Blogs

May
14
Step Up: Uncover Growth Opportunities
By admin|May 14, 2013|Category: Business Growth

Many big corporations support diversity in their supply chain. This means that these companies encourage procurement of their supplies from minority or women-owned businesses. Supplier Diversity opens a door of opportunity for women entrepreneurs to take their business to the next level. Getting certified as a Woman Business Owner, or, WBE (pronounced Wee-Bee) is the first step in this process and can connect you to new supply chains. WEConnect Canada certifies women-owned businesses in Canada.

How do you access corporations once you are certified?

May
8
10 free tech tools to improve productivity
By admin|May 8, 2013|Category: Technology

Small businesses don't have the budget or luxury to buy expensive licenses for all the tools and software they need. With that in mind, here are 10 free productivity tools and software. Some are available through open source, GNU general public license or beta versions and others have offered a "freemium" model that offers users a free version, and upgrades as their needs and budgets grow.

Google Alerts-(www.google.com/alerts)-Keeps you in the loop on information relevant to your business. Simply enter keywords or terms you want to track and Google will email you the latest relevant news about that topic.

May
1
Coffee is Good for Business! Part II
By admin|May 1, 2013|Category: Marketing

My last blog Coffee is Good For Business! shared 3 benefits of scheduling coffee meetings each week. Here are 5 Points to keep your coffee meetings casual but controllable.

Purpose - before you make that invite, determine why you want to have coffee with that person. Is it just to reconnect? Are they a potential client? Is it purely social or do you have an interest in what they have to offer? Make a short list of topics or points that you want to touch on.

Precise - be specific in your invitation. Busy people like details so they can tell at a glance whether they can fit it into their schedule.

Apr
25
Coffee is Good for Business!
By admin|April 25, 2013|Category: Marketing

I’ve always made a point of scheduling a coffee ‘meeting’ at least twice a week. One is with someone new that I’ve just met and the other is usually a colleague that I haven’t seen for a while. I’ve made it part of my weekly routine and business plan.

Apr
16
5 Cost-effective PR Strategies
By admin|April 16, 2013|Category: Marketing

Media & PR isn’t always a high priority, but if you’re looking to promote yourself then you need to start working on your strategy now. Don’t wait until you need some instant attention.

So what can you do that’s manageable and inexpensive, but productive?

Apr
10
Diversity Marketing
By admin|April 10, 2013|Category: Marketing

Does your business serve a diverse community of customers? If so, you may be thinking about how to market to a specific group based on age, gender or culture.

One thing to be fully aware of is that diversity marketing is not a quick fix to grow your customer base. It’s a long-term proposition with benchmarks that are more difficult to clearly define than running a coupon promotion. It’s a marketing strategy to build a long-term relationship with a niche group.

When a business decides to move forward with diversity marketing – it needs to make sure its own house is in order. Ask yourself: Do you have employees that represent the group you want to focus your marketing efforts towards? If not, then it will be unrealistic to proceed.