24 Jun
Research from the Enterprise Council on Small Business shows that more than twice as many new small business merchants state that word of mouth plays an absolutely critical role in their vendor decision making process.
Loading ...30 Mar
I was recently looking for some inspiration and new topics and noticed that Bizlaunch.ca is running a series of (FREE) webinars taloired to small business owners. They cover numerous topics and are running throughout the year.
Some topics that caught my attention:
The list is extensive and there’s something for everyone. I encourage you to check it out.
24 Mar
In his teachings, Verne Harnish talks about how businesses and business leaders run their companies in a series of sprints. Businesses grow in bursts. This is important for anyone business owner to realize and keep in mind. Successful companies go through hard pushes and high growth, then they’ll tend to relax a bit, before pushing hard again. This is the natural way for leaders to lead and business teams to operate.
Anyone that I’ve met who has tried to run their business in one long marathon (lasting months or even years) has either ended up hitting a plateau and stopped growing, or the owner/leader became burnt out and the company lost ground as a result.
The most successful companies will rally the troops for concentrated periods of time and accomplish great advancements. Then they take a breather review what they have done prior to taking on a new challenge and opportunity.
This is important to realize and remember as a business owner. You cannot run your company like a marathon. It is not healthy for you, it is not healthy for your staff and it is not healthy for your company. Tackle your business in a series of sprints and you’ll grow faster and become more successful as a result.
16 Mar
Everyone needs a pat on the back and recognition for a job well done – even you!
A letter I wrote
Every week, I solicit from our managers the names of a couple of individuals who deserve a letter of recognition. I take the names and the details about why they deserve recognition and write them a hand written note thanking them in detail for what they did and why they are being recognized.
Over the years, these hand-written notes to staff have become known as Andy’s Love Letters. I do this every week, writing notes to anywhere from two to six staff members each week.
Just last week, I had quite a surprise after our managers meeting when I had three envelopes sitting on my desk. Inside each envelope was a motivational card with a hand-written thank you message from each one of my three managers in our Fredericton store. For the past three weeks, I’ve been extremely busy behind the scenes working on a major initiative for the company, and that week, when asked who deserved recognition, they all agreed that it would be me. So upon returning to the office after a meeting, I found three Love Letters addressed to me for a change.
It was a great surprise for me and an action that I truly appreciated. What I found incredible was that they realize that I too would truly appreciate some recognition from time to time. I have to say that I have an amazing team!
Recognition by way of a hand-written note is an extremely powerful tool. I was reminded of just how powerful it is, when I received my hand written thank you notes just last week. Check out the one I attached to this blog post. Its got an amazing feeling of personalization – something email can’t convey.
What do you do to recognize your team when they do something right?
15 Mar
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business is issuing a checklist on Thursday to some 42,000 members in Ontario, ahead of the tax harmonization that takes place July 1. The HST will join together the 5% federal Goods and Services Tax with the provincial sales tax (7% in British Columbia and 8% in Ontario), bringing the combined tax on goods and services to 12% in B.C. and 13% in Ontario.
The recently published Moneris Solutions’ Vancouver 2010 spending data revealed that while Canada as a nation was taken by the Olympic fever, consumers were bitten by the shopping bug. Sales increased by 48 percent during the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Winter Games.
The Ontario government announced this week that the province’s minimum wage is set to rise from $9.50 to $10.25 on March 31, 2010.
Tofino, the small B.C. surf town known for its natural beauty, has boosted its anti-establishment reputation by banning all franchises within its borders.
Local e-commerce firm Shopify announced Tuesday that retailers using its platform recently topped $100 million in total sales.
Conventional wisdom for Canada’s newest cellphone carriers has been to be first into the market. With fierce competition overhead from established incumbents such as Rogers Communications Inc., the thinking was that the earliest in would hold a key leg up against other newcomers and reap the rewards of consumers’ pent up demand for choice.
Andy Buyting has been in the retail industry since he was six years old. Today, he applies his entrepreneurial know-how to Green Village Home & Garden, one of Canada's most successful specialty garden stores. Green Village Home & Garden is currently expanding into multiple locations throughout eastern Canada.
Daily Updates in Retail News: @myRetailer
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