera such as time-shift, action and nighttime--these have really improved my picture taking.
The screen is very sharp, colours are vibrant and the text is easy to read.

If I’m honest, there are a few things that I didn’t really like:

I can only have one Twitter account. This isn’t helpful for situations where I need to manage multiple accounts, such as my personal account and the Small Business Community Network (SBCN).
I got really confused when I had all my contacts from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and my e-mail in one place. It can be changed, but I found this difficult and didn’t know where to turn it off.
I’m not keen that the BlackBerry always makes a clicking noise when taking photos, and I don’t know how to turn that off. Sometimes I want to take a photo and not distract those around me (say when I am in an audience).

I’m having fun showing off my new BlackBerry Z10 and lots of people are interested in all the new features. If you have a new Z10, why not leave your comments here and share with everyone. Thanks!

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

Looking Into The Crystal Ball

2012-11-13T13:27:17Z

Can you see into the future? I know I can’t, but as SMB’s we do have to plan for our future and set goals, so in a way we really are trying to take a peek at our business future.

In this blog post I want to remind you that you can benefit by reading blogs and articles—especially if they are written by people who have achieved the success you are working towards.

One reason I love to check out TELUS Talks Business blog posts and other information is to read about new technology that I should know about and also make informed decisions on whether I should purchase a new smart phone or tablet, as a couple of examples.

If we take a look at a typical new small business owner who has very little budget to play around with the challenge here is choosing what to spend that very small budget on. Yes it is nice to have all the new toys out there such as smart phones, tablets and suchlike but not every SMB needs one, especially in the early stages of growing their business. In some cases a regular cell phone will do nicely along with a laptop or desktop computer, as they are definitely a lot less expensive as they used to be.

Another dilemma is not knowing enough about all the new IT related stuff out there and wondering if it is time for you to jump ahead and use—for instance, the Cloud. Firstly, do you know what the Cloud is and why people are raving about it and is it expensive? Is it something your organization needs versus wants; a few questions to ask yourself. This is where reading blogs can help you and especially the TELUS Talks Business blogs, because the experts invited to share their blogs on this site really do help us all navigate the pros and cons of being a small business owner. If you do want to find out more about the Cloud check out my last TELUS Talks Business blog post here: http://community.telustalksbusiness.com/community/talking_business/blog/2012/10/30/the-cloud--is-it-for-me

You don't need a crystal ball to see into your business future.

I often wonder if we could see into the future if it would help us or hinder us. For instance, let’s say there was a brilliant new smart phone coming on the market in a year’s time but we were considering one now because we wanted the freedom of being on the road. Would we wait a year for the new one to be released? Or, would we purchase a smart phone now and in a year’s time discard it for the new one? In the latter case your budget as a small business owner may well be impacted in a negative way and it could appear you are wasting money.

You can plan your future business goals, set deadlines, decide on a budget, marketing plan, sales initiatives, but the future is always uncertain due to many things, including global issues which are out of your control. Here are a few tips that may help you see into your future:

Find mentors: they can advise you and offer their expertise which can save you time and money
Check out blogs and articles on a regular basis to keep up with new trends and new technology and other business related news
Attend networking events, listen to seminars, connect with other SMB’s and keep in touch with what they are doing in their small business

Ultimately it is about choices. If you find you make a choice but your goal does not work out the way you had expected it, it’s a learning experience and it is good for your future growth. Change is good and successful business owners all make mistakes and accept that change is inevitable.

Let me leave you with a quote and also invite you to contact me if you do want any tips or advice on growing your small business. I am in the business of helping and that’s why I love being a guest blogger here on TELUS Talks Business.

“As long as anyone believes that his ideal and purpose is outside him, that it is above the clouds, in the past or in the future, he will go outside himself and seek fulfillment where it cannot be found. He will look for solutions and answers at every point except where they can be found--in himself.”

-- Erich Fromm

Linda Ockwell-Jenner is 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

The Cloud - Is It For Me?

2012-10-30T13:14:26Z

I’m happy to be writing my blog this week, and enjoying the new TELUS Talks Business website—a great look and feel, well done to the team!

As a small business owner the time has come to look at making changes and I know resistance is futile. A cloud has appeared over my head reminding me that everyone-who-is-someone is using the cloud today, why not me?

I decided to turn to my husband and business partner Dave Ockwell-Jenner for advice and realised his answers might well be useful for other people who also have some questions regarding the cloud, and I know his answers will be simple as I am not an IT person in any sense of the word!

Why do I need the cloud?

You don’t necessarily need to use the cloud. It’s an option, not a necessity. There are certainly some very good use cases where leveraging the cloud makes sense, but as with most technology, the decision should be approached from a business perspective.

Will I save money?

Let me first give you the consultant’s answer: it depends. In truth, there are several perspectives to the answer. If your business already has an IT infrastructure investment, you might find it cheaper in the long run to host solutions internally. Cloud services are typically priced slightly higher than hosting an equivalent service yourself, so if you have the capability, it’s worth looking at.

Where cloud services can save you money is on the operations and support aspect. You’re essentially paying not only for the infrastructure, but the ongoing maintenance and support of it—something you’d have to fund yourself if you choose not to use the cloud. Since cloud providers can split this cost over a great many customer (or cloud tenants) they’re able to enjoy some economies of scale to reduce this cost. Consider also that maintenance and support is the core of the cloud providers business, so they are likely to be doing an exceptional job!

Where is the cloud?

This is one of those philosophical questions! Some would say the cloud is everywhere; that it’s “the Internet”; that it’s nowhere specific—but the reality is quite simple. A cloud provider maintains IT infrastructure (Data Centres) at one or more locations. Your data and applications ‘in the cloud’ reside physically on servers in these data centres. What differentiates the cloud from traditional hosting is the ability for these services and data to move between servers and even facilities as necessary.

What are the advantages and disadvantages of using the cloud?

The cloud brings several great advantages, chief among them are agility, simplicity and security. Agility because cloud providers can be self-service, enabling you the customer to provision and deprovision services as you need, in near-real-time. You want more capacity to handle more customers to your web site, for example? Login to your cloud service, click a few buttons and add more capacity in an instant! This is very different than the traditional model of: order new equipment, install equipment, setup and activate.

The simplicity angle is one of the strongest benefits, especially for small business. If you’re not in the business of managing IT infrastructure, it can make sense to leverage a cloud provider to handle this aspect for you. Just like we essentially outsource financial tracking duties to bookkeepers and accountants, we can do likewise for our IT services.

As you might expect, I’m quite keen on the security angle. Securing IT infrastructure can be a difficult proposition. It takes time and resources to set-up and constant improvement to maintain effectiveness. Cloud providers live and die by their ability to keep customer data secure so they have made significant investments to make sure they are well able to operate a secure infrastructure.

On the disadvantage side, I’d say by far the biggest two are reduced flexibility and business continuity concerns.

When you operate your own IT infrastructure, it can be made to do anything you want. Use whatever hardware, software in whatever combination you need. Cloud providers typically provide much more limited options, often times allowing customers to select from a handful of pre-determined options. For example: small, medium or large servers, or software package A, B or C.

The second disadvantage comes in the form of concerns around what happens should the cloud service ‘disappear’. Consider that we move our email, web hosting and telephony into a cloud solution. If the company running that cloud ceases business, do we lose all our data? How do we transition to a new service? Despite their best efforts, cloud services do go down. Just recently, an outage with Amazon’s cloud (arguably one of the best and most mature) brought a number of major web sites down. If you’re a company doing business on-line, you’re now at the mercy of the cloud provider to get you back in business.

How do I keep the bad guys out of my cloud?

As I said previously, most cloud providers take security very seriously. In fact, security is the number one concern of businesses looking to host in the cloud. As a result, cloud providers typically have excellent security architecture and monitoring capability. Many go further, providing guidance to customers on how to best use their service securely—Amazon for example has some excellent documentation on security that everyone can read.

The number one thing you can do to keep bad guys (and gals!) out of your cloud solution is to clearly understand which part of ‘security’ the cloud provider is responsible, and what you’re responsible for. The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) has some excellent resources to help understand what each side’s responsibilities should be.

When I am making changes that are related to the IT side of my business I realise how lucky I am to have Dave on board to advise me. But for those of you who do not have a Dave, my suggestion is to ask other SMB’s, friends and check out sites such as TELUS Talks Business before you even talk to your IT person. This is because you will get a fair overview and some trusted advice from people who are using the new technology but not in the business of selling something to you. Once you have a clear idea what you want, how much budget you have, then turn to the IT person to move forward.

I can’t finish this blog post without telling you, “I Can See Clearly Now”, because my thoughts are not “Obscured by Clouds”, and there are no “Clouds In My Coffee”. For those of you who have no idea what I am rambling on about, Jimmy Cliff, Pink Floyd and Carly Simon all wrote songs, or had albums about clouds, even before clouds were discovered to be useful for our business.

Let’s leave with a quote from Vivek Kundra, former Chief Information Officer for the United States Government under the Obama administration:

“Just like water from the tap in your kitchen, cloud computing services can be turned on or off quickly as needed. Like at the water company, there is a team of dedicated professionals making sure the service provided is safe, secure and available on a 24/7 basis. When the tap isn’t on, not only are you saving water, but you aren’t paying for resources you don’t currently need.”

Security: Not Just for Ninjas

2012-10-27T16:47:30Z

If you’re here expecting some wise words from Linda OJ, then I’m afraid you’re going to be sorely disappointed! I’m taking over for Linda today so you’ll have chance to hear from the ‘other’ OJ—me, Dave. Why I am here and not the better looking OJ? Two reasons, one is that Linda is having surgery on her hand; and two because I happen to work in computer security and that’s the theme for today.

Admit it, you have a notion of what computer security is all about, right? It’s super technical people sitting down in front on rows of computer screens, most probably with a map of the world and a bunch of gibberish that looks very technical. You know, just like you see on CSI.

In fact, it’s so super-cool that only qualified security ninjas can understand all this high-tech nonsense. It’s a perception reinforced by what we see in the media, like the CSI example; like Hollywood movies with hackers seemingly punching keys at the speed of sound to ‘hack’ some supposedly impenetrable system. There is certainly an aspect of security that does require these über-talented, highly skilled individuals—but even then, they’re probably sitting in a cube or coffee shop with a laptop, just like you and I.

This image is probably why many of us think security is something that their ‘IT guy’ (or gal) handles. It’s something their company does. It’s something technical people do. It’s almost never something the average person on the street needs to worry about. In fact the most that many of us understand about computer security is they need something called ‘Anti-Virus’.

As the title might have given away, I’m not a believer in this perception. Security is an ‘everyone’ problem and requires that everyone be involved in the solution. In fact, you certainly don’t need to be a security ninja to help protect your information from the hordes of would-be evil hacker types. What you do need is a little knowledge and apply a few common sense strategies.

First of all, we need to build a habit of thinking about information. I’ll admit it’s not the most glamorous thing we can likely dream up, but if we don’t understand what we have, we’ll have no way of protecting it. The old business adage, “You can’t manage what you can’t measure” has some relevance here. Try to list all the types of information in your key business processes, and then attempt to rank that list in order of criticality. What information could you live without for one hour, one day, one week? That will give you a view of what’s most critical to keeping your business in business. That’s when you can begin to start thinking about options to protect that information.

There are a couple of simple principles that you can consider when trying to figure out how to protect information. None of these are solutions in-and-of themselves, but pointers to guide your thinking in finding appropriate steps to take.

Limit who has access to information such that only those who really need access to perform their job, have it. You don’t give the janitor the keys to your car to have a quick ride round town, likewise you wouldn’t give the janitor access to your accounting data.
Understand that technology will not save you. It can help reduce the risk or chance of something ‘bad’ happening, but it cannot protect you 100%. That means that even though you have Anti-Virus, Firewalls, Intrusion Detection Systems, Web Filters and all manner of awesome technology that vendors sold you, you can still be hacked.
Know that all that technology is still needed! It’s not perfect, but it raises the bar and makes it less likely you’ll be dealing with a major security incident. But don’t make the mistake of buying more and more. Buy a little and use it really well.
Realize that you are outnumbered, outgunned and doomed to fail. OK, not so uplifting, but the reality is that the odds are stacked against you. It’s likely you will have a security event, probably a fairly major one. This means you should devote time to getting really good at recovering, learning and improving when it happens.
“Prevention is nice, but detection is a must”. It’s a quote from a well-known security expert by the name of Dr. Eric Cole. He’s spot on. It’s nice to prevent bad guys and gals, but it’s absolutely paramount we can detect them. See (4).
Security is a people problem. Even with all the best intention, human beings make mistakes and compromise security all the time. Continually educate your staff about common issues like good password use, safe ways to exchange files, spam and spear-phishing attacks (targeted scam emails that encourage insecure behavior).

Nail the basics and the complicated stuff gets much less complicated. Of course it’s impractical to assume that everyone is in a position to secure everything. That’s why we have companies that supply security expertise (such as TELUS, for instance) to help us move beyond the basics.

Trust me, as someone who sees a lot of security mistakes every day, relying on a few simple basics can make a world of difference. Stay safe!

Dave Ockwell-Jenner runs the Waterloo Region based Prime Information Security, a security consulting practice focused on helping small business protect against cyber threats.

Why Plan an Event?

2012-10-27T21:18:41Z

How can business owners get access to some of the latest up-to-date information? I battled with this for a while; it seemed that there were pieces of the puzzle here, there and everywhere, but not all together in one place. As a result, we decided to bring together everything a small business needs to give them these insights into a single event we called the @MarketPlace Conference.

This year marked the second year of the @MarketPlace Conference – being offered in South Western Ontario’s Waterloo Region. We decided to use the same location as last year, THEMUSEUM, and by doing this we are supporting that organization and as it is based in the downtown core we are also supporting the need to help the downtown thrive and grow by attracting more people there.

Piero Fusco, TELUS

A couple of years ago I realised that many organizations, but SMB’s in particular, don’t have the time or budget any more to attend all the different event offered. This thought process led me to the market place concept and how people like to shop for everything in one place. This not only saves time and money but if experts are on hand to answer questions and connect that is definitely a bonus most people are looking for, with any shopping experience.

The @MarketPlace conference is a full day conference with a very diverse offering which includes speakers, a panel of experts, vendor village and lots of networking, and of course the nourishment needed to get through the day: breakfast and lunch.

Ashraf Kamel, LinkedIn

Now all is clear, you can see how the shopping experience has been carried through from the Supermarket idea where you can purchase almost everything today and enjoy a meal at the same time.

I believe the @MarketPlace Conference is popular because we focus on a different theme every year, and this year it was, Explore the Future, Now, and our line up of speakers topics included

Social media
Mobile applications
Being connected to your community
Startups and growing your business
The environment and sustainability
Relationship management & customer loyalty
Buying locally

As the Social Sweetheart, one of the things I am not only good at but love to do is network, which means I come into contact with a broad range of people. My job of looking out for suitable speakers was made easier because I know so many people and this year’s conference had speakers from TELUS, LinkedIn, RIM, Desire2Learn, to name a few.

Women In Business Panel with Linda Ockwell-Jenner

I make the whole process seem easy and for me it is. Along with my business partner Dave we work well as a team, but without the sponsorship of our supporters such as TELUS, LinkedIn, The Waterloo Region Record, and Libro Financial (just to name a few) this event would not be possible.

The question I would be asking now is, how can I do something like this where I live? How can you help SMB’s, give back to your local community and plan an event like the @MarketPlace Conference. A couple of ideas would be to find out from the people you connect with what kind of event they feel would benefit their business. Some SMB’s might prefer an evening event or a half-day event, versus a full day conference.

The next steps would be to find out the costs involved once you know the venue and other expenses such as printing, marketing, etc. Ensuring that the tickets are affordable can be made possible by help from sponsors, but make sure that the sponsors also know the benefits of being a part of an event you are organizing. A couple of benefits of being a sponsor could be access to the list of attendees, logo on marketing material is another idea, but ideally you would have built up a relationship with the sponsors first so by getting to know them you know their needs.

After the conference is over it’s not really over in the real sense of the word. Obviously everyone has to be thanked for attending and their help but gaining feedback via email forms is a way to discover what people liked about the event and what they thought could have been better.

The @MarketPlace Conference was a huge success again this year and everyone who attended left gaining something, whether it was a new connection, or a new idea, they enjoyed the day and I achieved what I set out to do. Help a community of small business owners ‘Explore The Future, Now!’

"In the universe, there are things that are known, and things that are unknown, and in between, there are doors."

-- William Blake

Surround Yourself With Motivated People

2012-10-27T21:33:00Z

I remember when I was a high school student in the UK; the friends I chose to be around the most were not a good choice. This ultimately meant I took on some of their traits and lost out a lot a school. Why did I decide to be a sheep? I was very shy; the two friends I thought were the most popular girls in school had been known entities from Grade School, so I took the easy way out. Those two friends were mean to me, and with little self esteem I took it like a trouper. Looking back the most serious mistake I made was cutting classes. As soon as my parents found out, I was soon back on track but feeling quite lonely. By choosing to associate with friends who were not interested in good grades and planning ahead for a career I became less motivated at school and stopped trying so hard to keep up with homework.

Luckily for me I changed my ways before graduating and walked into a fantastic job, and it was then I realised how people climbed the ladder if they were not only popular but motivated, helpful and shared their time mentoring others.

Some advice I offer to new and existing SMB’s would be to connect with motivated people within your own community who are open to sharing not only their connections with you but also tips on how to move on in business.

When networking it is easy to only network with people you know and feel comfortable with, but you already have relationships with those people. The aim of networking is to grow your network and continually build relationships with a broad range of people. Keeping up with your connections is made easier today with the social media options out there so more connections does not mean leaving your existing ones behind.

There are definitely groups of people established that appear to know each other well and fall into a few categories such as:

Social Media
Popular
Successful
New and Unknown
Motivated, Helpful, Successful

The only way to find out what works for you is to get to know the people within those groups, but it is not always easy to find a way in. If you can establish a connection and do find yourself included in a certain group of people it is then up to you to determine your needs. If you walk into a group of popular people who want to start a small business but never seem to get around to it, this will hold you back if your goal is to start a small business. Being popular does not always lead to success if some of the elements such as motivation and sharing are missing.

The people you associate with in business, whether you are networking or doing business can certainly impact you. If you discover a group of individuals who have the same work ethics, motivation and goals as yourself you are far more likely to succeed than not.

It is nice to be part of a popular group of people, but again as I discussed earlier there is more longevity in being not only popular, but helpful and motivated at the same time.

Once you have established what you want and where you fit in here are some suggestions on how to move forward and be noticed. You are showcasing your business at a trade show. Your booth looks great, your products and services are on show and you are ready to go. First, a couple of DON'TS:

Don't stand by the side of your booth all day hoping people come to you.
Don’t encourage your connections who you already know to surround you and give the impression it’s a private party. This will mean people who want to connect with you feel like they are intruding and they will walk past your booth.

And here are some tips on things you SHOULD consider

What works really well is for you to greet people with a smile when they walk past your booth, and not have too much showcased on the table. If attendees are curious about your business but can’t pick up a flyer and quickly walk away, your smile and manner will entice them to stop and chat and get to know more.
Leave your booth at times, walk around the event and stop at other booths, get to know what the other businesses are doing, who they are and build relationships with them.

You attend a networking event and only sit with people you know. This ultimately means the people you want to get to know may not sit down and chat with you because they may feel they are intruding. Always be open to noticing people who are wandering around looking lost and invite them into your space by greeting them and introducing them to your connections.

People who are motivated, helpful, share with others and like to act as mentors are definitely the people who have helped shape my future in a positive way. I found out I was a popular person, I was hiding my motivation, my helpful nature and other good qualities because of my lack of confidence. But I know for sure who you associate with can definitely be the difference between success and failure.

"Associate yourself with people of good quality, for it is better to be alone than in bad company."

- Booker T. Washington

Investing in Your Community

2012-10-27T21:45:46Z

This month’s blog centres on community investment, and as all SMB’s know the word investment normally means in the financial sense. As I know all too well in the early days of building our businesses we have very little budget to invest in ourselves, let alone communities. But there is a huge benefit by being involved in our local community and investing (if not our money) our time and expertise.

A few examples of how SMB’s can invest in their community would be:

Offer free talks at a local community centre on your business expertise to help start-ups and students.
Employ someone local to work a few hours a week at your organization, ensuring that they gain experience and your mentorship. This does not have to be paid employment but perhaps an ‘in kind’ arrangement.
Volunteer at charity events locally and invest your time in helping the charitable organization market their event, and be available at the event to set up, take down and generally help out.
Last but not least, use local suppliers for your office supplies, eat at local restaurants, and purchase your clothes at local stores.

The businesses that do invest their time in their local community do become known, more people are aware of them and by building relationships through community investment those businesses do stand out.

Community: one of my favourite words and I realised way back in 2003 when searching for a name for a new venture I wanted to include the word “community” in the name of a new business I was about to start. That business is the Small Business Community Network and has grown since 2003 and helps many SMB’s grow their own business through networking and events.

The SBCN realises the benefit of investing in our local community and we do this a number of ways:

Our regular monthly meetings are held at the Waterloo Region Small Business Centre, Kitchener City Hall. Right in the heart of downtown Kitchener.
We host our @MarketPlace Conference at THEMUSEUM, also in downtown Kitchener.
SBCN CONNECT—a free event for social media and traditional networkers is hosted at various locations within our core area.

We decided to invest in our community by using downtown locations for our events, thereby being a part of the quest to re-vitalize Kitchener. When we use a location for our events we are helping local SMB’s by being accessible. We help the local businesses we use to host our events by raising awareness about them via our marketing campaigns and website marketing.

When we host events for SMB’s we strive to keep those events affordable, and on occasion free, as much as possible. By helping those SMB’s grow their businesses locally this affords other local businesses to benefit in many ways.

The SBCN uses local printers, videographers, and social media organizations to work with us.
We use local caterers for our events.
We try as much as possible to invite local business owners to present at our monthly meetings to share their expertise.

Investing in our community does help SMB’s grow their businesses, obviously financial support is also a great way to invest in your local community but this is not always possible.

"If you have much, give of your wealth; if you have little, give of your heart"

– Arab Proverb

True Leaders Never Give Up

2012-10-27T14:14:48Z

Continuing with my leadership theme I think that most people are apt to think that great leaders are always successful, and leaders never fail. That is not true, in my opinion, the greatest leaders are the ones that might fail but never give up trying.

How can you learn if you never fail? Our children are the next generation of leaders and as a parent I have always told them to do their best and if they still don’t feel happy with that, try again. Taking a different direction means you learnt from your past experiences.

Abraham Lincoln was the 16^th President of the United States and has been consistently ranked by scholars and the public as one of the three greatest U.S. presidents. A man who never fails you would think, but you would be wrong. Abraham returned from war demoted from a captain to a private. He became a businessman and was not successful. When entering politics his first attempt for the legislature was defeated. He wanted to be nominated for congress but failed at his first try. In 1856 he failed to become vice-president.

Steve Jobs, a much loved and well known icon and founder of Apple, is a perfect example of a great leader who shared with the world how making mistakes, and even failing, can sometimes end up being the best thing that ever happens to you.

Oprah Winfrey, was evidently was fired from her first job as a TV reporter due to the fact she was “unfit for TV”. As we all know Oprah did not give up and is now a one of the most well recognized TV media leaders of our time, going on to not only have her own TV show, but an entire channel!

Small business owners, who know they are in a leadership role, cannot just concentrate on selling their widgets. Their actions, thoughts and the way they conduct their business is why some of these SMB’s are successful and not afraid of change or failure. Leaders lead the way. Leaders lead others in the same direction as themselves because they believe in themselves. But the true leaders will change direction and this again is a true mark of a leader.

When leaders lose the way, or stop believing in themselves, they will fail... but true leaders are not afraid to try again.

“Edison failed 10,000 times before he made the electric light. Do not be discouraged if you fail a few times.”

-- Napoleon Hill

A Tale of Two Leaders

2012-10-27T14:35:46Z

If the world never changed and time stood still where do you think we would be today? If Adam and Eve were indeed the first man and woman to exist would Adam have been a better leader than Eve? We will never know because time did not stand still but past history has shown us that women were not always given the opportunities men were. For centuries women were subservient, some were not entitled to attend school and others were married off to suitable husbands and lived a life of giving birth and not having the choices most women have today.

Emmeline Parkhurst

Looking back over time we see women beginning to rebel and want more. Emmeline Pankhurst is a great example but she was able to make different choices partially because her father and mother were both advocates for change. Her father was very much against slavery and her mother introduced her to the Suffragette movement. Emmeline Pankhurst along with her husband Richard were influential in the fight to allow women to vote. Unfortunately even though Emmeline did an awful lot as one of the leaders of that time to give women more rights, her leadership eventually came into question. Members of Emmelines Womens Social & Political Union objected when it came to light decisions were being made solely by Emmeline and her sister, without the input of the other members. She became so obsessed with being a leader, she forgot that other people around her counted.

Emeline Parkhurst

Great leaders know instinctively that it is not all about them and what they believe is right. No leader can survive without the support and advice from those around them. Communication and trust and a majority vote have a better chance of success than one leader making all the decisions.

I am very passionate about healthcare and this prompted me to find out more about another great leader, who may or may not be as well known as Emmeline but in my opinion did a great job of being a leader by surrounding herself by others as passionate as she was. This created a trusted union of like-minded women who were all working towards the same goal.

Henrietta Muir Edwards

Henrietta was born in Montreal in 1849 and was one of the founders of the Victorian Order of Nurses. I believe Henrietta was a born leader and knew that by collaborating with such people as Lady Aberdeen, who was the other founder of the VON, their joint efforts would be more successful and gain more supporters. Henrietta had also been born into an affluent family and had always had an interest in helping women. She also partnered with her sister Amélia and founded the Working Girls' Association. It is evident to see that Henrietta did respect and respond to her committee members, partners and people who were helping her.

Henrietta Muir Edwards

Her strength, I think, came from the partners she chose to work with, not work for her. Another example would be when she formed an alliance with 5 other women to re-define the position of women in Canadian society. They were called ‘The Famous 5’, which demonstrates no one person can lead alone and recognizing this fact truly dictates who will become a great leader and who will fail.

I realise there are great leaders in both men and women, but in my blog this month I wanted to highlight women who became great leaders, who defied the many obstacles and laws that were thrown at them to realise not just their goals but the goals of women worldwide.

By choosing two women from the same era, born in different countries I wanted to share with you how one was a great leader and supporter for women’s rights but decided to lead alone by making decisions without consulting her team. The other woman went the other route of including her team and gaining even more support from them and others. Trust, respect, communication and collaboration speak of more than one person. True leaders know that they are one piece of the change they are working towards and cannot do it alone!

Modern day leaders are discovering on a daily basis, that without their loyal team they are not as great as they thought, and this does appear to be more of a male challenge than a female one, in my opinion.

"To lead people, walk beside them... As for the best leaders, the people do not notice their existence. The next best, the people honor and praise. The next, the people fear; and the next, the people hate... When the best leader's work is done the people say, 'We did it ourselves!'"

--Lao Tsu

Is it a Bird, Is it a Plane, No it’s a Hamburger!

2012-10-27T14:49:17Z

The title sounds a bit silly I know, but some businesses go a bit overboard these days with their marketing initiatives and there are a few that get it wrong, and we are left wondering what on earth they are trying to sell to us. You would think putting together a clever strategy to sell a hamburger is an easy process, but in order to stand out from the rest of the competition some organizations are losing the plot!

I have a great example of a television commercial, which I will not name, but the gist of it is you see a lot of different people chatting on a cell phone in the kitchen; in the shower; when eating dinner… you get the idea. I fully expect this to be a call to purchase a cell phone. However it is a completely different product, which has nothing to do with phones but is somewhat connected to the gaming industry.

How would you feel if you had a successful chain of fast food restaurants in Canada and you decided to go global and knew it was critical to stay competitive in the global market, but no one recognized your brand? Let’s use McDonalds as a great example, as I am sure everyone recognizes their brand. They practise consistency and it works. They use the same brand name, logo, slogan and almost the same menu globally. When I say almost the same menu they do take into account different countries cultural preferences where food is concerned. But their marketing strategy is based on sharing a consistent campaign globally thereby building an already recognized brand effectively and affordably.

McDonalds continue to be successful in their quest to stay competitive in the global marketplace because they realised the need for recognition locally when using advertisements. This is why they use well-known celebrities such as soccer players (as one example) in their marketing campaigns. But they use different people for each country and one example would be a British football player for the UK and a different soccer player for a different country, such as Brazil or France.

Franchising is another reason McDonalds is successful globally: approximately 70-80% of McDonalds restaurants are franchises. This helps cut costs because basically the marketing, brand awareness and products and services are all the same thereby reducing complexity.

McDonalds continues to stay competitive in the global marketplace because of their:

Product
Price
Place
Promotion

When you are looking at branching out globally take a look at some of the more well known brands and research how they stay competitive. But in order to cut your costs and work involved, the basic foundations of your brand should be consistent and recognizable from day 1, because any confusion in the early stages of reaching out to your target market and you could lose out.

If at first glance we don’t know what you are trying to sell us, and we think to ourselves is it a plane? Is it a bird? Oh no, I THINK it’s a hamburger… then you have got it wrong.

"The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be only sustainable competitive advantage."

-- Arie de Geus

Reaching Out For Global Success

2012-10-27T15:04:03Z

How many successful businesses gallop to the so-called finishing line labelled SUCCESS and then forget how they got there? My blog post today will be looking at how to competitively position your company in the global market place, and luckily for me I have some great examples to share with you that are relevant to SMB’s for many reasons.

If your goal is to enter the global marketplace, look at how other businesses have achieved that goal, but don’t forget to take into account the rise and fall of some of those businesses and why they failed to stay competitive once they achieved their goal.

I believe that the downfall of many businesses today is simple, they forget the tiny little things they did, that were once deemed crucial to the success of the organization and like a bull in a china shop they enter the global market.

Let’s take a look at one of my personal favourites, Apple, a well known brand who are a global phenomenon. A brief history of Apple: In 1976 Steve Jobs & Steve Wozniak joined forces and Apple came to be the World’s largest technology company in terms of market capitalization. In fact they took that title away from their rival Microsoft in 2010.

Going back in time: Steve Jobs left Apple in 1985. Basically it was down to a power struggle with CEO John Sculley, and by this time the company was thriving so I think no one realised how the departure of Steve Jobs would impact Apple. The years that followed were tough for Apple, and by the late nineties they were close to being a distant memory. But in 1998 Steve Jobs returned to Apple and because he knew the target market, he knew what people wanted, he was able to achieve his goal of turning around the company and making Apple a global leader

So, how did Apple enter the global market place and continue to have a presence:

Knew their target market/niche
Made people aware via outstanding marketing who Apple was and what they were about
Knew what made Apple unique
Created alliances
Communication within the company and with their alliances, clients and customers

After those tough years Apple recognized changes had to be made in order to stay competitive in the global marketplace..

Product lines were cut after it was proven that Apple had multiple similar versions of essentially the same product, even though this was to satisfy requests from retailers, it was not working out.
Steve Jobs looked at this dilemma through the eyes of the customer, not the company and asked himself which products he would suggest his friends should buy.
Ultimately 70% of the Apple products were cut, which also impacted the workforce. This was a crucial move in the quest to maintain market competitiveness.

The companies that do not recognize, once they have reached the global market that changes still need to be made and also forget how they got started locally, are the ones more likely to succumb to failure.

It was the tiny little things that had made Apple successful in America that Steve Jobs knew had to continue into the global market, consistency is the key word here. The design, the look-and-feel, the exceptional brand that Apple had built were consistent worldwide.

It is easy to think you have ‘made it’ once you are competitive in the global arena, but it is also easy to fail by not recognizing the key steps that made you successful in the first place.

"Innovation has nothing to do with how many R&D dollars you have. It’s about the people you have, how you’re led, and how much you get it. Never underestimate the value of people, especially the power of teams. If you want to come up with excellent work, choose excellent peers."

-- Steve Jobs

Simplifying Social Media

2012-10-27T15:25:27Z

How many of you reading this article are saying to yourselves, “Not social media again?” I do understand but read on and you might be pleasantly surprised.

I believe that we should take the word ‘media’, which can mean many different things, but if we look at the word in simple terms it means ‘a form of communication’. Surely this communication involves the written and spoken word. This purely means there are a number of ways to reach out and share your information. Yes you can use all the social media platforms, such as Twitter, Facebook and even LinkedIn to share your communication. You can make a video and share your spoken words on YouTube, your own website and many other places.

Some of the ways to share written information could be:

Typing a tweet limited to 140 characters
Writing articles or blogs which can be emailed, printed and handed out to your contacts, shared on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn, plus your own website—just to name a few examples.

If you are one of the many people using video to share your information you can give out videos to your contacts in person or use any of the above examples.

My point here is the term social media is in reality two words. This term is not unlike like networking, blogging, creating newspapers, taking photos, writing articles, etc. and people are forgetting that simple is always best. They’re getting confused and overwhelmed! People have been enjoying being social for hundreds of years, and through the social interactions they have discussed both business and personal aspects of their lives. Whether the social interactions were enjoyed at a ball, a mothers meeting, a chamber meeting, via the printed newspapers, or even over a telephone, it all leads back to the same word – social.

Media is exactly the same in the sense that for many years people have been using the word media and using television, newspapers, and radio as a form of communication to reach out to people. Ultimately whether you use the word social, media or join them together and call it social media, with the added advantage of the new technology today, you are doing the same as people have for centuries: reaching out and communicating with others in order to influence them in some way.

Social media is not new if you think about it, it is just another way to reach out and be noticed. So why people get flustered, overwhelmed, stressed or even dislike social media is beyond me. Thinking simple and looking at the traditional forms of communication and influence will enable people who want to use social media effectively to think differently and be more successful in the process.

Words, that’s all they are. Two words partnered to influence people: social media.

Social Media: Are You Packaged to Perfection?

2012-10-27T19:21:49Z

This month... I'll be talking to you in my video below. Watch to find out why!

Summary

Your on-line and off-line brand should be consistent, so that people can recognize YOU and what makes you unique.
Branding isn't just about your logo, the way you look, or your marketing material. It's a combination of those that contributes to people's view of who you are, and what you're about. THAT is your brand.
Be authentic. Your on-line persona must match the experience that people will have who meet you in person.
It's not HOW MANY connections you have, it's the QUALITY of those connections and the ongoing interaction you have with them.
Social Media is about giving, not taking!

Texting Your Message to Save Time

2012-10-27T21:27:40Z

Continuing with my theme differentiating yourself from the competition I thought I would share with you how the Small Business Community Network (SBCN—an organization I co-founded) decided it was time to check out new technology. We needed something that would not only display we were moving with the times, but could also save us time.

Even the smallest of businesses receives hundreds of emails, a lot of them spam, but some of them are legitimate and need to be read. I know I am guilty on occasion of reading the subject line and deciding the email does not need my prompt attention, or when I do read the whole email I sometimes skip through it and not read the message properly.

We decided to offer our SBCN members and non-members the opportunity to receive reminder text messages, which would be displayed on their mobile phones (the text messages are a quick reminder that an upcoming meeting was happening). In the first few months of using this service we have found that it works for some of our members, but not all. Obviously not everyone embraces new technology at the same pace, but we find as time goes on the numbers increase, as members understand more clearly how the text messaging service works. More importantly it costs our members nothing to receive these text messages, as long as they have an existing text messaging plan.

Here is the information we posted on the SBCN website so that people could be aware of what we were offering and why, and we feel this is the important part because by making people aware they are more likely to embrace change.

We know that your day can be busy! With so many appointments, we want to help ensure you don't miss meeting that great connection at one of our networking events.

In addition to our e-mail based reminder that let's you know about upcoming meetings, we're introducing our new FREE* SBCN TXT service. This will allow you to subscribe to receive automated reminders via text message straight to your mobile device.

How It Works

To subscribe to automated reminders on your mobile phone, simply text one of the following messages to 54500:

Text the words SBCN Waterloo to receive reminders for the Waterloo Region Chapter

Text the words SBCN YN to receive reminders for the Young Networkers of Waterloo Region Chapter

You'll receive a confirmation text message back to confirm your subscription. If you wish to unsubscribe at any time, instructions are included in your welcome message.

The SBCN does have an automated reminder via email that alerts the contacts who subscribed to the list when our events are, and this works well. But for those who prefer not to receive those emails the automated text messaging service is a good substitute. Both of the options we chose to use save us time and in turn save us money. The SBCN is also seen as an organization that moves with the times and looking to the future generation of leaders, they are more likely to want text messages versus emails.

Another nice aspect to the text service is a time saver for me when networking! We have an auto responder setup that replies with my contact details (akin to a business card) when someone texts my name to our special ‘short-code’ number. They then have my number, e-mail address and web-site details directly on their mobile phone. This is a great way to save money and is quick to do, and also works well if you find yourself out and about with no business cards.

We are lucky that one of our members introduced us to the text messaging service; otherwise I am not sure we would have known to look into it. My advice would be to check out what other organizations are doing to save them time and money and you will probably find there are a lot of applications and such like out there that can be put into place.

I am not a tech savvy person but I pick a lot up from my business partner and husband Dave. If you are not lucky enough to have someone on hand like I have, just ask your connections who do know about these kinds of offerings. I find it exciting to see new and useful technology being used by small businesses in particular and it is definitely something that is growing all the time.

“Once a new technology rolls over you, if you're not part of the steamroller, you're part of the road.” - Stewart Brand

Making The Most of Your Slow Times

2012-10-27T22:50:05Z

One of the concerns a lot of smaller business owners have is when they know the slow times are coming up but they have no idea what do to do solve that dilemma. Whether you are an IT business, or a hospitality business you will encounter a slow down in sales and planning ahead definitely benefits not only you but your customers.

There are some great ways to increase your productivity today via all the technological innovations offered so I would certainly invest some of your time, when you are experiencing some quiet time, to take a look at what might help your situation.

Below I am using a local business as an example, which has taken to using Social Media (Twitter and Facebook in particular) to boost their sales. They are also preventing their customers looking at them as a not-so-popular place to be when they do experience quiet evenings.

Caesar Martinis, a local bar/restaurant located in Waterloo Region, have slow times like most businesses and I love the fact they are using Social Media as a way to attract customers to their location by tweeting lunchtime specials. I see the posts and if I am thinking of eating out that day I will know where to go because I have already been tempted by the special offered that day. Not only does that help my time management, it obviously helps Caesars. I notice a lot of people re-tweet the specials.

This particular business has also recognized the fact that certain evenings, especially earlier in the week are slower than leading up to the weekends. This is when Caesars have happily offered their location, free of charge, for special events. They have offered complimentary hour d’oeuvres, specials on certain drinks, which helps to ensure a typically slow evening turns into a busy and profitable evening instead.

Being ahead of the game whether in a technological sense or otherwise is the way to go or you might get left behind.

Here are a few tips I can offer you to help you plan ahead:

Know your slow times, make a note of them and keep a log of how consistent they are.
Use the information you have gathered to brainstorm ideas for your slow times, ahead of time.
Be consistent with your offerings, whether you are renting out your equipment on the days you do not need it, or whether you are offering special prices at certain times in the year. This ensures your clients will know when these times are too and be able to plan ahead also.

Where my consulting business is concerned I learned early on to plan ahead and now how much work I might need to outsource in my busy times and how to offer different products and services in my quiet times.

“Productivity is never an accident. It is always the result of a commitment to excellence, intelligent planning, and focused effort.” – Paul J. Meyer