Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.
Friday,
October
4th,
2013
Categories : Business Tools, Productivity, Small Business
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Tuesday,
October
1st,
2013
You’ve reached a crossroads in your business. Or so you thought, until it dawned on you that it wasn’t a crossroads at all. You were actually at a complete stop. After running a successful business for this long, the choices you thought would be there – expected to be there – seemed to have disappeared, or possibly they were never there at all, at least not with any degree of clarity.
All business owners want their businesses to keep on growing. They would like to see continued success and a future for their business that is both interesting and financially stable. Problems arise when they look back and realize they had no real plan in place for when they reached this point.
Now is the time to go over your business with a fine tooth comb and make decisions on exactly where you would like your business to go. Is it in a totally new direction or would you just like to add new services and products?
Before you spend a lot of time and effort on decisions that will affect your future business, take into consideration which products your present customers use the most and why they benefit from those. What will they need in the future that you can provide? Have you exhausted your niche and need to expand into something else or do you need to provide a wider variety of services and products within your niche, maybe something just a little bit different that will be of interest to a wider group of customers.
What you need is a clear vision of where you want your business to go, ensuring it’s somewhere that interests you and will be viable long term. You’ll want it to encompass all of the important points, so that new methods of marketing and promotion are included. You’ll need systems in place that work for your type of business and you’ll want it to be something that will have further options for growth in the future.
You’ll want a business that will no longer have complete stops, that will have actual choices, maybe even multiple crossroads, all of them of interest to you and all of them spelling success.
© Chris Draper, DemGen Inc. 2013
Image courtesy of sageclarity.com
Categories : Business Coaching, Entrepreneurial Lifestyle, Small Business
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Friday,
September
27th,
2013
It turns out that it’s not just startups that don’t want traditional employees. Large corporations, small businesses and agencies are increasingly looking to entrepreneurs for support and the trend shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon.
Entrepreneurs are the way of the future!
by annavital.
Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.
Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.
Categories : Entrepreneurial News/Stories, Small Business, Virtual Teams
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Wednesday,
September
25th,
2013
Every day we help our clients automate their businesses.
There are certain activities that are pointless for you to be doing and once you automate them, you’ll wonder why you ever did them manually in the first place.
We’re able to help our clients because we’ve been there ourselves. Instead of reciting the reasons and benefits for automation, that you’ve surely heard already, we thought we’d share our story…
Back when Gary and Pam started this business in 2005, it was a small team with a few big clients. As with most start-ups, there was a lot of multitasking. Fast-forward to a few years later and DemGen’s team and client roster had increased 100%. It just wasn’t possible for key team members to multitask as they had when the company first started out.
The first problem we faced when scaling our virtual team internationally was our phone system. We needed a unified presence, even though we weren’t in the same physical offices. Grasshopper was a lifesaver! Even though our experts are spread across the world, we can be reached through one toll free Grasshopper number. Our team can access their messages online or even on mobile – instantly.
The next hurdle was accounting. When we only had a few clients, it was possible for us to keep track of invoices, payments, expenses and time. (Though no one enjoyed doing it.) When business started taking off it became much harder to stay on track with our accounting. Enter Freshbooks. Revenue is the lifeblood for every business. Simply put, Freshbooks helped us to keep track of our invoices and get paid – automatically. No more having to remember to invoice or who paid what when!
Recently we reached our most daunting task – managing and communicating with all of our new found friends/clients. We had outgrown the ability to create our own systems in Outlook or Mail. We scaled up to a basic CRM/email marketing program, but soon found maintaining it tedious. Our list began growing quickly and we started nurturing our leads accordingly, which required a lot of manpower. We looked into Infusionsoft. It was substantially more expensive than the program we had been using but when we looked at the numbers, Infusionsoft paid for itself and freed up our team to focus on more strategic, revenue focused, and fun initiatives.
This addition saved us a lot of time and money, but as our database and communications expanded, scheduling Discovery Calls became a bit of a nightmare. With multiple team members scheduling meetings for the same key people it was difficult to ensure availability and avoid duplicate meetings being scheduled. TimeTrade automated it all! Now any member of our team can provide links for prospects to schedule meetings with Pam directly. Prospects can find a time that works for them and book it immediately, avoiding any back and forth to find a time that works for everyone.
So that’s our story, so far. We’re all about continuous improvement and are constantly evaluating how efficient our systems are to ensure our team and clients are able to perform to the best of their abilities. It’s a never-ending story.
We’ll be sure to keep you posted as we add more tools and systems that help us to streamline and automate our business!
© Tamara Smith, DemGen Inc. 2013
image courtesy of juliaburman.com
Categories : Business Tools, Productivity, Virtual Teams
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Tuesday,
September
24th,
2013
One of the most persistent barriers that we run into with small business owners as their businesses grow, is their fear of losing control over what they have created. As much as they realize that they do need help if they want to continue to expand, they also have a mindset that insists that they control every aspect of what is going on within their business. What it comes down to, is that they are afraid to delegate.
How can we help them delegate effectively?
Education
Many business owners don’t know how to delegate and this is what really scares them. They think if they give up certain tasks, they won’t get credit for the actual growth of their business. Our first step is showing them how a virtual team works; that processes and steps are put in place and check points are observed. We show them how delegating will alleviate their stress and that they themselves may actually learn something new about easier ways to manage the tasks that they have been having problems with.
Financial Gain
While financing the outsourcing of some tasks to virtual workers can sound expensive, you will be paying only for work that is completed by them and you get to pick and choose what that work is. Begin by making a list of the tasks that you find are always put off and left until last. These are the jobs you don’t like to do and/or don’t excel at and these are the items that you are better off having someone else do. It does pay in the end, since more of your work will be completed accurately. It will save you time and money.
Time Management
Delegating involves deciding which tasks you would like to have someone else perform and if you have let things get to the point where you don’t have the time to take care of them, you may feel that you don’t have the time to discuss the important points with someone who doesn’t know your business as well as you do. Though it will take a bit of extra time at the onset, delegating work to a team will pay off after the initial effort as their processes have proven to automate tasks and make them more time efficient.
Lack of Management Skills
Another reason most business owners can’t/won’t delegate is they don’t have the knowledge and the ability to manage a team of others working under their direction. With a professional virtual team, you won’t have to manage anyone. They already have project managers in place and once their systems are in place, the members of the team collaborate in order to bring you the best results possible as quickly as you need them.
Learn to Have Confidence in Others
If you have been working on your business by yourself for many years, trusting others and having confidence in their work may be an issue. Our virtual team is prepared to handle a long list of tasks and the potential for your business to flourish will outweigh any concerns you have. Experienced with many types of businesses, we have someone who can handle anything you need done and if we don’t, we will find the best person for you!
The benefits of delegating far outweigh continuing on your own and having your business grind to a standstill. Delegation is learning to get things done through other people and trusting them to put your best interests first. It’s about teamwork and working well with others to provide the best results.
© Chris Draper, DemGen Inc. 2013
Categories : Productivity, Small Business, Virtual Teams
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Monday,
September
23rd,
2013
Please tell us more about your practice.
My practice is a mix of reconstructive surgery such as breast reconstruction, facial injuries and skin cancer; cosmetic surgery including face, breast and body procedures; and medical aesthetics such as Dysport and other injectable products as well as laser and other energy based technologies. I work at Trillium Health Center, my own private practice in the west end of Toronto, and am also a partner in Sanctuary International Spas, which has seven locations around Southern Ontario, including Muskoka and Niagara-on-the-Lake.
What inspired you to create this company?
I believe that the standard surgical practice is limited in the breadth and quality of service that it can provide. A single surgeon running an isolated practice is comparable to a single pilot owning a plane and trying to run an airline – nobody would expect a pilot to have the ability to manage all the business aspects of an airline, nor to have time to both fly and handle the business. My vision is one where physicians and surgeons can work together offering comprehensive and integrated services in the areas of health, wellness and beauty.
What common trends do you see with your clients?
Both the non-surgical and surgical cosmetic industries are growing. The trends I see are a growing market both from baby-boomers as well as under 40 segment, and more people wanting non-invasive ways of addressing their aesthetic concerns.
What’s the most rewarding thing about what you do?
The popular image of the over-privileged, over-operated Plastic Surgery junkie is simply not the norm. The vast majority of people having cosmetic procedures are ordinary people, with specific personal aesthetic goals. Many people live with a feeling of dissatisfaction in their appearance, which can profoundly affect how they feel about themselves as a whole, and how they interact with the world. I find immense satisfaction in helping people overcome these issues, and seeing the positive impact it has on them; it is truly a life altering transformation, and I am fortunate to be a part of that.
What are your greatest recent accomplishments (both with DemGen and otherwise)?
My greatest accomplishment in the business to this point has been the creation of the necessary components to assemble and expand into my vision of a multi-disciplinary multi-center network that can deliver the cutting edge of health, wellness and beauty. DemGen has helped me to solidify these components, and give me direction on how to use them. I continue to enjoy daily successes with individual patients, which fuels my passion for this industry.
How has working with DemGen benefited your business?
The Future Vision Map process with DemGen really helped me to evaluate my business finding the strengths and weaknesses, and solidifying a plan around these. Demgen has also allowed me to investigate and initiate many other related business projects. I consider myself both a surgeon and an entrepreneur, and DemGen has given me the tools to explore my entrepreneurial interests.
How has ‘going virtual’ benefited your business?
Virtual business has meant access to a variety of experts in an efficient manner. My strategic adviser oversees all aspects of the team, which allows me to focus on my business. Other than the direct personal doctor-patient interactions inherent in my industry, most other aspects of the business can be done virtually. I have even converted some of my own staff to working virtually part time. I am surprised how much can be done this way, and how much efficiency it can provide.
Did you have any initial reservations about ‘going virtual’? If so, what made you change your mind?
I always held the belief that a traditional office with staff physically present was the only way to run a business, especially something like cosmetic surgery. However, seeing the flexibility that i have gained by tapping into skills and resources that i could never access from my own in-house staff, and the efficient way the virtual resources are managed by DemGen has convinced me that virtual business is beneficial even in my industry.
Has DemGen exceeded your expectations?
The executive and “genius abilities” team have met or exceeded my expectations consistently.
© DemGen Inc. 2013
Categories : Business Experts, Entrepreneurial Lifestyle, Virtual Teams
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Friday,
September
20th,
2013
Categories : Lead Generation, Marketing, Social Media
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Thursday,
September
19th,
2013
If you aren’t entirely sure what an elevator pitch is, than this blog post is definitely for you. If you’re looking for a way to make your elevator pitch stand out amongst the crowd, then you’re going to enjoy this post even more.
If you didn’t already know, an elevator pitch is an introductory business technique used to quickly pitch your business idea, services, or company explanation in the average amount of time it would take one to travel a couple of floors in an elevator. That being said, an elevator pitch can range anywhere from 30 seconds, to two minutes in length. The most important characteristics of a good elevator pitch are to be concise and direct.
The problem with a regular elevator pitch is that they generally tend to involve the same adjectives and adverbs to describe your services that many other people use as well. Adaptable, hardworking, versatile, consistent, motivated, and dedicated are all becoming tired and overused. So instead of walking the well-beaten path of adjectives and adverbs, it’s time to take your elevator pitch to another level.
By that I mean by using nouns. Yes, nouns, the good ole person, place or thing that we use in almost every sentence. The interesting thing about nouns is that there are literally thousands that can be used as an analogy to connect your future clients to your business.
Here’s an example. Instead of describing yourself or your business as hardworking and dedicated, explain that your business in similar to that of an ant colony. Common knowledge of ants and their colonies is that they are driven, diligent, persevering and filled with consistent workers. It also showcases your company and services as a well-oiled machine, since colony ants tend to follow a carefully organized system. By using a noun to describe your company instead of an adjective, you’re producing a three-dimensional connection between how your company works and what your future clients are looking for.
A revamped elevator pitch is just one of the techniques that can help advance your business to the next level and help you gain clients. Other techniques to grow your business and clarify your focus for the future can be learned through programs like our Future Vision Map, and other personal coaching sessions with member ofs our virtual team.
If you’re interested in discovering more strategies and techniques to differentiate yourself from the crowd and clarify your future vision, schedule a Discovery Call now.
© Zoe Begopoulos, DemGen Inc. 2013
Categories : Marketing, Small Business, Virtual Teams
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Tuesday,
September
17th,
2013
Recruiting and Coaching Employees
The present job market is in a state of flux and many small business owners don’t have the knowledge to ask the important questions that will help them find the perfect employee(s). A virtual team is current on technology and administration as well as other necessary requirements for small businesses and they can help you find just the right person for each job. If any of your present employees are excellent at what they do but have yet to reach their full potential, a member of the team can work with them to help them achieve their maximum performance levels. Coaching may be something that you aren’t familiar with but it is the best way to work with a high quality staff and through mentoring and counselling, support them in reaching their goals.
Making Your Presence Known
Many businesses use social media and would like to use it more effectively. While there are at least ten major and well known social media sites, not all will work well with your business. Where can your business use social media most effectively? Virtual teams are well versed in all forms of social media as they work with it extensively. Putting your time and energy into areas where it will work best for you is something they can help with.
Setting and Tracking Your Goals
It’s very easy, once your business starts to grow, to let your business plans slide. Setting short term goals is every bit as important as what you are looking for long term. Work with a specialized virtual assistant to put a plan in place, one that includes keeping track of each small goal on your way to meeting the big ones. Celebrating the small steps gives you the boost to keep moving forward. Goal setting not only helps you recognize your direction but it also gives you motivation. You can measure your progress and focus on the most important points.
Client Follow up
The most common reason for a business to stagnate or even lose customers is through lack of follow up. Even if you already have a method in place to contact your customers after a sale, consistency is what will keep them coming back. A virtual team has processes in place to contact customers in such a way that you will find out what they like about your company and also what you could do to improve it and this is what business owners rarely hear. You want to know what your customers really think of your products and services.
Finding the perfect team to work with is easier if you contact a company with experience and enough virtual members to ensure your needs are met. Look over the services that the DemGen team offers to pick and choose what will work best for your business.
© Chris Draper, DemGen Inc. 2013
Image courtesy of engadget.com
Categories : Entrepreneurial Lifestyle
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Friday,
September
13th,
2013
Positive thinking – we hear about it so much, but do we truly grasp the benefits? Have you consciously looked at days when you have been upbeat and positive, and compared them to days when you had some negativity in your thoughts and actions? I have …. And I am grateful for the exercise!
When I have had a rough day, I sometimes lash out about the dishes not being done or the piles of laundry. Of course this is happening because of what happened for me that day – it is not a direct relation to what anyone on my team or in my house did … I needed to vent! Nowadays, I make a concentrated effort to think first about my reaction and where it is truly coming from.
On a day of positive thinking, I celebrate everything including the dirty dishes because they meant we had a great home cooked meal or the hundreds of emails to be addressed because someone thought of me and reached out!
I have started a note beside my desk that I update often with new messages, it is focusing on how I choose to experience my day and came from a wonderful blog post by Pat Lynch…
This part really resonated with me “Imagine spending a day seeking out inspirational acts, feeling grateful for what you have, feeling energized by your work, or expressing your appreciation to others! Simply looking for these things ensures that you will find them”
So in honour of Positive Thinking Day (Sept 13th) I would like to share this infographic to help you experience a positive attitude every day!
© Pam Christie, DemGen Inc. 2013
Categories : Entrepreneurial Lifestyle, Motivation, Small Business
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