Alberta Business Marketing

Over the past week I have spent many hours deeply engaged with local and industry communities.  At the beginning of the week I started off at the HTG Peer Group annual summit in Dallas, TX.  HTG is a community that I was deeply involved with during my days as a Calgary Computer Support Specialist.  HTG is made up of like-minded IT firms and brings them together in large groups, small groups and special interest groups built on the sharing of best practices and getting involved in the health of each member’s business.

At HTG Summit, I had an opportunity to speak about “online marketing” to a small group of HTG Marketing Professionals on Monday.  Marketing your business and ensuring you have a strategy to keep your business pipeline full is just one of the critical success elements for all business.  Doesn’t matter if you are a tech company, selling real estate or selling hot dogs on the street corner – marketing is a must.  Great marketing is the heartbeat of any business.  What I shared with these HTG professionals is the importance of online marketing when it is balanced with all other aspects of your business marketing, you have look at your overall strategy and how the web fits into your marketing.  You can read my review of the first couple of days with HTG by visiting “The VarGuy site“.

When I returned to Calgary on Tuesday, Ulistic jumped into education mode and brought together a number of great business people for a day of LinkedIn training at our monthly LinkedIn Workshop.  This week we had an experience with a national industry peer group and also a local community of business professionals right in our own backyard.

How do communities work with your business?

Are you the type to engage with community or walk away from those you see as competitors?

I heard something from one of my friends and mentors, Dr. Leslie Roberts from Calgary small business training firm GoForth Institute about competition in our world today during my small business podcast.  Plus, I also just need to turn to what Erik and Lyf are doing in Minneapolis with their Techpulse Minneapolis event.  In MSP, Erik and Lyf come together, competitors in the same industry and they also bring their own customers and share….very powerful.  A great community of professionals led by two leaders in industry.

Here is my advice…don’t hide in the corner, sucking your thumb…get out and engage with others in your community.

Tags: Business Success, Business/Finance, Calgary, Calgary Computer Support Specialist, collaboration, Community websites, dallas, GoForth Institute, htg peer group, Human Interest, Leslie Roberts, linkedin, LinkedIn Ltd, Minneapolis, Online social networking, Real Estate, Social information processing, social media, Texas, the HTG Peer Group annual, web 2.0, web fits, World Wide Web
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If you have not read this book yet, stop reading this blog and run down to your nearest Chapters, Indigo or Borders store and get it.

I need to thank my good friend and fan of Ulistic, Dr. Leslie Roberts from GoForth Institute for recommending this book to me.  Thanks Leslie, you haven’t seen how much it has impacted my life yet.

Over the next few days, I will be sharing some key takeaways from Seth Godin “Tribes”. I have a few pages marked and ready for commentary.

First, if you have it, turn to page 96 and about half way down the page you will find this paragraph.

“The last person to leave the current record business won’t be the smartest, and he won’t be the most successful either.  Getting out first and staking out the new territory almost always pays off.”

Wow, is all I have to say.

Seth was speaking about the music business when he shared that small bit of inspiration, but I took as my departure after 15 years in the Calgary Small Business Computer Support market.  I haven’t been the last person to depart from something comfortable that put food on the table.  I had a chance to catch up with my great friend Aaron Booker from Bellingham, Washington last night and discuss his new business varvid.com.  Aaron is now servicing the technology community by providing high quality video production for conferences, trade shows and case studies.  He does some pretty awesome work.

Thanks Seth for that message.  It was really something I needed to hear and reinforced my knowing that David and I are on the right track with Ulistic.

Tags: Aaron Booker, Borders store, food, GoForth Institute, Indigo, Leslie Roberts, Seth Godin, Stuart's ramblings, technology community, varvid.com, Washington
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The other day I was having coffee with my good friend and trusted small business partner, Dr. Leslie Roberts.  Leslie is a brainchild behind Calgary small business training organization, GoForth Institute.

Our conversations usually cover many topics ranging from hockey to business when we grab our Starbucks and catch up.  On this day we focused on the importance of small business training, education and what the average business owner needs to do to keep their skills sharp, we were really focused from a couple of entrepreneurs.  One question that came up in our coffee chat was, what is a suitable investment for the average small business to make in continuous learning and team development?

I know when I was running IT Matters with Rob Hay and Tony Mah, we invested up to $5000 each year per employee in training our staff.  It was a very critical part of our employee retention program and important to ensure every member of our team had the skills they needed to do their job.  If you read all the books or listen to all the CDs from the world’s renowned authors such as Jeffrey Gitomer, Harv Eker and others.  These authors are always speaking on the importance of continuous learning and education.  We understood this at IT Matters.

Now, in my new career as a Calgary Search Engine Optimization and Online Marketing professional I have to continuously invest in my own learning and always sharpening my own saw.  Leslie confirmed this during our conversation about the importance of small business training in Canada and especially here at home in Calgary.

I have to give kudos to Leslie and her amazing team at GoForth.  They ensure the Canadian Entrepreneur has the right tools in their business toolbox so they can become successful.  Give them a call at 403 242 2546 to learn more.

Tags: 403 242 2546, Business Success, Business/Finance, Calgary, calgary small business training, canada, canadian small business training, Entrepreneur, GoForth Institute, I T MATTERS, jeffrey gitomer, Leslie Roberts, Online Marketing professional, search engine, Skill, small business training calgary, Starbucks Corporation, T. Harv Eker, USD
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