Mimitank

Balance lifestyle and entrepreneurship

Posted on April 23, 2012 by Admin_Joel

One of the key ingredients to entrepreneurial success is being able to be truly passionate about your business. There are thousands of ideas in the world today that can be made into successful entrepreneurial ventures just by executing the game plan to a tolerable level. The really successful treps are the folks who not only have a good idea and business, but they’re absolutely in love with what they are selling. For example… the most successful crossfit trainers are not only passionate about fitness and the sport of crossfit, they are also great coaches and motivators… and they love doing all of the above. Passion for an industry, skill, trade or ability is only part of the battle. You also need to be passionate about the delivery of the service, actually that is probably more important than anything.

The success of your business as an entrepreneur is truly relative to your ability to be in the business day in and day out. A lot of people get into business because they have a skill and they need a job, this is probably the wrong reason to get into business. Being an entrepreneur means you will have to most likely live and breathe the business for at least the first few years, and if you can’t love the lifestyle that your ambition creates you will struggle in keeping the energy of the business alive.

Live your business, day in and day out, for the right reasons and you will most likely have success. If you live in your business and hate your day in, you will struggle. If you love your day in, you will thrive.

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Mind the gap & discover opportunity!

Posted on February 13, 2012 by Admin_Joel

Solving problems is the #1 way to discovering business opportunity. Think about everything that you do on a day to day basis… things that piss you off and drive you bonkers. Opportunities to exploit things that make you go crazy is greater than ever, purely because of the average persons ability to reach a huge audience easily.

Example # 1 – The personal waterbottle with a filtration device… This eliminates the need to buy plastic, non-environmentally friendly water bottles everyday while still being able to consume tasty, fresh, healthy water in an environmentally friendly fashion. This brilliant idea solved 2 very basic issues. One being that we as humans are quickly attempting to polute our universe beyond recovery and 2. consuming tap water that tastes fresh and free of strange unidentifiable mineral flavours is good!

Example # 2 – The Problem – riding a bicycle at night is dangerous… Simple solution right, make the lights brighter! In fact, how about we make them bright, funky & attractive to the human eye so people not only see you the pay attention to you. Here is a cool idea I came across on Kickstarter.com called Fiks:Reflective that takes bright reflective striping and adheres it to the rims of your bicycle. These low cost, highly effective products are just another way to mind the gap.

And while we are discussing Kickstarter I would like to applaud the brilliance of this platform. It makes me excited and motivated to try some ideas of my own on the Kickstarter site and see if my problems are shared with the micro-funding community. I personally find myself getting completely absorbed in the idea of trying to find things that people are interested in investing in. A home made hot sauce, personal coasters, bamboo bicycle, organic food delivery project, or in home gardening ideas. There are of course some negatives to this beneficial platform, the big one being that anyone can try to copy your idea and make it better, which would happen eventually anyway I guess. Check out the Kickstarter community and have fun learning about the entrepreneurial world we now live in. It’s pretty exciting in my opinion.

So go forward thinking about the things that you feel could use a solution… Generally speaking if there is something that could use solving, there will be others that would pay you to help them with the same issue. Oh, and remember that if you don’t try, you’ll never know.

Anything worth doing is never easy!

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Do something well! No really well…

Posted on January 9, 2012 by Admin_Joel

You know, I get extremely flabergasted by some businesses. It amazes me how much crap we get served up on a daily basis by the business community both in business to business and business to consumer transactions. You want to know what I get really pumped up about now? Businesses that do one thing really well and only sell that one thing. Lets take the food truck craze and analyze the success of these businesses. Poutine (fries, cheese, gravy), taco’s (all kinds allowed), crepes (flavours galore), or even smoothies.

Food trucks are the latest craze in the North American food business and it doesnt surprise me one tiny ounce. They specialize and ensure that they are the best at what they do, and the product they promise is better than expected (usually). I’m not here to talk about food trucks though, I want to sprout thought on specialization. I have been working with a multitude of restaurants recently and very few of them feel that specializing at one particular product is a sustainable or achievable business plan. I can’t say that I disagree with them at this point, many of them have created sub par quality for years and they’re still here… why change now?

For many businesses, the foundation of their success has been built off of one particular product. For instance Nike made shoes (track shoes) that were sold out of the back of Phil Knights car after track meets. Apple made personal computers (unsuccessfully at first but never abondoned that foundation). Red Bull made an energy drink, and they still do but the list of other things they do now is borderline hilarious. The point is that successful business needs to start with something special, something great, something that you can build the business off of. A special product that customers will identify you with and they will consider you to be the leader in that market. The opportunity to pick one thing and be the best at it is as good as it has ever been.

I look forward to business leaders spending more time focusing on who they really are. A good question to ask is what do our customers identify us with? A sub par product? Stretchy pants? Shitty customer service? Bad publicity? these are all things that I identify certain companies with instantly when I here about them, I don’t think you want to be the shitty customer service one?

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What’s in a name?

Posted on October 17, 2011 by Admin_Joel

In the competitive marketplace that we operate in today, we as operators need to be diligent in many aspects of our business. Today I want to discuss digital marketing. I was recently analyzing business names and trying to figure out how a new registered business can pick a name for their business and be competitive in the digital world. Here in lies the challenge… There are most likely competitors in your chosen business, all who have chosen their business name to reflect their service or business offering. In the digital world of online marketing, arguably the most important aspect of this part of the puzzle is search engine optimization..

Let us review a potential situation, one that is unfortunately more common than stripes in a prison corridor. You’re a new business registrant of a Vancouver dog walking business that you named Paws BeCaws. You are planning on converting a strong digital presence to your customers, but how will you become the top search result in Google, Yahoo and Bing. Your competitors have been operating for several years and have built strong online presences for their business as well. The first thing you need to understand is what search phrases are going to be most commonly used. Dog walking service, pet service, vancouver pet service, vancouver dog walker, or vancouver animal health are all potentially good keywords to focus on. The process of search engine optimization truly is a challenging piece of the marketing puzzle, but it is also very necessary if its a part of your strategy. To do keyword research through Google Adwords click here!

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is still very much in its infancy and has grown in leaps and bounds over the past 10 years. When optimizing the way search engines navigate marketers used to be able to manipulate websites through what are now called, black hat seo techniques. Now the search engines have become incredibly savvy, creating advanced algorithms that can determine if a website is optimized for the consumer or not. The amount of factors that search engines take into account is incredible and it’s important to take all of these into account as the search engines are growing and constantly changing the way the navigate the internet. Some things to address when creating your SEO strategy are creating fresh content, focusing on the right keywords, title tags, building a strong link network, social media execution, along with several other factors that all have varying weights of importance in strong SEO.

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Posted in Facebook, Marketing & Leadership, Social Media Marketing, Twitter | Tagged digital, social media marketing, twitter | Leave a comment

Every marketing professional should know…

Posted on October 11, 2011 by Admin_Joel

The marketing world is unique, ever-changing, dynamic & challenging; all reasons why it’s also so exciting to be a part of. As marketers it is our responsibility to ensure we are constantly updating our skills, learning new technologies, and communicating new challenges and opportunities to our teams and clients. I have been observing some very interesting organizations over the past few years, waiting…

Unfortunately over the past few years, as technology has progressed, we have seen many companies get left in the dust of the industry innovators. Things have changed dramatically through the use of transparent technology as well as the access to information of nearly everything teachable. We have observed small local marketing design companies struggle with catching onto digital technology and we have also seen huge marketing moguls struggle to adjust when their offerings have become obsolete (phone books). It’s incredible to see how badly some of these majors are struggling to adjust, but the problem is that they are just too large to adjust to market pressures. .

The great marketing companies moving forward are going to be the ones who are looking for innovation and changes. They will seek out change in order to ensure they are on the cutting edge and always forcing the competition to try to keep up to the times. Lets take a look at some of the game-changing advances over the past 20 years.

1) cordless phones

2) the personal computer

3) the internet

4) mobile phones

5) wireless internet

6) bluetooth technology

7) robotics

social media communication

9) mobile commerce

The list could go on and on as we continue to adapt to the wants and needs of the average consumer. Efficiency, time management, competitive advantage, and being mobile are all incredibly important to ensuring that we stay on top of our businesses and clients. The short and skinny… be dynamic, flexible, and willing to change according to market pressures.

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Gimp. Image Manipulation Open Software

Posted on October 3, 2011 by Admin_Joel

I’m not a designer or an artist, however, I do love marketing products and understanding consumer behaviour. That being said I do see a lot of value in having an understanding of everything involved in marketing products. From video production to sound engineering to creative writing, I think it’s important to have a solid understanding of everything associated in making a great campaign so we can realistically manage projects.

I had never been classically trained on Photoshop or any kind of image manipulation software, so about a year ago I started to realize the need for me to develop some knowledge around this aspect of product creation. So I did some research and eventually discovered GIMP, a free open software program for image manipulation that works very similarly to what Photoshop can do. Consider it a stripped down version that offers a lot of the same functionality. I began reading, playing, googling. youtubeing, and trying to learn as much as I could about the program. Soon after I was creating work that I was quite excited about presenting, building graphic images for customization, and executing projects that I would previously had to get a designer to complete.

Gimp offers the functionality of a Photoshop software and once you do educate yourself on the program you can really have fun with it. From creating education materials, marketing POS, manipulating photos, and adjusting graphical features, GIMP offers a ton of useful features. IF you can execute a Google Search and navigate effectively through Youtube you can probably become relatively proficient using GIMP. Also, because Gimp is such a great open program it has a great community of programmers and contributors that offer tips, tricks, and tutorials to get you started in your pursuit of image manipulation excellence. So check it out and have fun with it!

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Marketing… not just social media marketing

Posted on September 28, 2011 by Admin_Joel

Marketing has become incredibly fragmented over the past few years, particularly since the inception of what people like to refer to as social media marketing. I think we all need to change our mindset around this topic. Social media, to me, is just another piece of the marketing puzzle. Any company who feels that their campaigning on social networks is different from how they advertise through the phone book or in their services catalogue is going down a rough road. The tools that are referred to as social media marketing tools are simply communication platforms. The same as a telephone, a written letter, or an email message. The differences are that these tools are generally free to use, they can be considered much more powerful for certain businesses, and they require a great deal more diligence to ensure your reputation stays intact.

Integrating our marketing efforts to ensure we are reaching out to the greatest number of potential customers and sending the message that reflects our company is the ultimate goal, right? What social media platforms have done is made our business function transparent. You can’t just disappear anymore if things don’t go right. You have to face the music that your reputation will likely be plastered all over the digital world and whenever someone wants to learn about you they can just put your name into a Google search bar and press enter… and Boom! For instance when I Google my name I get all sorts of information regarding my social media profiles, community events I was part of, & photo’s that have my name tagged to them. Starting to get the picture? Try Googling your name… you may be surprised.

Overall, my opinion on SOCIAL MEDIA marketing is that we need to stop looking at it as a seperate function and integrate this it into our marketing strategy. Chances are if you market your business in an outbound fashion you will probably find some value in these tools, and if you don’t market your business well, you won’t find these tools helpful at all. If your business has a social aspect to it at all you can probably think of a strategy to utilize social tools.

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Be unique, dynamic & interesting

Posted on September 23, 2011 by Admin_Joel

Corona, Target & Ford… they all have something in common. Do you know what this common denominator is???

Interesting, content rich, stimulating & fun social media campaings in 2010 that showed significant results and customer engagement. Strategizing and planning a social media campaign is paramount when getting ready to launch a program that is designed to bring on the results.

Target ran a campaign that won its way to being one of my personal favourites last year. “Super Love Sender” was the campaign name and it truly was a loving and exciting campaign to engage in.

Retail store Target has decided to embrace both of these upcoming events, while also giving money to charity, with its new Facebook app, Super Love Sender. Target is going to split $1 million across five different charities that support educational programming. The online community can decide how those funds are allocated by sending cute, interactive Valentine’s Day cards.

This strategy skyrocketed Targets facebook fan page to an incredible number… they now sit at 5,529,477 facebook fans.

Captain Morgans, one of my personal favourite beverages to get a little silly on, rewards its facebook fans with a slew of engaging content. Video, giveaways and hilarious, comical information keeps their customers coming back for more. From the Pose Off back in 2008 to the current Captain Morgans Island Contest this brand is constantly producing quality stuff.

So what does this mean for the rest of us? The people who don’t have huge corporate marketing budgets and teams of people to implement and think strategy. Well I feel that it’s fairly simple. We must realize our companies or businesses unique personality and try to relate this personality to our customers through our social interactions. Creating games, engaging content, or stimulating video are all ways that we can show our social sides.

What can a clothing retailer do? Shoot some quality video with your sexiest employees strutting their stuff around the store…

What about a restaurant/bar? Show your staff laughing, smiling and having fun through photo or video. You can also have your chef write a food blog that so many of your customers would be interested in, or take a short video of the chef preparing his favourite dish, like a mini food network.

Car Dealership? Review your vehichles on a weekly basis. Going through the features, advantages and benefits of your feature products.

The bottom line is that you need to come up with a unique advantage of your business that you can exploit in an effort to become more social with your customers…. this is the key to social media success.

Engaging, interactive & cutting edge with your outflow content, inflow content is a blog for another day

Cheers,

Joel

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Posted in Facebook, Marketing & Leadership, Social Media Marketing | Leave a comment

Pay attention, Gain access

Posted on September 13, 2011 by Admin_Joel

In my own, sheltered opinion the most difficult aspect of being an incredible communicator is to be a good listener. Do you think you’re a good listener? I mean a really good listener. Most people are certain that they are good listeners. They here people talk and feel that they can accurately portray the purpose of what the other person is trying to convey. In most cases we can confidently say that this “listener” is INCORRECT!

One skill that I am working on in developing my personal listening grid is “asking if my summary is clear”. What this means is that when the person who I am listening to finishes their point, I ask if I can try to clarify and summarize. Example… “Is it fair to say that …..” or “Can I summarize by saying …..”. This is achieving several things. You legitimize your interest in the speaker, show empathy to the speaker and prove to your speaker that you’re truly interested.

So why would someone want to become a great listener?

1) Your presenter/speaker can sense interest in their topic and they appreciate active participation and they will present stronger

2) You will learn something about yourself and your presenters topic

3) It shows a level of integrity (in my opinion the greatest one word strength)

My challenge to you is this. For the next few weeks, everyday when you wake up, tell yourself that you’re going to engage in great communication in every conversation you have. This doesn’t mean that you should go around summarizing everyone’s conversation with you but instead try to listen empathetically. Use the basics of listening through body language as well as truly paying attention. This doesn’t happen naturally so you may feel uncomfortable.

1) Tilt your head

2) Mirror your co-communicators body movements (without being annoying)

3) Really listen

4) Try summarizing to your speakers satisfaction – and ask for their satisfaction in your summary

Listening is an incredibly important leadership skill and without really being a good listener you will be challenged to ever be a good leader. If you listen to peoples challenges, problems and potential solutions you will be able to motivate through addressing those topics and situations.

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Balance lifestyle and entrepreneurship

Do something well! No really well…

Every marketing professional should know…

Gimp. Image Manipulation Open Software

Marketing… not just social media marketing

Pay attention, Gain access

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