When growing your business from a one-person shop to having employees, you may find yourself with the need to define and create a workplace “culture”. Some business owners take to this responsibility very seriously; others would rather just make a really good product or service and hope the rest will [...]
Unless you've been shutting yourself in, both virtually and physically, you've probably sensed a change in the air. The murder of George Floyd sparked a widespread reaction in the States of which we are still seeing the effects. Whether people had just had enough, coupled with months of isolation, many [...]
Originally published in “This Month in Elgin Februrary 2020” This month's column goes back to a more traditional way to grow your business network. Joining your industry's association, while perhaps not having a direct relationship with how your business grows, can be incredibly beneficial to you in many indirect ways. [...]
Originally published in “This Month in Elgin July 2020” So it seems as if, at least for now, the threat of the pandemic sweeping Elgin County in a devastating way seems to have abated. We don't know if that means it's gone for good or that we should be bracing [...]
Originally published in “This Month in Elgin August 2020” Like most established companies, your business likely has a logo and brand personality with which your loyal clientele is very familiar and can easily recognize. Perhaps you already have a strong visual representation of your company that ties strongly with [...]
Originally published in “This Month in Elgin June 2020” The uncertainty of this period of time has changed all the rules of the marketing game. In ordinary circumstances you know how the game is played, and so you act accordingly. But now that there is no clear path forward, [...]
Originally published in “This Month in Elgin May 2020” A recent Facebook post began with the words “I heard that we are all in the same boat, but it’s not like that. We are in the same storm, but not in the same boat. Your ship could be shipwrecked [...]
Originally published in “This Month in Elgin April 2020” I'd like to start by saying: for those of you who put yourselves on the front lines daily, we are very thankful and the sacrifices and risks you are taking are not lost on the rest of us. And for those [...]
Originally published in “This Month in Elgin March 2020” If you have a product or service that can easily be sold on-line to an audience that extends beyond geographic boundaries, you should be absolutely taking full advantage of automated marketing tools. If words like “MailChimp”, “Kajabi” or “ConvertKit” gives you [...]
Originally published in “This Month in Elgin January 2020” Many people admit that the real key to success is small gains over long periods of time. Of course, that's not what it looks like when we consider the YouTube-famous, or Instagram influencers, but as we all know that kind of [...]
In fifteen+ years of operating my own business, I have learned SO MUCH in areas that I would never have anticipated having to know anything about. It would have been so helpful to have gone into this line of work with some insight, so that I could avoid making some [...]
In last month’s column, we discussed the best practices in composing a Google Ads (formerly Adwords). Now what? There are a few more steps in the process. If you don’t already have a Google Ads account you’ll need to set that up now. When you go to the first page [...]
You wouldn’t be alone in admitting you haven’t played the Google Adwords game yet. Although you are familiar with those sponsored ads that appear everywhere, from the right side of your search feed to the top of your Gmail inbox, it can be intimidating for a small business owner to [...]
You probably keep hearing about the “overnight” successes that some companies have found online. Like any story where’s there a free lunch, it turns out the truth is often much different than what you hear. In reality, gaining a strong online presence takes a fair amount of patience and only [...]
There are some sales processes which you can assume might just last forever. But now thanks to the internet, many of these “given” ways of doing business are being up-ended, possibly forever. One great example of this is mattress shopping. It’s an awful experience. You walk into a store, and [...]
When I started writing this column, my original idea was to present small, actionable ideas for the small business owner in St. Thomas and the surrounding community. The world is moving so quickly it can be hard to keep pace with technology and the apps and online conveniences that are [...]
A typical small business venture starts like this: Julie is a talented artist. She discovers she has a real love of working with metal and semi-precious stones and fashioning original ideas into jewellery. Her friends and family are so impressed with this talent that they ask her to make custom [...]
