Canadian Small Business Women

Connection, Synergy, Community

Hanna Guerra: Canadian Small Business Woman of the Month of August 2016

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Hanna has a deep and varied skill set in the local and digital marketing arena where she specializes in putting together marketing strategies and implementing and executing lead generation activities for various franchise systems. Hanna is the Founder and CEO of 24/7 Virtual Marketing (www.247virtualmarketing.com), a company that helps entrepreneurs, small to medium sized businesses, franchisors, and franchisees get more leads and convert those leads into sales. Hanna is also a certified Get Clients Now! Facilitator and is excited to launch her Get Clients Now! 28-Day Program in mid to late September 2016.

A couple of years ago when Hanna dove in headlong into the exciting – and sometimes frustrating – world of marketing and business development consultancy, she’s already had years of experience building her own successful brick and mortar business from the ground up. Her early success was due to consistent analysis and adjustment of marketing activities as well as implementation of systems and processes.

While Hanna enjoyed the crazy busy hours of business ownership of a brick and mortar business with high six-figure annual income and double digits monthly expenditures, she felt the pull to change for her growing family. Hanna has a son and a daughter who are growing way too fast! With her current business development and marketing consultancy business, she enjoys flexible hours working in her home office and in a quaint office near Square One, Mississauga.

Though she believes that one can’t truly achieve work and life balance, Hanna is okay with that…as long as she is there for her kids and the kids know that no matter how busy business and life gets, they are her priority. For more information on Hanna’s marketing consultancy and group coaching programs, please visit her site: www.HannaHelps.com.

Our Q & A with Hanna:

*What inspires you?

I am constantly inspired by business owners who show commitment and grit to do what it takes to move their business, their vision, their goals forward.

*As a small business owner, what achievements make you most proud?

The day I started saying “no” to the wrong clients was the day my business started to really move forward!
*What advice would you give to other aspiring small business owners?

Know your strengths, know your weaknesses and find a way to develop processes and systems that address these strengths and weaknesses. And, truly, don’t undermine yourself.

*What new things can we look forward to from your business in the upcoming year?

I am truly excited to launch my group coaching programs as a Get Clients Now! facilitator. My 28-Day lead generation marketing programs for entrepreneurs and small business will truly help them understand what they need to do and develop a consistent way of generating leads for their business.

 

What’s your gratitude policy?

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Customer loyalty is something that we all strive for. Whether you’re a small business owner or a CEO of a multi-billion dollar empire, we are nothing if we can’t retain our current base of customers or clients. So how do we do this? Is it about points programs, birthday or holiday freebies and membership discounts, or is there more to it?

We’ve all heard the complaints about some of the loyalty programs out there. The notion that there are self-serving and benefit the company more than the customer isn’t anything new. You know the ones I’m talking about – where you feel like you have to spend thousands of dollars to earn something worth a few hundred (if you’re lucky!).

So how do we show our gratitude to loyal customers in a way that makes them feel good about their continued patronage of your business? The best thing to do of course is ask them! Surveys are a great way to find out exactly what your customers want when it comes to loyalty programs. We could think we have put together the best program in the world, but if it doesn’t leave our clients feeling appreciated, then we’ve missed the mark!

While surveys are a great tool, you have to provide incentive for people to complete them. Again, just like the loyalty programs, the prize for completing the survey has to be something that your customers actually want! Look at what your most popular product or service is and see what kind of reward you can create that will allow you to get enough responses to your survey that you are confident it actually represents your client base.

Just like any relationship, the relationship we have with our customers and clients has to be cultivated on a regular basis. It doesn’t have to stop with loyalty programs.   We can actually start picking up the phone and reaching out to our customers. This isn’t a sales conversation; this is really an informal survey. It’s a conversation that asks how things are going for them in relation to the product or service you provide. Ask if there’s any way that you could improve their satisfaction with the business they do with you. Actually tell them that you are grateful for their continued business!

I’ve heard it said that any relationship without reciprocity will die and I believe that applies to all relationships, personal and professional. Customer loyalty cannot be taken for granted. The competition out there is fierce and there are limits to how low we can take our prices and how fast we can deliver our services. If we want to retain our loyal customer base, we have to ensure that they know that we value their business. They need to know that we’re not taking the fact that they spend their time and money with us for granted.

I’ve heard it said that gratitude is the greatest multiplier of good. When a customer not only gets quality products and services, but also feels appreciated and respected by the company they do business with, it can only benefit you and your business. When potential customers here how much you care about and respect the people you do business with, they’ll be lining up to work with you!

Sandra Dawes is a certified life coach specializing in helping women who feel unfulfilled with their 9-5 follow their dreams and pursue their passions. She holds an Honours BA, an MBA as well as a certificate in Dispute Resolution.She has completed her first book,Embrace Your Destiny: 12 Steps to Living the Life You Deserve! Connect: www.embraceyourdestiny.ca www.facebook.com/embraceyourdestiny www.facebook.com/embraceyourdestinythebook www.twitter.com/sandradawes

ELIZAVETA DORINSKAYA: Canadian Small Business Woman of the Month of September 2014

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Elizaveta immigrated to Canada 4 years ago from Russia, right after high school when she was 17 years old. Her family is still in her home country, but her mom visits. When she came to Toronto she got accepted into George Brown College, where she chose Business Administration program. Courtesy to her wonderful professors, with whom she still keep in touch, she fell in love with marketing. She graduated from the program, specializing in marketing and decided to continue her education. Currently, she is a 45h year BBA/marketing student at Ryerson University. She really loves marketing and thinks that no business can exist and develop without it. Fortunately, everybody in CeelDeel understands the importance of marketing and every single member of the team is involved in it.  They value corporate culture and our CEO frequently assigns “readings” for the team which is usually an inspiring business book written by successful entrepreneurs.

Eizaveta is a shareholder of the company called CeelDeel and is very passionate about it.  CeelDeel is a Toronto-based start up company. It is a consumer network, which helps people to find service professionals in their area. Users simply need to submit a “shout” (request for service) and all businesses at once will be contacted and be able to respond to this need. Users don’t need to search the web, just from one website to another, look through the numerous ads and all the clutter.  Shouting on CeelDeel lets you make your request without wasting your valuable time by contacting them one by one.   Let the businesses that are ready to help you know that you need them.   Let these businesses offer you the best price and the best service. And, by the way, It is completely free for consumers!
At the same time CeelDeel helps business owners to save their time and money on advertising. We know that advertising is expensive and we want business owners to say: “Good Bye!” to old, traditional marketing, such as flyers that go to trash or emails that consumers associate with spam! We offer a new, effective way to market your business, make your advertising targeted directly to those consumers, who need you! Creating a business account is absolutely FREE!When you create a business profile on CeelDeel, you will be automatically indexed by search engines and added to our platform where you can start reading the shouts that consumers are submitting  and you will be able to increase your online exposure through our platform.
Our Q & A with Elizaveta
*What inspires you?
There are different things that inspire me every day. Inspiration can be found everywhere- from your favourite music or a smile from a stranger that you met on your way to work. However above all of that, my inspiration comes from my team! I work with wonderful people, very enthusiastic professionals, who believe in our company and its success! We share our thoughts and ideas, encourage each other and celebrate happy moments of our lives! All of us think that team building is very important to develop efficiency and effectiveness in achieving a common goal.Therefore, we frequently get together to relax, forget about work-related issues and have some fun.
*As a small business owner, what achievements make you most proud?
I’m proud that I became a member of this company at the age of 20. I believe that joining this company was one of the best opportunities that I got in this life so far, and I’m very happy that I was brave enough to take it. I know that I will do everything possible (and I believe that “If you can dream it, you can do it!”) to make this company successful, because I see how hard everybody in my team is working and I want all of us to get rewarded.

*What advice would you give to other aspiring small business owners?

The best advice I can give to other small business women is to be brave, be focused on what you are doing (don’t just jump at every opportunity that comes across), do what you love (it’s your business, better fall in love with it!), know what you do (every aspect of your business!) AND NEVER EVER be afraid to ask for advice if you don’t know something!
*What new things can we look forward to from your business in the upcoming year?
We are anticipating to launch our website in the next month (currently we are only subscribing customers and businesses to our temporarily website in order to make sure that there are enough people interested in our business idea). We are now in the last stage of development, trying to make sure that there are no bugs, issues or mistakes that can frustrated our users. It takes a lot of time and effort, since our website has a smart program that automatically understands consumer’s wants and needs in any way they decide to phrase them. Therefore, our biggest upcoming milestone is the launch of an actual website.
After that, we hope to expand our business further into Canada and let people from outside of Toronto to enjoy the benefits of CeelDeel.

Praveeni Perera – Canadian Small Business Woman of the Month of February 2014

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Praveeni Perera is a dynamic young entrepreneur. She is the CEO and co-founder of Professional Edge Consulting a corporate training company based in Ottawa offering training and consulting services to clients around the world. PEC provides training and consultancy services in three main focus areas : cultural intelligence, international protocol, and business etiquette.

Prior to launching her own venture in June 2011, Praveeni worked in the non-profit sector. She took on the role of  Project Director for a NGO heading international development projects in Africa and Asia.

Whilst pursuing her undergraduate degree in Biology, her work in the non-profit sector instilled in her an interest in cultural intelligence and intercultural relations.  Having always harbored an affinity for the business world Praveeni decided to further her education completing a MBA in International Business, which allowed her to combine her interest in cultural intelligence with her love for the corporate world. Praveeni is also a certified International Protocol and Corporate Etiquette Consultant.

In addition to her career Ms. Perera plays an active role in her community having clocked many hours as a volunteer at both the Ottawa Hospital and the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario. Praveeni currently sits on the Board of Directors for Immigrant Women Services Ottawa, a non-profit organization that provides immigrant and visible minority women and their families in Ottawa with the tools and support to achieve their full potential as members of Canadian society and participates in the elimination of all forms of abuse against women and children.

In her spare time Praveeni enjoys the arts; having played in a stage band in high school she has a great appreciation for music.  She enjoys writing and is a contributing writer for The Professional Edge business blog and  Restaurants and Hotels Magazine. Her articles have been featured online by MBAJobs.ca

Praveeni believes that a work –life balance is essential for success. She credits her achievements both personal and professional, to effective time management skills along with her driven and motivated personality.

OUR Q & A WITH PRAVEENI

*What inspires you?

Hearing about the successes of other entrepreneurs and business leaders inspires me. I think there’s a great deal to be learnt from the successes and failures of  leaders such as Jack Welch at GE, Richard Branson at Virgin, and even Canada’s own Arlene Dickinson.  Learning about the different styles of leadership they employed to tackle each situation is a great motivator for me.

*As a small business owner, what achievements make you most proud?

I’m most proud of launching and running our international workshops in South Asia. I had no idea what the South Asian market would be like going in and I took a risk that paid off. Although there were roadblocks  along the way I was able to successfully launch Professional Edge Consulting’s PR campaign, meet with HR leaders and host a myriad of successful workshops. This was a great challenge for me and a fantastic learning experience.
*What advice would you give to other aspiring small business owners?

The advice I would give other aspiring small business owners is to know themselves and their brand. In order to be able to market something successfully you have to know your brand inside out. You need to be aware of what services you are selling, who you’re selling to and be able to adapt your strategy to suit your market and audience.

Networking is also essential to growing your business. I would encourage aspiring entrepreneurs to be confident, get out there and build the connections they need to be successful in their field. There’s no substitute for hard work.
*What new things can we look forward to from your business in the upcoming year?

There will be a greater focus on cultural intelligence in our workshop offerings this year. For example we will be highlighting programs such as Let’s Talk It Out our conflict resolution workshop, and Lost In Translation, which focuses on communication. I am also in the process of authoring my first book on networking. You can also look forward to my monthly blog posts at The Professional Edge.

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