Alberta Business Marketing

Nothing better than investing an hour with two of your best friends.  It is always great to have allies and friends across the globe who share the same mindset and goals in life.  This is what happened on July 28th, my good friend Daniel Gutierrez who hosts a business webcast each week on blogtalkradio.com invited me and my mentor Bob Burg onto his program.  Danny’s show is similar to what I do with the Ulistic Orange Files, a small business webcast focused on delivering practical business advice to small business owners globally.  I was blessed to be even consider by Danny for his show.

You can listen to Daniel, Bob and I by tuning into the recording of the show.

Besides listening to Bob and Danny speak on the Go Giver philosophies and the critical stratospheric laws of success.  I had 30 minutes to chat with Danny about social media and the future of online marketing.  Lots of stuff to cover and 30 minutes is hardly enough time to really dig deep into the key points that business must really look at in order to really hit a home run with social media and all their online marketing.

I did share with Daniel the importance of having your business plan and your marketing plan figured out first.  I may sound like a broken record here and I know I have mentioned countless times on my blog about the importance of your plans prior to moving to execution phase.  However, many still simply jump to execution and have no real business plan.

Another topics we discussed was the continued importance of meeting people face-to-face and how we can leverage social media and other strategies to enhance our overall business communication strategies.  Social Media doesn’t replace face-to-face, it enhances what we do today with our business communications and even those relationships outside of business.

I also shared with Daniel on the importance of your small business doing your homework before rushing out and hiring the first living or breathing social media consultant.  You need to do your homework and find the right fit for your business.

Thank You Danny and thanks Bob for being my partner in crime.

Tags: bob burg, Business, business plan, Business Success, Business/Finance, Daniel Gutierrez, Danny, Homework, Human Interest, Management, social media, social media consultant, Strategic management
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This post today is not about social media consulting in Calgary or even the work we do each day helping our clients with search engines optimization. However, keep this in mind, the work we do with all of our social media efforts and investing the time and/or dollars into a search engine optimization campaign all start with understanding our businesses.

You know it is still very surprising how many business still don’t have a business plan and even more have a marketing plan that consists of the proverbial, “let’s throw spaghetti against the wall and see what sticks” approach.  By the way, don’t be in denial…don’t tell people you have a business plan and then have to blow the dust off it or even worse..you can produce it.  If your business and marketing plans are in your head, they are simply dreams. Get it on paper today.

During a recent Starbuck’s gathering with one of our SEO copy editors who works with Ulistic, we got chatting about business and the various stages of a small business.  I was intrigued about these various stages and thought that I should know them because I am on my second small business now.  Once I started to understand them, it was easy to share with you all.

Here are the three stages that we discussed over coffee:

• Forming – These are the early stages in a small business.  You may be here solo or have a group of two or more.  This can also be known as the “dating phase”.  You like each other, you see synergies and you elect to jump into a business with each other.  Everyone kind of knows what they need to be doing.  Usually lots of toes are stepped on but everyone is happy.
• Storming – Enter the rocky seas.  Everyone is heads down and feverishly working hard for the success of the business.  Everyone has the right intentions but lots of things are being missed, people are getting upset and this stage is where a number of the small business relationships fall apart.   Success occurs but everyone is so busy pushing forward that they fail to reward themselves, egos start to form and everyone is jockeying for position.
• Norming – If your small business can make it through the storming phase, you will start to see that the stormy seas start to calm and everyone settles into what they do best.  Your true sales experts start to emerge, your technical folks understand their roles and everyone is on the same page.

Let’s face it…egos get bruised every day in a small business and every business goes through these phases eventually.  The forming period maybe longer for others.  Storming may be short-lived and norming we all hope can go on for ever.  Let your colleagues flex their muscle and ride out the stormy times to get to the smooth sailing.  Some people just need to know they can do it and have early success.

Having run a very successful IT firm in Calgary for 9 years I can tell you that we went through all of these phases.  It wasn’t until we had some outside help that allowed us to figure out the norming phase.  The phase where roles and job descriptions are clearly defined and KPI’s are set.  Do you have KPI’s in your business? If not, how do you know if everyone is doing what they are supposed to be doing?

Having someone come in to do a SWOT analysis on your business is totally awesome and well worth the exercise.  I highly recommend investing the time.

Where are you in your business today?

Tags: Business, Business intelligence, Business/Finance, Calgary, Group processes, IP, Management, market research, marketing plan, search engine, search engine optimization campaign, search engines, search engines optimization, Social groups, social media, social media efforts, Social work, Stuart's ramblings, SWOT analysis
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Calgary handler is helping build better four-legged athletes by Colleen Biondi HAPPY HOOFER: Kathy Butkovic commiserates with one of her clients It’s hardly a stretch to envision Calgary’s Kathy Butkovic working with horses. After all, the 29-year-old and her family (mother, father and older sister, Laurie) raised them at their childhood home just west of Edmonton, and she [...]

Tags: Kathy Butkovic, Management, Next Up, Sales & Marketing
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Destination: Okotoks by Emily Senger D’Arcy Ranch Golf Club, Big Rock Because it was better than the one we had in High River, my best friend and I went to the swimming pool. Later, our moms bought us ice cream cones at the local Dairy Queen. These are my earliest childhood memories of Okotoks. The other memory [...]

Tags: Human Resources, Management, Okotoks, Stopover
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Advisers to Premier Ed Stelmach, this panel of eminent individuals will draft a plan to ensure Alberta’s continuing prosperity and quality of life for the next 30 years Honourable David L. Emerson, Chair of the Premier’s Council for Economic Strategy: Raised in Grande Prairie and studied at the University of Alberta. Member of Parliament from [...]

Tags: Alberta's 50 Most Influential, Ed Stelcmach, Human Resources, Management
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