Dwania Peele, Author at Canadian Small Business Women

Jun 18 2019

How should you set up your business? Part 2: What is “the Partnership”

In Part 1 of this series, I briefly discussed the three ways that a business can be structured (sole proprietorship, partnership or corporation). I then took a closer look at the sole proprietorship in greater detail and set out some of its strengths and weaknesses.

In this second part of this series, I am going to further explore “the partnership”. I will discuss what constitutes a partnership, as well as set out some of the pros and cons of a partnership that you may want to consider when deciding whether a partnership is the right structure for your business.

A partnership is constituted when two or more individuals carry on business together with a view to profit. There are three types of partnerships currently recognized in Ontario, those being:

General Partnerships (GP);
Limited Partnerships (LP); and
Limited Liability Partnerships (LLP).

What is the difference between these three types of partnerships?

In a general partnership, each partner’s liability for the obligations of the partnership is unlimited, whereas in a limited partnership that liability may be limited to the amount that the partner has contributed to the business. A limited liability partnership is a cross between a general partnership and a limited partnership; each partner is only liable for their own negligence.

What are the “pros” of a partnership?

Initial start-up costs are low.
Fairly simple way to set up your business with few legal formalities.
You can share in the responsibility of running the partnership business while maintaining limited liability in limited partnerships and limited liability partnerships.
The business’ capital losses can be used to offset the business’ capital gains (please contact your accountant for further information).

What are the “cons” of a partnership?

Your business is not its own legal entity. Thus, the business and personal assets of a partner may be seized to satisfy a liability of the partnership. For example, if you own real property i.e. a house, and your business has incurred debt, your house can be seized to fulfill that business debt obligation.
There is a risk of conflict amongst the partners regarding the management of the business itself.

Should you decide that a partnership is the right structure for your business, what are some other things you might want to consider?

What terms should you include is your Partnership Agreement?
How should you structure the partnership itself?

Stay tuned for the third and final part of this series where I will explore “the corporation” in further detail.

Disclaimer: A solicitor-client relationship is not established by viewing this article and will not be established until confirmed by the solicitor and client in writing. This article is not legal advice but legal information only, and cannot be relied upon for its completeness. If you have specific questions contact a lawyer in your jurisdiction.

Jennifer Wilowski is a lawyer licenced to practice law in the province of Ontario. She is a Partner and co-founder at Anton & Wilowski LLP, a general practice boutique law firm in Mississauga, Ontario. Her main areas of practice include Corporate Law, Real Estate Law, Wills & Estates Law, Civil Litigation and Cannabis Law.

Connect with Jennifer:

Website: https://www.antonwilowski.ca/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-wilowski-183817181/

Jun 13 2019

The Queen Bee Syndrome – Not Sweet Like Honey …

Over the past few years, there’s been a lot of attention paid to the topic of bad behaviour in the modern workplace. Often, it’s taken the form of sexual harassment of women by men … but according to a recent study, it’s often garden-variety harassment of women by other women. In fact, according to this recent article, two-thirds of women have been bullied by another woman at work. Some of this may be related to the “Queen Bee Syndrome” which is well known among teenage girls, or the movie Mean Girls. Maybe this is a downside of gender equity, women are at least as guilty of bad workplace behaviour as their male counterparts are.

Unfortunately, I’ve seen evidence of female bullies in businesses, government, and non-profit organizations. It is agonizing to live through as the victim – or hear about after the fact. Whatever the context, workplace bullying exists when someone with more privilege and power harasses someone with less privilege and power.

Bad behaviour spreads

This type of bad behaviour is terrible in its own right. What’s even worse is that by accepting this type of incivility and workplace bullying/harassment in an organization it encourages it to spread.

I understand that there are many factors that encourage people to keep quiet or look away in the presence of bullying or harassment. For example, this protects the reputations of the victims who do not want to be labelled as trouble-makers. In other situations, it’s easier for a business owner, leader, or HR person to let the victim give up and leave the organization than it is to reign in the bully/harasser. In other cases, the silence and indifference are mostly about the complicity of the witness(es) who could and should have been better allies. Their silence in the face of harassment and the abuse of power isn’t something to be proud of.

The updated Ontario anti-harassment legislation does offer some guidance and relief to the people who are brave and motivated enough to try to make the workplace safer and fairer

All that glitters is not gold …

Ironically, I have seen situations where a female bully has talked the talk but didn’t walk the walk. For example, a female bully may say things or take positions that make them seem like supporters of gender equality or feminism. For instance, they said the ‘right’ things during the Jian Ghomeshi trial, they attend annual International Women’s Day events, or confess that they have experienced problems associated with the #MeToo movement. It’s extremely disappointing to see those women who outwardly speak of being allies who are fighting to end violence against women perpetrating emotional violence against another woman. It’s also more complicated to hold these women to account because of the mismatch between their words and their actions.

So, in the interest of gender equality, it’s time formen and women to consider doing more to create safe, respectful and inclusive organizations and organizational cultures. Men aren’t the only ones who should be expected to be good organizational citizens. Women should hold other women to that same standard instead of turning away and pretending not to see what’s happening or declining to respond even when they are advised in writing.

Need help dealing with a delicate or high-stakes career or HR issue? I invite you to contact me privately. I offer a free 15 to 20-minute initial consultation by phone. Or, if you prefer, you can contact me by email, or via direct message on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn. If something urgent comes up, I’m also available by a voice or video on Magnifi, an expertise-on-demand app.

More than career coaching, it’s career psychology®.

I/O Advisory Services – Building Resilient Careers and Organizations.

Jun 11 2019

10 Marketing tactics that aren’t worth the money…

A great marketing strategy is one of the most important investments you will make for your business. You won’t have customers or a growing loyal community unless people know who you are. Without customers, you won’t have a business at all. We have all heard the saying “you have to spend money to make money,” and this is true when it comes to your marketing strategy. But what should you spend your marketing budget on?

For tactics that are directly tied to sales, it is easier to figure out what your return on investment is, but there are tactics that bring you other benefits that aren’t tied directly to sales such as thought leadership, some forms of content marketing, social media community building, and others that lead to brand awareness and act as tools to help you achieve higher revenues when you use them correctly.

Marketing tactics to avoid

Regardless of what your marketing budget is, you want to make sure you spend your marketing dollars on the right tactics that will move your business in the right direction. There are so many things you could invest in, but here are ten marketing tactics that aren’t worth your money.

A flashy, expensive website: A fancy website might seem like a good idea, but you should never sacrifice function for design. The most important thing on your website is that people can navigate through it properly and that you are providing enough valuable content and a way for them to get in touch with you.
High volume content output: Quality is better than quantity. Blogging once per week with high value content is better than publishing a blog per day with boring content.
Buying social media followers: Buying social media followers is never a good strategy. You would be spending money on something that would likely never turn into revenues. It is better to grow your audience organically, connecting with people who are potential customers and are highly engaged with your content.
Social media ads… without a content strategy: As a marketing tactic, social media ads have become a necessity for certain platforms (we see you Facebook). However, there is no point in spending money on social media ads without making sure that when you send people to your page you have some great content on there for them to read. A content strategy will ensure that your social media ad spend will get you the results you want.
Being on every social media platform: People think they need to be on as many platforms as possible so they can be found, but it doesn’t make sense to be on five social media platforms if you aren’t going to be active on all of them. It’s better to have a smaller digital footprint and be on one social media platform and do it really well than it is to be on many without success. Stick to whatever you can handle otherwise you won’t enjoy it and you just won’t do it.
Having multiple accounts on one social media platform: For large corporations with multiple product lines and a marketing team, having multiple accounts on each social media platform could make sense. If you’re a small business, those multiple accounts cost you time and money. Chances are you won’t be able to maintain multiple accounts while providing any value for your audience. Consolidate into one account and create a solid content strategy that will help you get your message across.
Print ads: Depending on your industry and target audience, print can be great. However, if you have a limited budget, print ads are the last thing you should be spending money on. They are expensive and it is harder for you to track their effectiveness. If you have a large marketing budget and you can allot a portion to print ads, then it is great – but make sure you have a way to track it.
Untargeted paid digital ads: Ads are easy to get wrong without a strategy. If you are paying to reach people, take the time to target the right Otherwise you will waste your time and money. And if you don’t know who your target audience is, it’s time to step away from the paid ads and create your buyer personas to build a target audience that makes sense.
Untargeted Direct Mailouts: It can be hard to make a case for direct mail these days in a digital world. While it might make sense in some industries depending on your target audience (maybe they’re just not that into social media!), most people just recycle those carefully designed materials when they show up in their mailbox or at the door. If you do choose to do a direct mail out, make sure you are targeting properly geographically and tactically. Only do it if it makes sense for your audience.
Generic press releases: Press releases are a great way to keep track of official stakeholder announcements for corporate communications or general announcements. However, if you are looking to put together a media relations strategy, you should rely more on individualized pitches that are more story based so you can tailor your pitch to each media contact. Sending out a blanket press release won’t get you the coverage you are looking for.

Marketing doesn’t have to be expensive, but you should invest in a strategy that will allow you to grow your business successfully.

Candace Huntly is Founding Partner at SongBird Marketing Communications, an award-winning agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making the approach unique to you.

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Sign up for our free 20-minute consultation and we’ll help you figure things out.

A version of this article was originally posted to the SongBird Marketing Communications blog.

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Jun 06 2019

8 Reasons why YOU should use video to promote your business

On any given day, the average person spends 40 minutes on YouTube watching videos. If that number doesn’t faze you then what about; on a daily average over 500 million hours of video is watched on YouTube.

With so many possibilities to share video across social media, there is a good chance your videos will end up being viewed as part of the 6 hours a day people watch videos on either Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and video streaming programs.

Here are eight reasons why you should be using video to promote your business.

Video reaches millions of people within a short period of time. The cost to produce a video is very cost effective, in fact one video will probably pay for itself with just one customer. Another consideration is that video tracks reach or impressions, so you can measure the effectiveness of your video. When you consider the cost of a print ad; it is a one-time cost that doesn’t have the same share ability or the ability to determine reach. So from a cost perspective video is cheaper, and will give you a better ROI. But. most importantly customers love videos
The use of sound and images elicit feelings and gives the viewer a better understanding, by allowing them to experience several emotions including laughter, sadness, and joy. Video can be educational, funny and sometimes even emotional. Watching a video requires less work than reading, but, most importantly videos retain people’s attention.
Visitors spend 88% more time on a website that features a video. And from those statistics, 85% are more likely to make a purchase. A targeted audience; one that visits your website will remember what they saw and heard.
Videos are cost effective. Whether you do them yourself or hire a production company, they are affordable when you consider their longevity, and reach. One video can be shared an infinite amount of times on the internet and may even experience virility.
Audio visual helps a business win the trust of your audience because they know it takes time and effort to produce these videos. A video about you or your business helps to build creditability.
Videos are a powerful medium, research shows that people who use the internet frequently watch videos. Think about how many videos you consumed a video today!
Search engines tend to give videos a higher priority than pictures, text and audio files, this gives you a higher ranking to get your company noticed. When you consider that Google is the number one search engine followed by YouTube, you would be hard pressed to not have at least a couple of videos come up on the first page of a search. So consider that your customers are searching for you, having a video helps consumers make better decisions.
Finally, videos last for years and will get more exposure because of the fact that they can be shared on all social media platforms. The longer they stay online, the more exposure over time.

Now that you have the eight reasons why you should use video to promote your business, what is holding you back?

RaDeana Montgomery is A MULTI-DIVERSE COMMUNICATOR with a specialty in: TELEVISION PRODUCTION, SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT, PUBLIC RELATIONS and WRITING

Montgomery, is the Creative Director of RAM Media Video and Social Media Management. She is a creative, highly organized business professional, who has acquired over 20 years’ experience in Journalism, Broadcast and Video Production, Public Relations as well as 10 years’ experience in Social Media Management.

You can find her on social on Facebook @rammediavideo.ca Instagram @ram_media_video Youtube www.youtube.com/ RAMMediaProductions1

Website www.rammediavideo.ca

Jun 04 2019

3 Ways Clarity Improves Your Cash Flow

Photo credit: www.pexel.com

Are you generating the cash flow you want in your business? If you are not generating the revenue you want, consider these words from Steve Maraboli, “A lack of clarity could put the brakes on any journey to success.” Is your clarity helping or hindering your business? Imagine sitting in a room with the best coaches and consultants to focus on your business’ social media, team, operations and customer experience. When they ask you what they need to do more or less of to generate cash flow, are you clear on what you would want to do next? Clarity contributes more to cash flow than any strategy, process or operation ever can. Why? Without clarity we become unclear on what we want to achieve, who to target and what strategies, processes or operations to use to help us achieve our goal. Did a lightbulb just go off for you? I hope so. Here are three ways that clarity can increase your cash flow.

⦁ Clarity Lies in Being Specific

Photo credit: www.pexel.com

Have you been wondering why customer acquisition is so hard? Why your social media and your copious amounts of business books, magazines and articles and networking sessions have not yielded much success? Truth is you are probably unclear of three things:
⦁ Who you are as a person and business – what makes you different, unique and attractive?
⦁ Who you serve – who are your ideal clients and why?
⦁ What results your clients experience – what results or solutions do your clients walk away with or experience?
When we become specific on who you are as a company, who you serve and the results your clients experience, you will be better equipped to communicate, connect and close. When we close, we make money. In a market place where products and service can be ‘vanilla’ or lack differentiation, let your company, product, service and solutions stand out by being clear about how you are unique, who needs your services or products and the results you consistently deliver to your clients.

⦁ Clarity Enhances Focus

Photo credit: www.pexel.com

As a business owner your schedule can become your master. Everything is important. Everything requires your immediate or scheduled attention. But if you step back, take a look at all your activities – in a day, in a week, in a month, how many of them can you easily draw a line to our bottom line? How many of your daily, weekly and monthly activities are revenue-generating activities? 50%? 25%? 10%? Perhaps none? When you are focused on your business’ values and purpose, it helps you categorize, schedule and complete tasks that advance your business’ purpose. If your business is not generating revenue and you are not concerned about generating money, perhaps you should rethink if you are really running a business or an expensive hobby. Being honest about what your business needs to grow is half the battle. Staying focused and committed to doing the required revenue-generating activities to creating and sustaining cash flow.

⦁ Investment and ROI

Photo Credit: www.pexel.com

What does clarity have to do with investment and ROI? Let’s take a look. We have covered being clear and specific in who you are, who you serve and the results your clients get. Then we talked about your clarity of focus to ensure that you are doing revenue generating activities that keeps your businesses fed. Investment and Return on Investment (ROI) is your clarity on the value of your solutions to your client’s problems so their investment (price) to acquire your products and services generates a ROI.

How many times have you heard people question the price of a product or service? How many times have you wondered are you charging enough? Or perhaps if you are charging too much? When you have clarity on your client’s challenges and the results your solutions realize, they are clearer on how an investment in your business realizes an ROI. When they are clear on that, you are able to move from a conversation on price, to a conversation on value. Your clarity on the benefits to your client results in more cash flow for you.

We are told, taught and convinced that cash is king. Without being specific, focused and a clear on the investment and ROI for your clients, it can be very difficult to generate cash and maintain cash flow. Clarity on all three can help you identify, create and maintain cash flow. How can greater clarity create an immediate positive impact on your cash flow? What non-revenue-generating activities will you start removing from your schedule to give way for activities that directly impact your cash flow?

Aldeen Simmonds-Thorpe
Chief HR Transformation Officer and Coach at Aldeen Simmonds-Thorpe Consulting

Aldeen Simmonds-Thorpe is a HR Transformation Strategist, Speaker and Coach helping professionals and businesses to navigate and solve complex business and people problems enabling them to adapt, compete and thrive. She is a trusted Advisor and Coach to entrepreneurs and business owners helping them build sustainable businesses through community.
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aldeen-simmonds-thorpe/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/aldeen_sim
Website: https://www.aldeenst.com/

Jun 01 2019

Stressed and Overworked? Try the 3 Ps!

Entrepreneurs working all hours and burning themselves out is so understood to be the norm that it’s become a cliché. But if you mind the three Ps, you can avoid overwork and help your business thrive.

People

Starting a business is risky and expensive, so a lot of entrepreneurs do all of their work themselves, feeling like they can’t afford staff. But the problem with this thinking is that you end up in a terrible cycle of overwork, and you never have enough time to think or plan to build your business thoughtfully and purposefully.

I had seen this pattern develop with colleagues, so one of the first things I did when I began my own business was hire an assistant. Everyone around me said I was silly to be spending so much money. But after 22 years I can happily say I’ve always had assistants and people supporting my endeavours, and I credit that fact with my longevity and success.

Hiring people is a tricky balance and one that takes some fine tuning. Sometimes we hire people because they can do a job adequately and don’t command a very high salary, but this type of hire has always ended up costing me more—I have to hire more and more people to fill the gaps created by a lacklustre employee. Underperforming staff can also strain relationships with other staff members and with clients. The small amount of money saved on a mediocre talent gets spent many times over making up for their shortfalls, and I’ve learned to pay more for excellent people so that all of us can succeed. From assistants to lawyers, accountants, and bookkeepers, your people make your business.

Your community counts as “people” too. While all of us are supported somewhat by our home-base community (family, neighbours, church, etc.), it’s important to reach beyond the people you already know and start forming other communities that will nourish you and your business. Find people who are running their own successful businesses too, to get inspiration and support for the challenging life of an entrepreneur—and, bonus, they’ll probably know clients who need your expertise. The more people you know and support, the more people will know and support you. Don’t just approach the world as a mercenary and see everyone as a potential business target; rather, build genuine relationships with people you admire and your business will flourish naturally.

Process

As our businesses grow, we need different processes from those that worked when we were first starting out. Usually those first processes are the most laborious way of doing things, repetitive and tedious tasks that burn through our resources and time. We need to create value without destroying ourselves in the process. Finding ways of streamlining processes and scaling up is vital to delivering more products and services to more people. Of course, hiring the right people helps, but automation is key. Spend time and resources to organize your files and resources so you can always find what you’re looking for. Automate payments, invoicing, inventory, anything that can be automated! If you produce a lot of written material, like blogs or newsletters, and find yourself strapped for writing time, consider recording audio files while walking, driving, or just while you’re away from your computer, and use a transcription software or service to create the document. Your processes should be practically invisible so you can fly when delivering your products or services.

Purpose

The final P isn’t just about overwork but also should shape your whole approach to entrepreneurship: purpose.
You probably asked yourself at the beginning of entrepreneurship the most important question: What is it that I’m here to do? And it’s also vital to continue to ask yourself that question. Not only will the answer help you grow your business, it will also help you adapt and develop your business if work dries up.

When I first struck out on my own, I said yes to everything, but a) it was terrible for me and b) I wasn’t good at everything, so it wasn’t great for my clients either. I soon realized that the only way to work sustainably was to pick a particular area of endeavour and stick to it. So now, I help groups and individuals reach their potential with excellent, genuine conversations. That’s it: my purpose.

Once you know what you’re here to do and where you add the most value, then even when the market seems to be going a little dry in your area, you have a precise understanding of your skillset and purpose and can find unconventional ways to apply them. For example, I used to facilitate civil society consultations—finding out what Joe Blow Canadian thinks about a given topic. When that work dried up, I started facilitating inside organizations, helping departments have good conversations and come to decisions and get their best results. Then when that work started to dry up and everyone was getting cut back, I began working with individuals to facilitate their transitions and career progression and outplacements if they’d lost their job.

Through all this, knowing my purpose shone a light on the twists and turns the market took and kept my business thriving when it could easily have gone belly up. If you’re clear on your purpose, you can pinpoint training opportunities to help you shift to a different context while exercising the skills that make you great.

If you’re not clear about who you are and what you provide, you’ll try to provide everything to everyone, like I did at first, and nothing will burn you out faster. If I say yes to facilitation then I’ll say no to training, for example. I’m not particularly good at training; I’d rather facilitate conversations where people come to their own insights or a-ha. I present new models as required, new ways of thinking and perspective, but mainly I’m focusing on what folks can find out for themselves.

When a job comes in that requires training, I refer to a colleague. Clients trust me, and so they come to me with jobs that require process improvement or financials or things that have nothing to do my purpose. To meet their needs and keep our relationships intact, I refer out to my robust network full of excellent people, some of whom I’ve been referring to for twenty years. My contacts deliver great results, I get a referral fee, and the client has the best possible experience.

What about you?
Are you constantly overworked? If you never have down time or space to plan and strategize because you’re always working too much, it’s time to ask yourself if you’re in the right business, with the right people, processes, and purpose.

Dominique Dennery has had her own HR consulting business for over twenty years. She is also an award-winning facilitator, coach, and sculptor.

Connect with Dominique

http://dominiquedennery.com/

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May 27 2019

Are You Seeing Clearly?

Any great action in a business involves preparation and focus. There are only so many times you can “wing it” and make magic happen! It’s through preparing and focusing on the tasks and goals that the greatest results and outcomes are achieved.

I can’t understand why there is no thought process in preparing for support and help. In a large corporation, jobs are budgeted for and generally posted with an application process. For some reason, entrepreneurs get busy and just decide on the spot that they need help. But there is no focus or preparation in understanding what help is needed and how that help will benefit the business. So why hire me?

As a virtual assistant, am I telling you that you shouldn’t hire me? Well, yes and no. Let’s face it, and as I said in my opening paragraph – you can only “wing it” so many times before magic happens. If you are overwhelmed and you hire someone, it might be magical and you might get the best value for your money. But then again, the relationship could flop, there are no results or improvement and the money is wasted.

Here’s the deal. If you want great results in your business you have to plan, prepare and be focused. So what do you really need help with? As an entrepreneur, you have the ability to hire experts! You don’t need to hire a 40-hour employee, you can outsource specific tasks to the best person. But what are those tasks? If you are not clear on what your business needs, then you should get your ducks in a row before you start the process.

Here are 5 things to prepare and focus on before you start your hiring process:

What tasks do you dislike doing?
What tasks do you love to do?
Which of these could you easily give away for someone else to do?
What is your budget?
If you give away those tasks, what will you fill your time with?

The first and second items are pretty easy. The third one is tough because as the “doer” of all, it’s not easy to give things away. So think about #5 – if someone else was to handle those tasks, what can you do in place of that time. Maybe it’s an opportunity to increase your finances by selling more, more client time or maybe it’s just the family time that you are craving or the fitness class you want to attend.

We’ll talk more about budget as we go forward, but asking yourself this question brings in a good point for preparing and focusing. If you don’t have the budget to outsource, then maybe you need to continue as is and increase the sales to cover that budget item. Or you outsource and find the additional funds because you have more time for sales.

It’s all about preparation and focus. You can’t hire when you’re sinking … you have to see clearly before you can make the best decisions for your business.

Marianne D’Alessandro is a virtual assistant and owner of TimeFlies-Admin Services. With over 30+ years as an executive assistant, Marianne works in partnership with her clients. She offers consulting for entrepreneurs looking to hire the right virtual assistant as well as productivity and time-saving workshops. Download the 40 Ways to Use a Virtual Assistant.

www.timeflies-adminservices.ca

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May 18 2019

How should you set up your business? Part 1: The Sole Proprietorship

You’ve decided to take the “next step” in your career and start your own business. You likely have lots of ideas flowing, but before those ideas can become a reality you will first need to figure out how you’re going to structure your business “on paper”.

What does this mean, how are you going to do this, and where do you start?

With all the excitement of opening your own business, figuring out the structure of the business is an often overlooked and understated step of the process. Ensuring that you understand your options and the implications of each option is important because it may not only save you time and money down the road, but it will also ensure that your business starts off on the right foot.

This three-part series will explore the ways that you can structure your business, as well as provide some general information on each option.

The three ways you can structure your business are as follows:

Sole proprietorship
Partnership
Corporation

Let’s take a closer look at the sole proprietorship.

A sole proprietorship is the most basic way that you can set up your business. A sole proprietorship is formed when an individual carries on business for their own account, and no other parties are involved. Essentially, a sole proprietor will own and control the business by themselves. This does not mean that a sole proprietor cannot hire employees, this just means that the sole proprietor is the only individual at the helm of the business.

What are the “pros” of a sole proprietorship?

Initial start-up costs are low.
Fairly simple way to set up your business with few legal formalities.
Capital losses can be offset against capital gains for tax purposes (please contact your accountant for further information).

What are the “cons” of a sole proprietorship?

The main “con” of a sole proprietorship is that your business is not its own legal entity, thus, the sole proprietor does not have “limited liability”. What does this mean? If the sole proprietor has certain business liabilities, their business and personal assets can be seized to satisfy those liabilities.

Should you decide that a sole proprietorship is the right structure for your business, what are some other things you might want to consider?

Does your sole proprietorship require a licence to carry on a specific activity?
Is the name of your business compliant with the relevant legislation?

Stay tuned for part two of this three-part series where I will explore “the Partnership” in further detail.

Disclaimer: A solicitor-client relationship is not established by viewing this article and will not be established until confirmed by the solicitor and client in writing. This article is not legal advice but legal information only and cannot be relied upon for its completeness. If you have specific questions, please contact a lawyer in your jurisdiction.

Jennifer Wilowski is a lawyer licenced to practice law in the province of Ontario. She is a Partner and co-founder at Anton & Wilowski LLP, a general practice boutique law firm located in Mississauga, Ontario. Her main areas of practice include Corporate Law, Real Estate Law, Wills & Estates Law, Civil Litigation and Cannabis Law. Jennifer is not your traditional lawyer; she is committed to redefining the delivery of legal services and takes a modern, transparent and holistic approach to the practice of law.

Connect with Jennifer:

Website: https://www.antonwilowski.ca/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-wilowski-183817181/

May 13 2019

Encore Entrepreneurship: The Gray Edge Of The Wedge

Ask a lot of people to think of successful entrepreneurship and they’ll imagine a “millennial” in ripped jeans and rubber-toed sneakers, a couple of ping-pong tables close at hand.

Well, not so fast. It turns out those of us with a touch of gray at our temples have the advantage when it comes to starting a business.

It makes perfect sense. While younger people may be more inclined to take risks, older, more established and better-connected individuals are more likely to start their own business than younger ones. This is why the rates of entrepreneurship actually peak at age 53.

Changes in technology making certain jobs obsolete, combined with a desire for autonomy that often comes in later years mean that entrepreneurship after age 50 is becoming more common as a second career option.

The catch-22 is this, as I discussed in this blog post a while back. Finding a comparable position can be even more difficult when you’ve had a very high paying and/or specialized career. After all, entry-level jobs are plentiful, but senior level jobs are not.

A new US study has found that indeed, the most successful entrepreneurs tend to be middle-aged. The study was the work of a partnership between the Kellogg School of Management, the U.S. Census Bureau and MIT.

The researchers found “the very fastest-growing new tech companies, the average founder was 45 at the time of founding.” Furthermore, they found, “a given 50-year-old entrepreneur is nearly twice as likely to have a runaway success as a 30-year-old.

Entrepreneurship over age 50 is even better for women, says this article on Forbes.com. Kerry Hanon is author of several books on the subject and a regular Forbes contributor.

“Research shows that women’s confidence at work increases with age while at the same time, their family responsibilities — especially related to childbearing and rearing — decrease,” she explains.

At the same time, women entrepreneurs may not have as easy a time getting started, but eventually, the gap closes.

“Only 52 percent of women with first-year start-ups said their ventures performed well last year, while 67 percent of men said theirs did. The difference, however, fades over time. Among businesses that are five years old or older, 77 percent of women and 77 percent of men said their company performed well last year.”

So with these facts backing up what my instinct had been telling me for some time, I have to come to believe ever more strongly that for a lot of people, to restart late in your career, self-employment can make the most sense. As challenging as it is, it’s much better to get

started while you still have enough years left to work and possibly some severance funds to get you going.

What Should I Consider?

There’s plenty to think about before making the leap from employee to entrepreneur. Read this recent blog post for some ideas.

I can’t stress enough the importance of planning and preparingbefore you launch. Ideally, you’d be planning your exit while you’re still working elsewhere but we don’t always have that luxury.

A franchise is one option to explore. There is even a consulting service that helps connect entrepreneurs with the right franchise. I met a consultant a couple of years back at a trade show who told me about Frannet.com.

While planning, take stock of your strengths and weaknesses. As an Industrial/Organizational Psychologist, I can help with this, and many other areas of career transition.

If you’re curious about whether self-employment is right for you or you’re not sure where to start, I invite you to contact me by email, or book a free 15 to 20-minute phone call. If you prefer messaging via social media, then send me a direct message on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

More than career coaching, it’s career psychology®.

I/O Advisory Services – Building Resilient Careers and Organizations.

May 11 2019

5 tips for getting more from your summer marketing

It’s almost here! Summer. It can be frustrating for small business owners as it often comes with a slow down in sales as people just start taking it easy.

While there are no magic solutions, there are things you can do to overcome the summer business slump. Here are 5 tips for getting more from your summer marketing strategy.

#1: Work with what you’ve got

If you had a summer marketing strategy last year, figure out what worked and what didn’t. As yourself questions like:

How engaged were your customers with your social media campaigns?
Did you have good follow through and brand recall after events and sponsorship opportunities?
What was general customer sentiment?

Make sure you’re building metrics into your strategies so you can track your successes. You can recycle strategies and tactics that worked well but find a creative way to keep it fresh for the upcoming summer. And you can avoid the things that just didn’t work.

#2: Try something new

If you didn’t have a summer marketing strategy last year, or perhaps it just didn’t work well overall, or maybe you are just adventurous, you might just want to try something new this year. Summer is a great time to step out of your comfort zone but remember that anything you choose to do should fit with what your audience would want. There is no reason to try something new unless you think it will bring positive results.

#3: Connect with the community

There is so much community activity in the summer you should really focus on building experiences rather than sales tactics. Whether you look at sponsorship opportunities for sports teams or community events, or even creating your own event, find ways to connect on a more personal level to build solid relationships that will continue throughout the rest of the year.

The idea is that you need to focus on brand recall through positive interactions rather than a hard sales technique. Just have fun with your marketing. Your target audience will respond will to it.

#4: Focus “snackable” content

People generally have less time to consume content in the summer, so you have to really grab their attention with quick and easy to digest content. A great way to do that is to focus more on visual content for your digital channels. Think snackable content with lots of images or even video or audio.

You can easily do this by doing things like:

Posting more images on social media with shorter captions, or even memes with no captions;
Doing vlogs (video blogs) instead of written blogs;
Do How To blogs that take you through step by step with images and less words;
Start a podcast; or
Create downloadable content so it can be consumed offline (at the cottage!).

#5: Pick a theme for your summer strategy

Get your audience invested in your summer marketing strategy by picking a theme that they can follow. If you pick a theme and tell a story around it using tactics that build on each other throughout the summer, you can create forward momentum even at a time of year that is normally slow.

Summer doesn’t have to be a tough time for your business, you just have to be proactive in creating a summer strategy that makes sense.

Connect with Candace

Check out our Brand and Business Strategy Package to set you up for business success!

A version of this article was originally posted to the SongBird Marketing Communications blog.

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May 04 2019

Using Effective Feedback To Get What You Need From Your Business Partners.

Photo Credit: Pexel.com

Feedback is often the elusive ingredient to closing many business communication loops. How many of us, as business owners, really provide effective communication? Carolyn Edgecomb in her recent article The Power and Importance of Negative Feedback for Employees shares that 92 % of professionals polled say all feedback helps. As a business owner, gathering feedback from our clients is essential to us providing the best support, service and products. In turn, we should also ensure that our business partners are able to benefit from the same insights and information through our own timely, effective and continuous feedback.

Why feedback?

Photo Credit: Pexel.com

Feedback is critical and essential to any relationship, especially in business, to be successful. Feedback provides three important benefits that are critical to getting what you need from your business partners that almost no other method provides. As Bill Gates puts it “We all need people who will give us feedback. That’s how we improve.”

First, feedback creates productive dialogue. Without feedback there would be assumptions and potential miscommunications that could be costly. Providing your business partners with information, responses and following up, helps reduce the costs associated with rework, deadline extensions and potentially a lost customer…or two.

Secondly, feedback demonstrates a commitment to the relationship and builds trust. It is often said that people only complain when they care. While feedback can be negative, constructive and positive, that additional step to share indicates there is a level of interest and commitment in and to the relationship.

Thirdly, feedback confirms the level of clarity. Have you ever been in a meeting that you thought you clearly explained and laid out information or expectations? Imagine having three out of five members present providing feedback to you that your presentation was unclear. Without that feedback you would have thought everyone left with an understanding of their role, responsibilities and expectations. Feedback clarifies what we thought and confirms what we did.

What is effective feedback?

Photo Credit: Pinterest-Kevin Watson

Robert Allen believes “There is no failure. Only feedback.” With that belief, providing and receiving timely, ongoing feedback ensures that we are always serving our business partners in a mutually beneficial way. DX Learning Solutions shares a feedback model that I believe works well to truly provide effective feedback. They describe four components that all revolve around being specific and objective, two components that make the difference between constructive feedback and criticism.

The DX model encourages one to:

Describe the situation using a when and where. Being specific is terrific. It also enhances the ability to recall and relate to a specific incident or timeline.
Describe the exact behavior or situation. In business it is easy to generalize. Providing timely and continuous feedback helps ensure specific situations and behaviors are captured, documented, and shared in detail when providing feedback.
Describing the impact. As we work with our business partners, it is important to communicate the impact of actions and reactions in an objective way. Vague descriptions of loss and inconvenience will negate the purpose and intent of effective feedback.
Describe alternatives that would have served you better. Not only is sharing the specific situation and impact important, providing ways that you would have preferred to have the situation be handles or resolved can be quite helpful for the receiver.

Using Feedback

Photo Credit: Pexel.com

Does providing feedback come naturally to you? It should. Believe it or not, we provide feedback every day. The true question is are you providing effective feedback? Through our actions, communication, or lack thereof, we are providing feedback. Are we being intentional about the feedback we provide? Are our business partners benefitting from continuous and timely feedback? Is feedback only provided when it is negative?

Our businesses rely heavily on our business partners, community, or eco-system that we create to support it. By providing our business partners with effective feedback that provides specifics, communicates impact and offers alternatives, we are helping them, help us to succeed. How will you use effective feedback to improve your business relationships?

Aldeen Simmonds-Thorpe

Chief HR Transformation Officer and Coach at Aldeen Simmonds-Thorpe Consulting

Aldeen Simmonds-Thorpe is a HR Transformation Strategist, Speaker and Coach helping businesses solve problems and navigate human resource challenges resulting in risk mitigation, more efficient processes and build stronger and more diverse and inclusive teams. She is a trusted Advisor and Coach to entrepreneurs helping them build sustainable businesses through community.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aldeen-simmonds-thorpe/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/aldeen_sim

Website: https://www.aldeenst.com/

May 03 2019

Punctuation: praise it or punch it on the nose?

Are you a slave to proper punctuation? Or is punctuation a slave to you?

Being a pro writer and author and all that, I have given dozens (literally) of traditional editors self-induced alopaecia after reading my book manuscripts. Why? Because I don’t stick to punctuation rules.

Punctuation rules: should they be relaxed? Now there’s a puzzle

Being a North American, too, I use punctuation that spans the Atlantic giving the grammar police on both shores the desire to stab me with a red pencil.

And you know what? I don’t care.

Don’t forget that I am a former copywriter, and copywriters are notorious for flipping the bird at conventional grammar, punctuation and even syntax sometimes in order to create an effect.

Ridiculously bad punctuation: not what we’re talking about

Now, by that I mean examples of vomit-inducing content, e.g.

FREE!!!!!!
The best deal’s in XXXtown!!!
STOP THAT CAR!! We’ll fix your break’s in no time!!
We pride ourselves on 25 year’s first class service
Our experience and expertise know’s no equal

These and their verbal siblings belong to the stack-’em-high-sell-’em-cheap variety of promotional writing and have been laughable since the 19th century or earlier.

However there is a big difference between that degree of punctuational ignorance and, well, relaxing the rules a bit to bring punctuation into line with modern conversational writing.

In modern day writing of blogs, articles, webtext and even books, anyone with half a brain will know they must avoid punctuation so bad that it makes you look stupid. For example:

Getting its and it’s wrong
Its is like his, hers, theirs. Its home, its future, its book. It NEVER is a shortened version of it is.
It’s is an abbreviation of it is, or sometimes it has. It NEVER means something that belongs to it. And yes, I know. English is not a logical language.

Getting apostrophes wrong
To add an apostrophe to a word followed by an “s” makes the new word state that it belongs to someone/something. E.g.: Suze’s book
To make a noun plural, however, you do NOT use an apostrophe – just, usually, an S … unlike this (with a spelling mistake thrown in for good measure!) which should read hard hats required beyond this point.

And there are many more: if you want some further examples, tips, plus a few laughs along the way, check this out…

Punctuation is a tool, not a ball and chain

Once you get the hang of big time punctuation rules and know how to avoid the major goofs, there is nothing that says you can’t use it as a dramatic tool to enhance what you’re writing.

My favourite flouting of grammar rules is to use ellipses … (there, see?) three dots which, correctly speaking, indicate an omission in the text. In the copywriting community this is often compounded by crossing it with the concept of dot leaders, so you get more than three dots to build up the suspense …………

Another favourite is the use of exclamation marks – not standing them up in a row like a picket fence, but using them a little more loosely than posh editors would allow (which is only one at a time, and only when the preceding words represent an exclamation, surprise, surprise. OK, I wouldn’t pepper them throughout a serious business blog, but in something where the mood is light and frothy, the odd double !! isn’t going to make you, or me, look like a grammar gremlin.

But today we have a marvellous invention to do all the work for us writers: emojis!

Wherever we go on this wonderful internet we have the chance to express our emotions and thoughts through these cute little images of anything from a loving heart to some dog poop.

I can’t wait to see who will be the first author to write a complete book using emojis only: no words. Now there’s a challenge…!! (ellipsis AND double exclamation mark: insult to injury?)

And for the purist grammar fascists, what next?

I can’t criticise these devout grammarians because as a writer and sometimes editor, I do stick up for the rules. However what I don’t agree with is sticking to some rules when actually they don’t make the slightest difference to the sense of the text. Then we’re talking perfectionism which is fine, but because many of the rules go back decades and even centuries, they have a nasty habit of inhibiting the evolution of the language.

If the language didn’t evolve we would still be carving out images of sabre-toothed tigers on cave walls. So a compromise is needed: evolution, not revolution, as someone a lot smarter than me once said.

What do you think? Should we relax our thinking about punctuation and other writing issues?

Or should we stick to the traditional? Discuss…!!

This article first appeared on the award-winning website, How To Write Better with Suzan St Maur

Canadian author, blogger and marketer Suzan St Maur lives in the UK for about 10 months of the year and the rest of the time in Ontario. Born in Kingston but with relatives and friends from Ottawa to Collingwood, down to London and across through Toronto, she spends a lot of hours driving on the 400s! She has had 35 books published (mainly nonfiction) so far with four more coming up and now works mainly as an author coach, helping new authors write their books and make their literary dreams come true. As a former copywriter and content marketing advisor she also speaks on marketing communications of all types and gives some lively workshops on blogging, personal branding and her rather ferocious “So What?” test! Catch her on her award-winning website, https://howtowritebetter.net/

May 01 2019

DO YOU CELEBRATE YOUR SMALL WINS?

Over the years I’ve developed the habit of celebrating my “small” wins as an entrepreneur. I may do something quick and silly like a happy dance in the elevator after a successful meeting (don’t worry, I wait until I’m alone). Other times, it’s a yelp and a happy dance when after working on a complicated proposal night and day, I get it in with only two minutes to spare. Forget that I don’t know if they’ll accept it; I got it in on time.

And sometimes the big win may elude us for years…

I have no doubt that you work hard to make things happen in your business. Do you wait for the big finish to celebrate? And even then, it might get too busy to take that time to do so. It’s then postponed for another day, maybe.

I have noticed that several of my coaching clients and fellow business women fall into this pattern of bypassing small wins. Maybe it’s a challenge to acknowledge the small wins because we perceive them as not being ‘big’ enough: ‘small’ is equated to ‘unimportant’.

Perhaps we find it immodest to say ‘Hurray’ for any reason. For many, especially for women, we’ve been taught not to call attention to ourselves in public, so why would we do it in any other situation?

“Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.”

– Vincent Van Gogh

Why save the party for the end? – Start with three ‘small’ wins a day.

To get into the habit of honouring my ‘small’ wins I’ve chosen to think of them as milestones – big, small, medium, or worthy of a business woman of the year award, all achievements are necessary to reach an objective that is near and dear to you. Besides, the big win can’t possibly happen without them. I’ve been working with this simple exercise: Write down 3 things a day that you’ve accomplished toward your vision for your business. And if 3 is too much at first, start with one then build up.

Let’s face it, acknowledgement of your progress may not necessarily come from an outside source. Celebrating your ‘smaller’ victories, and the detours along the way, reminds you that your contribution, your creativity, and your commitment are not only necessary, but valuable.

That’s certainly worth celebrating.

Remember, no win is too small. Let me know in the comment section how the above exercise went for you.

Dominique Dennery has had her own HR consulting business for over twenty years. She is also an award-winning facilitator, coach, and sculptor.

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http://dominiquedennery.com/

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Apr 29 2019

How to Generate Facebook Leads That Convert

Facebook is a goldmine for leads — whether you find the leads organically or pay for them.

But, let’s put Facebook aside for now.

Let’s talk about what you’re going to do when leads start showing up at your “door”. Are you going to send them an email, send them to a Facebook messenger bot funnel to get the information they need, or call them?

These are really important questions that most people don’t spend enough time to think about or prepare for … and these will be the same people who will wonder why their conversation rates are so poor or announce that Facebook ads suck.

Make sure you’re not one of these people if you value your time, effort and money … and you want to really grow your business.

Facebook is a goldmine. That is worth repeating.

In my lead generation agency business, we work with our clients to make sure they are prepared to NURTURE the leads as soon as they receive them. Typically, we apply the call, email and bot trio to help with:

– speed to lead (stats say conversions happen faster if leads are contacted within 15 minutes of receiving them)
– providing the leads the information they requested, immediately
– increased engagement (the messenger bot is excellent for this!)
– improved conversion rates (the more your leads feel that you care and start creating the relationship earlier on, the better the chances of conversions)

In essence, do NOT do any lead generation activities until you have at least ONE nurturing solution (funnel) worked out and prepared. Or, you’ll be wasting time and money — and leaving money on the table.

Facebook leads tend to be more sociable and casual in nature (versus LinkedIn for example). Feel free to connect with them in a more “over coffee” style conversation.

The most important thing is to start building a relationship … and work on their like, know and trust of you.

And, right now, authentic value videos are king. Your first Facebook ad should be an awareness ad with a video.

The building of the “like, know and trust” can happen rather quickly when you use videos. And, CONVERTING the leads can happen rather quickly as well — especially when you apply the “trio” of calling, emailing and messenger bot.

Your nurturing funnel(s) should allow for people who are ready to buy your products and/or services, not yet ready to buy or not at all interested.

“Until they say “no”, you keep them on the list and drip them.”

Bio:

Hanna Guerra is the Founder and Chief Lead Generation Strategist Just Get’er Done Marketing, headquartered in Port Credit (Mississauga). She is known for being results-driven, solutions-oriented and straight talker, Hanna Guerra embodies the company’s #justgeterdone attitude and core values to the “T”. Hanna and her team are dedicated to work with their clients (from many parts of the world, predominantly in Canada, US, and UK) to develop a predictable lead generation system that generates quality leads…THAT CONVERT.

Links:

Website: https://justgeterdonemarketing.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jgedmarketing/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jgedmarketing

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannaguerra/

Apr 27 2019

Overwhelmed – Overworked … Outsourcing is KEY!

Life is busy and we try to do it all – balance all the needs of home and work and try to have some fun! Sometimes you just have to get some help. Calling in the experts can give you sanity, peace of mind, or much needed rest.

Whether it’s a cleaning service, a repair person, a gardener, an organizer, or a virtual assistant, there’s always a service to help make life easier. Outsourcing does not need to be difficult. What’s important is asking the right questions to get the outcome you want and need! Here are ten questions to ask before outsourcing:

What experience do you have?
Can you share examples of your work/service?
Can you provide references?
What hours do you work? Are you flexible?
How long will the task/job take?
Do you offer flat rates, package rates or special discounts?
Exactly what is involved in the work you will do?
How can I reach you and what is your response time?
What do you need from me?
What are your payment terms and what forms of payment do you take?

When I introduce myself as a virtual assistant, I often hear “OMG, I need you!”. Well, that’s music to my ears. I have found that these 10 areas help entrepreneurs focus on what they need.

Asking the right questions to find the right person is one key area. The other areas are preparation and partnership. In the next few blogs, I’ll share more helpful information to guide you to hire and build the best working relationship with a virtual assistant. Of course, you can apply this practice to other outsourcing venues to help make your life easier.

Marianne D’Alessandro

TimeFlies-Admin Services

www.timeflies-adminservices.ca

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All that glitters is not gold …

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