The 7 Deadly Sins in Business.

At last week’s NB Entrepreneurs Summit in Fredericton, I talked about why entrepreneurship is a sunrise industry, how business is changing and becoming more human, and three Must-Dos for those who want to succeed in this new decade.

I also cited The 7 Deadly Sins in Business. Here’s a summary of that list:

Deadly Sin 1. Assuming that people want your product: Many people think their idea for a new product or service, or even a business, will sell itself. It just isn’t so. If you're going to launch something new, it should be because you know the market wants and needs your services. Not because you simply love it.

Do market research. Get customer feedback. Ask tough questions. Assume you're wrong.

2. Skimping on the business plan: Before you launch a new product, you have to understand who the market is, and why. And you must know the best ways to reach these prospects. Sadly, many entrepreneurs would rather do than think. So they waste a lot of time and money selling before they really understand who they should be targeting or how to get their attention.

For each product or initiative, you need to prepare a separate marketing plan.

The good news: when you sweat the details, you usually find you have many more opportunities than you thought.

3. Losing focus: Stick to what you know, and get the basics right before you diversify or start chasing shiny new opportunities.

Sin 4: Hire people who are just like you: Fussy, numbers-oriented people tend to hire other analytical people like themselves. If you're impulsive, fast-moving, and instincts-driven, you tend to hire people like that. Either way, you miss out on the balance that all organizations need.

Sin 5. Never make a one-sided deal: You can't build a sustainable business if you're not creating value for others.

Always ask if the deal you're working on will lead to a stronger relationship – or a weaker one. Only do the deals that make your relationships stronger.

Sin 6. Trying to do everything alone: Let your employees/team members know what’s going on in your business. They may surprise you by sharing the load and suggesting great new solutions. Don't keep them in the dark, especially when times are tough.

Sin 7: Not making time for yourself and your family: Entrepreneurs often justify their long days and hard work by saying they're doing it for their family. I have news for you: they’d rather have you around more often! Do the hard thing, and get home on time for dinner tonight.

Help for Toronto-area Startups

Note from Thursday afternoon: Thanks to commenter Joel Clements for pointing out the following event has been cancelled. I will leave the post up for now and then let you know if it gets rescheduled.

To help build stronger startups, Toronto’s top business advisors will gather in Markham on May 12 for The Biz Pitch Forum.

This first-of-its-kind event will provide startup entrepreneurs with new business connections, one-on-one advice and next-steps guidance on their business ideas. There will also be matchmaking services that put entrepreneurs in touch with financial, legal, investment and government experts to support their successful growth.

The Biz Pitch Forum is designed to help both people who are just launching a new business as well as small young companies looking to grow to the next level, says Bob Glandfield, CEO of the Innovation Synergy Centre in Markham, a not-for-profit business advisory centre that is organizing the event.

“There’s no one-size-fits-all secret to business success,” says Glandfield. He says it’s important to talk to people who have ‘been there.’ “Entrepreneurs and small business owners need to identify and understand their individual strengths and weaknesses, and learn how to leverage key success factors for growth.”

Registration for The Biz Pitch Forum is $35. For more information or to register, visit http://www.iscm.ca/.

Starting a social-media business

At a function yesterday I was approached by a young business-school grad looking for some advice about starting a social-media consulting firm. How, she asked, should she start?

My advice was fairly simple. Pick a niche. Any niche. In a city the size of Toronto, you can't set out to serve the whole city. With limited time and scarce marketing dollars, you have to focus your attention on a market segment that really needs your help, and which you are uniquely positioned to serve.

Choosing a target market helps you nail down the specific needs of that market and the best way to reach them; only then can you target your message appropriately.

So I asked her what her interests were, her industry experience, where she was from. And then I suggested she use criteria such as those to select her niche, and work on a few compelling reasons why she is the best person to serve the needs of that market. Maybe it’s the community where she grew up, maybe it’s a sector she studied in school, maybe it’s the industry that gave her her first summer job.

Once you know what your market is, I suggested, figure out an approach. What needs do these people (or businesses) have, and what tools can you provide to help them? Figure out a compelling message that highlights two things:
• Your customers’ specific needs;
• Your personal expertise and abilities.

Then start getting your message out, through whatever channels best serve your target market: direct mail, posters, website with search engine optimization, key influencers, email, video, postcards, press releases, etc. Include a compelling, time-limited offer (say, a coupon for a discount or a free consultation) that will encourage interested prospects to call NOW!!

If you are going to say you're a social media guru, you'd better prove it. You’ll need a professional-looking website, a compelling Facebook page, a series of razor-sharp videos on YouTube, and a tantalizing Twitter feed.

You need to demonstrate your proficiency and creativity. I've met web designers who had loads of excuses for having lousy websites, but I would never hire one of them.

And of course collect all the testimonials you can and pursue every referral opportunity. Once your business is underway, you will need all the positive feedback you can get- for your own confidence as well as your clients’.

Any advice to add?

Best Entrepreneurial Quotes, Week 13

"Chinese suppliers build good relationships only as long as it is in their interest to maintain them, so it helps to construct relationships that will deliver enduring mutual benefits."
Marc Heinke, President & CEO, Precidio Inc., Brampton, Ont.

In an interview for an Ontario government report on leading growth firms, Heinke summed up the challenges facing established companies as they come to grips with foreign suppliers and a global economy. (Precidiio produces and sells tableware and drinkware.)

Says Heinke: “Some of the companies that are selling us blanks are now putting websites together and sending direct transmissions to all of our customers, saying: “Why buy from the in-between person when you can buy direct from us? You’ll save a lot of money.”

The solution? Know your market well; build great relationships. Have responsive customer service so that customers know you have their back. And create innovative products and market-leading designs that set you above the knock-offs.

“We need to move away from commodity goods," says Heinke. "We’re developing high-end lines and re-establishing ourselves as the leaders in these melamine and acrylic products in North America.”

The Sum of all Fears

Here are the remaining nine of Rivers Corbetts' 13 fears of Entrepreneurs

9. Fear of No Money
Be like a squirrel, says Corbett: Stow resources away for hard times. Before you need them.

8. No one will invest in me
Maybe not, but they might just invest in a sound business idea with a solid plan.

7. The timing isn't right
“There is always an excuse not to start a business,” says Corbett. “The timing is never perfect…
You deal with it and you move on.”

6. I don't like risk.
Jobs are riskier, says Corbett, “because someone else is in control…The only person who can fire me is me.”

5. Am I ready for the ups and downs?
4. My family and friends will think I am crazy
“They don't want you to get what they can't have,” said Corbett. “They don't want you getting head in life.”

3. Can I still have time for family and for me?
Make sure you schedule it in, he says. From experience.

2. I can't sell!
Embrace it. Find people who love to sell and incent them to help you.

No. 1: Failure!!!
Don't worry about failure, he says. “The road to success is paved with fantastic failures.”

The 13 Fears of Entrepreneurs

Rivers Corbett is the energetic Fredericton entrepreneur (Chefs Group) who put together the NB Entrepreneurs Summit, and hopes it will be the first of many. His goal: to create a vibrant and savvy entrepreneurial climate that will make New Brunswick the small business capital of Canada.

He gave the pre-lunch speech today on the 13 fears of Entrepreneurs – and why they aren't really that scary. “If you can deal with these fears,” he says, “you're going to be successful.”

Fear no. 13: Do we really want to do this? (Is being an entrepreneur right for you?)

It’s ok to ask that question, says Corbett. Any big change in your life will be traumatic, challenging. Entrepreneurship, he promises, is not as scary as it’s portrayed.

“The first thing I tell new entrepreneurs is to say yes to that yearning. Write a journal for 30 days. Make notes about the shift you're thinking of.”

Don't forget to visualize success: what does it look like to you?

Fear 12. Am I doing the wrong business?

Make sure you have a passion for your business, says Corbett. He knows this first-hand – he says he’s lost a lot of money over the years working on the wrong businesses. “Find out that passion,” he says. “Identify business opportunities with your heart, then let your head take over.”

11. Can I do this? Am I good enough?

The answer’s no, says Corbett – unless you can do it with a team of people.

10. Rejection

“How many people here have been rejected in your life?” he asked the crowd. Almost everyone put on their hand. “Exactly,” said Corbett. “So why are we so afraid of it?”

Steve Palmer live! at the NB Summit

A little more from Steve Palmer:

What kept him going up the long, slow grinding hike to the top of Kilimanjaro?

Knowing that he had promised 200 backers and friends to lay silver crosses at the top of the mountain representing their loved ones. Lesson: Having a higher purpose can get you through when your original commitment starts to slip.

The last the hours up the mountain, in the cold dark, were agony. One slow step at a time, move your left leg, move your right leg, do it again, step by step. Lesson: Positive self-talk can help you surpass the greatest challenges.

Nearing the top of Kilimanjaro, says Palmer, “We were two miles above the clouds.” Seeing how high he had already climbed helped inspire him to reach the top. “As an entrepreneur,” says Palmer, “it’s always good to look back and see how far you've come.”

He recommended this mantra when you feel discouraged in your business: “I'm not where I want to be, but I sure am farther along than I used to be.”

After Palmer summited, one of the guides told him he always knew Palmer would make it. “I could tell by your attitude,” he said. “The people who make it to the top of Mt Kilimanjaro are not the strongest people, but the ones with the best attitude.”

If you have a mission in life, says Harper, and you want to commit yourself to its success, tell other people. “You want to commit yourself: Tell 500 people you're going to climb Mt Kilimanjaro - that’s a mission.”

“It’s not a mission if you keep it to yourself. That’s only a wish.”

Live from the New Brunswick Entrepreneurs’ Summit

I am live-blogging the New Brunswick Entrepreneurs’ Summit at Kingswood Lodge, just outside Fredericton, NB. There’s 100 eager, (mostly) young entrepreneurs here, ready to listen to great speakers and share ideas for building stronger businesses.

The founder, Rivers Corbett of Chefs Group, got things rolling at 8.30 sharp. First speaker is Steven Palmer, an insurance executive with the Safety Group in Hartland, NB.

Three years ago Palmer climbed Kilimanjaro with a group of friends and family. It’s the hardest thing he’s ever done. He prepared for a year, through regular walking (20 miles a week) and trips to the gym. He made it- but he credits the Navy Seals training regimen with enabling him to get it done.

1. Be crystal clear on what the mission is. (“My mission was: to get to 19,310 feet.”)

2. You have to have sufficient resources to get the job done.

3. The Seals build a framework of trust and safety in the group
(“The Navy makes clear that they will always get their people back; they’ll do whatever it takes. “That creates a climate for risk-taking.”)

4. Refuse to quit. (“Persistence is the greatest attribute that an entrepreneur has.”)

Why Entrepreneurs Should Focus on Talent Management

A guest post by Paul Loucks, President and CEO, Halogen Software

With everything that's involved in starting up and running a business, it's easy to overlook the importance of talent management, especially when your company is small. But research is identifying some compelling reasons for putting good talent management practices and processes in place, right from the start.

What is talent management? It’s a full set of processes and management practices that support employee performance, development and recognition, from hire to retire. And it’s essential in today’s business world:

• The Hackett Group recently reported that companies with more mature talent management capabilities have on average18% higher earnings, 54% greater net profit margins, and greater return on equity and assets than their counterparts without mature capabilities.

• The Aberdeen Group's latest research finds that companies that integrate their talent management processes see significantly greater performance gains, and can measure a correlation between their talent management efforts and business operational results.

• IBM, HCI, IDC and others have shared similar findings.

Here's why talent management is so important.

* Give Employees the Direction, Feedback and Development They Need to Succeed

Study after study has shown that employees are more productive, effective and engaged when:

• they have clear goals and know what is expected of them in their work;
• they receive regular feedback about their work, what they are doing well and areas for improvement;
• they are given opportunities to develop, to prepare for career progression and to address skill gaps.

Good talent management formalizes these processes and ensures employees have what they need to develop and succeed. It includes the setting of SMART goals, identification of competencies key to the role and the organization, and establishment of development plans. It also provides employees with regular, formal feedback on their performance and encourages an ongoing dialogue on performance between the employee and their manager. All of this contributes to higher employee performance, productivity and engagement

Align Your Workforce
Having goals isn't enough. Effective talent management helps you align your workforce by tangibly linking each employee's goals to the organization's higher-level goals, mission and values. This gives employees a larger context for their work and helps them see the meaning and value of their contributions. For the organization, it ensures that everyone's efforts are focused on achieving the organization's mission, vision and values, not just completing tasks and collecting a pay cheque.

Develop Key Competencies
As our products and services become increasingly commoditized, our people become our only sustainable competitive advantage. In light of this, it becomes all the more important to identify and cultivate key competencies in our employees, right from the start. Mature talent management uses competencies as the keystones for job descriptions, performance appraisals, development plans and management, and succession plans. It helps your organization ensure you have strength in the competencies that set you apart from the competition.

Identify and Retain High-Potential, High-Performing Employees
Even in tough economic times, retaining your high potential and high performing employees can be a challenge. Yet these are the very employees who are key to your organization's continued success. Talent management helps by allowing you to accurately identify your high-potential and high-performing employees, and then enabling you to effectively challenge, reward and develop them, so they remain happy and engaged.

Address Performance Gaps
If you don't know what your weaknesses are, how can you address them? Mature, integrated talent management processes allow you to effectively identify and measure performance gaps, take actions to address them, and then monitor the effectiveness of your actions in terms of improved performance. It allows you to do this for individuals, for departments or groups and for the organization as a whole. It prevents challenges from going unnoticed or unaddressed, and helps you to foster a culture of continuous improvement and development.

Drive Focus, Accountability and Efficiency
Mature, integrated talent management processes help keep individual, group and organizational performance top of mind. Everyone is accountable for goals, competencies and development plans. This encourages managers and employees to regularly discuss progress, opportunities and challenges and improves focus, accountability and efficiency.

Conclusion
As entrepreneurs, we're all focused on the success of our business. By ensuring our companies adopt best-practice talent management processes right from the start, we set ourselves and our employees up for success.

Paul Loucks is President and CEO of Halogen Software, a talent management software provider based in Ottawa, Ont.

Leadership vs "Bosses"

Great leadership thoughts today from the NFIB's daily email newsletter, SmartBrief.

"The boss drives people; the leader coaches them. The boss depends on authority; the leader on good will. The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. The boss says 'I'; the leader says 'we.' The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown.

"The boss says 'go'; the leader says "Let's go!'"

H. Gordon Selfridge (1864-1947),

U.S.-born retail magnate who founded the UK department store Selfridges.

Which kind of boss are you -- really?

The Grand Entrepreneur Tour

The indefatigable Carissa Reiniger, President of Silver Lining, is once again on her “Committed to Small Business” Tour across Canada to motivate business owners. I caught her presentation last fall in Richmond, BC, and Carissa was very impressive in the way she used her own experience and smarts to advise entrepreneurs on the best ways to grow their businesses.

Having already stopped in Ottawa, Halifax and Moncton, Carissa’s one-woman show continues to: Markham (Apr 28), Toronto downtown (May 4), Carissa’s hometown of Edmonton (May 11), Calgary (May 12), Winnipeg (May13), Montreal (May 18), and Vancouver (May 20).

You can get the full details and register to attend, for free, at http://silverlininglimited.com/committed-tour

Carissa has just finished her second book (or maybe her fourth, I've lost count), called I Will. In her presentation, she will encourage you to translate all your big ideas into a tangible plan and leave with your list of “I Wills,” to make sure you become one of those entrepreneurs who do what they say they will.

You have to credit the sponsors of the Committed Tour: Silver Lining Ltd., Staples, Rogers, Intuit, HP, Citi Cards, WestJet, and UPS. If you attend, count on special offers for small businesses on laptops, business software, travel deals, wireless discounts, shipping, and more.

Social Media - What is it good for?

Can the "viral" nature of social media really  produce breakthrough marketing campaigns?

I think the best answer is yes - but not often. I've been writing this blog for five years and I still haven't been featured on the cover of Time Magazine. (Though it did get me a few seconds on CBC Radio national news a few years back.)

Viral hits happen - like LOL Cats and the kid in the closet who loved Britney and the "Will it Blend" people. But they don't happen often, and almost never "on demand."

Except... the folks at Nestle set out to make a viral splash for their Kit-Kat bar in the Netherlands -- and darned if it didn't work out. Seems lightnng can be bottled, once in a while!

This is a fun video that explains the whole campaign. It's yet more mark-eting, of course. But that doesn't mean you can't learn something from it, about how to steal or subvert media conventions in order to win the attention of a heeldess, fickle public.

Click here to see... Jesus in a Kit-Kat bar.

Best Entrepreneurship Quotes, Week 12

“If you don't have highly engaged people in a distribution business, you're going to be in trouble very soon. It’s the biggest driver of profitability.”

Jean-Francois Warlop, president, Quadra Chemicals Ltd., Dorion, Que.
Quoted in "How to Build a Super Staff," in the May 2010 issue of PROFIT Magazine

Shocked at the low results from a 2006 employee-engagement survey. Warlop worked hard to reconnect with his employees. He ousted three executives, improved employee communications, initiated an employee-recognition program, included more mid-level people in planning meetings, and replaced poor performers.

Result: Annual employee turnover is down to 5% from 15%; employee engagement is up by 52%; and profits have risen 40%.

Worth quoting, huh?
Click here for the full story.

Help for small employers

Can a government-funded program turn small businesses into better, smarter employers?

My column in this week's Financial Post highlights a federally funded program that is helping a more than 30 industry groups encourage their members to adopt more professional and strategic employment standards.

In particular, I look at the Canadian Food Industry Council, which has created an online Turnover Calculator, to help grocery store managers tote up the high cost of employee turnover. More importantly, it has also produced a Human Resource Toolkit for Independent Grocers, a $99 binder packed with tips, systems and templates to help business owners become more robust recruiters, better bosses, more caring coaches and more effective mentors.

Here’s an excerpt:

“While the same labor issues nag big businesses as well as small, [CFIC chair Cheryl] Paradowski contends entrepreneurs can seize an advantage because it's easier for them to create a more employee-centred culture. "If you don't have people skills, your employees won't stay. People leave bosses, not businesses."

For the full story, click here.

To read about the HR Toolkit, which is NOT just for Independent Grocers, click here.

Getting the most from LinkedIn

If you're one of those people who joined LinkedIn but never learned how to use it, it’s time to re-engage. With 65 million members, LinkedIn has “made it,” and could become an essential business tool for you.

To get you started, UK consultant Annmarie Hanlon has written an article on www.smartinsights.com about using LinkedIn to build relationships and drive new business.

She offers 10 practical tips to help you get more out of LinkedIn. Here are my choices for the top 5.

1. Complete your profile: Improve how people can connect to you by adding places you've worked and details of your higher education, activities and professional memberships. Do include information on your background, “How We Can Help Your Company,” and “Connect with Me.”

2. Add a photo: Once your photo is in place, it’s part of your personal brand. Stick with the same image, rather than changing on a regular basis.

3. Use a professional headline: Most people’s headlines (e.g., ‘Owner, ABC Ltd.,’ don't stand out - whereas ‘Dave Chaffey, Expert Digital Marketer – Consultant, Author and Speaker’ jumps off the page.

4. Get recommended: These are mini-case studies that showcase your talents. Every six months seek new recommendations from different people.

5. Join groups: Joining groups gives you access to a wider pool of contacts, allows you to display group membership on your profile, and enables you to network with a more targeted market.

See the original article here.

Best Entrepreneurship Quotes, Week 11

“Asking for help is a sign of strength and confidence that shows we're intelligently using all the resources available to us.”

Canadian management guru Jim Clemmer, from his latest book, Growing @ The Speed of Change

If you need help, Clemmer's book offers several intriguing suggestions:

* Find a coach, therapist or counselor to guide you using the emerging new principles of strengths-based positive psychology;

* Identify a complementary partner in your business, on your team, or in your personal life, whose strengths are your weaknesses. Work together to balance each other.

* Increase your friendships and grow your social circle.
* Join sports, hobby, craft or social groups or take classes to pursue your personal interests and stay connected.

My new Twitter feed: @CustomerFirst

For some time I've been collecting my thoughts and doing writing and speaking on the subject of getting closer to your customers. To be more precise, getting them to fall in love with you (in the words of the very wise Saul Colt).

Or as I call it, "Putting the Customer First."

To further explore this issue, I am pleased to announce the launch of a new Twitter feed at http://twitter.com/CustomerFirst

I’ll be tweeting several times a week with new observations, links and stories about building your business around your customers – which will probably be the key business challenge of the decade.

If this interests you (and I hope it does), please sign on into Twitter and click on the “Follow” button at @CustomerFirst.

If you don't already have a Twitter account, I urge you to consider joining. It’s free, easy and fast. And you never have to write anything ("No Tweets for  you!”) if you don't wish to. Twitter offers plenty of value just in giving you multiple opportunities to read the thoughts, experiences and stories of people you're interested in – whether it’s friends and family members, celebrities, business experts or thought leaders.

It's like I hear their voices in my head - and I find it it informative, stimulating and inspiring.

A few sample Tweets to get you started:
* Love this core value from LuluLemon: “Our customers want to buy our product again.” How might that idea affect your thinking? Your staff's?

* Since start of the recession, almost every business I know wants to get “closer” to the customer. But very few have a clue how to do that

* Use data to get closer to clients http://tinyurl.com/y25sn7d

* Customer Service still matters! Read "Fed Up With the Web, Travellers Are Logging Off" http://tinyurl.com/y29lkz8

* Retweet From Feb. Post column: "It's your ability to earn and maintain customer trust that gives your employees a job and your business a future"

Learning from someone else's mistakes (for once!)

My column in this week's Financial Post looks at some of the key business lessons that Vancouver entrepreneur Mark Mawhinney has learned in his career so far – mainly through his own mistakes.

Do any of these hard-earned lessons resonate for you?

· Know your niche

· Manage your cash

· It doesn't have to be perfect

· Share the pressure with your employees

· It is not that hard to be exceptional

If so, check out the story here.

Or you can follow Mark's own blog here.

10 Traits of Winning Entrepreneurs

U.S. technology entrepreneur Naveen Jain – founder of Internet companies Infospace and Intelius – is speaking at the Kairos Summit youth entrepreneurship conference this weekend in New York. (Along with Bill Clinton and Bill Gates’s dad.)

Jain’s speech includes a list of the top 10 attributes of a successful entrepreneur. In case you're not going to New York, here’s a sneak preview.

Jain believes that entrepreneurial success usually comes through doing “a superior job of blocking and tackling.” But here are 10 other qualities that make entrepreneurs great:

10. You must be passionate about what you are trying to achieve. “Passion can be infectious and ignite the same intensity in others who join you as you build your team.”

9. Great entrepreneurs focus intensely on an emerging opportunity where others see nothing. “Most companies die from indigestion rather than starvation.”

8. Success comes only from hard work. “There is no such thing as overnight success.”

7. The road to success may be long, so enjoy the journey, “and celebrate the milestones along the way.”

6. Trust your gut instinct more than any spreadsheet.

5. Be flexible but persistent. “You have to continually learn and adapt as new information becomes available.”

4. Rely on your team. “Seek out the smartest people you can who complement your strengths. It’s easy to get attracted to people who are like you; the trick is to find people who are not.”

3. Execution, execution, execution. Success doesn’t come from breakthrough innovation but from flawless execution.

2. Honesty and integrity must be at the core of everything you do. “Everybody has a conscience, but too many people stop listening to it.” Result: “Guaranteed failure.”

1. Success is more rewarding if you give back. “By the time you get to success, lots of people will have helped you along the way. You’ll learn, as I have, that you rarely get a chance to help the people who helped you because in most cases, you don’t even know who they were. When we are successful, we draw so much from the community and society that we live in. Giving back is simply paying back what we owe.”

(A lovely sentiment, that, and one which I was just explaining just the other day to a fundraising professional at Sick Kids' Hospital. So if you get a call next week to donate to Sick Kids, blame me. And please give generously.)

Best Entrepreneurship Quotes, Week 10

“Courage, sacrifice, determination, commitment, toughness,heart, talent, guts. That's what little girls are made of. The heck with sugar and spice.”

Bethany Hamilton (born 1990)
Award-winning competitive surfer.

While surfing in Hawaii in 2003, Bethany was attacked by a 14-foot tiger shark. She lost her left arm. She was surfing again within three weeks.
Bethany has since won one national title, and was awarded the 2004 ESPN Award for Best Comeback Athlete.

And you think you have it tough?

Are you an Entrepreneur Of The Year?

April 30 is the deadline to nominate your business for Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur Of The Year program. Now in its 17th year in Canada, E&Y's program ties into a global EoY framework, and it's probably the world’s most prestigious business award for entrepreneurs.

To nominate your organization or another one, check out http://www.ey.com/ca/eoy. You can download a brochure or nomination form, or submit info online.
You can also access the Frequently Asked Questions page here.

Nominations are by province or region (BC, Prairies, Ont., Quebec, Atlantic), and can include a variety of categories: by industry (BtoB, cleantech, health sciences, manufacturing, etc.) or specialty (Turnaround, Social Entrepreneur, Young Entrepreneur, etc.). If your business is doing outstanding things, they'll find a way to fit you in!

The judges are prominent business people, entrepreneurs and thought leaders from across each region. Winners are announced at gala banquets in the fall.

I served on the steering committee (and was a national judge) when EoY started years ago. It remains an exemplary awards program that has brought many benefits to nominees and winners alike. So go for it!

Putting the Customer First, Part II

What does your business do to make customers love it?

In February, I wrote a column for the Financial Post on how companies need to put their customer first – and then asked readers to write in to tell me how they do that.

My column in last week's Post discusses some of the responses I received. Good news: customer service is alive and well in Canada. From dot-coms to retailers to service and software companies, enlightened entrepreneurs are proving that the best way to succeed is to help your customers win first.

Excerpt:
In Oakville, Ont., T-Shirtmonster Inc. combines online technology with client-first focus. In addition to selling customized T-shirts to sports teams and community groups, the company enables consumers and organizations to open virtual storefronts to sell their own branded apparel.

"We are the only company in Canada that prints and fulfills T-shirt orders in-house, on demand, and provides free store-hosting and online sales reports clients can view 24/7," says Roland Mackintosh, president and co-founder of the company.

The Breast Cancer Society of Canada opened a store on T-Shirtmonster.ca to sell shirts to supporters across the country for its annual fundraising event, "Dress Down Day." The society "loved the fact they didn't have to take on inventory or worry about order fulfillment or customer service," Mackintosh says. Supporters can even personalize their shirts. One design, for instance, simply says, "I wear pink for my ---," and invites you to complete the message by adding a name or photo.

Making things fun and easy for customers offers powerful payback, Mackintosh says: "If we hadn't impressed BCSC, we would have missed a major opportunity for their supporters to become regular customers of our own."

You can read the full story here.

10-Point Test for Entrepreneurs

Chicago-based entrepreneur and business writer Barry Moltz doesn't respect conventional quizzes that test your entrepreneurial aptitude.

Just thinking you have an idea or wanting to fire your boss does not necessarily make you a successful entrepreneur. The question is, can you stand the strain, the discomfort, the uncertainty and the people pressures?

Moltz's stripped-down, quick and easy-to-read test is a great preview of the business life.Here is: "The Only Entrepreneur Test that You Need to Take"

Q1. Are you resilient? All entrepreneurs need to be able to ride the rollercoaster of good and bad times on a daily basis.

Q2. Can you ask for help? You don’t know everything. You need to be able to listen and evaluate the advice of the people around you.

Q3. Can you get people to follow you? Loners need not apply since entrepreneurship is not a solo sport. In order to build a business, you need to lead and delegate.

Q4. Do you like to network and meet people? Business is ultimately about people. You grow your business through the people you build a trustful relationship.

Q5. Do you like to sell? If you don’t have customers, you don’t have a business. For awhile, you will be the chief sales officer.

Q6. Do you do well in ever-changing chaos? Everyday is different. Some days are very different. Get used to it.

Q7. Can you live on a variable monthly compensation? You don’t collect a paycheck every month like at a job. You pay your employees and vendors first. Some months, there may not be anything left for you.

Q8. Do you have a good personal support structure? You will need it. When you have a bad day, you will need someone to pick you up. When you have a good day, you will want to celebrate a lot with the people you love.

Q9. Are you flexible with your goal setting? As an entrepreneur, you will need to set patient interim goals and change your target as you succeed and fail.

Q10. Can you hold a real job and work for someone else? If you can, do it. Having a job is probably an easier career especially in the short term.

Moltz suggests that if you said yes to 8 or more of these questions, you have what it takes to start your own business. If you scored less than eight, don't quit your day job.

And here's an intriguing thought: "If you no longer have a day job, consider joining a small business to get the experience you will need to venture out on your own."

Canada's Biggest Tech Companies

Branham has just released its 2010 list of Canada's top 250 tech companies.

Disappointing news that the total revenue of the top 250 companies was down 6% in 2009, but it could have been worse. In all, the top 250 companies generated combined revenues of $71.32 billion.

For the first time in the seven years the list has been published, there’s a new No. 1 tech company in town (based on annual sales). Nortel has left the building. Replacing it, as you might guess, is Research in Motion, probably Canada’s top growth firm over the past 20 years. RiM's 2009 revenue: $11.9 billion.

Click here for the complete list and analysis from Backbone magazine.

Telecom guru Jon Arnold has his own analysis of the list on his blog. Here’s an excerpt.

"In terms of revenues, things fall off pretty quickly after RIM. Only 11 companies in the top 250 are at $1 billion, and only 18 are above $500 million. Stepping down the line, only 45 are above $100 million, and only 80 are above $50 million. In terms of the rest, roughly half the list - 120 companies - are under $25 million. Any wonder why so little funding finds its way into this market?"

You can read more of Jon’s post here.

Fredericton aims to be best!

The CEO of the Fredericton Chamber of Commerce has a great idea for making the New Brunswick capital the best city in the province - or maybe Canada - for starting and growing businesses.

As Susan Holt writes today in the NB Business Journal, "We know the tangible factors that make a city a great place to do business. It's about providing things like low taxes, a skilled-labour pool, strong institutions, and affordable space."

A recent KPMG study dubbed Fredericton the third most cost-effective city in which to run a business in the U.S. and Canada. "This is an impressive result," she says. But how do we enhance other values that are harder to create and measure, such as openness and entrepreneurial spirit?

"It's been suggested to me that Fredericton can seem resistant to change and unwilling to be flexible in supporting small business initiatives," Holt writes. "I've also heard perceptions expressed about Fredericton's consumers being conservative and hesitant to try new things."

Holt wants to see change all that. She wants Fredericton to become known as "a highly encouraging and supportive city... where consumers are quick to try new products, services and models - where Buy Local is a song we all sing daily."

She notes that a precedent already exists. Fredericton was apparently the first municipality to deliver free wireless Internet access to its downtown and business districts. "It's that kind of forward-thinking and business-friendly practices we need to celebrate, replicate and expand."

The Chamber of Commerce is now launching a campaign to poll local business people on ways Fredericton can improve. "We want to hear the stories of barriers you've encountered in setting up or expanding your business," says Holt. "The City of Fredericton is on-board and ready to help identify ways to improve services to our capital's entrepreneurs."

Holt believes Fredericton will succeed when the entire community "throws its support behind local businesses and leaders with their voices, votes and dollars."

I think this is exactly the right approach. It takes business, government and the public working together to build an entrepreneurial economy. It can't be imposed top-down, it has to bubble up naturally, in an environment where new ideas and new roles are eagerly embraced by all. And hopefully the schools will get involved as well.

Good luck to Susan and the Chamber. Let's hope this passion spreads across Canada!

And don't forget: on May 1, Fredericton hosts the 2010 New Brunswick Entrepreneurs' Summit. I saw an email this morning that says there are only 18 seats left!

See my previous post on this Summit to read about the exciting events and speakers (yes, including me). Or click here for more information or to register.

Startup Lessons from an MBA grad

In his blog, Internet entrepreneur Stuart Wall wrote recently about the lessons he learned in starting Postabon.com that he and his classmates never learned while getting their MBAs at Harvard Business School.

“It’s been an awesome experience,” he writes. “The past eight months changed my view of entrepreneurship, the value of a degree, and a few mistakes that recent grads (myself included) seem make.”

Here, edited, are some of Stuart’s lessons learned:

Execution Matters. VCs don’t care about your PowerPoint deck. Postabon got venture-capital funding only after it proved it could produce.

“Tech trends like cloud computing, coding frameworks and better browsers means most consumer facing start-ups (without inventory) are really cheap to start," says Wall. "With three months and ~$10K, we created a bare-minimum website and iPhone app that allowed us to iterate daily based on consumer feedback. No amount of time in Baker Library would have substituted.”

Group Think – Figure out what’s popular, then do the opposite. (When 40% of Harvard grads went into finance, it was time to short the stock market.)

Team – The person sitting next to you [in MBA school] is a bad partner. Your best partner is the antithesis of you.

Entitlement – Your diploma won’t make cold calls. "Entrepreneurship is the truest form of meritocracy where “credentialing” counts for nothing."

You'll love the title of Wall’s post: Why MBAs Fail at Entrepreneurship.

What does your business do, and why should anyone care?

An entrepreneur wrote me recently to ask about a concept for marketing his business-services company.

Upon perusing his website I discovered that it does a poor job of communicating the business's fundamental value proposition. The home page explains why people should hire that business, without explaining precisely what the company does.

This isn't a rare problem: it's often difficult for marketers to put themselves in their prospect's shoes in order to understand how little the customer knows of their business, their industry or their specific solution.

So my response to the entrepreneur was simple: Before investing in ambitious new marketing techniques, get your story straight.

"I would urge you to get smarter and more focussed about your value proposition: how you save money for organizations and how you can help them earn more. After browsing your website, I could not see any specifics about the problems you solve and the unique way you do it.

I think you have to be a little bolder, first about what you say, and then about asking for orders. And I think that once you get your problem/solution value statement worked out, asking for the orders will get a lot easier."

Rick

Best Entrepreneurship Quotes, Week 9: Delegating

"The best executive is the one who has sense enough to pick good men to do what he wants done, and self-restraint enough to keep from meddling with them while they do it."

Theodore Roosevelt, 1858-1919

These words should hang on the office wall of every entrepreneur. Only by delegating to good people, and by supporting them rather than micro-managing them, can you grow your company to its fullest potential.

Roosevelt was an author, naval historian and cavalry officer, New York City police commissioner, governor of New York State, conservationist and trust-buster. Yet he was only 42 when he took over as President, following the assassination of William McKinley in 1901. (You can visit the room where he took the Oath of Office in Buffalo, NY, just two miles from Canada.)

Roosevelt died at the age of 60, due to complications arising from an earlier case of malaria.

The Art of Giving It Away

My column in this week's Financial Post looks at how entrepreneurs can plan their philanthropic giving so that their charitable donations will be more strategic, effective and impactful.

This is a subject of tremendous interest to so many entrepreneurs I know who are now struggling with their legacies, and how best to “give back.”

The column’s guest experts are billionaire Charles Bronfman (of Seagram fame) and his philanthropic colleague Jeffrey Solomon, who have just published a book called The Art of Giving: Where the Soul Meets a Business Plan.

They wrote the book to solve a big problem: "Too often philanthropic gifts are made out of social or business obligations, guilt or whim, which takes all the urgency out of them, to say nothing of the fun."

My column explores the three part-part plan at the heart of Bronfman’s strategy.

Excerpt:

“Bronfman insists successful philanthropy requires a specific plan (what causes grab you? What do you want to accomplish?), rigorous measurement (how else do you know if your money is making a difference?), and a strategy of leverage (if a cause is worth your money and time, you'll accomplish much more by getting other people involved).

Read the rest of the column here.

Best Entrepreneurship Quotes, Week 8

“Brands live in companies, express their companies to customers, and are carriers of vision and values.”

Experience marketing expert Max Lenderman, from his book, Experience the Message: How Experiential Marketing is Changing the Brand World

How are brands related to experience marketing? Says Lenderman in the last chapter, “The primacy of the brand in marketing is over. Brand managers are losing control over them to an empowered and proactive consumer base. Instead of a consumer economy in which success is determined in a large part by name, it’s now being determined by performance. The element of product performance is a key component to experiential marketing campaigns today.”

How is your business planning to use experience marketing to attract the attention of jaded consumers and customers?

Interesting example: Click here to read Max's latest blogpost on how Nestlé recently launched 19 new flavours of its Kit Kat chocolate bar in Japan to reflect the food specialities of specific districts. Since each flavour is sold only in the region for which it was created, they have become limited edition collectors' items!

Be a Dragon for a Day

My column in this week's Financial Post recounts my recent adventure as a deputy dragon, helping to audition entrepreneurs in Toronto who want to pitch their ideas on Dragons’ Den.

The CBC-TV show is now gearing up to tape its fifth season, and there seems no end in sight to resourceful, ambitious entrepreneurs.

But not all of these pitchers deserve funding. Some of their ideas are just bad. How do you help people who have no idea how big their market is? Or who are too shy to call potential customers? Do you become Kevin O’Leary, and forbid them to spend another cent on their ideas?

What’s a Dragon to do?

So my column looks at three of the pitches I heard (revised slightly to protect the guilty), and asks, What would you do?

Excerpt:
Ariella, an energetic woman with long blonde hair, wants to create a national franchise that specializes in raking lawns. You'd be amazed how large the market is, she says. Yet leaf-raking businesses tend to be small and unprofessional, with no training and no performance guarantees.
With a nationwide network based on formal training, Ariella contends she can sell consumers on a branded leaf-raking service -- and thus earn fees from franchisees eager to get in on a new service brand. What would you say to her?

You can read the full story here.

Researching your target market

In the wake of my Financial Post column this week urging startup entrepreneurs to do more market research, I got an email the other day from a Winnipeg baker asking where to find relevant information for his planned bakery/pastry business.

Here's what I told him:

Hi, William (not his real name): I suggest you start with your local library's reference librarian. He or she will know what kind of market data their library has (or has access to), and they may be able to make other suggestions as well. Your local economic development office may also have useful data.

You can also do a lot of vital market research yourself. Hold a focus group (call it a party) and serve some pastries. Document everything: which product do they like best? What do they like about it? What do they dislike? How much would they pay for a slice or a full cake? How often would they buy it? Why would they buy it?

If you are going to sell through distributors, get out and talk to them. What are the margins in your market, who are the competitors, how do the distributors/retailers think you should market your product? Listen carefully for resistance, suggestions, and anecdotes about similar products or initiatives and how they worked out.

I also suggest you find a startup group in your area. Meetup.com can help you find small-biz groups in your area. Groups like these can be very useful in helping you uncover unexpected problems and obstacles in your business - and people in these groups may have found solutions to problems you are having now. My mantra is, successful wolves hunt in packs; lone wolves die alone in the cold and the dark.

Good luck!
Rick

PROFIT 100 deadline looms

Is your business looking for publicity, praise or respect?

You have about a week to nominate your company for the annual PROFIT 100 list of Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies

The PROFIT 100 ranks companies based on five-year sales growth. If your company has grown 100% or more in the past five years, you may qualify for this year’s list.

The PROFIT team will honour the winning PROFIT 100 companies in the June 2010 issue of PROFIT, and at an exclusive CEO Summit that gathers the winning companies from across Canada. Winners also receive local and national publicity.

In my experience, being on the P100 creates lots of business opportunities as well. If you even think you might qualify, it’s a bandwagon well worth climbing aboard.

To enter, click here.

For more information, visit the PROFIT 100 FAQ page, or call the toll-free hotline at 1-800-713-GROW.

The deadline is March 31, 2010.

For more info on last year's PROFIT 100, or to download the 2009 list of winning companies, just click here.

BoT's affordable solution for Training and Development

One of the biggest problems facing SMEs is the need to improve productivity and employee capabilities. Yet who has money or time for formal professional development courses?

I’m excited about a plan by the Toronto Board of Trade to address this problem for small business. And I'm taking part in a special webinar on Thursday, April 1 exploring how this can help your business upgrade its competencies, virtually for free, and in less time than you’d expect.

The Board of Trade has teamed up with Ryerson University’s Chang School of Continuing Education to create a new program, Fast-Track Online Learning, geared to the needs of small business. Result: professional courses on hot management topics, revised to meet the time constraints of small business – and available free of charge, any time, to most member firms of the Board.

If there’s a catch, I haven't found it yet.

Once you have completed one of the 8 to 10-hour Web-based courses, the BoT will even make it easy to network with other people who have taken that course – allowing you to reinforce your learnings and expand your personal network at the same time.

To celebrate the launch of the first six courses in the series, I’ll be taking part in a direct-to-your-computer webinar at 11 am (EDT) on April 1. We’ll talk about why businesses need to upgrade their employees’ knowledge base (the growing complexity of business, the demands of the knowledge-based economy, increasing competition and Canada’s productivity gap are a few reasons that come to mind). We'll also discuss the real, bottom-line benefits companies can gain by helping employees succeed.

Also speaking on the webinar will be Aviva Klein of the Board of Trade and Debra Newman, vice-president of “people” for Porter Airlines.

To register for the webinar or get more information, click here.

Board officials say they have received rave reviews from early adopters who have taken the new courses. Produced by academics at Ryerson, the courses emphasize interactivity and videos – no bulky textbooks here. You can access course material from any computer, at home, at work or on the road.

And they have been trimmed to manageable length (under 10 hours) to ensure even the busiest business people can get through them. You even get a certificate at the end.

Courses being offered include Management & Leadership, E-Marketing, Managerial Accounting, Communications in Career Advancement, Project Management Fundamentals, and Project Management Planning & Scheduling.

For more information on Fast-Track courses, click here.

Best Entrepreneurial Quotes, Week 7

“The truth is that big thinking is always, always worth the expenditure of energy… The cost of small thinking has skyrocketed.”

Sales guru Michael Port, in The Think Big Manifesto (Wiley, 2009)

With this book, Port is trying to create an influential movement of people willing to think big, in both the business and social spheres.

“With small thinking," he continues, "we cannot grow – intellectually, spiritually, creatively, emotionally, financially. And when we cannot grow, society cannot grow. It cannot advance. It cannot develop. Small thinking is an ultimately autodestructive path.”

For more information, see http://www.bigthinkrevolution.com/

Dragons' Den reels 'em in

It's not enough that the CBC's Dragons are ridiculously smart and rich. Now they're some kind of superstars.

The season finale of Dragons' Den on Wednesday night attracted almost two million (1.956 million) viewers.

The Dragons' heartwarming personal stories won the 8 pm time slot, with almost 4.1 million watching some part of the show.

The CBC says Dragons' Den achieved a season average of 1.75 million viewers per episode, reaching over one in three Canadians.

Pretty remarkable for a business show.

The US version, Shark Tank, rarely reached 5 million viewers in a country with 10 times the population. Although it's not very fair to compare a new show with one that's been building for four years.

What do you think? Are you eager for more of the Dragons? (There will be a full 20 shows next year - about as long a season as any show gets these days.) Do you think Canadians are learning anything from the Den? Please leave a comment below.

Don't forget, the Dragons are back auditioning for next season: click here for the remaining schedule. You can also apply online.

And watch Monday's Post (Mar 22) for my column on my day as a Deputy Dragon.

Why entrepreneurs should ask for help

One of the most important things that every entrepreneur (and human being) should learn is to ask for help when it’s needed. As I’ve said before, healthy wolves hunt in packs; lone wolves die alone in the cold.

My column in this week's Financial Post looks at one entrepreneur from Haliburton, Ont., who dared to seek help with a business that was just sort of going nowhere. Thanks to mentoring and consulting from the Innovation Synergy Centre in Markham, Gena Robertson’s “School’s Cool” program is now being sold by a major U.S. educational distributor, and she is now considering overseas deals.

Ms Robertson’s case is also interesting, as she has spent more than 20 years being a “social entrepreneur,” creating new programs and partnerships in the social-services sector. Adopting a for-profit mindset required some serious relearning for Robertson, some of which I tried to chronicle.

Excerpt:
To attract investors, Robertson had to figure out what the business would look like, and especially how it would source, warehouse and distribute its wares. It also meant preparing Robertson to pitch her business to potential angel investors. "That was painful," she admits. "When you work in social services, you play down what you do. You share the credit. When you pitch to investors, you have to say, 'This is what we do, this is how great we are.' "

For the full story, click here.

Play Ball!: Why Social Media isn't Working

I've been writing and thinking a lot lately about social media. And I think the reason is that, despite all the hype about Facebook and Twitter and blogging and YouTube, none of these things has come close to changing the way businesses market, sell or operate.

So are they just fancy new toys and timewasters? Or simply cluttered information media (the million-channel TV!!) rather than business tools?

I disagree. Social media offer a fundamental business advantage. It’s just that not everyone (in fact, almost nobody) is ready for what it means.

It’s as if everyone in Canada played hockey, and were suddenly handed a baseball bat. The bat would be too heavy, too short, and no good for slapshots. So everyone would say it was useless.

But then somebody announces, “You don't play hockey with a baseball bat. It’s for a different game.” Then they hand out the gloves, bases and balls, and suddenly you realize that baseball bats are pretty cool. They're just no good for hockey.

Social media is a whole new game. A new way of connecting businesses to customers. To succeed, you have to forget the old skills – slapshots, poke-checks and skating – and work on new ones, like hitting, fielding and base-running.

The old skills of marketing are things like advertising and promotion, one-to-one sales calls, and retail distribution. These competencies still matter, but with social media we need to learn new skills: how to create deeper relationships with customers and prospects; and how to engage them in an ongoing way, win their trust, and win their loyalty.

These tasks have always been doable, but not easily – like taking a penalty shot with a baseball bat. Possible, but not worth doing twice.

With social media, we have to approach our audience differently. Just think of the different meanings of “corporate” and “social.”

Now that you can interact with your customers and prospects one on one, they're not just a "market" any more – they are people who expect to be addressed as individuals. Now that it's possible to address them as friends and partners, they expect to be treated that way.

This means you have to open the kimono: Expose your organization to other people’s scrutiny, reach out, make friends, tell your products’ stories, engage the feedback of your customers, create a user community.

Sounds like work? Nothing worthwhile is gained without effort. To create fans and pump up customer loyalty and repeat sales, you have to master these tools. Otherwise, when summer comes and the rinks are closed, you’ll have nobody to interact with, because your market will all be playing baseball with the cool kids.

It’s not just the ways you communicate that have to change. It’s your whole approach to business, customers, the market, and your employees. It’s a new era of openness, story-telling, relationships and trust. Whoever creates the highest engagement will earn the most loyalty.

How do you do that? So far, nobody’s really sure. So it’s wide open to experimentation, trial and error, innovation and creativity.

And join Twitter. Twitter is the Little League of social media – an easy place to get started and learn to reach out.

After all, how do you get to Yankee Stadium? Practice.