Take The Time to Build a Great Team

Many entrepreneurs get their start following in the footsteps of their parents. For Toronto entrepreneur Catherine Graham, the apple could not have fallen further from the tree. “I was raised in a very corporate family so I didn’t have any [entrepreneurial] role models, and it was not something that was taught in school at the time,” said Graham in interview. After obtaining her MBA, Graham joined eBay Canada as employee number four, and worked in management consulting before joining the startup space as Managing Director of promotional products company RIGHTSLEEVE, and Co-Founder and President of commonsku. Commonsku is a customer...

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What to look out for when hiring employees

During many conversation with small business owners, We frequently hear the complaint: “We really need new employees, but we cannot find anyone good enough. The good ones are all with the large multi-nationals!” One can appreciate the frustration, but in my opinion, the statement is wrong. You will agree that especially those entering the workforce are frequently lured by the prestige of working for a large corporation. After all, many large companies have a well groomed image, supported by glossy brochures, brand awareness and well oiled PR departments. But the reality of daily life in these companies is often something entirely...

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4 Mega Marketing Mistakes with Colossal Consequences

We get it… everyone who is a business owner was once a newbie. We all started out with that grand idea of how we were going to change the world with our product or service. Our idea was revolutionary! It was in demand! And we were going to deliver it better than anyone else! We had already picked out that dream home, new car and lifestyle in our minds eye. Sound familiar? Well then you know what happens next. REALITY! Yes, as days turned into weeks and weeks into month’s you’ve realized running a business is tough, really tough. Everything costs money. Time is precious and you try to stretch your hard-earned green as far as possible....

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3 Ways Blogging Will Positively Impact Your Organization’s Website

From connecting with more customers and donors to putting your industry expertise on display for the world, the advantages of having an active blog are numerous for any organization. Perhaps the most important benefit of a blog is the positive impact it will have on your organization’s website. By analyzing data from our own blog (the one you’re reading right now), we’ve pinpointed three significant ways a blog will make your website more valuable. Three Important Advantages of Blogging for Your Business or Nonprofit A blog will bring more people to your website. A lot more people. And you definitely want more people on your...

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Test Your Way to Success: 11 Tips for Your Email Subject Lines

When you open your inbox,you definitely find many emails from various companies having thousands of email subject lines. While we had developed best practices, we always knew we would have to test our way to success. So, when an email marketing ninja says “it depends”…in many ways, they are telling you the truth. Your market and customer base have unique needs no matter what you read or are told. Bottom line: we have to be great with email open rates as we compete for mindshare in the inbox.The Image below shows a bit of what should the subject lines look like.: Here are some of the things we’ll cover. These are my eleven...

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Time Traveller's Tips for Internet Marketing

It's 2012. You've got a website, you've put some tracking code in to see how you're doing. All good so far. But wait. Your traffic isn't growing and you're certain that with the visitors you have, more should be converting into customers. So what do you do? How do you take what you've got and really make it successful? I mean more visitors, more customers, more turnover. More success! Do you redesign it? Do you get some search engine optimisation done? Do you start blogging and tweeting? And if you do any or all of these things then how do you know if it's really working? It's difficult to know what to do, because depending upon who...

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Social Networking for Business Growth

Don’t forget about old networking methods As you enter into the realm of the social media, you can’t forget about the old ways. Tweeting, posting and sharing are all great ways to get your brand to a lot of people. However, meeting people in person, networking, making phone calls – those methods all still work. Today I went to a luncheon for business women and they were quite a hoot. As I generally spend my days hunched over my computer tapping away at the keys, getting out and seeing other humanoids was enriching, if nothing else! Just like giving a polar bear at the zoo a giant ice ball with a fish in the center of it, meeting some...

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Give Your Employees the Latest Tech Tools, or Else!!

Does your small business have the right stuff to attract qualified employees? Technology stuff, that is. Almost three-fourths (72 percent) of workers in a recent Workplace Options survey say that the better the technology tools a company provides to its employees, the more attractive it is as a place to work.  That number soared to 92 percent among workers aged 18 to 29. How important is technology? Half of all workers and 75 percent of those aged 18 to 29 say they assess the level of technology a workplace offers when they’re looking for a new job. A good computer doesn’t cut it, either—employees consider that a given...

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