Baby it's cold outside! What is it about these endless grey winter days that makes us want to hibernate in our homes and work spaces? Fear not, there's something coming up that's worth braving the elements. Why not join us in shaking off the winter blues this weekend at an amazing event for mompreneurs?
If you’ve ever spent more than say, five minutes with us, you’ll know that we love all things planning, organized, and structured. Heck, we make plans to make plans in our business! So, it’ll come as no surprise that we recommend even taking a thoughtful approach to networking.
In our coaching practice we work with all kinds of really amazing entrepreneurs with businesses of all shapes and sizes. Although we work through lots of different issues and concerns with our clients, one that comes up often is when clients are bothered that they are making money differently than they had expected.
In other words, a secondary product or service is bringing in the bucks rather than the main feature on offer.
We were motivated to write our book, Mom Inc., by the growing numbers of women who were trying to do just what we were: Balance their careers and their families. We wanted to provide a business resource guide, with insights from dozens of Canadian entrepreneurs, for the women who were just beginning to contemplate entrepreneurship.
The holiday shopping season is behind us, and the numbers are in: Retail sales in Canada were slightly lower than expected in December. So how can business owners improve sales going into 2013? Here’s one way: Deliver outstanding customer service. It’s one of the best, cheapest ways to differentiate yourself from the competition.
Do you remember when sales happened four times a year? When you had to actually wait until Boxing Day to score an item at a great price? It wasn't that long ago.
My daughter received the classic game of Guess Who? for her seventh birthday. It’s a two-person guessing game designed to eliminate characters based on their physical characteristics. Since that day two months ago, hundreds, without exaggeration, of games of Guess Who? have been played in my house. It has been played by all combinations of my children, and sometimes not by my own children. And the girls have devised all kinds of non-traditional ways to play the game too.
Last week, even before we had celebrated Halloween, I noticed that Christmas had arrived in the land of retail: Holiday-themed lattes at Starbucks, festive paper plates at Loblaw’s, and plenty of décor at the Bay.
Ask an entrepreneur the following question: “What is the biggest hurdle you’re facing in your business?”
I can almost guarantee you the answer. Consistently, entrepreneurs feel that marketing is the key to their success. After meeting hundreds of entrepreneurs, the question we are most commonly asked is, “How do I get the word out?” Everybody wants to know the secret to marketing.
When I’m not working or looking after my kids I can often be found in the weight room. Kind of crazy, I know, but I love to lift weights. It’s one of my most favourite ways to spend an hour. I picked up this passion a few years ago and I’m totally hooked. The difficulty is, unfortunately, that I don’t have a naturally athletic bone in my whole body. Any progress I’ve made in the weight room comes from just showing up repeatedly—nothing more. (This is not me being self-deprecating—it’s me being real.)
I set out this afternoon to write a blog post. Not this one, a different one. Just a couple hundred words—no biggie, right? In the process I started a new blog post, called my mother-in-law, followed up on a wholesale lead with both a phone call and an e-mail, downloaded some of my CDs to iTunes, answered five e-mails, accepted a Facebook friend request, put some soup in the fridge and made a cup of tea. I should also mention that I have seven programs open on my desktop, included in which are four web sites and three Word programs.
I think I’ve still got a post-Olympics glow. After I gorged on the gymnastics competition I turned my attention to the track and field events. I got all goose bumpy just looking at the shots of the track and field stadium. Regularly filled to capacity at 80,000, it was an incredible sight. And I could watch those runners all day long.
This week we were lucky enough to score an interview with a mompreneur extraordinaire. (Thank you, YMC!) Julia Hartz is the Co-Founder of Eventbrite and mom to two little girls. We got to chat with the lovely and über-intelligent Julia about how she grows her business and her family. Here are some highlights from our interview.
Mom Inc (MI): You went from a very corporate career as a TV executive to becoming an entrepreneur. What changes did you have to make in your life and your mindset with your new career?
It’s not a secret that I love the Olympics. I’m completely compelled by elite athletics, and the Olympics is the greatest world stage of all. I love the incumbent champions, and the underdogs. I love the powerhouse nations and the wee ones alike that manage to churn out world class athletes. And, of course, I love the Olympians’ stories. I think that the Olympics are the best reality tv out there.
A facebook friend recently posted a photo that took my breath away. It was a photo of her saying goodbye to her daughter as she went off to overnight camp. The woman is laughing and crying at the same time, while her daughter is smiling and comforting her. Despite the fact that I’ve never met this woman IRL (hope to soon) the photo brought tears to my eyes. I was struck by how bittersweet it is to let go of our kids. We bring them into this world and pretty much start preparing them to leave us.
I have always been fascinated by competition. I especially love elite athletics. I love the Olympics! I’m astounded that some people choose to dedicate themselves to a pursuit and that among those people, some rise to the very top of their game. I’m amazed that some people have the drive to be the very best in the world at what they do.
When I was 19 and in my first year of university, my then 17-year-old roommate taught me a lesson that has served me well. She said that one should never write anything negative down to someone, rather deliver the message verbally. So, if you’re angry at your friend, tell her about it, don’t write to her about it. Think about it: It’s painful to hear criticism, and when it’s written down you can go back time and time again and relive that pain. The mind has a way of softening our memories of hearing difficult things.
Hopefully by now you’ll have noticed that we (and some other great people at YMC) are involved with a contest generously sponsored by UPS. We’re looking for inspiring mompreneurs—and UPS is awarding $1,000 to the winner. Through our outreach about the contest something came up that troubled us.
