Exploring a Business Idea (helping during transition)

This last month I have been filling in for a friend to deliver a day long program to executives forced into transition due to the tough economic times. I started with her presentation and customized it to cover some of the items I am passionate about in business. I also made changes after each delivery to include information and suggestions offered by the participants.

The program is part of the outplacement program offered by Right Management (www.right.com) to employees being laid off. Right Management offers a variety of programs, support, and seminars to help these people transition into a new career as well as gives them this opportunity to look at self employment, which is valuable since close to 85% of all businesses in Canada are small businesses.

At the beginning of the day we have a room full of people with a variety of reasons for attending the seminar from "I had free time" to "I've been working on a business for years on the side". Many have no idea if this is even possible for them and can't even fathom how they would start. By the end of the day everyone is able to imagine what type of business they would start (sole proprietorship, partnership, or incorporation) and how they might start a business, whether they start from scratch, buy a franchise, work as a consultant, etc.

The people that fill this room are extremely experienced in their past positions often in global corporate leading businesses. The interaction from the questions and ideas with these people always gives me something to think about and is filled with stimulating thought and innovation. It is exciting to be a part of the beginning of the entrepreneurial process.

I get to see and help with the process through networking with BNI. I am an assistant director with the Ontario Central North region of BNI Canada and I love the opportunity to help people generate more business through targeted word-of-mouth networking and relationship building.

The commonalities these two support systems have is they allow people to become better, independent business owners, even if they stay or return to employment in someone else's company.

Reading

• For those just in transition I like the quick read of Who Moved My Cheese, by Spencer Johnson.
• For those ready to make a change there is Jack Canfield's The Success Principles: How to get from where you are to where you want to be.
  
• For people that want to own their own business I usually recommend starting with Michael Gerber's The E-Myth Revisited.
• And, for those already in business I like Masters of Sales by Misner and Morgan as well as every other book that will support the growth of your business and you as a business owner.
  

Do you love hand bells

I want to use this blog post to honour one my living relatives, whom I love and cherish, by praising the release of her choir's new album Bellissima Ringers "Decade". The music is wonderful and soulful, but I am not an expert so listen to what Dave Harris, the director of Raleigh Ringers, arguably one of the best bell choirs in the WORLD, had to say...

"I find the dynamic contrast on the CD to be outstanding. Clearly, you have paid very close attention..."

"the energy isn't lost when you play soft, which is very, very important. I especially liked the rise and fall of your phrases in the Moonlight Sonata.

"An excellent mix of several very serious classical pieces, hymn tunes, holiday selections and original works. And THANK YOU for filling the CD! 74 minutes! unheard of!"

If you are moved by hand bells then you will want to own this CD by The Bellissima Ringers and you can order it online at:

www.bellissimaringers.ca

Fabulous work Aunt Cathie, I was moved to tears at the beauty of the sounds.

Why Did I Start Tweeting - A Business Argument

I was talking with a friend and fellow entrepreneur yesterday and when I mentioned I had decided to start using Twitter a few weeks ago she said, "Oh please tell me I don't have to start using that!" Today in a meeting with two investors we got speaking about different ways to market yourself and I got quit a bit of push back on the cost (in time) to learn and keep a twitter, LinkedIn, or other social networking account fresh enough to give it a reasonable ROI. Here is what I told them about why I believe it is important to start now and why they won't regret the small amount of time it takes to keep it fresh.

1. Twitter was one of the easiest social network profiles I have set up. As well, it is so very easy to use both from my browser and my phone. Really, this was the "no brainer" profile I was looking for. I hate spending hours or days to collect information or navigate complicated profile applications.
2. Twitter is a great way to follow some of the people I respect and look up to. The first thing I did was start following all my favourite authors. Then I added some mentors and business associates I have met over the years that I respect. What I found is that many of these people would follow me in return. Also, people that followed them would now follow me. Some were interesting and some were not. If they were interesting then I followed them. My point being it became easy to get a list of very interesting people to follow.
   

   Note - I could not necessarily find all the people I was interested in following and in some circumstances I could find too many with the same name. You have to add a picture or a very good profile detail so people can tell you from the others with the same name.



3. Tweeting was not like blogging, writing an article, or creating an RFP, it was simply a line of thought or an update. I gave an example that I could tweet right now that I was sitting with two investors, both with international investment portfolios, and if they had a Twitter account I could link to them, pushing their information out to the people that were listening to me.
4. I described the Twitter browser interface (technical description from my Tech-writing days) aka "the web screen" and how simple it was to update and receive tweets. You don't have to do anything to see the tweets from those following you and you don't have to read all the tweets that come to you. If you inadvertently follow someone that turns out to be too verbose (re"twitter"ative) then you can simply stop following them. I was following someone that tweeted 20 - 30 times a day (or more). I had to flip back pages past all her redundant updates just to see my favourites, so I stopped following her. Problem solved.
5. You get to find out about seminars, webinars, and calls which are often free events. I love being able to get a chance to hear about how others do business so I can make mine better. When I have time to listen I make time to learn and Twitter just gives me a new way to be 'in the know'.
6. You can create credibility and presence by tweeting, which you can turn into business. There are many businesses on the web that focus on helping companies do this. Two of them that I follow are @GinaBell and @ChristianMasson. I have met and trust Gina's husband @Coach_Bell and Christian at a conference in Montreal last April and have had the privalege of hearing Gina speak on two occasions. Now my tweet about this blog has just created credibility for all three of these people.

Firsthand example ROI

I got a tweet to download a recorded call from Jill Konrath (@jillkonrath ). I've heard her speak before and knew there would be value in listening to the interview. The interview was with David Wolf of Smallbiz America (@smallbizamerica ). After listening I found the radio link and listened for a while. I found the information so compelling that I decided that others needed to know about it so I put there syndicated radio link and logo on my website. No cost to them. The more syndicated buttons, the more listeners - The more listeners, the more advertisers. You've got to like a business model that gets your clients to push your business at no cost to you.

After I described this to my colleagues and then showed them some of the tweets I was following, they all said "This is now on my 'To Do' list." As it should be. I think business is hard enough. We have to take advantage of the small, easy things when we get an opportunity.

Note - "re"twitter"ative" means someone that twitters the same message in a different manner so often that it becomes irritating to their followers. I made that up :)

What do a Fisheries Biologist and medical device manufacturers have in common?

A Fisheries Biologist working with a government agency in Seattle contacted me a few days ago. She recognized that she is not in the medical device industry but felt that there must be some similarities in the way all industries handled large amounts of information and asked if I could give her some advice on a book that might get her started. After spending some time to compile some information and links I decided that this information may be valuable to many.

If after reading this you have additional information that could help others looking for advice on content management and version control then please feel free to leave a comment.

My Response
Managing large amounts of content has many of the same issues in every industry. There are not a lot of books written about this to date. Anne Rockley is considered the “Guru of Content Management”. Her book “Managing Enterprise Content” is the industry standard. You can get this at Amazon. She has a great blog and online webinars with lots of information. She has also just published a DITA book “DITA 101” found at www.lulu.com. JoAnn Hackos is another “Content Guru”. She has published several books and she delivers workshops and hosts conferences attended and presented by some of the world leaders in content management.

You may want to attend a conference like the Document and Training West (next year), Gilbane Boston or Intelligent Content. There are often very knowledgeable speakers at these events as well as the industry leaders as key note speakers. These are great people to get connected to when you have a large project in the works.

You may want to consider joining CM Pros (Content Management Professionals). Their membership is filled with amazing, knowledgeable people. They also have a conference (The Summit) that is worth attending to get a chance to meet these people.

Another place to go for training may be through AIIM. They are connected to the industry and I’ve heard them speak on webinars in affiliation with a lot of other leaders and speakers.

One Other Thing
One thing I did not mention was that some of the best resources are the vendors. CMS vendors have a lot of information on the reasons for implementation and often host webinars and seminars in affiliation with industry experts. Get on their mailing lists to stay on top of the industry trends.