The most important resource of a business today is it’s people. This is increasingly meaningful not merely as rhetoric but also in practice.If we depend more and more on fewer people and if the loyalty of these people, particularly managers, can no longer be assumed but rather must be earned and retained, then clearly we need to be concerned about how we utilize them, develop them and resource them.We also need to consider the opportunities for rewards, promotion and success which we provide. If changes depend upon the people who implement them one must be concerned to ensure that those people possess the necessary skills. If those same people are motivated by challenge and opportunity then we must provide that as well.If we are to bring people together effectively, then we must adopt managerial styles conducive to learning, to development, to creating and to articulating/communicating vision.............read more http://amplify.com/u/aqiav http://amplify.com/u/bqiaw

"Plenty of people miss their share of happiness, not because they never found it, but because they didn't stop to enjoy it."William Feather1889-1981, Writer http://amplify.com/u/bqh7z

"One half of life is luck; the other half is discipline - and that's the important half, for without discipline you wouldn't know what to do with luck."Carl Zuckmeyer1896-1977, Writer and Playwright http://amplify.com/u/aqbnk

"I am determined to be cheerful and happy in whatever situation I may find myself. For I have learned that the greater part of our misery or unhappiness is determined not by our circumstance but by our disposition."Martha Washington1732-1802, First American First Lady http://amplify.com/u/aq7ff

Build Your Business – Defining a great Vision Statement http://amplify.com/u/aptbz So you need to ask yourself a few key questions:What is the purpose of your business? Does it represent your core values as a person? Does everyone who works with you know what your Vision is? A Vision statement is usually the first part of a three-part statement of purpose. The second part is the Mission statement, which is a concrete and localized statement of intent. Finally, the third part is the Values statement, describing the values that are important to the running of the business and that are implicit in the vision and mission of the business. (Mission and Values will be covered in the next few articles.)This week we will focus on the Vision statement.A lot of Entrepreneurs struggle with coming up with a vision and when they do write one, it usually sounds like their primary aim in life, the end goal.Here is a simple and easy guide to follow:Vision: the ideal destination. It is where the busi http://amplify.com/u/aptpx

Another AHA Moment in the Life of a Boomer http://amplify.com/u/bpnee http://amplify.com/u/apnef

Another AHA Moment in the Life of a Boomer http://amplify.com/u/apne5

For the love of sales, not the love of money!!Do you love sales?Do you love what you do?Do you love your product?Do you love your company?Do you love your customers? These are not questions I pulled out of the air. These are questions that directly affect your productivity, your attitude, your income, your success, and your fulfillment—not to mention your longevity at your present job. Many salespeople are reluctant to come to grips with WHY they are in sales and WHY they are in their present job. Some salespeople will respond, “I’m in it for the money.” Some will respond, “I need the money.” Others will respond, “I have bills to pay and debt to overcome.” And even more will say, “I have a family.” What you won’t hear is: “I haven’t saved enough to do what I really want to do.” And, unfortunately, even less are willing to take the risk. http://amplify.com/u/apcxu http://amplify.com/u/apcy2

Courtesy Is Kindness in Action http://amplify.com/u/bogpn http://amplify.com/u/aogpv

"To achieve great things, two things are needed; a plan, and not quite enough time."Leonard BernsteinConductor and Composer http://amplify.com/u/aobnd

"Patience and perseverance have a magical effect before which difficulties disappear and obstacles vanish."John Quincy Adams1767-1848, Sixth President of the United States http://amplify.com/u/ao87x

"If you don't like the road you're walking, start paving another one."Dolly Parton http://amplify.com/u/ao7r0

"Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end by really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I shall have the belief that I can do it. I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it, even if I may not have it at the beginning."Mahatma Gandhi1869-1948, Indian Nationalist Leader http://amplify.com/u/ao7ai

When you boil it all down, there’s really only 2 strategies for getting more new clients.Perhaps you’re familiar with them.In marketing circles they’re known as “Push” and “Pull”.“Push” (as the name would imply) involves pushing yourself onto prospects in the hopes that you can convince them, before they hang up or walk away, that you have a service they desperately need. The classic example of the push strategy is cold calling.Does it work?Sure. But it’s got a lot downside to it.It’s labor intensive…not a whole lot of fun…you get lots (and lots) of rejections.But, the upside is that it doesn’t cost much of anything to implement, doesn’t take a lot of time or thought, so for people who tend to confuse activity with productive, and have a lot of time on their hands, it’s something to do.And, who knows, maybe it will lead to something.However, for most anyone who offers high value services, the “Push” marketing strategy leaves a lot to be desired. Whi http://amplify.com/u/ao7ah

"The individual who wants to reach the top in business must appreciate the might of the force of habit and must understand that practices are what create habits. He must be quick to break those habits that can break him and hasten to adopt those practices that will become the habits that help him achieve the success he desires."J. Paul Getty1892-1976, American Oil Tycoon http://amplify.com/u/anoo8

"The day you catch an idea you fall in love with, even a small one, is a beautiful day."David LynchFilmmaker and Television Director http://amplify.com/u/anldr

http://amplify.com/u/bnjcx New Internet Marketing Trends – Social MarketingInternet Marketing or Online Marketing is a new way to promote your product and services through the web.Your core marketing strategy stays the same as you raise your visibility in the target market while increasing sales and profits.Today, Internet Marketing is considered the fastest and most economical medium for promoting product and business growth.Internet marketing strategies cover various services such as search engine optimization (SEO), search newsletters, email marketing, copy writing, web development, blog posting, social media sites, pay per click and numerous others.And now the power of social media, team buying and twitter, have changed the landscape of how people are finding out about local merchants in Kelowna and throughout Canada.One internet marketing strategy that has caught on quickly is the Groupon and Twongo models, now in operation in Kelowna, Canada. This new marketing avenue harness http://amplify.com/u/anjd1

http://amplify.com/u/bnjcr Always when I begin my speeches or my workshops, I tell the participants that I cannot instruct them to price their widget at $4.95. Rather, I plan to teach my audience advanced ways of thinking about pricing and several methodologies to help them make informed and intelligent pricing decisions. Don’t follow the crowd!For most small businesses, the everyday pricing regime starts with checking the competition’s rates and prices, and then following the crowd. This is even the recommended strategy in many popular guides for small business.During the days of prohibition, 25 of Chicago’s top bootleggers were rounded up in a surprise raid. During their arraignment, the judge asked the usual questions, including the occupation of each suspect. The first twenty-four were all engaged in the same activity. Each claimed to be a realtor. “And, who are you?” the judge asked the last prisoner. “Your honour, I’m a bootlegger,” he said. Surprised, the judge http://amplify.com/u/anjcs

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fZgn70FESn8 http://amplify.com/u/anjco

Hi Amplify friends... I'm new here. Looking forward to sharing interesting things, learning something new and engaging in conversation with you! http://amplify.com/u/anjck

New Internet Marketing trends - Social Marketing

Internet Marketing or Online Marketing is a new way to promote your product and services through the web.
Your core marketing strategy stays the same as you raise your visibility in the target market while increasing sales and profits.
Today, Internet Marketing is considered the fastest and most economical medium for promoting product and business growth.
Internet marketing strategies cover various services such as search engine optimization (SEO), search newsletters, email marketing, copy writing, web development, blog posting, social media sites, pay per click and numerous others.
And now the power of social media, team buying and twitter, have changed the landscape of how people are finding out about local merchants in Kelowna and throughout Canada.
One internet marketing strategy that has caught on quickly is the Groupon and Twongo models, now in operation in Kelowna, Canada. This new marketing avenue harnesses the power of team buying and can truly drive more new business to your door.
These new marketing avenues are essentially an online coupon service with an immediate call to action, providing a platform to coordinate and facilitate group buying by consumers of retail business products.

The consumers are members of the local community who have chosen to join a free subscriber list. The products are provided by local business vendors seeking to increase their sales and to expand their consumer/client base by accessing the larger subscriber list.

Example One:

In one promotion 250 new visitors went to the website of a local pizza retailer and 157 vouchers of $25.00 were purchased by the subscribers within a 24 hour period. In the last two months, 67 of the sold coupons have been redeemed and his business was exposed to people who were not previously aware of his pizza business. At the end of 30 days the he received a cheque from the online services for his portion of the coupons sold.

In a previous marketing tactic, a door knocker promotion was used and 15,000 homes were targeted. In this venture $900.00 dollars of advertising capital was spent and only 18 coupons were redeemed.

In the past three years this pizza merchant has used radio, TV and print. At no time did any of these traditional marketing mediums issue back a cheque to this merchant.

Example Two:

In another case a local shoe merchant used Twitter to tweet out that he was having a 50% off sale and did so at 1:00 pm. By 3:00 pm the same afternoon he had eight people visit his store and 10 pairs of shoes were sold. He is now a frequent user of Twitter to keep his customers in the loop.

The same merchant used Twongo and the power of team buying to sell 230 discounted coupons against the purchase of regular priced shoes.

All money raised by the merchant was donated to the local food bank at Christmas and his store was featured on radio and in print, while donating $2,300 dollars to a great cause.

The marketing power of the internet has grown very fast in a short period of time and there is a whole new generation of shoppers who are looking for great value and great service.

Your job as a retailer in this internet age is to decide how you will market yourself so you can “Build Your Business”.

Donald Robichaud
FloodLight – Build Your Business
Kelowna / Ottawa / Toronto
Email
1-888-768-9415
http://www.floodlightconsulting.com/
http://donaldrobichaud.blogspot.com/

Web Ad Revenue Surges in 2010

Web Ad Revenue Surges in 2010eMarketer forecast sees an uptick of 13.9% to $25.8 billion
Dec 6, 2010 - Mike Shields

The recession is starting to fade from memory, in the online ad world at least.

Online advertising revenue will surge by 13.9 percent to $25.8 billion in 2010 in the U.S., according to the latest forecast from industry researcher eMarketer. That’s at least the third time that eMarketer has revised its 2010 spending estimates upward. A year ago the company predicted 5.5 percent growth this year. By May of this year that estimate had swelled to 11 percent.

The next several years should be robust for the online ad space as well, according to eMarketer. Next year, spending will climb by 10.5 percent—and in fact the researcher foresees double-digit spending growth in every year through 2014 with revenue netting out at $40.5 billion.

It appears that the Web’s relatively low cost compared to other media, coupled with its reputation for trackability may be propelling more dollars to the medium during the prolonged downturn.

According to eMarketer analyst David Hallerman, “It may seem ironic, but marketers’ economic concerns are leading them to spend more for online advertising.”

Donald Robichaud
FloodLight – Build Your Business
Kelowna / Ottawa / Toronto
Email
1-888-768-9415
http://www.floodlightconsulting.com/
http://donaldrobichaud.blogspot.com/

EU launches Google investigation after complaints

(Reuters) - EU regulators opened a formal investigation into Google on Tuesday, putting pressure on the world's top Internet search engine to offer concessions to settle antitrust complaints and avert a lengthy battle like Microsoft.

The move by the European Commission came more than nine months after British price comparison site Foundem and French legal search engine ejustice.fr alleged Google's search algorithm demoted their sites in Web search results because they were rivals.

Microsoft-owned Ciao, from Bing, also filed a complaint with the European Commission about Google's standard terms and conditions.

"The (European) Commission will investigate whether Google has abused a dominant market position in online search by allegedly lowering the ranking of unpaid search results of competing services," the EU executive said in a statement.

But Competition Commissioner Joaquin Almunia said it was premature to say there was a problem with Google's business practices.

"I want to be very clear that this does not mean that there is definitely a problem -- it is far too early to say that," he told a European Parliamentary hearing.

Google said it would cooperate with the regulator.

"There is always going to be room for improvement, so we will be working with the Commission to address any concerns," a Google spokesman said.

The company defended its formula for ranking websites and said it had stopped using exclusive contracts almost two years ago.

"We built Google for users, not websites, and the nature of ranking is that some websites will be unhappy with where they rank," the spokesman said.

"Those sites have complained and even sued us over the years, but in all cases there were compelling reasons why their sites were ranked poorly by our algorithms."

The Commission said it would also look into allegations that Google sets exclusivity obligations on advertising partners, preventing them from placing certain types of competing ads on their websites, as well as on computer and software vendors, with the aim of shutting out competing search tools.

It would also investigate suspected restrictions on the portability of online advertising campaign data to competing online advertising platforms.
In January, Microsoft ended a decade-long battle with the Commission by agreeing to give European consumers better access to rival Internet browsers in its Windows operating system.
It has been fined a total 1.68 billion euros ($2.4 billion) for antitrust infringements in Europe.

The Commission can fine companies up to 10 percent of their global turnover for breaching EU rules. It has slapped a record 1.06 billion euros in fine on Intel in the past for abuse of market dominance.

(Editing by Rex Merrifield and David Hulmes)

Push or Pull Marketing Strategies which is right for you?

With the acceleration of the internet as a major marketing tool many clients are looking at their marketing budgets and doing an evaluation of their marketing expenditures.

In a perfect world you may want push out to certain markets while pulling in others.

When you think of push and pull marketing, think of it in terms of a person either getting "pulled" in to see what the seller has to offer or the seller "pushes" out what he has to sell to the buyer.

Let’s review the concept of push and pull marketing:

What is pull marketing?

Pull marketing is where you develop advertising and promotional strategies that are meant to entice the prospect to buy your product or service.

Some classic examples are "half off!" or "bring in this coupon to save 25%" or "buy one get one free" or creating a blog with free information. Give away an eBook to access to an email address or speaking at an event. With pull marketing, you are creating urgency or creating a sense of increased time limited value so that the customer will come into your store to buy now.

So what are the pull marketing tactics you can employ to achieve this?

Blogging – blogging is one of the best marketing avenues at your disposal. Not only does it provide you with a way of increasing your brand exposure and trust but it also allows you to connect more deeply with your audience.

Social Media Marketing – social media allows you to engage with others online. It is the sharing of content, opinion and insight with the folks within your online following and friends. Twitter is an example of a social media service that relies on pull marketing extensively. People follow the conversations that interest them.

Build Community – build a sense of community around your business and people will return. Give people the opportunity to communicate with other like minded individuals and they will return to your business to do so – and indeed identify you as a leader in your industry.

Email Newsletters – offering additional information by way of an email newsletter is another great way to provide value to customers. It is a great way to educate your clients on the services that you offer and helps you stand out from the crowd.

Public Speaking – being seen is a great way to increase your authority. This is where you want to be, as having knowledge initiates questions from the less knowledgeable – and this leads to business.

What is push marketing?

Push marketing is the practice of ‘pushing’ your product towards an audience that may or may not know about it. Traditional advertising leaflets that drop through your letterbox or sales letters, advertising on TV, Radio and newspapers or cold calls.

All of these are examples of push marketing. Think about the last time you received a leaflet in the post. Was it relevant to you? Did you keep it or throw it out? Push marketing only gets results if the timing is right, and if the product or service caters to recipients needs.

Examples of some push marketing tactics you could use to generate awareness of your product:

Paid Advertising - There are many types of paid advertising available and their goal is largely the same: to obtain traffic that will hopefully convert into customers or leads

Create and Maintain an Email List. You should always aim to build an email list for both potential buyers and existing customers. This allows you to push information out to your customers in a very cost-effective way to generate sales.

Joint Venture with other Businesses - This is a variation of paid advertising. Offer to pay partners a referral fee if they refer prospects to your business. Non-profit communities or online associations are a good place to set up referral networks.

When deciding whether to pull or push you should consider that "pull" marketing lets a company focus on the development of the brand. "Pull" marketing wants to create loyal supporters by setting a certain standard for their brand. While "push" marketing is more concerned with short-term results

Both push and pull marketing strategies work well to achieve specific goals. An experienced marketing professional can help you integrate both strategies in a long term marketing plan which will be an effective way to promote any business or website and Build Your Business.

Fore more information contact:

Donald Robichaud
FloodLight Consulting
Build Your Business
Email
250-768-9415
http://www.floodlightconsulting.com/
http://donaldrobichaud.blogspot.com/

OBRG Networking Event Thursday November 25th – Work Life Balance … Is it possible?

We have all heard it before is there such a thing as work life balance?

What simple things can you do to grow your business without leave a negative impact on your health?


Join us from The Okanagan Business Referral Group on Thursday November 25th to find out how to bring more balance in your life.

Hear from five speakers,

Dan Walker-Delisle Chiropractor from Creative Healing on how to make positive changes to improve your energy at work.
Roy Collins/Carmen Sprag from Total Office designing an office the has builds creativity and great work environment.

Ron Finch from Paradigm Health Clinic the benefits of good nutrition on your effectiveness in your life and business.

Chris Rowe of Kelowna Martial Arts on how to physical activity can minimize your stress and maximize performance in all areas your life.

Lyle Isenor from Russell & Associates: Health creating wellness through your employee benefits program.

Tickets are only 29 dollars each and include print material and appetizers, and time to network with other like minded business owners.

Our last event was sold out so please RSVP me back.

Location: Sandman Hotel and Conference Ctr. 2130 Harvey Avenue
Date: Thursday November 25th
Event Time: 2 to 4 pm
Networking: 4 to 5 pm

Complimentary Appetizers and Cash bar provided after the event

To purchase tickets contact:

Cathy Carolei
250-861-4222

carolei@shawcable.com

Partial proceeds from the event will be going to The Access to Employment Program. Check their website for more information here http://www.pimbc.ca/employ.html


Donald Robichaud
President
FloodLight Consulting - Build Your Business - 250-768-9415
http://www.floodlightconsulting.com/
http://donaldrobichaud.blogspot.com/