I was very impressed with the mentor.  He seemed very eager to help the young man succeed.  I thought to myself that he is exactly the kind of person I am looking for in a mentor.  I wondered if he would be willing to take on a similar mentoring role with me.  I read the article again to see if it mentioned his contact information.  It didn’t.  All I had was his name and where he worked (BDC).  I then went on the BDC website to search for his name.  Nothing either.  I could start calling each BDC branch one at a time, but it would be time consuming. Besides, I wouldn’t know what to say to him.  Personally, I’m a big fan of email.  I like getting a conversation going through email first before a face to face meeting.  It allows the exchange of basic information.  There is also less pressure on both sides and it is less intrusive (I find it annoying when I receive a call from someone, who wasn’t referred to me by somone I know, asking to meet me…it doesn’t seem natural).  If the email exchange goes well, I then suggest a meeting in person.

The problem here was that I couldn’t find the gentleman’s email address anywhere.  I then had a great idea…a real ‘long shot’.  Anyone with a corporate email address will notice that  it usually follows one of several patterns:  lastname.firstname@company.com, firstname@company.com, “x”lastname@company.com (where ‘x’ is the first letter of the first name), etc.  What I decided to do was to send an email to all these different email combinations, hoping at least one of them would hit.  I kept the email very simple.  I talked briefly about my startup and the progress I made so far.  I also included a link to my website, in case he was interested in learning more about me.  Here is the email I sent:

Like I mentioned, this was a long shot.  The odds of reaching this person was small and the odds he would reply even smaller.  However, within a few days, the gentleman replied.  Not only was he willing to answer my questions, he insisted we meet in person the following week.  Our meeting went extremely well.  Pending some administrative stuff, we will start our mentoring partenership shortly.  This just goes to show that every once in a while, we need to take long shots in life (whether in our personal or professional lives).  It’s only our fear of rejection that is keeping us from taking these risks.

Why not just pick up the phone and ask to speak with the president of a big company to explain why your product or service can make his or her life easier?  Don’t think it will work?  It worked for a friend of mine who has his own business planning software company.  A few years ago, he called up the then President and CEO of Corel, Michael Cowpland.  He didn’t know Mr. Cowpland in person so he called the general number and talked to the receptionist.  Amazingly, there were very few barriers and within a few minutes, he was speaking directly to Mr. Cowpland himself.  He introduced himself and explained how including his software alongside Corel Wordperfect could make Corel’s product offering more competitive and help differentiate if from MS Office.  Mr. Cowpland asked him to visit his office that same afternoon.  My friend then met with Mr. Cowpland, along with senior members of his product development team.  Shortly thereafter, he won a licensing contract to include a copy of his business planning software with Corel Wordperfect.

Take long shots every once in a while (i.e. huge potential payoff, little chance of success but zero downside).  You’d be surprised at how a seemingly crazy idea may end up being one of the greatest decisions you’ve ever made.  Someone once told me that when you take risks, things happen.  You disrupt the status quo and set things in motion.  You create ripples in otherwise calm waters. Yet, one of those ripples can potentially transform itself into a powerful wave.  It’s true that the odds are not in your favor.  But then again, what have you got to lose?

Keeping costs down in the first year or two of operations is crucial for any new start up.  Since new businesses typically have small revenue streams, they need to stay lean, especially in the first year or two of operations.  This is why having a ‘virtual office’ can go a long way in keeping administration costs down.  What do I mean by a virtual office?  It means essentially outsourcing all functions of an office from the phone number to the civic address to where you hold your business meetings.

Lets start with your business office.  In the beginning, most new startups operate their businesses from home.  It saves money and there are also numerous tax advantages (e.g expensing a portion of the monthly mortgage).   The problem with having a home office is that it is not very professional to meet potential clients in your living room or at your kitchen table.  Furthermore, for privacy reasons, not everyone is comfortable putting their civic address on their business card.  You can also imagine a client’s surprise after deciding to ‘drop by’ your office and finding themselves on a residential street filled with detached homes.

Enter companies like ExecuSpace and Global PrimeOffice Network.  The creative people behind these companies created a profitable business model by renting office space and conference rooms by the hour ($20 and $25 respectively at ExecuSpace).  They also ’sell’ business addresses in prime locations that you can use instead of your civic address.  At ExecuSpace for example, for $50 per month, you can put their business address (prime office space located in downtown Montreal) as your own business address.  They will keep all your mail for you and you can pick it up any time between regular business hours (9am to 5pm).  An add-on service would be to sign up for personalized telephone answering where a professional secretary can answer basic questions and forward calls to your business number (involves the monthly charge as well as  signing up for a regular business line).

Note:  An even cheaper alternative to a business address is to go to your nearest Canada Post office and sign up for a P.O. Box.  For $16 a month ($47 every three months), you can have your own P.O. Box and receive all your business related mail.

Now that a professional business location is taken care of, lets look at telephone service.  You can always use your house phone or cell phone to receive business calls.  However, what if your child answers the phone at home?  What if a personal friend calls your cellphone and the first thing they hear is is “XYZ Inc., John speaking. How may I help you?”.  There are clearly some disadvantages to mixing your personal life with your professional life.  Lets look at the alternative.  A basic business line with a carrier like Bell or Videotron will cost you at least $70 per month (doesn’t include long distance plan).  This is manageable, but what if I told you that there was a way to get your own business number and unlimited local and long distance calls anywhere in Canada and the US for about $10 per month?

Some of you may have heard of Skype In, a feature of Skype that allows users to get a local number and receive the call online on your Skype account. The problem is that in Canada, this service is not available.  There is a way to get around this restriction.  JetNumbers is an international company that provides local numbers to users for a low rate of $5.95 per month.  It works like any normal number except that when people call the number, the call is automatically forwarded to your Skype account.  As I mentioned, most owners of a new businesses usually work from home so this feature can be very convenient.  If you are away from your computer, you can send JetNumber a professionally sounding personal greeting that they can add to your voicemail.  If that’s not enough, all new voicemails are recorded and sent automatically to an email address of your choice in wav format.  Too good to be true?  Wait, there’s more…

Skype has a long distance plan where you can make unlimited calls to the Canada and & US for $2.95 a month.  I’ve already used this service, and the quality is excellent.  So lets do the math.  When you sign up for this plan in addition to JetNumbers, you have unlimited incoming calls to your business number and unlimited outgoing calls to Canada and the US for less than $10 per month.  Now that’s a deal!

Obviously, when you start generating revenues on a consistent basis, you can opt for a regular office with its own business line, etc.  In the mean time, consider using some of the services above.  Don’t forget that being a startup does not excuse you from having a poor professional image.  For a new business with no established brand in the marketplace, this can be a crucial factor.  Don’t hurt your chances of securing a new client by having a meeting at your kitchen table or having your 5 year old answer the phone call of a prospect.  You can stay lean while having a professional image at the same time.

The power of color struck me recently as I was wandering the aisles of a local drugstore looking for a particular product:  the Starfrit Chopper, a great a little kitchen aid that saves hours of manual chopping and slicing.  I had a good idea in which aisle it might be.  But as I almost walked past one of the aisles, I caught a bare glimpse (through my peripheral vision) of a color combination almost halfway down the aisle.  I looked directly this time and started walking towards the product to read what was written on the box.  Sure enough, it was the Starfrit Chopper.

I’m not the type who spends hours memorizing the packaging colors of kitchen aid products so naturally I was a little surprised.  But the fact is, the colors used be Starfrit in its packaging (the yellow and red stripe on the top)  stayed in my memory even though I noticed it only a handful of times.  And it was strong enough for me to notice using my peripheral vision.  This story serves as a good introduction to color and the conscious and subconscious attributes we associate with them.

Here are some of the positive and negative ‘learned associations’ we attribute to different colors, some of which are backed by actual research.  Note that not all these associations are universal and some may vary  from one culture to another.  The next time you are choosing your company colors (logo, packaging, etc.) keep them in mind.

• Red:  Some positive things we associate with red are:  sense of power, strength, power, and sexuality.  People tend pay more attention to detail when they see red.  A recent study by the University of British Columbia found that the color had a significant impact on cognitive performance, boosting test scores by as much as 30%.  The color helped them focus on detailed tasks (e.g. solving a math problem, editing a complex document, etc.). On the flip side, there are also some negative attributes that we tend to associate with red:  anger, aggressiveness, violence, and impatience.
• Blue: Positive associations:  tranquility, patience, openness, creativity, exploration.  The university study I mentioned earlier found that blue inspired creativity, allowing students to think outside of the box (the students came up with twice as many creative ideas in brainstorming tests).  Some of the negative attributes include: fear, coldness, passivity, and depression.

Here are a few other colors along with their positive and negative associations (not discussed in the study above).

• Green:  Positive associations include:  money, health, food, nature, growth, freshness, cooperation.  Negative associations include:  envy, greed, jealousy.
• Black:  Positive attributes:  dramatic, classy, committed, serious.  Negative:  evil, death.
• White:  Positive attributes:  pure, fresh, cleanliness, goodness.  Negative attributes:  blind, winter, cold, distant.
• Yellow:  Positive attributes:  caution, brightness, intelligence.  Negative attributes:  laziness, criticism.
• Orange:  Positive attributes:  courage, confidence, warmth, energy.  Negative attributes:  ignorance, inferiority.
• Purple:  Positive attributes:  royalty, sophistication, religion.  Negative attributes:  bruised, foreboding.

Source:  “How to choose your website colors” by Jason O’Connor (2005).

About a month back, I attended a great workshop by Tina Serano, co-owner of Beavertails, the company behind the delicious pastry that goes by the same name (and no, it’s not actually a beaver’s tail…it’s just shaped like one).

Tina had some great quotes on the topic of branding and small business in general that I wanted to share with my readers.  Branding, as its name suggests, refers to a company’s brand in the marketplace.  How do customers view the company? Why do they choose to do business with them?  Is it because of their  low cost? Quality? Fast service?

Branding is sometimes confused as being synonymous with ‘company logo’.  The latter is part of the branding process, as is other marketing materials such as the website, brochures, business cards, etc.  However, branding also includes business processes, strategies, and even people.  It is the overall customer experience your company offers.

Here are some of the gems that Tina shared with the audience:

“What you do has to represent you.”

I liked this quote since it establishes that we must have an emotional connection with what we do.  One of the reasons why I think many professionals are unhappy with their work is that they lack this connection.  They are reduced to a company function or job description.    They don’t see how they, as individuals, connect to the big picture, and so they feel unfulfilled.

“If you don’t buy into it, you won’t believe it and so you can’t sell it.”

Similar to the first quote, it establishes again the need for a connection between the person and the product.  It’s what makes the difference between selling a product or commodity and  selling an experience.

“Choose one branding word.”

This exercise really forces a business owner to think about what he or she has to offer.  Some examples are “service”, “speed”, “quality” or in the case of Beavertails, “addictive”.  Personally, I would have preferred a short sentence (7 words or less), but the idea is the same.  Keep it simple.

“You can’t change people’s perception of you.”

Once you establish a perception among your customers, it is very difficult to change it.  In other words, get it right the first time around or suffer the consequences.  It’s much easier to brand than to “re-brand”.

“When you create a brand, you want loyal customers.”

A strong brand differentiates you from the competition.  It creates repeat customers since you are able to deliver a unique experience.

“Don’t pay for media advertising.”

Tina is not a fan of big expensive marketing campaigns.  They’re costly and the return on investment is difficult to measure.  Instead, she encouraged us to use low cost marketing strategies (e.g. business to business marketing or cross promotion, free offers) to generate buzz.  She also talked briefly about guerrilla marketing,  the idea that costly marketing can be replaced with low cost strategies that effectively use time, energy, and imagination.

At the end of her presentation, she also mentioned a few of her favorite books:

“The tipping point” by Seth Godin.

“What happy people know” by Dan Baker.

“The monk who sold his ferrari” by Robin Sharma.

She also mentioned two cool websites worth a peek:

99design.com:   Have a pool of designers create a logo for you at a price that you set.

trendwatching.com:  A site tracking consumer trends worldwide.

The two books I would personally recommend for removing the mystery surrounding marketing are:

“Duct Tape Marketing” by John Jantsch.

“Guerilla Marketing” by Jay Conrad Levison.

It uses an extremely creative way to market itself to prospective clients:  its free BizLaunch seminars.  Several times a month, in various cities around the country, it offers workshops on issues of importance to entrepreneurs.   These workshops are given on the premises of one of their partners.  For example, next month in Montreal, at the Staples Business Depot in Marché Centrale, the company is offering a free workshop with valuable tax tips for small businesses on how to save money.  I should also mention that it’s beneficial for their partner (in this case, Business Depot), which gains from the exposure  to future potential clients (entrepreneurs will need office supplies and equipment when they launch their business

I’ve had the chance to attend several of the seminars and and they are great learning as well as networking opportunities.  Although the workshops are free, the company gains from the trust and recognition they gain from all those who attend.  The idea of spending valuable start-up money on consulting fees is something that would have made me grimace just a few months back.  However, having good mentors is crucial, especially for first time entrepreneurs who have the drive, but lack the experience and wisdom that can only be acquired with time.

The market is full of companies selling products and services to entrepreneurs.  Kudos to Biz Launch (as well as its partners)  for employing a creative and effective way to differentiate itself from the pack.

Check out their site for more information on upcoming seminars as well as the services they offer to entrepreneurs.  Be sure to also check out their blog, another great source of useful information.

Both offers allow the financing of products between $5,000 and $150,000, and are available until April 30, 2009.  The minimum amount is a bit annoying, but it’s still a good deal.  As well, the promotion targets ‘established’ small businesses so start ups might not necessarily be eligible (though it doesn’t hurt to try).  For more information, check out their site.

All these facts in light of a recent warning by the Competition Bureau that fraudulent activity tends to increase during recessions.  Small and medium sized businesses are especially vulnerable since they tend to be more aggressive in cost cutting measures in an economic downturn.

Don’t take security lightly.  Whether it means changing your passwords or encrypting your data, do what you can to protect your business, even if it means spending a few extra dollars.  It will pay off in the long run.

1. An increase of the small business corporate income tax threshold from $400,000 to $500,000.
2. A temporary CCA allowance rate of 100% for computers purchased after January 27, 2009 and before February 1, 2011.  In addition, there will be an extension of 2 years of the temporary 50% CCA rate for any investment in manufacturing or or processing machinery and equipment.
3. Greater access to credit through increasing loan amounts made available by Export Development Canada and the Business Development Bank of Canada.

As a follow-up to my previous post on mind mapping, I am going to bring to light one of its great applications:  writing and delivering a speech.  Before going further, I should mention that I have some prior experience in public speaking.  In many of our business courses in university, presenting was a normal part of the curriculum.  In addition, I spent some time as a member of a local toastmasters club, a great organization for improving one’s public speaking skills.  However, I wish I had learned how to use mind mapping a few years back since I feel this simple technique greatly improves every part of a speech from writing / editing to memorization and delivery.  It also cuts preparation time by at least 50%.

The traditional approach to speech writing is exactly as its name suggests:  writing out the whole speech by hand and then proceeding to memorize as much of it as possible.  There are few problems with this approach:

1. Writing out a full speech followed by editing takes a great deal of time.  By editing, I mean anything from correcting spelling mistakes and grammar to adding and removing text.
2. Once the speech is finalized, the next step is memorization.  This a critical step in delivering an effective speech since the speaker needs to be fluid and avoid looking at his / her speech or cue cards every few seconds.  Otherwise, the speech becomes too robotic and rehearsed.  The audience also loses connection with the speaker and may begin to doubt his or her expertise.   I find memorization to be the most difficult and time consuming part of the whole process.  Although I had no problems in the past writing a great speech, I always ran out of time when it came to memorization, which naturally affected my delivery.  The lack of preparation time also meant that I often exceeded my time limit, sometimes by several minutes.

Replacing the traditional approach with mind mapping solves all of these problems.  Now, when I write a speech, I never actually have to ‘write’ out the full speech.  I use the following steps:

1. I create an overall mind map of the speech containing all of the different areas I have to cover.
2. Next, I create the speech in my head and add keywords to the mind map as triggers to the actual sentences.
3. Editing or making changes to the mind map is very easy.  I am replacing one trigger word with another (instead of deleting and writing new sentences / paragraphs).  With mind mapping software like Mind Manager or Free Mind, it’s  also very easy to move and re-order key points or subtopics.
4. Memorization.  This is the best part.  Because the speech was never actually written out, it only exists in the mind of the speaker with keywords acting as triggers to the actual sentences.  Furthermore, every time I look over the mind map, I am in fact memorizing and rehearsing my speech.  This is a tremendous relief since there is almost no chance of forgetting anything upon finalizing the mind map.  If  I forget a sentence, I’ll know the very first time I go over that part of the speech.  I simply have to pick a stronger key word that better represents the content of the sentence.

Compared to the other methods I learned in the past on speech writing, I find mind mapping to be far more superior and less time consuming.  When we deliver a speech, rather than repeating memorized words, we should aim to tell a great story to our audience.  The subject and speaker become one.  That’s what differentiates a good speech from a great one.  Mind mapping is powerful tool that can make this possible.

As an example, I attached a few of the cue cards I used to deliver a 10 minute presentation seeking seed funding for my business.  The whole speech took me approximately 3 hours to write and memorize.  The presentation was well received

View cue cards