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Last Thursday night, Yaletown Roundhouse hosted An Evening with the Dragons’ Den and I once again had the pleasure to be part of an audience that no doubt left the theatre feeling inspired to do what they are passionate about: running a successful business.

Photo: Jim Treliving, surrounded by fans of Dragons' Den

The evening, similar to last year’s, began with a conversation between executive producer Tracie Tighe and main Dragon Jim Treliving, who, due to exposure on Dragons’ Den, is now well known to the public as an ex-RCMP that is today the owner of Boston Pizza International Inc.  Although sometimes, he is known to a younger generation as “Mr. Pizza Guy.”  This was in reference to a story that Jim told when asked by Tracie why he continues to return to Dragons’ Den.  On his flight from Toronto to Vancouver, Jim recalls a 10 year old boy on the plane who greeted him with “Hi Mr. Pizza Guy.”  He later found out that this boy watches every episode of Dragons’ Den with his family.  As long as he is inspiring people, Jim says, he will return to the show season after season.

Dragons’ Den is all about inspiration.  Many people have ideas.  Some people have the financing to make something out of those ideas.  But what I believe is sometimes lacking is the inspiration and belief that they can build on their ideas and become a success.  This is why I tremendously enjoyed the evening because as I looked at the faces around me listening to two successful entrepreneurs describe their Dragons’ Den experience, I can feel the sparks ignite within the crowd.

Photo: Panel discussion with Tracie Tighe (L), Jim Treliving (C), and Brad Friesen (R)

The evening’s two special guests were Brad Friesen and Margot Woodworth.  Brad Friesen is the owner of Last Call, a hangover remedy served in a unique, patented bottle and with a delivery system like you’ve never seen before. The ingredients are stored in a twist cap that only gets released with a twisting action.  I admire Brad’s innovative idea.  For the lack of a better word, it was cool and environmentally friendly.  The whole idea is to ship the bottles that contain only the ingredients in the cap.  Bottles without water mean less fossil-fuel required to deliver them.  Plus, the cap can be recycled once used.  In his segment, Brad offered these tips for a successful pitch on Dragons’ Den:

• Know your numbers.  Know all aspects of your business because the Dragons will only invest in people who know what they are doing.
• Practice your pitch before appearing on the show.  You will likely be steered off your pitch but you still need to deliver.
• Be prepared for absolutely everything.  With a 5-person panel, you never know where the discussion will take you. 

Next up was a business owner with a unique party favour. Margot Woodworth is the owner of Evergreen Memories, a business that offers tree seedlings as wedding favors, gifts for corporate events and many different occasions.  These little trees are packaged in bags that act as a greenhouse, allowing them to survive for two weeks without being planted.  Here are some of Margot’s tips to survive a face-to-face meeting with the Dragons:

• Know your numbers. Just like Brad, Margot hired an accountant to make sure that she has her numbers right. 
• Be prepared and practice your pitch. It’s a good idea to come up with an opening line to capture the Dragons’ attention.  For Margot, hers was “Money does grow on trees.”
• Show your passion and be proud of it. 

What I took away from the event was that you really need more than just an idea to be successful. You need a prototype. You need to do your research. You need to make sure that what you have is what people want.  And you also need a business plan and map out how you want to make your business successful.  Most important, you need to have courage to do what you are passionate about.  Starting a business of any kind is daunting but as Margot says it best, “Sometimes you just have to do it.”

Brian Chan has been with TELUS for more than five years and specializes in small and medium business.

It’s LindaOJ here again today, happy to be writing another TELUS Talks Business Blog post, and I have a few questions for you today about communication.

1. Did you know how you communicate can ultimately save you time and money?
2. Did you know people judge you by the way you communicate?

Communication is an integral part of our lives, from the minute we wake up until we go to bed we are communicating with family members, friends, business colleagues and customers. Some of these people may have relationships with us that span many years so have gotten used to the way we communicate, or don’t communicate. When it comes to customers it’s another matter.

As a small business owner myself I network at a lot of different events and this is where I learn a lot about communication.

One example is the networker who has just met me, introduces themselves to me, takes about 10 minutes sharing everything they do, what they sell and all the reasons why I should buy their product or service. I tend to go very quiet when this happens, listen and observe their body language. Some things I am looking for are:

• Comfortable and at ease when chatting with others, confidence when they speak about their business, knowledge about their products and services, but more importantly, a desire to find out more about me, their prospective customer.
• Are they using my name when they converse with me, or are they offering me the typical sale spiel which fits every size, budget, location etc.
• A chance to join the conversation, share some information about myself, often as not this is not possible as the person finishes their ‘elevator speech’ offers me a business card and moves on to the next person.

Communication is vital when networking, but the above examples are a great way to determine if you, the possible customer wants to take the next step and find out more about the products/service being offered you, or if you walk away. Ultimately when people communicate in a way that demonstrates it is all about them and the sale they want to make, their communication skills are not up to scratch and they lose more than they gain.

Emails are another great example of our how communication may lead to misunderstandings or no replies. It is very easy to fire off an email and fail to add the call to action. We might think that the reader knows what we want, but are they mind readers? If you don’t ask for a reply by return more often than not you will not receive a reply at all.

"We're at the point now where the challenge isn't how to communicate effectively with e-mail, it's ensuring that you spend your time on the  e-mail that matters most." - Bill Gates.

More of a concern for me with communication today is Twitter. I think 140 characters is a great idea and if you keep it simple you can communicate very well with fewer words. But, the problem arises for the people who do not understand Twitter and constantly want to sell, they take the short cut and communicate via direct message. So many businesses lose out because they cut to the chase with no run up communication and I find this rude. Twitter is a great way to build a relationship and take it from there.

I think I am a good communicator, but even I get it wrong. A few years ago I had left a message with the Mayor of Toronto and was I surprised when he phoned me back, or so I thought. This is how a telephone call ended up in a state of utter confusion and caused a lot of laughter from my family. The phone rang; I picked it up and stated who I was. The person speaking had an accent (as do I) and I asked who he was. My brain heard “It’s the Mayor”. I promptly went on to explain why I had contacted him, and I talk fast when I am excited. I told him how happy I was he had phoned me back and then I paused for breath. The guy sounded confused and kept on saying “It’s the Mayor” or so I thought. Eventually it came to light what he was saying was “It’s Damere” who was actually a friend of one of my sons. I think if my brainset had not been in the mode of “The Mayor” I might have thought twice before making an assumption, especially as I knew in the back of my mind that the Mayor of Toronto had a Canadian accent, which the person at the end of the phone obviously did not have.  I believe my thought process was so caught up on the challenge I wanted to share with the Mayor my listening skills disappeared and my communication suffered.

From Wikipedia:

Communication is the activity of conveying information. Communication has been derived from the Latin word "communis", meaning to share. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast distances in time and space. Communication requires that the communicating parties share an area of communicative commonality. The communication process is complete once the receiver has understood the message of the sender. Feedback is critical to effective communication between parties.

From the above meaning of the word Communication you will see the last line states “Feedback is critical to effective communication between parties”, if this does not happen challenges can arise.

Have you ever noticed how in a heated debate someone’s attitude might change, they could become aggressive or even feel threatened, this can alter the image someone has of a person. If you are in the business world you could be seen to be unfriendly, or untrustworthy, judged by your actions that follow communication.

Whether you are communicating by the written word or spoken word you should take time to think out the message you want to convey. It has been said that if you smile when you are speaking to someone via the phone they can tell you are in a happy frame of mind.

Texting is a popular way to communicate; some texts are sent with typos in them and spell something different than the intended message. Most of the time this is funny, but there have been occasions when this could cause problems.

Richard Branson, a man I admire very much is very much into communicating with people he works with. His monthly newsletter to employees offers details for Virgins future plans, plus how to contact Richard if they feel they need to. I believe this kind of communication stems from trust, and the trust offered from Richard to his employees encourages loyalty which is a wonderful asset in any organization.

I am a good communicator, but have had to tailor how much I communicate depending on the individual person I am dealing with at the moment in time. Not everyone needs, or wants, all the information. I still have challenges when I am dealing with lack of communication, but tend to deal with each person differently. Where my business is concerned I do have my list of how I want employees to communicate with me and what kind of time frame. Knowing my expectations leads to less confusion and challenges long term. When I feel communication is not forthcoming and it should be I have to step back and review the situation, rather than act on my emotions. Again the situation is determined on the person I am communicating with, and it took me a long time to learn this.

"We never listen when we are eager to speak."
- François de La Rochefoucauld

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

The second TELUS Challenge event of 2012 was held at TELUS House Toronto yesterday. Welcoming the audience of business clients, Piero Fusco, Director of SMB Wireless Sales in Ontario highlighted the TELUS customer-first approach that includes TELUS' sponsorship of the Globe & Mail Challenge. The year-long series focuses on supporting smaller businesses and helping them address common  business challenges.  It includes a $100,000 business grant that will be awarded to one business this year.

The event theme was “Moving your business full-speed ahead”,  and the first guest speaker provided a perfect example of how this can be achieved. André Charoo of TELUS client Uber explained how his company uses high speed mobile technology to provide its “limo on demand”  service.

Uber partners with limo companies and fills the gaps in their drivers’ day. Whenever they’re not busy, drivers power up an Uber app on a smartphone, alerting the system that they’re available. Customers who’ve downloaded the free Uber app simply tap on it when they need a pick-up. The nearest driver is automatically dispatched and the customer can watch the car approaching on their app. After the ride, Uber bills the passenger’s credit card, including tip and HST. No cash is exchanged, so there’s nothing to detract from the private driver experience.

Uber was launched in San Francisco, quickly expanding to New York, Chicago, Seattle and Washington DC. Their first international city was Paris, and Toronto will follow in March.

Photo: André Charoo & Lucas Samuels, Uber

“Our challenge coming here was to find a carrier that  could provide us with the reliability, transparency and long-term vision  to support us,” said André.  “We move quickly, so we  needed a company that could support us. I’m very happy we chose TELUS.  We’ve already deployed 30 phones in just a few weeks.”

Manager of B2B Sales for Samsung Electronics Canada, Olin Ramprashad followed, demonstrating how Android is built for business.  According to Ramprashad, Android is the fastest-growing mobile OS and, since 2010, has been number one in the US. In 2011, the number of Android apps more than tripled, and many of them are ideal for business.

Before and after the presentations, the audience had the opportunity to get hands-on with the new Samsung Galaxy Note, the Galaxy Nexus and a few different-size Samsung tablets. Some of the devices are designed to operate with TELUS’s blazing fast new 4G LTE network, which was launched nationally just last week.

Photo (L to R): Samsung Nexus, Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 LTE, Samsung Galaxy Note

More photos are available on the TELUS Business Facebook page.

My name is Evan Carmichael and I believe that the fastest and most effective way to build a business is to model the strategies of people who have already done what you’re trying to do. I call it Modeling the Masters. My last post with almost 60 comments was 3 Success Tips from Robert Kiyosaki (Rich Dad Poor Dad).

Today we're going to look at how a high school dropout who was constantly in trouble with the law turned his life around and started to believe him himself. He would go on to become two-time former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion and multimillionaire entrepreneur. This is the story of boxing great George Foreman and the top 3 lessons that you can learn from his success.

Must Watch Video

"Learn to sell and you'll never starve."- George Foreman

George "Big George" Foreman (born January 10, 1949) is an Olympic gold medalist, two-time former World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, and entrepreneur. A high school dropout, as a teenager, Foreman didn't know how to read or write. He took to the streets and got into trouble by picking pockets and mugging people. His sister told him "You'll never be anything."

After finding himself on the run from the police one night and digging himself in a pile of mud to avoid their dogs finding him, Foreman decided he had to change his life. He enrolled in a job skills training program for youth and began learning how to read and write. He later also learned how to box and entered into amateur competitions so he could send $50 home to his mother every month. After a year and a half of learning to box he entered into the Olympic Games and won the gold medal. He went on to win the World Heavyweight Boxing Championship twice.

After twice retiring from professional boxing, Foreman became an entrepreneur and toured the world selling George Foreman Grills. In 2002 alone, the company earned $922 million from selling the grills. Foreman would go on to earn 3 times more money from the grills than throughout his entire career as a boxer.  He has also moved on to selling TV shows, clothing, books, and Indy Car racing teams.

Action Item #1: Learn How to Sell

If you want to be a successful entrepreneur you need to develop the ability to sell. Selling is not just convincing customers to buy your products or services. Selling is getting employees, media, investors, suppliers, and everyone else who is involved in your business to believe in what you're doing. It starts with a strong passion for what you're creating. If you love what you're doing and think you can really help people, it's easy to get excited about it and draw others in. If you don't really believe in what you're doing, why should others believe in you?

After Foreman came back to boxing and, at 44 years of age became the oldest person ever to become champion, he started getting calls to endorse companies and become their spokesman. When they saw that he could sell anything from food appliances to cleaning products the companies lined up to get him to represent them. From Doritos to Kentucky Fried Chicken to McDonald's, Foreman went to work selling their products - and people listened.

According to Foreman: "In time I learned the importance of selling... I love selling... If you learn to sell, it's worth more than a degree. It's worth more than the heavyweight championship of the world. It's even more important than having a million dollars in the bank. Learn to sell and you'll never starve."

Action Item #2: Get People to Like You

People like buying from people they like. The more you can get your customers to like you as a person, the more likely it is that they're going to buy from you. People also prefer buying from people rather than corporations. Make sure you show clients the history and the people behind your company. Talk about how and why you started the business and the impact that you're having. The more personal you can make it the more people are going to like you and the more they'll want to buy from you.

During his early boxing career, people hated George Foreman inside and outside of the ring. He stormed into the ring with rage and didn't have much finesse to his game. He was in it for the money at the start and he didn't care what other people thought of him. He even showed up to one fight against Muhammad Ali with an angry German  Shepherd by his side to try to intimidate his opponent. But in order for him to be an effective salesperson he had to change his persona and get people to like him.

According to Foreman: "I'd get mad at the critics, other boxers. I wanted to destroy everybody with my fists. I figure I am going to make a lot of money. I didn't care about nothing else but making a lot of money. I didn't care if people liked me... I cut off all my hair and my mustache. I didn't want to be identified with the old guy... I learned to make people love me to get my message across... When I had a chance to box again, I saw boxing not as a sport the second time around, but as pure business which meant making meetings and trying to make myself attractive to Madison Avenue ."

Action Item #3: Keep Trying Until it Works

It's rare that entrepreneurs make it big off their first idea. And even if they do, the idea has changed many times from what they thought they were going to create. Failing is a part of business. The key is to get started. Too many people don't start because they're afraid of failing. You will know failure - keep going. Fail smarter the next time and eventually success will be yours.

Foreman isn't afraid of failing in business. He's done everything from specialty shoes made for diabetics to a health-food restaurant chain to a reality television series. He's willing to try almost anything if he thinks it might be a good opportunity and it's something he believes in. As long as the business is something he can feel proud of and won't damage his integrity, Foreman is willing to stretch his brand to almost anything. You never know until you try!

According to Foreman: "You've got to start out early in the morning and look at hundreds, literally hundreds of things. And it may take a year, it may take three or four years, but you're going to hit something so you have something to put on the table for your family... You know you put out a lot of buckshot, you're going to strike one."

True Story

With a criminal record and a reputation for being a troublemaker, few gave Foreman a chance. When he joined the U.S. Job Corps looking for a way to get off the streets, he caused so many problems that he was almost expelled from the program. His supervisor advised him to find a different outlet for his anger and suggested he take up boxing. When Foreman first started to box, he was so scared that he just closed his eyes and swung his massive fists to win the fights. It was only until he started going up against better boxers that he had to learn to fight with his eyes open.

More Quotes

"The greatest asset, even in this country, is not oil and gas. It's integrity. Everyone is searching for it, asking, ‘Who can I do business with that I can trust?'"

"You must preserve the quality of your name, your integrity. You don't want to lie about anything. And it's something that people will be happy about once they get to know you. Because people count on you."

"Make a decision you'll be able to sleep with, wake up the next day, look in the mirror and feel good about yourself."

What Do You Think?

How do you sell your products or services? How many times have you tried starting different businesses? What part of George Foreman's message impacted you the most? As always, I’d love to hear your thoughts if you leave a comment below!

Evan Carmichael

To learn more check out my list of George Foreman articles or my website, EvanCarmichael.com.

If you're in the market for a new smartphone that goes above and beyond what you're exiting one can do, get your hands on the Samsung Galaxy Note ($199.99 on a 3-year plan), a 5.3-inch Android-powered device that folds in tablet-like functionality.

Yes, that's right, it's a hybrid product that acts like a smartphone on one hand -- you can make calls and send text messages, and it can still slip it into your pocket or purse – but its larger real estate means it's also ideal for consuming media, be it reading e-books, watching video and playing games.

For businesses, the Samsung Galaxy Note is also great for working on documents, web browsing and reading long email messages without having to continuously scroll down the page.

If you can get past its supersized body – it might look a little odd held up to your ear – you'll no doubt agree this two-in-one device borrows the best from both worlds.

In other words, don't knock it 'til you try it.

Before we get to other features, including an integrated stylus pen and support for Telus' fast LTE (Long Term Evolution) network in select cities, a few other words about the Galaxy Note's screen – which is, after all, the first thing you'll notice when you boot it up. The 5.3-inch screen (measured diagonally) isn't just big, it's beautiful. Called an "HD super AMOLED display," the detail on video, games, websites and other Android apps is simply stunning. This 1,280 x 800-resolution display also has excellent contrast (resulting in dark blacks), high brightness and wide 180-degree viewing angle -- in case you want to share the device with someone while watching a video or playing a game. The Samsung Galaxy Note is 9.65mm thin and weighs about 178 grams.

The large screen might also mean it's easier to type on the virtual keyboard than smaller phones, like the 3.5-inch iPhone. You can use the soft QWERTY keyboard to type vertically or horizontally or opt to use the Swype option, where you simply drag your finger from letter to letter and lift up to make space between words (those who use Swype swear by it). There's also a speech-to-text option but this Android feature doesn't work as quickly or accurately as Apple's Siri, found on the iPhone 4S.

If you prefer to use a stylus pen instead of your fingertip, there's one bundled in the back of the Galaxy Note. Called an "S-Pen," this small stylus lets you sketch or draw on the screen. A small button on the side of the pen can perform extra functions, too, such as snapping a screenshot of what you're looking at. For example, take a snapshot of a map, write something on the screen (such as "meet me here") and then email ot text the image to someone. The S-Pen also offers 256 levels of pressure sensitivity, so the screen knows how thin or thick you want the line to be.

You can expect powerful speeds, too, from the peppy processor (1.5GHz dual-core) and the fast LTE speeds for broadband-like downloads and uploads, media streaming and web browsing. In cities without LTE support (yet, that is), the Galaxy Note will revert back to HSPA+ speeds across Canada, which covers the majority of the country.

Finally, the Samsung Galaxy Note includes 16GB of integrated memory, but you can expand it up to 32GB via removable microSD cards. The back of the device sports an 8-megapixel camera with LED flash (capable of shooting HD video, too) while a 2-megapixel camera is at the front, ideal for video calling (though not tested for this review).

The battery was good as it lasted all day when using Wi-Fi for the most part, but it didn't fare as well when using 4G in Toronto as the device's "Low Battery" warning popped up at dinnertime.

Overall, however, the Samsung Galaxy Note is an extraordinary smartphone/tablet ("phablet"?), ideal for both consumers and businesses. It might sound like it's simply too big to use as a phone, but before you pass judgment visit your local carrier's store or other electronics retailer to try it out for yourself.