Canadian Small Business Women

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16 Inspiring Quotes for 2016!

Praveeni

Happy New Year! It’s time for a fresh start once again and what better way to kick off 2016 than with a little positivity and inspiration. Every new year is a chance to hit the re-set button, clear our the clutter and negativity in our lives and look at the world, ourselves and our businesses with a fresh set of eyes. Here’s my list of 16 inspiring quotes for 2016 :

  1. “For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day.For poise, walk with the knowledge that you will never walk alone” – Sam Levenson
  2. “ Be yourself everyone else is already taken “ – Oscar Wilde
  3. “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible !” – Audrey Hepburn
  4. “ Be kind to those who are cruel to you, for they know not what kindness is ” – Praveeni Perera
  5. “Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you” – Margaret Thatcher
  6. “ Let no man pull you low enough to hate him “ – Martin Luther King
  7. “Always be a first rate version of yourself instead of a second rate version of someone else” – Judy Garland
  8. “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t ” – Margaret Thatcher
  9. “Success isn’t about how much money you make, it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives” – Michelle Obama
  10. “Don’t waste time putting others down when you could be building yourself up “ – Praveeni Perera
  11. “ A girl should be two things : classy and fabulous” – Coco Chanel
  1. “The attributes of a great lady may still be found in the rule of the four S’s: Sincerity, Simplicity, Sympathy, and Serenity” – Emily Post
  2. “Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness” – Oprah Winfrey
  3. “Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman” – Coco Chanel
  4. “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much” – Oscar Wilde
  5. “What other people think of you is none of your business “ – Amy Hatvany

Praveeni Perera is the CEO and co-founder of Professional Edge Consulting a corporate training company based in Ottawa offering training and coaching services to clients around the world.  She can be reached via Website, Twitter, Facebook or her Blog.

15 Inspirational Quotes for 2015

Praveeni

Happy New Year! A new year is a chance for all of us to wipe the slate clean and get a fresh start! A time to get rid of everything and everyone that was a bad or negative influence in our lives and move forward. It’s also a chance for us to have new experiences and make new friends. 2015 gives us all an opportunity to be better people; people who lift others up instead of bringing them down. Here are 15 inspirational quotes to help you have a prosperous and positive 2015 :

  1. “For attractive lips, speak words of kindness. For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people. For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry. For beautiful hair, let a child run his fingers through it once a day.For poise, walk with the knowledge that you will never walk alone” – Sam Levenson
  2. “ Be yourself everyone else is already taken “ – Oscar Wilde
  3. “Nothing is impossible, the word itself says ‘I’m possible !” – Audrey Hepburn
  4. “ A lady’s worth is not measured by wealth or social status, but in the way she treats others” – Praveeni Perera
  5. “Don’t follow the crowd, let the crowd follow you” – Margaret Thatcher
  6. “ Let no man pull you low enough to hate him “ – Martin Luther King
  7. “Always be a first rate version of yourself instead of a second rate version of someone else” – Judy Garland
  8. “Being powerful is like being a lady. If you have to tell people you are, you aren’t ” – Margaret Thatcher
  9. “Success isn’t about how much money you make, it’s about the difference you make in people’s lives” – Michelle Obama
  10. “Don’t waste time putting others down when you could be building yourself up “ – Praveeni Perera
  11. “ A girl should be two things : classy and fabulous” – Coco Chanel
  1. “The attributes of a great lady may still be found in the rule of the four S’s: Sincerity, Simplicity, Sympathy, and Serenity” – Emily Post
  2. “Think like a queen. A queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness” – Oprah Winfrey
  3. “Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman” – Coco Chanel
  4. “Always forgive your enemies; nothing annoys them so much” – Oscar Wilde

Praveeni Perera is the CEO and co-founder of Professional Edge Consulting a corporate training company based in Ottawa offering training and coaching services to clients around the world.  She can be reached via Website, Twitter, Facebook or her Blog.

Why We Keep Getting Limited Results, and What You Can Do Differently Starting Now in this Year!

yvonne

Have you ever wondered why you’re not getting the results you want despite doing your best or following the ‘guaranteed’ formulas and products everyone else is using and getting results?

Do you feel procrastination, lack of time, fear of failure or lack of finances is holding you back?

Or why when you have been working so hard to get promoted or kick-start your business idea, but still not happening?

Or you can’t seem lose weight and keep it off, yet others are experiencing great results?

It may not be what you think!

I too have struggled. I know the feeling. But thankfully my outcomes are now different because of the simple but foundational principles I was fortunate to apply, and I began to see fantastic outcomes; getting multiple promotions in my career, kick-starting my business and seeing the results and momentum build, and the hardest had to be losing up to 90lbs.

I have discovered from my life, and working with many individuals and organisations that a significant part of getting our desired results is not in finding the solution to the problem or knowing ‘how-to’, but lies with the person and mindset of the person who has the solution.

Have you heard the story of the two salesmen who were sent to a foreign place to sell shoes? The first salesman arrives and sees that nobody on the island wears shoes, and he immediately sends a message back to the office saying “Dead end. Nobody wears shoes here”. The second salesman arrives, sees the same situation and immediately sends a message back to the office saying “Magnificent opportunity! Loads of shoes to be sold”. What was the difference between these two salesmen? Mindset!

Yes, their mindset. Mindset is what differentiates two people with the same opportunity. Mindset is what allowed the likes of Oprah Winfrey, Walt Disney, Michael Jordan, President Barack Obama and Albert Einstein recognise opportunities that others did not, made them persist, and succeed in the face countless rejections, adversity and opposition. Mindset is also what finally allowed me achieve success using existing knowledge and ‘how-to’ information available in the public domain.

A right mindset is foundational to us getting and exceeding the outcomes we desire; it will turn things around and help us become creative in finding solutions to barriers such as procrastination, overcoming fear, finding the time and resources we need, and more.

In my book coming out soon on mindset, I go into more detail on mindset principles and examples that individuals like Walt Disney, Michael Phelps presently regarded as the greatest Olympian, and Nick Vujicic, born without arms or legs, have used to achieve significant success and how you also can easily apply these same principles to your specific situation and take your outcomes from good to great!

Please leave a comment below: Have you been successful in achieving your goals, what worked for you? Or what are you currently struggling with, and what barriers are you coming against?

Comment below. I would love to hear, discuss and share insights with you.

 

To learn about Yvonne’s latest book on Changing your Mindset for greater results, visit http://www.oliveblue.com/changeyourmindset/

Yvonne is an Author, Speaker, Change Consultant & John Maxwell Leadership Coach who is passionate about working with Individuals, Entrepreneurs and Organisations to provide the tools and help implement change, drive results and achieve their goals.   She can be reached at: www.oliveblue.com . www.facebook.com/oliveblueinc . www.twitter.com/oliveblueinc.www.youtube.com/ChangeYouWantTV

 

Stepping outside your comfort zone

sandra

If you’ve been in business for a while it can be tempting to maintain the status quo.  If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, right? WRONG! Like anything, if you don’t try new things, growth in your business is going to be challenging to achieve.  Referrals are a great source of new clients, but what else can you do, especially when you don’t have deep pockets for a hard hitting marketing campaign?

Most entrepreneurs acknowledge the need to get out and network in order to gain more visibility, but what else can you do?  Maybe it’s hosting an open house or doing a free information night where you get more than 30 seconds to speak about your business.  As much as public speaking is something many of us would prefer not to do, it is a great opportunity to give potential clients and referral sources a better idea of what it is we do. We don’t have to be Tony Robbins or Oprah Winfrey caliber speakers in order to do presentations.  All we have to do is be authentic and provide valuable (not sales heavy) information.

Maybe it’s time to try your hand at video?  Whether you’re doing YouTube videos, or the short-attention-span friendly Vine, it is another great way to get visibility for yourself and your business.  The benefit of video is that it extends your reach beyond places you can hit locally!  If you’re business can handle global customers then you need to be on a global platform.  Sharing photos on Facebook and catchy 140 character snippets on Twitter can give potential clients an idea of who you are, but video is a great way to really show potential clients more about you and what you do.

For some, blogging is the challenge.  You don’t have to be a Pulitzer Prize winning writer to start a blog.  I feel I was built for blogging.  Writing 20-page essays were always a struggle for me.  Short and to the point is my sweet spot 😉  Like the above suggestions, this works best when you’re being you, sharing tips, tools and knowledge based on your personal experiences, not rhetoric or theory.  I find writing the easiest way to express myself, thanks to the “undo” function and the delete button.  Blogging for me is like a journal entry that I’ve decided to share with anyone who wants to read it.  I hope others find my musings helpful, often it’s a personal reminder of things I need to do for myself 🙂

This is by no means an extensive list of things you can do to stretch your comfort zone.  I list the three above because they seem to be some of the top challenges that a lot of entrepreneurs are struggling with.  If you’re already doing the talks, videos and blogging, what else are you going to do to push the limits on your comfort zone?  Stretching yourself is not only going to benefit your business, but it’s also going to help your personal growth.  Every time we push ourselves, we reduce our limitations and build more confidence to see what else is possible.  What are you going to do expand your comfort zone today?

 

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

Honing your talent … What Bill Gates, Mother Theresa and Oprah have in common!

timthumb

Heard the saying “your gift will make a way for you”?

True or not? I dare say that is what the likes of Bill Gates, Mother Theresa and Oprah have in common; their gifts – and plenty of hard work – contributed to making a way for them.

Operating in our gifts can enable us perform at our optimum, perhaps it is because we are doing what we have been naturally gifted to do, and most importantly, we are touching and changing lives, be it in our community, the business world, or workplace.

We have each been given talent(s), and in order for it to be of value, for it to open doors for us or make an impact, we need to not only activate it, we also need to continuously  nurture and operate in it (using some elbow grease). I am reminded of the parable found in Matthew 25:14-28 where a man gives three of his servants five, three and one talent respectively, but only the servants with the five and two talents trade with their talents to bring about returns (ROI). On the other hand, the servant with one talent does nothing with his; giving the excuse of not wanting to lose it, he hides it away and the talent lays dormant. And this leads to his master taking away the talent and giving to the others who had the five and two talents! Wow … is it not interesting how the rich seem to keep getting richer, and sometimes the poor remain status quo?

Are we like the servant who has an excuse for hiding away their talent? Are we hiding behind one excuse or the other on why we are not doing anything with our God given talents? Are we scared of perhaps failing?

We have to be willing to take a chance even if it means failing, but like John Maxwell says in his book ‘failing forward’, we sometimes need to fail forward in order to succeed. We learn from our experiences, hone our talents, and prepare to take another leap forward again.

We have each been given one, two or more talents to make a difference, and the world or someone out there is waiting for you, so take a bold step today and do your thing! “…For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required”!

Yvonne loves and enjoys working with working with Individuals, Entrepreneurs, and Organizations to achieve desired results. She is a results driven High Performance Consultant & Coach, and straight shooting Speaker whose first objective is her client’s success.  She can be reached at:  www.facebook.com/oliveblueinc,www.twitter.com/oliveblueinc

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