Join Us for the Art of Transition Summit and Creative Awards, a complimentary day-long celebration of Durham Region’s creative economy, showcasing our rich culture and history, dynamic attractions, and innovative business community:
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=131159030320222

Durham Savour The Season
A 10-day culinary experience you don’t want to miss!

From September 9 to 18, 2011, featured restaurants throughout Durham Region will be creating exclusive prix fixe menus and serving up mouth-watering dishes. Many of the restaurants will be partnering with local producers to use fresh-from-the-garden ingredients.
Find out more about the new Durham Savour The Season Culinary Event via their new website… www.durhamsavourtheseason.ca.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/OSEB-Durham/103428083087356

Extra, extra – tweet all about it: a new group called Social Media Professionals Durham (SMPD) has arrived. The online group welcomes social media professionals who live, work and play in Durham.

Sue Sutcliffe of aWEBthatWORKS founded the collaborative group to help social media professionals network, form alliances, and share the latest industry news, jobs and opportunities. The Bowmanville internet marketing speaker, strategist and web marketing coach believes that SMPD’s model of co-opetition can help both members and their clients.

It may also help us slow Durham’s brain drain, she says. Though the region’s creative economy is vibrant and growing, UOIT and Durham College graduates often migrate to Toronto in search of jobs. Sutcliffe plans to seal that talent leak with SMPD so our graduates can find local opportunities within a supportive business community.

“With a collaborative pool of trained talent and a complete spectrum of social media services, we can compete with high-priced, high-overhead Toronto firms on both price and product,” she says.

Peter Miller of Essential Communications lauds Sutcliffe for spearheading the creation of SMPD. He says there’s no doubt that being involved in social media marketing at an early stage is paramount for many businesses.

“Bringing together the resources of Durham Region social media marketers is brilliant and endorses the very essence of social media. I believe businesses in Durham, both the providers and their clients, will be the net beneficiaries of this new group.”

The new association is free to join. Find out more and sign up at www.smpd.ca.

MEDIA CONTACTS:
Sue Sutcliffe
(905) 263-2666, (800) 579-9253
www.SMPD.ca

Visit my public speaking Facebook Fan Page to find out how one lucky fan will win a free hour of coaching.

Visit aWEBthatWORKS.com Facebook page to find out how you can win one year free hosting.

If you haven’t joined LinkedIn yet, it’s about time you did. This social media platform hosts the biggest business network in the world — an astounding 85 million members in 200 countries. It shows phenomenal growth, adding one new member every second.

Read my column in: Durham Business Times –

Not sure if this is contract position or full-time part-time at this point.
Working on job description and hope to post it here early next week.
Please share with anyone you think who might be interested, and ask them to add a comment to this post if they’re interested or contact me through the form on our our website.

Thanks!
Sue

Building business relationships today involves more than a handshake and a business card. It often continues, or even begins, with social media. Instead of a one-off encounter, like-minded folks connect — and stay connected — using  Facebook and other social media platforms.

Read the entire article via: Durham Business Times

It occurred to me today that there are only two full weeks before we break for holidays and that I should likely ask you now if there’s anything I or my team can do for you before we break?

2010 CHRISTMAS SHUTDOWN
D e c e m b e r   2 7   –   3 1 ,   2 0 1 0

Should an emergency arise, please call… 1-800-579-9253 (ext.9)

By SHERRY HINMAN Special to Sun Media

“The key to a growing a small business? Have a plan! For a business of any size, it’s important to know what you’re about and where you’re going,” says Mark Drager, president of Phanta Media, a corporate video production company in Markham, Ont. He sees his company’s plan as being like something a general would use before a war, to rally the troops.

A traditional business plan begins with an executive summary to allow the reader a quick look without delving into details. The company overview follows, outlining the mission statement, goals and objectives, corporate values or philosophy and vision statement. Following is a description of the business environment, which looks at the market trends for the particular industry, as well as the company’s competition; then, a description of the company and company strategy, which outlines strategies about the industry, markets and competition.

Finally is the financial plan, which covers the position at the start of business and where the financial position is expected to be in the future. It includes an income statement (revenues less costs to show profits), balance sheet (record of the financial position at a given time) and cash-flow statement (cash in and out as it’s received and spent). A good business plan also includes an action plan, showing how the business plan will be carried out.

A business plan doesn’t have to fit the traditional model to be valuable, though. Drager says he would write a full plan if he needed it for bank financing, but instead he develops what he calls an annual vision statement. “This concentrates mostly on what the company will be like in the future. Where will we be in one year? Three years? Five years? It’s a two-page document that outlines aspects like the company’s vision, mission, positioning in the market, objectives and corporate values.”

It also gives staff and prospective employees a sense of the culture of the company, something that Drager feels is critical. “We use it as a recruitment tool.” Once they’re close to hiring someone, they share the document with prospective employees. “This is what we’re about. And this is where we’re going. If the person is not on board with it, then they’re not a good fit with the company culture.”

It can be difficult to write a business plan as you launch your business, because there’s a lot you still don’t know about where you’re heading. But it’s worthwhile. “If you don’t write it down, you can’t articulate what you’re doing as a company,” Drager says. “And you need to articulate your plan for staff, investors and clients. That gives you the confidence and allows other people to buy into your plan.”

Once the plan is up and running, it needs to be maintained. Sue Sutcliffe, owner/manager of aWEBthatWORKS, an Internet marketing company, feels one of the most important aspects of working with a business plan is a system to track your goals and objectives. “I look at my plan once a month and update it two or three times a year. I do this whenever we have a new project or new product, to see what’s working, and tweak it. Action items have to have a date associated with them, for example, achieving this much in revenue by a certain time. But we track a lot of other aspects, too, such as where customers come from.”

Drager does the same. “I do quarterly goal-setting, and the action items are specific, for example, to systems, marketing or accounting. Our quarterly goals are only for one or two of those, so that they’re achievable.” Goals may be related to revenue or about next steps for growth, for example hiring staff or opening a new office.

The process of updating the business plan is one Drager does himself, as president. “You’re driving it,” he says. “But you’re not in it alone.” So he shares the plan with staff and gets feedback. “Then everyone will make sure it happens.”

Drager’s advice about business plans is to “just do it. You won’t see the benefits if you don’t do it. And, unless you’re taking it to the bank, don’t struggle to make it perfect.”

— Sherry Hinman is a freelance writer/editor and owner of The Write Angle. info@thewriteangle.ca.

Toronto Sun | Last Updated: October 19, 2010 4:20pm