Canadian Small Business Women

Connection, Synergy, Community

Working With A Business Coach Is Like Psychotherapy

 Martina-R.

I was squirming in my seat, sympathising with the challenging questions a fellow entrepreneur was struggling to answer. She had volunteered to go on stage in a so-called “hot seat”, whereby my business coach and today’s event host was grilling her about her business and what might be holding her back from greater success.

It was in no way meant to be mean, though it was challenging, as this small business owner was nudged to not only think hard but admit to herself where and how she may in fact be sabotaging her own success.

This made me think that working with a business coach has many similarities to getting psychotherapy. (Don’t ask how I know that…)

I have been working with business coach Odette Laurie as part of her group coaching program for the past 14 months, as well as a few months with Jason Reid for one-on-one coaching.

I too have squirmed, questioned, resisted, and faltered. I have also had many “a-ha!” moments, made changes and improvements in my patterns, received excellent feedback from colleagues, prospects, and new clients, and experienced personal growth and business successes.

Business coaches of course share their wealth of knowledge and experience as successful business owners themselves, and yet working with one ends up being about so much more than your sales and marketing strategy, your client conversations, and business goals.

You are asked to ‘dig deep’ about your motivation for being in business, have to identify and work through inner demons and past baggage that may be holding you back from success, and implement strategies and new ways of working that will help you succeed. Our past baggage can be anything from low self-esteem, fear of failure (or fear of success!), not feeling worthy, downplaying our successes and skills, fear of public speaking, and a ‘scarcity syndrome’, which can be the cause of under-charging for your products or services.

Pretty cool actually; not only have I received incredibly valuable business tips and guidance from my business coaches, I’ve also had indirect counselling!

When we grow as a business owner, we also grow as a person. I highly recommend working with a business coach, even for a short while.

References:

Odette Laurie, Business Women On Top, www.businesswomenontop.com

Jason Reid, The Rechargeable Entrepreneur, www.rechargemymojo.com

Martina Rowley is the Chief VA of Beach Business Hub Virtual Assistance Services. She can handle many of your recurring or one-off administrative tasks, client and project management, organisational challenges and more. Let this VA give you a hand! Contact her at:http://www.beachbusinesshub.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter

Working With Disabled And Special Needs Clients

Martina New

What if you wanted to attend networking meetings and other professional events, and you physically couldn’t get into or stay at a venue because of stairs, doors, fixed seats, and inaccessible washrooms preventing your access?

At a recent networking event, speaker Lauri Sue Robertson, a disability awareness consultant, gave an overview of a plethora of challenges she herself has faced trying to get into businesses, event venues, restaurants, and hotels. She teaches people who aren’t disabled, how to work with people who are.

The Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) applies only to business owners who have employees. In that case, you are responsible for training your staff in customer service for disabled persons, and you need to make certain provisions for the hiring and assistance of employees who may have disabilities.

Even business owners without employees are well served to be aware and able to accommodate clients with special needs. In Canada, at least 15% of the population lives with one or more disabilities, so chances are you will encounter clients who are affected.

Lauri emphasised that what persons with disabilities want most is independence, dignity, and to be able to make their own decisions. This means if you plan to meet a prospect or client in a public place, for example a café or restaurant, and you know they have a disability, be sure to ask them for their preferred meeting location. If they use a mobility device or have a visual impairment, you want to be sure they can safely access the venue, move around comfortably inside it, and also be able to use the washroom.  If you are an event organiser, these aspects are also important and it is helpful to include mention of accessibility, or lack thereof, on your event notice and registration page.

If your client will be accompanied by a service animal, which apparently can be a dog or a wide range of other trained animals, Lauri says the onus is then on the client to alert you of the fact and ensure you don’t have a fear or allergy towards their particular service animal – because apparently even rats might be companion animals! (Although currently only trained companion dogs are permitted into restaurants and cafés.)

Lauri also pointed out that if your client needs to lip-read what you say, don’t exaggerate your speech or your mouth movements and don’t shout, as this makes lip-reading difficult or impossible. Speak normally, just make sure you’re looking right at the person.

I thought I was doing quite well in my general awareness of how to acknowledge and work with someone with special needs, until Lori told us that web designs are often a large hurdle in terms of accessibility. I had no idea! Websites with photos and images without a text-only alternative are difficult or even impossible for a blind person to navigate with a “screen reader”. A screen reader essentially reads out the content of the website and helps to navigate from one page or section to the next. This requires a text alternative to your web content, as well as a good document structure, e.g. with headings, lists, and other structural elements that provide meaning and facilitate keyboard navigation.

According to Lauri, so much more needs to be done to raise awareness of how, and how not to act around people with special needs or disabilities. Most importantly, she says, avoid making assumptions about what the person is able to do, or may or may not want you to do or help with. The best thing to do is ask how you can help. And don’t be offended if any assistance you offer is politely declined.

 

Source: Lauri Sue Robertson, www.disabilityawarenessconsultants.com

Martina Rowley is the Chief VA of Beach Business Hub Virtual Assistance Services. She can handle many of your recurring or one-off administrative tasks, client and project management, organisational challenges and more. Let this VA give you a hand! Contact her at:http://www.beachbusinesshub.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter

Free Yourself!

Martina-R.

 

The new calendar year typically brings with it plans for a new annual business strategy. It may be a detailed written document, or some simple “must do’s” in your head. Either way, they are meant to improve how you run your business, improve your customer relations, be more organised, and overall grow your business.

 

One challenge most small business owners face is that there never seem to be enough hours in the day or the work week to get everything done! Sound familiar?

Getting yourself better ‘organised’ to free up some valuable hours could mean freeing yourself from mundane tasks or complex and time-consuming work. Or both. All you need is another set of hands and a competent mind: Outsourcing is a good option. Help is available to you in the form of specialists like graphic designers, bookkeepers, virtual assistants, writers and more, depending on your area of need.

These specialists are an invaluable resource to help you free yourself from time-consuming tasks you need to accomplish, and do specific work that just isn’t your forte.

Since many small businesses and start-ups work on a tight budget, the temptation to do everything ourselves looms large. One way to do a self-check on whether or not outsourcing is “worth it” is a simple cost-benefit analysis.

Consider what one hour of your time is worth, i.e. either what you charge your clients for one hour of your standard service packages or the value of one hour’s work you put into your product based business. Then estimate how many hours it might, or in the past already has, taken you to perform a certain job, for example data entry, researching and posting your regular social media content, creating a PowerPoint slideshow for your next presentation, updating your website, or creating and sending a monthly e-newsletter.

The time it takes you to perform these tasks is very likely longer than if the specialist did them, and that is where your savings will lie.

So for 2015, make it a plan to free yourself from some of your business tasks you’d rather not be doing anyway, and instead focus on networking and meeting new prospects, turning them into new clients, and growing your business and profits. Here’s to a successful year!

 

Martina Rowley is the founder and operator of Beach Business Hub – THE co-working space east of the Don Valley. She combined her passion and experience in the environmental sector with her community engagement side to create a local work environment where space and resources are shared. She fosters and facilitates collaboration, networking, and learning for and with small business owners and new start-ups. Contact her at:http://www.beachbusinesshub.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter

Don’t Leave Money On The Table!

Martina New

 

Leaving money on the table, as a businesswoman, seems almost as bad as throwing it out of the window. You wouldn’t intentionally throw money out, yet you may well be ignoring untapped revenue sources.

This past month I was reminded by two experts that many of us “leave money on the table” by not utilising accessible sources of revenue.

Business coach Odette Laurie, for example, explains that getting yourself ‘out there’ as a speaker and knowledge expert in your field gets you in front of greater numbers of people, and therefore far more potential prospects and clients than you would otherwise find in the same amount of time.

Naturally, you need to have a topic and a signature speech that you can present, and which is of interest to a broad range of small business owners. Many business coaches, including Odette, and skilled communications specialists can teach you just that: How to find a story that is unique to you, and blend it with the why and the how you are so good at what you’re doing, and how as a result you can bring many benefits to your clients. If you don’t want to become a paid public speaker, then this still is a good step to grow your local contact list and client base. Of course you may become so good that event organisers will start hiring you as paid keynote speaker, becoming another source of income for you.

Another way you are probably leaving money on the table – or rather on the web – is by not tapping into an array of online revenue streams you can generate from your website. Successful entrepreneur and TV host Lee Romanov is one of Canada’s top internet marketers and has been making money online since 1994. She shares her online success and experience through How-To seminars, as well as her book called Today’s Multi-Millionaires: What I Did & You Can Too. Also, starting December 2014, Lee will be hosting her new Rogers Cable TV show called Income Activator TV.

In the seminar I attended, Lee treated the audience to an eye opening show-and-tell on her Top 10 online tips and tricks on converting visitors into revenue. If you already have a website, this really seems like a no-brainer. As long as you have interesting and regularly updated content, and links to related good content, you can earn ‘passive’ income from pay per click ads, lead generation, selling or linking to affiliate products, and more.

In doing so, Lee created the largest online quoting service for car insurance in Canada, generating over $50,000 revenue per month through lead generation (and then sold the business to TorStar). You decide whether you really want to leave that kind of money on the table!

 

Sources:

Lee Romanov, www.incomeactivator.com

Odette Laurie, Business Women On Top, http://businesswomenontop.com

 

Martina Rowley is the founder and operator of Beach Business Hub – THE co-working space east of the Don Valley. She combined her passion and experience in the environmental sector with her community engagement side to create a local work environment where space and resources are shared. She fosters and facilitates collaboration, networking, and learning for and with small business owners and new start-ups. Contact her at:http://www.beachbusinesshub.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter

How good is your Customer Service?

Martina New

 

We all know “The customer is King”. What are YOU doing to make your customers feel like Kings and Queens, and wanting to come back to you again and again? After all, customers are our businesses’ life-blood.

During a recent workshop by Jayne Huhtanen, of FocalPoint Coaching of Toronto, attendees learned how to propel their customer service to a whole new level. But first things first:

 

Why is good customer service so important?

An unhappy customer is a company’s worst enemy! They can undermine and damage your reputation, whether justified or not. With today’s Internet based news feeds and social media it doesn’t take much to dish the dirt on any business via Facebook, Twitter, or YouTube. We know we can’t please everybody all the time, yet it is important to keep our customers happy (or at least satisfied enough not to campaign against our business).

Jayne sees customer service as four key areas: Service, Satisfaction, Staying, and Success.  Firstly, you want to provide not just good but amazing customer service, with which you hope to reach or exceed customer satisfaction.  In turn, that will lead to customers staying with you as a repeat client and contributing to your success. For most companies, 80% of business comes from 20% of clientele, so repeat clients are essential.

Providing excellent customer service and satisfaction requires knowing each customer`s wants and needs, and what their expectations are in terms of your product or service. One way to find out is by simply asking directly, getting brief feedback forms, or conducting customer satisfaction surveys.

One such method is the Net Promoter Score (NPS), which uses just one basic question: How likely is it that you [the customer] would recommend this company to a friend or colleague?  The resulting scores fall into one of three categories:

  • Promoters (rating you 9-10  in customer service, with 10 being exceptional): loyal enthusiasts, who will keep buying, and referring others;
  • Passives (rating you 7-8): satisfied but unenthusiastic customers, vulnerable to competitors; and,
  • Detractors (rating you 0-6): unhappy customers, who can damage your brand and hinder growth.

To turn your customers into promoters, there are five levels of customer service:

  1. Meet expectations: The bare minimum of service, not getting major complaints but also no loyalty; failure to meet expectations even once is seen as reason to leave; customers gladly switch to a competitor who wows them with a lower price and/or better service.
  2. Exceed expectations: Building customer loyalty; may lead to increased profitability; customers willing to pay more for this better service; helps avoid the Law of Diminishing Intentions, i.e. customers going elsewhere.
  3. Delight customers: Touching customers on an emotional/personal level; this increases client retention; showing them you truly care; makes it hard for competitors to pull them away.
  4. Amaze customers: Propels your business to a whole new level; you treat your customers better than gold; your amazed customers are keen to actively refer you.
  5. Not meeting expectations:  Not meeting customer expectations unintentionally or maybe intentionally because you’re trying to get rid of a ‘bad customer’ who is never satisfied regardless of the level of service; this customer and you are just not a good fit.

Here are just a few of the things you can do for good to excellent customer service: Always follow-up, offer help and solutions immediately, provide incentives or compensation, have personal interaction (by telephone or in person), be accountable, send hand-written thank you cards to repeat or major clients or small appreciation gift, hold client appreciation event, and offer finder’s fee for referrals.

We each have our own style, of course, and what makes working with us special. Importantly, always be friendly, sincere, and over-deliver, then as long as your product or service is top-notch, you should have no problem delighting and retaining your customers!

Sources:

Martina Rowley is the founder and operator of Beach Business Hub – THE co-working space east of the Don Valley. She combined her passion and experience in the environmental sector with her community engagement side to create a local work environment where space and resources are shared. She fosters and facilitates collaboration, networking, and learning for and with small business owners and new start-ups. Contact her at:http://www.beachbusinesshub.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter

To Blog or Not To Blog: Musings on Blogging

Martina New

 

Blogging, as many business coaches and other savvy individuals tell us, is one of the many social media outlets we entrepreneurs are told to embrace. It is an opportunity to go beyond the brief and restrictive 140 Twitter characters, offer more detail than our Facebook posts should contain, and can be more personal and creative than our professional LinkedIn profile.

Writing a blog, then, should be an enjoyable task that has us running to our notepads or iPads with gleeful excitement. And yet, I still haven’t gone beyond two places where I write just once a month (this blog) and once every six weeks or less for my local community newspaper. I could be doing this once a week or biweekly! Still, I’m not alone, as I keep hearing from my business friends and fellow networkers.

We know “we should” write more often and start a blog, and we do want to, honest, yet somehow so many reasons keep holding us back.

To bolster my enthusiasm, I attended a recent workshop by an avid blogger and writer who shared some of her wisdom. Here is some of what I learned.

 

  • Blogs are a good way to establish a connection with your reader (a.k.a. potential prospects and maybe future clients). It gives them the opportunity to learn a little bit about you, your style, and to know and like you.
  • The reason a more personal tone in a blog is appropriate and more fun to read is that, “people don’t want presentations, they want conversations”. ̴ Suzan St. Maur
  • Suitable topics are things that keep people awake at night, challenges that we face as business owners or simply as human beings. Chances are that if you have things that keep you awake at night, others will be worrying about the same or similar issues. So if you write about those, your readers can relate. Write from your heart to their
  • You can be either a guest blogger on somebody else’s blog site or set up your own. I don’t think the “where” is the real block for any of us!
  • Once you do start writing regularly, be sure to always post your blog on your own website/blog site first, and only then post on other sites, like LinkedIn etc. You want to make sure the Google ranking and any Internet searches direct readers to your own website first.

 

The common sentiment by the workshop leader, as well as other regular writers and ghost bloggers, who were present at the session, was that getting good at writing is much like exercising: you have to do it often to improve it. It is like working a muscle. So think about something you are well versed on, or have been wondering and musing about and think that others would have as well, and start writing it down; there’s no time like the present!

Happy writing.

Source: Workshop by Suzan St. Maur, “How to write better business blogs”. www.howtowritebetter.net

 

Martina Rowley is the founder and operator of Beach Business Hub – THE co-working space east of the Don Valley. She combined her passion and experience in the environmental sector with her community engagement side to create a local work environment where space and resources are shared. She fosters and facilitates collaboration, networking, and learning for and with small business owners and new start-ups. Contact her at:http://www.beachbusinesshub.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter

Networking Etiquette

Martina New

 

How does it make you feel, when someone you just met launches into a full-on sales pitch? Probably not so dandy. It may make you feel the same way as those sales calls you get after 8pm all right during dinner, and you just want to tell them to go away.

When this happens at a networking event, it’s awkward. Someone just introduced herself to you, or you said hello and asked what she does, and suddenly you’re finding yourself trying to back out of the conversation.  If you’ve attended more than a couple of networking meetings, you know exactly what I’m talking about! 

I admit that at my very first networking event as a fresh business owner, I hadn’t yet figured out the best way of going about things. Somewhere I had heard or read that it was a good opportunity to get and give as many business cards as possible, and many business owners support that view. Because you never know whom you`ll meet, or whom they know.

Being competitive as I am, yet also feeling a little nervous in a downtown pub stuffed to the hilt with small business owners, I “worked the room” as much as I was comfortable. In between greetings, I excitedly felt the growing number of cards in my pocket and felt somewhat proud over how many I had at the end of the night.

Yet therein lies a problem. As Christel Wintels, franchise owner of the BNI Golden Horseshoe groups, shared at a recent big networking bash, some informal ‘research’ had shown that of all the people who attend any given networking event, only around 5 per cent are there to buy something, yet a good 90 per cent or more are there to sell! So Christel’s commandment is: Thou shalt not sell!

Just like any other set of manners, networking etiquette has its pitfalls. Understandably, we’re excited about our business or idea and want to tell as many people as possible. And isn’t it all about exchanging business cards with lots of new people? 

It is in a way, but of course certain guidelines should apply so that you are remembered in a positive way. For example:

  • Prepare your introduction. Have a well-rehearsed pitch or ‘infomercial’ of 60 seconds or less. It should tell the listener about your key services and main benefits to them. Make it engaging, use some intrigue.
  • Listen! Cany people “don’t listen with the intent to understand, merely with the intent to respond.” Make the conversation about the other person, and hope they’ll do the same.
  • Ask new people for introductions to other specific businesses, and also ask them whom they would like to meet. You will be a superstar if you can introduce them to somebody else you met at that event!
  • Wait for a break in conversation or an obvious end before jumping into a still ongoing dialogue between two or more persons.
  • Avoid introducing yourself to someone just as they’re putting food in their mouth. I always find this one particularly challenging to handle when on the receiving end! I struggle for a suitable and polite response when asked “So what do you do?” while I’m currently balancing hors d’oeuvres on a napkin, and trying to keep crumbly filo pastry off my face and clothes. Needless to say I also don’t want to talk with my mouth full. Maybe say hello to someone else first and come back later.
  • Be humble and accept the fact that not everyone will be interested in your business. Start a dialogue and then wait to hear if that person would like your business card or not. If they don’t prompt you, maybe they’re really not interested or in need of your service.

In any case, enjoy the event! Every networking event is a good opportunity to improve on and perfect your sales conversation, get a feel for which aspects of your conversation and benefits spark the greatest interest, and you never know whom you might meet and whom they know!

Just remember to leave the kind of impression you actually want to be remembered for.

 

Martina Rowley is the founder and operator of Beach Business Hub – THE co-working space east of the Don Valley. She combined her passion and experience in the environmental sector with her community engagement side to create a local work environment where space and resources are shared. She fosters and facilitates collaboration, networking, and learning for and with small business owners and new start-ups. Contact her at:http://www.beachbusinesshub.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter

Infomania Could Be Making You Sick

Martina New

Technology and today’s widespread connectivity that is available any hour of the day, any day of the week and year, is supposed to make our lives more convenient and help reduce our workload and previously more time-consuming tasks. The truth is, it might actually be making many of us sick!

In a Global and Mail article on 29 March 2014, feature writer Erin Anderssen shared an eye-opening investigative piece in a week-long series on digital overload. In it, she shows the growing scientific evidence that indicates our state of distraction and “unchecked infomania” adds to making us physically and mentally ill.

Research from multiple experts at Stanford University, including experts on technology and distraction, shows that the convenience of constant connectedness has become a stress factor, and often even an addiction. The seduction of beeping or flashing cell phones, smart phones, e-mail, and social media sites is all too often irresistible. Yet, even though we seem to think otherwise, life does go on even if we don’t check and respond immediately to those interruptions. When we do, we’re paying less attention to the things that truly enrich our lives and in ways that electronic addictions rarely or never can do. Too often we allow devices to disrupt the flow of a good conversation, dinner with friends or family, playtime with our children or a relaxing walk with our dog, or even disturbing our personal quiet time or much-needed sleep.

Stanford’s Calming Technology Lab reveals that obsessive visits to Facebook have been linked to eating disorders and depression in teenage girls. In adults, dealing with never-ending e-mails or conducting web searches can cause users to take shorter breaths, or even hold their breath. This is called Screen apnea.

Here is my confession: while I do not consider myself a device addict, I do experience screen apnea whenever I hyper-focus for a long time on computer work, or when I flit between e-mail, web searches, and computer documents that I need to finish in a rush. My breathing becomes shallow, changes from a healthy diaphragmatic `belly breath` to a hectic – and to my body unsatisfying – short chest breath. When I leave it unchecked for too long, I suffer increased tension and stress symptoms by the end of the day.

Researchers at Kings College Institute of Psychiatry in London found that constant e-mail and social media use (unchecked infomania) even resulted in a temporary drop in the IQ of their study participants. Another survey shows that 22 per cent of adults have walked into obstacles while distracted by texting!

We laugh, but how often a day do you have to swerve around a walking texter, or even witnessed a pedestrian almost stepping out into traffic because they’re not paying attention at an intersection? I see both with disturbing regularity!

Anderssen`s article closes with the suggestion that we should think less about time management and instead consider more attention management. With that said, I will quickly submit this blog by e-mail, and then step away from my computer to make and enjoy a nice cup of tea.
Source: Anderssen, Erin. “Digital overload: How we are seduced by distraction”, Globe and Mail, 29 March 2014, F1. bit.ly/UnR5JY

Martina Rowley is the founder and operator of Beach Business Hub – THE co-working space east of the Don Valley. She combined her passion and experience in the environmental sector with her community engagement side to create a local work environment where space and resources are shared. She fosters and facilitates collaboration, networking, and learning for and with small business owners and new start-ups. Contact her at:http://www.beachbusinesshub.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter

Dating is Like Networking

Martina New

It’s a numbers game.

Every business owner knows the formula for success is that you have to talk to X number of people, to narrow them down to Y number of warm or hot prospects, to succeed in turning Z number of those into clients. As I continue seeking my romantic mate, it occurred to me that dating works in a similar way.

While everyone and their dog is nowadays eternally busy “being busy”, today’s search for romance takes place mostly via online dating sites, with some face-to-face speed dating thrown in for good measure. The end goal remains the same as through “traditional/old-fashioned” ways: finding that one-in-a-million partner who is best suited to you, and vice versa.

In our high-tech 21st century this means going online, resulting in instant, searchable, and fairly anonymous access to not hundreds but thousands of singles looking for love. This is where it’s akin to business networking.

Following above networking formula, you have to first talk to X number of people. That means selecting advance search criteria to narrow down your ‘target market’, e.g. gender, age, marital status, physical stature, interests etc. Then you scroll and skip through several hundred potential suitors, mostly not talking to anyone at this stage but just reading how they ‘talk’ about themselves. This is your Number X.

Second, you need to whittle down those potentials to find your warm or hot prospects; figuratively speaking or literally hot (Number Y). You message several or many. Some will reply, and many will not. In return, you will receive random inquiries from daters far outside your age range, location, or far off any attributes you would consider, even remotely. (Business speak: Know your target market! That works both ways.)

Attending speed-dates can help accelerate pre-selection by providing instant access to 10 or 15 prospects. This is like attending weekly or monthly networking meetings, where you work the room to talk to many business owners, seeking out those interested in what you have to offer.

Through perseverance with either or both of above two processes you then find a few potentials, with whom you communicate back and forth. This is your Number Y.

Third, you talk over the phone and/or meet the best prospects in person and attempt to discern the potential for a positive and fulfilling relationship, this time personal, not client based. If unsuccessful, you repeat the process for Number Y until you reach your ‘goal’ of finding your ideal Number Z.

Re-reading my own formulae and processes above, online dating should in fact be much easier than networking! In business, there are no “advanced search” selection criteria that will automatically pop up to help narrow down your ideal target market(s). No self-description as to what your prospect is looking for. There is just Cupid and his rose-coloured glasses on occasion obscuring your vision and judgement.

I shall ponder that thought. But now I must dash – someone just sent me a “wink”!

Author’s Cheerful Disclaimer: The opinion, experience, and formulae expressed by the author may or may not be true, realistic, and may, or may not, be based on personal experience, and would therefore not hold up in a Court of Law or anywhere else. Suggestions of potentially suitable single males may be submitted to the author via private and confidential e-mail after your thorough and thoughtful pre-screening, at your own expense, and applying your best guess.

Martina Rowley is the founder and operator of Beach Business Hub – THE co-working space east of the Don Valley. She combined her passion and experience in the environmental sector with her community engagement side to create a local work environment where space and resources are shared. She fosters and facilitates collaboration, networking, and learning for and with small business owners and new start-ups.  Contact her at:http://www.beachbusinesshub.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter

Networks, Peers, and Mentorship

Martina New

As small business owners and solopreneurs, most of us seek out some form of business network. Whether for the purpose of marketing our business or to practice our elevator pitch, it is important to be part of a group that is external to our business.

Such connection may be downright essential for some. Being the one in charge of our business and handling all aspects of it can, at times, be overwhelming and isolating. Where is that sounding-board when you need one? Who provides the voice of reason when you are stuck in some way?

I recently learned more about some of the differences between a network and a peer group and their distinct advantages.

The Merriam-Webster dictionary says:

  • A Network is a usually informally interconnected group or association of persons
  • A Peer is one that is of equal standing with another: especially one belonging to the same societal group
  • A Mentor (or business coach) is someone who teaches or gives help and advice to a less experienced [and often younger] person

Here in Toronto, business networking groups abound and can be found, often bleary eyed, over early morning breakfasts or occasionally later in the day in cafés and restaurants. Typically meeting weekly or biweekly, their main goal is to provide one another with referrals for potential or actual business. Casual conversation before or after the formal meeting part allows little time to get to know each other’s businesses in much depth.

A peer group, on the other hand, usually meets less often, maybe only monthly. Here, business referrals take place more incidentally with the main focus being discussing business challenges. The group will brainstorm ideas on how to solve someone’s particular business issue. Peer groups can hence provide that missing sounding-board for solo business owners, where challenges can be reviewed, dissected, and step-by-step solutions be offered without having to hire a personal business coach. Like the latter though, it provides a platform for accountability.

A specific structure for peer groups is described in a book and method by Elizabeth Verwey, called The Mentors Circle. In a recent Lunch & Learn seminar, she shared how her background as business coach and desire to enable others to coach and mentor one another lead to her formulating this method and book.

A Mentors Circle is a peer group who meets once a month for two to three hours. A facilitator or leader guides the group through the steps and exercises laid out in the book. The group may review one or more case studies from attending business owners, and brainstorm together.

The difference to a networking or other peer group is that the group’s existence is, or at least can be finite, meaning they commit to just six months’ of meetings. This provides a start, middle, and end so that after completion of this time period members can choose either to stop or restart a new circle of meetings.

Finding an accountability buddy is also important. As Elizabeth says, the probability of completing a goal you set yourself is only 50% if you only plan how you are going to do it, and 95% if you commit to reporting back and make an appointment (or set a deadline by when you will do it). Fittingly, the “M” in Mentors Circle stands for motivation, “T” for testing new ideas, and “S” for support and success.

Your peers then, as well as the book and accompanying workbook, provide the mentorship aspects. While I enjoy and benefit from networking groups – bleary-eyed early mornings or not – I really like the sound of a guided and structured peer group. Now who will be my accountability buddy?

 

Sources:

Merriam-Webster online dictionary, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary

The Mentors Circle, www.officementors.com

 

Martina Rowley is the founder and operator of Beach Business Hub – THE co-working space east of the Don Valley. She combined her passion and experience in the environmental sector with her community engagement side to create a local work environment where space and resources are shared. She fosters and facilitates collaboration, networking, and learning for and with small business owners and new start-ups.  Contact her at:http://www.beachbusinesshub.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter

Maintaining Focus While Changing Direction

 

Martina-R.

As small business owners, especially solopreneurs, we have the advantage of being able to take the liberty of changing the direction or focus of our business. What started out, perhaps, as business coaching with businessy topics as a mainstay, may over the years turn out to no longer fulfil you. Or we find the goods we sell are becoming outdated and no longer desirable to our clients, as evidenced, for example, by more and more bookstores closing as e-Books and e-Readers grow in popularity.

Human growth, as it happens, doesn’t end after puberty. Sure, overall physical growth may end there, as does hopefully the propensity of having oily skin or acne, and making dubious decisions, yet personal and intellectual growth thankfully continues throughout our entire lives. I think that’s a good thing, as long as we recognise that it can bring with it the desire for and necessity of significant life changes and tough decisions every few years or decades.

When we become business owners, we have a specific type of business in mind that excites us. It provides us with the drive, inspiration, creativity, passion, and overall positive feelings required to get us started in the scary world of self-employment. All of these are also the traits our potential clients will feel attracted to. They want someone who is well versed about their product or service, passionate, believable, and therefore likeable and trustworthy.

All these good emotions can go through a less certain and firm ‘appearance’ during a business transition period, when we find ourselves wanting or needing to change direction with our products or services. Maybe, as in the example above, business coaching no longer excites us because our course of life changed us to wanting to focus more on reflective, heart based, and personal skills sets, like life coaching.

Our time of transition from one business to another can then be a very tricky journey. While we build a new business idea and become excited about the new prospects it holds, and satisfaction it will bring to us and our clients, we often have to maintain a level of momentum and passion for our ‘old’ but still current business; A balancing act that can leave us with one foot in and one foot out of the door.

Therein lies the challenge of ‘keeping face’ towards your existing clients, while perhaps already starting to have conversations with prospects for your new venture. Niggling in the back of our mind may also be the lure of going back to a full-time J.O.B. with that tempting steady, but fixed and often less upwardly mobile income.

But then the many advantages of being our own boss remind us that that’s really where we want to be! And that’s worth the journey, even a little bit of discomfort along the way.

 

Martina Rowley is the founder and operator of Beach Business Hub – THE co-working space east of the Don Valley. She combined her passion and experience in the environmental sector with her community engagement side to create a local work environment where space and resources are shared. She fosters and facilitates collaboration, networking, and learning for and with small business owners and new start-ups.  Contact her at:http://www.beachbusinesshub.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter

Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility – Why It Matters

Martina-R.

Most likely, your business doesn’t sell environmental products or services (only a small percentage do) but have you considered including an environmental and social ethos anyway?

Industry Canada says that integrating Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) practices and principles into your operations can help make your business more innovative, productive, and competitive. Who wouldn`t want that?

The definition of CSR says it is “a company’s environmental, social and economic performance and the impacts of the company on its internal and external stakeholders”. It is sometimes called corporate responsibility, corporate sustainability, triple bottom line, or referred to by its individual area of focus, e.g. environmental management or social responsibility. Whatever the moniker, it can give you an edge over your competitors.

For large corporations, especially multinationals who deal with big players as well as big back accounts, CSR probably includes clauses on anti-corruption and bribery. Yet any size business, whether it has employees or not, can benefit from adhering to and promoting transparency, inclusivity, an environmental conscience, and social or community engagement. You may already be doing this as part of your business but are you highlighting that fact in any of your communications or sales conversations?

Consumers today are more aware and wary of product labels, ingredients, product claims, and service promises. Sure, they’re looking for a good price, but increasingly consumers also want to choose a business with a big heart and a small environmental footprint. It can be a win-win-win situation for your customer, the business, and our shared environment.

Martina Blog Image

Source of Graphic: Developmentcrossing.com

Weaving CSR into your daily business needn’t cost you more. It can start with simple things, like using only or mostly recycled office materials (printer paper, notepads, binders), if you have a physical business location using recycled, reusable, or second-hand materials as much as possible, keeping energy and water consumption low, and buying local products to reduce your ‘ecological footprint’ (i.e. your impact on the planet’s resources and climate). It can range from waste and pollution reduction to employees and/or business owners volunteering.

Implementing CSR

  1. Identify a relevant issue or opportunity – either something you’re passionate about or that relates to the core nature of your business, e.g. if you drive a lot to get to your clients you may consider combining appointments to reduce the amount of driving, buy a smaller more energy-efficient vehicle, or off-set your carbon emissions through a legitimate company, for example contributing to tree planting or renewable energy projects (see David Suzuki Foundation, Purchasing Carbon Offsets, http://bit.ly/1nDNPHw).
  2. Build your credibility. Which foundation or charity are you joining or donating to, and how much? Which volunteer community do you/your employees participate in?
  3. Let your clients know. Talk about what you are doing; mention it on your website, social media, and in your handout materials
  4. Reassess. Check that you’re actually impacting the issue you care about and are optimising your efforts. Are you using all the resources available? Do you have the right partnerships?

Including social and environmental responsibility into your small business needn’t be anything big or complicated; simply getting started and making it known to your customers is a good first step.

 

Sources:

AMEX Open Forum, How To Create A CSR Program For Your Small Business, http://amex.co/1gAgAuV
Canadian Business for Social Responsibility (CBSR), www.cbsr.ca
David Suzuki Foundation, www.davidsuzuki.org
Industry Canada, http://bit.ly/1hxqm3n

Martina Rowley is the founder and operator of Beach Business Hub – THE co-working space east of the Don Valley. She combined her passion and experience in the environmental sector with her community engagement side to create a local work environment where space and resources are shared. She fosters and facilitates collaboration, networking, and learning for and with small business owners and new start-ups.  Contact her at:http://www.beachbusinesshub.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter

What Your Communication Style Says About You

Martina-R.

Communication is key. Whether we communicate in writing – in letters or e-mails – or verbally, over the telephone or in person, what business owners and clients say and how we say it is important to understanding one another. Getting it completely wrong can have consequences ranging from simple misunderstandings to lost business.

While we all know how to talk, and business training teaches us what to say, what do we really learn about interpreting someone else’s communication style and what it says about their preferences in dealing with us?

In a recent Lunch & Learn, Jayne Huhtanen, a business coach with Focal Point Coaching of Toronto [http://ca.linkedin.com/in/jaynehuhtanen], addressed whether our communication style might be holding us back. Not speaking the same ‘language’ as our existing or potential customers, Jayne says, “can significantly limit your success”. To start with ourselves and recognise our own style, Jayne demonstrated the DISC profile created in the 1920s by psychologist William Marston.

The profile identifies four main communication styles: Dominant, Influential, Steady, and Conscientious. The first step is to recognise your style or that of the person you are communicating with. Then it helps to know what does and does not work when dealing with someone of that style.

  • Dominant individuals are: decisive, competitive, direct, often demanding and impatient. When dealing with a D-style it is best to be brief and to the point, focused, and logical. Keep the conversation results oriented and on topic. Do not dominate the dialogue, get emotional or touch the person.
  • Influential individuals are: sociable and talkative, impulsive, spontaneous, and emotional. When dealing with an I-style it is best to focus on the positive, show enthusiasm and smile a lot. Be warm and friendly, let him or her talk, and ask their opinion. Do not squash their enthusiasm, be negative, or focus on too much detail.
  • Steady individuals are: calm and laid-back, amiable, patient, modest, and often indecisive. When dealing with an S-style it is best to build trust, and slow down to draw out his or her opinions. Do provide reassurance and enough time to make a decision. Do not press for an immediate answer, make sudden changes, or fail to deliver on promises you make.
  • Conscientious individuals are: precise, logical, analytical, quiet, and disciplined. When dealing with a C-style it is best to present facts and data, use proven ideas, and stay on task. Do be patient, provide detailed information, and give enough time to think. Do not touch the person, be too chatty and talk about personal issues, or keep important information to yourself.

Recognising these different communication styles quickly is, of course, a challenge for anyone who is not a psychologist or otherwise trained. Nevertheless, when dealing regularly with your existing clients it will probably become quite evident which style pervades.

With some observation and a little practise you should be able to recognise which style your clients – and you! – fall under. It may help to understand that someone’s curt mannerisms are borne not out of malice but a habit they have less control over. Makes me think of the TV character Sheldon in ‘Big Bang Theory’!

 

Sources:

https://www.discprofile.com/what-is-disc/william-marston/

 

Martina Rowley is the founder and operator of Beach Business Hub – THE co-working space east of the Don Valley. She combined her passion and experience in the environmental sector with her community engagement side to create a local work environment where space and resources are shared. She fosters and facilitates collaboration, networking, and learning for and with small business owners and new start-ups.  Contact her at:http://www.beachbusinesshub.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter

Elevating Your Elevator Pitch

Martina-R.

Do you know how to ‘wow’ listeners within sixty seconds? That is all you have when introducing our business to someone new, be it in the proverbial elevator, a networking meeting, or anywhere else. It is such a short time, yet long enough to ramble on without getting your point across.

Toastmasters clubs offer a good place to practice and improve not only what you say but how you say it. As an international not-for-profit organisation they have chapters across the Greater Toronto Area (www.toastmasters.org) and provide a safe and supportive environment to take your public speaking skills from ho-hum to wow!

 

Your Delivery

The hands-on approach of Toastmasters meetings means no teacher lectures you; instead, members evaluate each other`s presentations and provide constructive feedback. For example, you may not notice how often you use filler words, for example, um, er, ah, or the North-American favourite “like”. Initially this knowledge may make you self-conscious while presenting, yet over time you will improve and reduce your use of filler words.

Body language is important, even more so if you are the main presenter at a meeting or workshop. John, the VP Education at Beaches Speeches, advises to “claim your space”, meaning watch what you do with your arms and body within your personal space, at a lectern, or even on stage. Control your movements but do not become as stiff as a tree trunk, just limit moves and gestures to emphasize your strongest points.

You have sixty seconds – make them count! Speaking fast lets you fit in more words but reduces the quality of your delivery and is harder for people to understand and process, therefore short pauses are your friend.

 

Good Content

Short and sweet does the trick. Your elevator pitch should contain just a highlight of your business services or products. Give the listener a glimpse into what you do or offer, a little tease, leaving them wanting more. Resist temptation to give a sales pitch; rather tell your audience what you can do for them by explaining a problem that you have a solution for.

Include a call for action or next step. Do you want your audience to come and look at, try out, taste, or think about something you can provide? Or are you raising funds for a special event? Tell your audience what you want them to do next. And practice, practice, practice. Say it out loud – to yourself, a friend, colleague, or record yourself and listen back. Did you include the important points your want to get across? Was it within sixty seconds?

You can see more details in 6 Tips for Perfecting Your Elevator Pitch (www.entrepreneur.com/article/228070) or join your nearest Toastmasters chapter.

The important thing is that you get out there and just do it! After all, practice makes perfect and attending networking meetings on a regular basis is the best place for honing your speaking skills.

 

Martina Rowley is the founder and operator of Beach Business Hub – THE co-working space east of the Don Valley. She combined her passion and experience in the environmental sector with her community engagement side to create a local work environment where space and resources are shared. She fosters and facilitates collaboration, networking, and learning for and with small business owners and new start-ups.  Contact her at:http://www.beachbusinesshub.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter

Help! Where’s My Work-Life Balance?

MVR_profile-pic.2_Nov2012_-_Copy

New business owners start out on their own for many reasons; one of them may be having more control over one’s time, that work-life balance.

According to a recent radio segment by Calgary’s News Talk 770 and interview with successful entrepreneur, philanthropist, and former Dragons Den ‘dragon’ W. Brett Wilson, work-life balance no longer exists. Wilson, a self-declared workaholic, explains his new approach: “I blend my work and play. I’ll be working every day while I’m in Australia but that allows me to be in Australia.”

One could argue that work-life balance has not become extinct, it has merely evolved. With technology having reached new heights, most business and communication now takes place via Internet and e-mail and the proverbial 9-to-5 job has become a relic. Business owners can and do take their work wherever they go: the golf course, home, and on vacation. The rapidly growing number of solopreneurs working from their home-based offices or dining-room tables, with 24/7 access to and tempting/distracting visibility of their workspace, has further blurred any lines of separation between work and life.

As Wilson points out though, the balance is there for the taking – it just requires more self-discipline and boundaries than in the past. In an article in The Art of Magazine, Fall 2013, Mitch Joel, author of the book Ctrl Alt Delete – Reboot Your Business. Reboot Your Life. Your Future Depends On It, uses the metaphor of a three-legged stool. Without the right blend of the three legs – family and friends, profession, community – Joel says the stool (aka life) will topple.

Business owners and solopreneurs therefore have to take charge of balancing their work hours with their personal lives to stay physically, mentally, and emotionally healthy and maintain good relationships all around. Just as Justitia’s scales need to stay in balance in the judicial system, so do our life scales. Piling tons of work onto one side, and only a few ounces of personal time on the opposite will otherwise have us hitting the ground and rock bottom in no time.

To improve your ‘balance’ and work-life blend, try implementing the following:

  • Schedule breaks: Set an alarm on your cellphone or computer. When it rings, step away from your desk/workspace for at least 5-10 minutes every couple of hours.
  • Turn off your cell phone and laptop during your downtime: Vibrating phones and flashing indicator lights are too great a temptation!
  • Don’t procrastinate exercise and workouts: Schedule them, just like any business meeting! Arrange a date and time to meet a friend at the gym, yoga class [insert your preferred exercise here]. Whether you work out together or not, this makes you accountable to show up.
  • Take your personal time just as seriously as your work. Well, maybe don’t be serious when you’re off work but see it as important as anything else you do.

So in the New Year, take charge of your personal time and tip the work-life scales in your, your health’s, and your family’s favour.  Happy New Year!

Martina Rowley is the founder and operator of Beach Business Hub – THE coworking space east of the Don Valley. She combined her passion and experience in the environmental sector with her community engagement side to create a local work environment where space and resources are shared. She fosters and facilitates collaboration, networking, and learning for and with small business owners and new startups.  Contact her at:http://www.beachbusinesshub.ca, on Facebook and on Twitter