Networking |

September 23, 2011 By Kathy Colaiacovo 1 Comment

Peer Support is Vital to your Success

I was recently listening to a CD on delegation for small business owners and one of the points the speaker made was one of the top reasons businesses fail. Support.

As a small business owner you are everything to your business. Sales, Marketing, Operations, Admin, bookkeeping and many other parts. Having peer support is one of the things that can help you build your business.

Connecting with people of like minds, in a similar industry can really help boost your own business. You need a sounding board, you need someone who understands where you are and what outside influences can affect how you run your business.

For the past couple of years I have met weekly with an Accountability Group. We started as two then built to four people. All Virtual Assistants, in some way or another. We met to discuss plans, goals, issues and more. Being in the same industry we never felt like competitors, but more like colleagues and collaborators. We understand the issues that affect our specific businesses and the support we provide each other actually helps each of us continue to grow and build our own businesses.

Last spring, we decided to take this group a step farther and meet in person to dig deep into our businesses and do some intense concentrated work on our businesses. A time to step away from the daily work and issues that keep us from going deep into our plans.

And this is where I am right now… locked away in a house in Ontario working hard on new plans ( and in some cases old plans that never made it to completion) with 5 other fabulous women business owners.

We are intense into our Mastermind Retreat weekend and have been working hard every day. We scheduled time and specific As a small group we have been able to take time and listen to each others issues; sharing ideas to help, techniques, tools and in some cases confirming beliefs that have been sitting in the back of our minds and needed reassurance that yes it is time to change. (one of my contributions was the lobster dinner – direct from Nova Scotia! An experience for two of the group who had never tasted lobster before)

Peer Support is soooo helpful to entrepreneurs and small business owners. The inspiration and information you will receive and share in a group like this should (and will) propel your business forward. And networking is how you will find your own support group.

Whether networking in person or online (as I do a lot of mine), you can look for and discover people that you connect with, you resonate with and ones who will also have a different opinion to share with you. They do not have to be clones of yourself – that won’t always be helpful… eyes that have a different view on your business are more helpful to you than a clone.

Take a look around your business world and circle of contacts – who there do you see that appeals to you as a peer? Can you bring something to the table to help them? These are a couple questions to help you find and start your own Accountability / Peer Group. Get out there and be the instigator and create your own group. It may take some time to grow and find the right people; but it really will be a help to your business. Having the extra eyes and ears will become something you enjoy and look forward to with your regular meetings.

My peer group support this week has been invaluable! Thanks to all the Gals who committed to themselves and each other to make this happen!

Technorati Tags: business plan, motivation, networking

Filed Under: Business Growth, Entrepreneurs, Small business Tagged With: business plan, motivation, networking

December 19, 2010 By Kathy Colaiacovo Leave a Comment

Hidden Opportunities are Everywhere

Well, as mentioned a few weeks ago – I was in Washington DC at a conference last week. It was a fabulous event, ripe with opportunities of all sorts. A big part of the messages we received from the leaders was:

Look and reach for opportunities as they will tend to lead to more opportunity.

I had lots of time to recap the event and the teachings during my flight back home to Nova Scotia (or rather my experience of a flight home). I will be sharing lots during the coming weeks on the blog here but for now my story is all about my homecoming!

Things didn’t start off in the best way for me and many others – the snow in the mid West was wreaking havoc on all the plane schedules. My Sunday night flight home was delayed enough that I would miss the connecting flight in New York and there were no other ones that night. Soooo… the Delta agent gave me a hotel voucher, had my luggage brought back and off I went to the hotel – a very nice Hyatt near the Dulles Airport. I had a good meal, (had a cry when my daughter started crying because I would not be home as promised) slept a bit and got up at 4am to catch my new flight… and here the journey to opportunity begins.

When I woke up I checked online and all was good. By the time I hit the front desk for my taxi – the flight was delayed 2 hours – but this was okay I had lots of time in between flights. I explored the JFK airport and visited the duty free shop and was doing fine, until the departure board started showing another delay. UGH! Mechanical issues meant another 45 min delay.

We were not the only ones and the gates were total confusion with people being moved from one gate to another and sometimes 2 or 3 loading at once. Still, nothing I could not handle. Most things can be seen as an opportunity : a possibility due to a favorable combination of circumstances – though I will debate what favorable is!!

We finally boarded the plane about 1 and 1/2 hours later, all was fine until the Captain started with the messages – “We are waiting for the baggage to load”, “We are waiting for our paperwork to go through”, “We are waiting our turn in line to take off”. By the time we took off a few hours later I had met a fine fellow next to me, Mike, and as chance had it we went to the same high school in Nova Scotia twenty some odd years ago.

I always get chatty in these situations (poor Mike ) and love to play the “Six Degrees of Separation” game to see if the person I have just met has something or knows someone in common (I think it is a trait of having moved more than 27 times and met many people PLUS I am good at this game! I have had many of these types of experiences all my life). The conversations we had made for a fabulous plane ride (Well, there was the one time the plane hit a bit of turbulence and everyone was rattled from the sudden bumps, enough that I may have yelled out loud!) until the Captain started talking again – “There is a lot of wind in Halifax and we will not be able to land. Instead we will be diverting to Bangor Maine, where they will get you a bus to a hotel until we can get you on to your destination in Halifax when the wind stops.”

… and so the fun begins with the opportunities that arose from a very delayed plane ride that never did get me home.

(Stay tuned this week to hear more about my trip home – it was quite an adventure! and involves one of the best taxi rides ever!!)

Technorati Tags: Customer Service, Delta Airlines, networking, Nova Scotia

Filed Under: motivation, Opportunity, Small business Tagged With: Customer Service, Delta Airlines, networking, Nova Scotia

November 29, 2010 By Kathy Colaiacovo 1 Comment

Focus, Reinvent, Fill a Need

I attended a CAPS (Canadian Association of Professional Speakers) Halifax event last week, one of my Clients was the speaker for the evening and I was there helping her with her product table and also getting to meet her in person. That is always a blast, meeting my clients from away in person.

Kathy and Jane Atkinson, my client via www.MyFastype.com

It was a delightful evening; not only did I get to meet a client face to face, but I was able to listen to her talk about being a Speaker and learned many useful tips that could apply to many types of businesses. One that really stayed in my head was “Focus, Reinvent and Fill a Need”.

Her message was that as people’s businesses grow and change – so does your focus. You will find yourself in a cycle of Focus, Reinvent and Fill a Need.

Does this sound like you? You have your website, your products and are pretty well established in your market. Sales are good, but you’re reaching a bit of a plateau when it comes to business growth. The big question is how you move forward, whether tweaking a current product or service what you will do; or will you create an entirely new product?

Either way… the change will revitalize you and your business. Change is always a good need and if the change you make can fill the need of your clients or even bring in new clients – then all the better. You continue to reach new markets which will help you grow your experience and your business.

When Is It Time To Reinvent and add a new Focus?

You’ve most likely had the nagging feeling or even queries from clients that make you realize you can add to your offerings and fill a need for your market. It’s not always the right time to reinvent, but if your business is established and sales are steady, it is probably the right time for you. Jump into this as you did starting your business – with research and thought put into the planning and launch of the new offering.

s4b copy 283x300 Focus, Reinvent, Fill a Need I recently did this very thing and launched a new service – Social Media Training via a webinar setting. The past year, I have found that many business owners are looking to learn to use Social Media for their business, and not everyone has it in their budget to have someone like me look after their social media management on a regular basis. My Reinvent was adding Group Training to my offerings. Something that was affordable for people to access as opposed to one-on-one training.

My first class started in November and went almost exactly as I planned. The group of 12 students from all over Canada and the US first watched a presentation and then we all were online together and put the skills learned to use by networking online. My vision was to have the students online using their own networking profiles during the training and that is what we managed to do. It was fabulous to see it come to life as I had planned.

Focus, Reinvent and Fill a Need…

Have you had any successes lately with your reinventions? Please share them and let our readers know about your new services.

Technorati Tags: creating a niche, efficient business, networking, Small business, starting business

Filed Under: Entrepreneurs, Live Events, Marketing Tagged With: creating a niche, efficient business, networking, Small business, starting business

May 18, 2010 By Kathy Colaiacovo 2 Comments

It’s a Small World – Virtually, I mean

small Its a Small World Virtually, I mean

I have always been one to talk and question people to find some sort of connection – You know the game of Six degrees of separation. Having moved a ton in my life with a military Dad and then a call centre Husband – I am always making connections, linking someone I meet now to someone or something in my past.

Some of my favourite stories are :

Seeing a girl at a park in Prince Edward Island who I was sure I skated with when living in Ontario – sure enough later that Fall she was a new member at the skating club and we continued our friendship
Talking with a girlfriend in high school in Nova Scotia about our past homes and discovering when we were 7 we were playmates and friends on the base in Ontario.
Ran into an old work colleague in the mall in PEI just after we moved into our new home. We had worked together 12 years before when I had lived there in a previous move. Turns out she was my new next door neighbour.

Anyhow, when I meet new people, I really enjoy trying to find out if we connected through someone else we know … it’s a sad life I live sometimes! *hehe*

So last week, when I was being interviewed for a promo piece for the OIVAC conference I am speaking at this week, I got to play the game again! Kind of. It was a little variation but made me chuckle none the less. Lyn Prowse-Bishop, a Virtual Assistant from Australia, was doing the interview and afterward we were chatting a bit. One of the things she said was, “Now many years ago my husband and I were in Nova Scotia and we went to the this great bar in Halifax but we can’t remember the name. Maybe you can help because it has been driving us crazy.”

Well, my ears perked up, partly because my husband used to own a bar in downtown Halifax, and I immediately started thinking – “Oh I wonder if we met somehow” – but, Australia is a far hike from Nova Scotia, the odds are slim. It turned out not to be the case this time. But I did get the name of the bar in one guess. Lyn started to describe it (Keep in mind, our downtown and waterfront area in Halifax is pretty famous for all its pubs, bars and more; many with grand Maritime atmospheres – ie. beer and music and friendly people). This is as far as Lyn got describing it: “Well, it was on the waterfront and… ”

I immediately jumped in (mostly because I love guessing games) “Aha! The Lower Deck!” I was right and extremely proud of myself because I guessed a bar on the waterfront correctly – there are tons but few as memorable as the Lower Deck. Lots of maritime music and beer as well as fun times with people from all over Atlantic Canada. We had a great laugh and the whole experience added a dimension to the connection she and I have.

When I see her online through Facebook or Twitter, I feel I have a bit more insight into Lyn and that just adds a little more depth to our virtual connection. It really turned into another example of how working virtually, I do not find myself at all feeling home and alone with no other people contact. I’m connected virtually to many people and it keeps me feeling very much in touch and enjoying the reach of people I can talk to.

If you work or network virtually, what pros and cons do you encounter?

Technorati Tags: home office, networking, work from home

Filed Under: Entrepreneurs, Life & Family Tagged With: home office, networking, work from home

November 4, 2009 By Kathy Colaiacovo 1 Comment

Networking Opportunities are everywhere

I was waiting in a line up the other day – for almost 4 hours. It was to get a Christmas present for my Mom, so I can’t really say what I was doing since she subscribes to my blog! Suffice it to say; she’ll really like this gift, I hope.

Anyhow, I went to this place expecting to wait a bit – but clearly 4 hours was not what I had in mind, since I brought my 3 kids. I was very quickly on my phone to call my husband and tell him to come and get the kids.

Unexpectedly in this line up of several hundred people – Don’t Ask! – I was immediately behind one of my clients. She had just flown home from a trip to Ottawa and had her husband drop her off with her daughter to get the same gift. It was nice because it gave us time to connect and talk – and outside the work arena too.

Now, as some who know me; in a situation like this I will talk to the people around me. Unlike the days of my past where I was very quiet and shy, I have no fear anymore. Much of the talking was also some humourous commiserating about our predicament and lots of excitement as we moved a few steps at a time. Really… you have to make light in these situations or you can get real cranky.

We waited, talked, laughed, sighed, and waited some more. Lots more. At one point after an hour, I went out to count how many ahead of us… not bad only 300 or so! I think the ‘so’ was being very generous too! Through it all the group around us just had a fabulous time. We talked, laughed learned a bit about each other.

There was my client, Amy, who smartly, took the opportunity to tell some of the people around about her upcoming book launch on Sunday Nov 8th. Her 13 yr old daughter – who had a grand time and was so thoughtfully bringing the group some water near the home stretch (about 3 hours in at that point). The young woman who had brought her Mother in Law there and was having a night out from her 16 month old. She sure went up a few notches on the “Daughter-In-Law” scale while waiting so long. Then there was Barb & her husband (probably in their 70′s) who took turns sitting down as the night wore on. As we moved along we also met Marie, originally from upstate NewYork, but living in rural Nova Scotia now and she made a 1 hour car trip in to get this gift for a friend. A friend who one day will learn what Marie did to get her gift. We also met two young men; waiting their turn patiently too and as the night got longer they too soon started joining in our giggles and fun.

They all learned a bit about me – met my whole family even! I learned a few things about them too. Some people would look at a night like this and think – what a waste. Not me.

Honestly, if I had to wait in a lineup this long, moving a total distance of maybe 1000 feet over the entire time; it was a good group of people to be surrounded by. We got silly at times; but you had to to make light of the situation. At one point when an announcement was made – we feared the worst, but nothing happened and we continued to shuffle along until we all finally got to hold and admire the item we came there for.

It was so worth it – and really looking back, I had a great time. Hopefully Mom will love her gift too.

Technorati Tags: networking

Filed Under: Life & Family Tagged With: networking