November Entrepreneur Meetup!

November 18(Thu) 7:00PM

Location: 422 Richards Street 3rd floor Vancouver, BC V6B 2Z3  

The Network Hub (www.thenetworkhub.ca)

Where has the year gone? We are nearing the end of 2010 and this will be the last Vancouver Entrepreneur Meetup of the year! We are going out on a bang with a topic that everyone has been asking for – generating more traffic to your website! I hope to see you all at this last Vancouver Entrepreneur Meetup of the year!!!

For many years, a lot of questions have been raised about Search Engine Marketing – How do I get listed on the 1st page of Google? How can I get more targeted traffic to my website? What can I do to increase lead conversion on my website? What is this local marketing or targeted local online marketing?

It is all very dizzying to keep up and get going for entrepreneurs and small business owners. This month we are fortunate to have a leading expert in Search Marketing who will be giving practical tips that you can take and use right away. No lingo, no theory – just useful and practical tips that help you see the impact right away.

Search Marketing is very important for entrepreneurs – it’s an effective method for driving highly targeted visitors to your website. Without search marketing, your website and online store is buried deep in the thousands of results that a search engine produces.

This month, our guest speaker is Adrian Eden. Adrian has experienced a great deal of success in increasing visibility and profitability of his clients thanks to his ability to consistently deliver exceptional results.

Adrian, borned and raised in Salmon Arm is a small town boy who moved to Vancouver after many years in Costa Rica, is the founder of YaletownSEO.ca – an online search marketing company. He spent many years holding key marketing roles in Fiver Media and Riptown Media, executing results for the Bodog Brand. Right now, Adrian is one of the key people behind the Search Marketing and Social Media Strategy for Coleman Heating and Air Conditioning.

If you want to get practical tips to increase traffic to your website, increase engagement online and more importantly, increasing your online profitability – make sure you RSVP to hear Adrian Edenspeak!
The event is FREE but we do appreciate a bottle of wine to share with everyone.

Sign Up!

http://www.meetup.com/vancouver-entrepreneurs-startup-vancouver-office-space/calendar/15383841/?from=list&offset=0

Posted via email from Virtual Assistants

October Entrepreneur Meetup!

October Entrepreneur Meetup!  “Can social media help grow your business?”

On October 21, The Network Hub held the Vancouver Entrepreneur Meetup at the office (422 Richards Street, Vancouver).

 We had a guest speaker Yu-kai Chou and over 150 people in attendance. Yu-kai is a Serial Entrepreneur and Social Media Advisor with over 5 years of adventures in the high tech startup world. He is the Founder and CEO of Viralogy Inc., a Social Personalization and Analytics Platform for eCommerce sites. Yu-kai’s team has also run many successful social media campaigns for LG, Levi’s, Los Angeles Lakers, Activision and more.

He spoke about the importance of social media. When he asked the audience if they were using social media, almost everyone raised their hand. Social media is one of biggest marketing tools and strategies out there. So, the audience listened carefully and asked lots of questions.

The meetup was packed with energetic people! There were lots of different business ideas being discussed. I think new connections and resources for business were made!  

I enjoyed meeting, chatting, and wine-ing with cheerful and dedicated people. In addition, Goldies Pizza supplied us with a few tasty pizzas and those were gone instantly! And thank you to Lonsdale Event Rentals for sponsoring us with beautiful glasses and tables!

  The Network Hub is planning a bigger meetup in early December. Don’t miss out!

Posted via email from Virtual Assistants

Small Business BC

There was never a business figure around me. So, I had in mind that applying at a company or working for the public was the only way to go. I always thought of business women and businessmen as strong, powerful individuals. They have to study tax law, municipal licensing requirements, think about insurance and accounting, marketing plans and publicity, etc. These issues put me in confusion!

However, I recently heard that my cousin started her own business. She is 4 years older than me and now she has her own dog grooming shop. To me, she was that strong, powerful businesswoman! She is very kind and loves running her business. She’s one of my role models. I knew that she planned this for a while and she did her research. She’s always busy but she looks happier than ever!

Learning is always interesting. Starting a new experience is a challenging treasure in life and we can have good opportunity to study about starting business at Small Business BC .

There are many seminars, for example“Start Smart- Resources and Registrations”- it covers basic small business start-up information and is designated for the client in the thinking stage of starting a business.

Wednesday, October 6th , 2010-9:00am-12:00pm

Tuesday, October 19th, 2010-5:00pm-8:00pm

Tuesday, November 9th, 2010-1:00pm-4:00pm

Thursday, December 2nd ,2010-9:00pm-12:00pm

Cost: $49.00 plus taxes

In addition, there is “Young Entrepreneurship Day-September”. It is a seminar for those between 18 and 35 and interested in business planning and financing.

To register:  http://www.smallbusinessbc.ca/seminars or visit your local office.

Posted via email from Virtual Assistants

Dealing with a challenging day in a musical way

After a long rough day, especially a day where it all feels all overwhelming.  I turn up “Dirt off your shoulder” by Jay-Z real loud!  Jay-Z is an inspiration to me, he came from the ghetto to creating an empire and becoming one of the richest man in America.

I hope you will enjoy this song as much as I do!

  Jay-Z‘s most inspiring quote: “I’m not a businessman, I’m a business, man. Let me handle my business, damn!

Posted via email from Virtual Assistants

Afraid to get dirty? Entrepreneurship might not be for you

OK, so you started your own business because you heard on  MTV it leads you to more bling and bigger rims.  And your crib(s) get decked out in fur and hot tubs.  Oh yeah, you will magically get people to do all the mundane boring work for you.  Please allow me to shatter the rosy illusions.

You have to do things you might not want to

It was our first year in operation for  The Network Hub and I was cleaning the washroom when a fellow entrepreneur walked by and balked, “Minna you are the boss. Why are you cleaning the toilet?” and all I could say was, “It had to be done.”  There are a lot of people who would rather spend time on doing things they like and have some one else deal with the things they do not want to do – things that they deem to be beneath them.

You have to execute, you can’t hide behind the computer

“But I’m an idea person” is the usual excuse. I want to say there are a lot of idea people but a lack of people who can execute the idea.  This might mean – for a lot of people – getting out of the office and finding customers. Or in my case, making sure the office is beautiful and clean so people want to be here.  I am not talking about impossible specialized tasks which you should leave to the experts, I’m talking about doing things that are necessary for your business.

You work really long hours for little pay

The hours you have to put in are grueling but you have to bear it out and that’s why, if you are in it for the money, sorry to tell you, there isn’t that much – if any – at the beginning.  This also means you have to spend most of your hours dealing with things you might not like such as accounting, bookkeeping, operations, management but you have to do what you hate in order to succeed in the startup world.

When you feel so tired after long hours of work that you want to throw up, you have to shake it off and get back to it.  There is no jacuzzi or hot tub to sit back in. In fact there isn’t anyone or anything but you and your partners to do whatever it takes to see the business through.  Once your ideas have materialized, it is a beautiful thing.

Today we have multiple companies in our space; entrepreneurs all around us who are going through the same struggle and every one supports each other.  We built our own peer-to-peer support entrepreneur/freelancers/mobile professional community that allows each of us to take our companies to the next level.

Sitting back, I am in awe of what my partners and I have built with our sweat and tears but it was all worth it.  Believe me, the struggle is not over.  We are going through growth and that in itself presents different challenges but with the persistence and lessons we learned starting our business, we will make it through the next phase of business.

Posted via email from Virtual Assistants

How we incorporated our business

Must be something in the air but at least a dozen young entrepreneurs have asked me, “How can I go about incorporating my business?”

It is a wonderful thing for the economy when someone decides to venture into the world of entrepreneurship but it can also be very overwhelming.  Sole proprietorship or corporation?  What name should I use for my business?  What logo? Should I trademark my logo?  Incorporating federally or provincially?   It all becomes very overwhelming but thankfully there are FREE resources available to help answer those questions.

When The Network Hub was conceived, my two partners and I were students, so, there was no way we could afford lawyers to take care of everything. Although, depending on your business, you should DEFINITELY be talking to a startup/business/incorporation lawyer.

Jay, John and I have had experience working together and we previously incorporated for our other company so we were familiar with the process.  To register your business name, you have the option of going in person to Small Business BC or submitting your business name online with BC Registry Services.  Now here is the odd thing, you would think submitting would be a 24/7 service – nope, not with BC Registry Online.  BC Registry Services operates from 6 am to 10 pm Monday-Saturday and from 1 pm to 10 pm on Sundays.

We opted to go in-person because we wanted to incorporate our business name. Now, when your company is incorporated, the name is checked against a list of registered corporations in BC to ensure there are no duplicates.  We wanted to consider all possibilities of our company name submission, so that it would not rejected because that means $49 gone to waste and we would have to resubmit.  With proprietorship or partnership, business names are not protected so you can have multiple companies with the same names. (Note: if you feel overwhelmed already, get yourself a good lawyer to incorporate for you)

Once we got the approval letter mailed back from the BC Registry Services, we went ahead and started the incorporating process.  You have 56 days from when your business name is approved to decide on a business structure, otherwise, you have to submit AGAIN for approval – another $49 dollars.   If you have no idea which business structure is right for you – go to Small Business BC, Google it.,or consult a lawyer.

Here is the excerpt from Small Business BC:

1. Sole proprietorship. If you plan to operate the business on your own, either under a business name or your own name
2. Partnership. If you plan to operate the business with one or more partners
3. Corporation. If you plan to operate the business as a separate legal entity, separate from yourself and your personal assets
4. Society. If you plan to operate a not-for-profit organization, in which any funds or profits will be used only for the society’s purposes
5. Co-operative. If you plan to operate a business that is owned and democratically controlled by the people who use and benefit from your services

A major difference between a corporation and a sole proprietorship or partnership is that, in a corporation, no individual person is responsible or liable for debt (unless specifically outlined in a contract or legal document for your business). Also, if any members of your business leave or are replaced, it won’t affect the business as a whole and operations can continue, uninterrupted.

For us, we chose to incorporate because of liability protection and tax-benefits.   You have two choices when it comes to incorporating:  self-incorporation online at Corporate Online or consult a lawyer.   While we would have loved to have a lawyer to take care of this process for us, it wasn’t possible with all the expenses of starting up a business. So, we decided to register the business ourselves.

With the help of the Incorporation Guide for British Columbia by Self-Counsel Press for $19.95 and about $350 to incorporate online, we were officially incorporated.  Check out Self-Counsel Press for other forms such as Legal Forms for Incorporated Business.

Please note:  This is NOT legal advice. If you require advice, please consult a lawyer!!

Posted via email from Virtual Assistants

Hungry Girl’s Guide: Zero One Sushi

There is huge value for small businesses to be on twitter. A lot of small business owners are just slowly adopting social media to grow their business and some have fully embraced it; here is an example of a super small business using social media to their advantage – Zero One Sushi.

Zero One Sushi is a small sushi shop; it literally is very small but it is conveniently kitty corner to The Network Hub. For the long working days when I simply do not have the energy to venture very far to find food, Zero One Sushi’s social media savvies help lazy hungry entrepreneurs like me by having everything online. Zero One Sushi (@sushizeroone) tweet their daily specials and also has a very handy online ordering system.

When I am feeling REALLY lazy and don’t feel like picking up my food, Zero One Sushi is there to deliver! I can find out through twitter when their last call for delivery is. Asides from daily specials, Zero One Sushi also takes advantage of their twitter account to do promotion – such as their “Beat HST !! We pay this additional 7% for 1 month in July 2010 !! Here are the rules: 1. follow us on twitter.” From their online presence and the sophistication of their use of technology, I thought it was a huge restaurant operation but it wasn’t.

Zero One Sushi - Twitter Account

Zero One Sushi - Specials + Promotion

Today I came in to get my usual smoked salmon salad and mini kimchi udon. Their foods are always tasty and guess what, no HST on my bill, but only for this month!

Zero One Sushi - Interior

Zero One Sushi - Vancouver

Zero One Sushi - Kimchi Udon

Zero One Sushi - Smoked Salmon Salad

I hope Zero One Sushi inspires your company to embrace social media to grow your business.

Posted via email from Virtual Assistants

Preparing your small business for your vacation

Want to skip town so you can go home and visit with some family? Maybe you’re feeling a little burned out and need to get away from it all? Whatever the case, burgeoning entrepreneurs are just as entitled to vacation times as their counterparts who receive biweekly paycheques. However, small business owners have to make some more complex preparations ahead of time.

I’m speaking from my perspective as a freelance writer, though the same concepts should apply to other entrepreneurial professionals as well. This also goes with the assumption that you are largely a one-person operation, but adjustments can be made for slightly bigger companies too.

First, it is important to plan ahead if you are going to take more than a couple of days off. Keep project deadlines in mind so that you leave little, if anything, “on the table” while you are away. You don’t want to have that looming deadline in the back of your head as you try to relax with an umbrella drink on the beach. It’s fine to line up more work for when you return, but try to minimize any work that straddles on both sides of your holiday time.

Second, ensure that proper preparations are in place for the receipt of any letters or parcels that you may be expecting in the mail. See to it that there is someone there to receive them on your behalf. Better still, make use of a mail service, like the one offered by the Network Hub, to handle your shipping and receiving needs in your absence.

Third, you may want to inform your existing clients of your intentions. It would leave a bad impression if a client assumed that you were in the office, sending you an urgent email or giving you a call, only to feel that he or she is being ignored. A simple and straightforward “out of office” auto-reply message may be in order.

Coming back from your vacation, you can feel re-energized and more motivated than ever to get back on the job. You deserve some relaxation time.

About the author: http://michaelkwan.com" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(38, 62, 84);" target="_blank">Michael Kwan is a professional freelance writer based out of Vancouver, Canada. He can be found blogging at http://btr.michaelkwan.com" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(38, 62, 84);" target="_blank">Beyond the Rhetoric.

Posted via email from Virtual Assistants

The Britney Spears approach to small business

Well, we probably can’t give all the credit back to Miss Spears, but there are several lessons that small business owners can learn from Britney’s career. Entrepreneurs may more typically look up to people like Ted Turner, Donald Trump, and Steve Jobs, but there is still inspiration to be gained from looking at the success of pop stars too. Britney epitomizes this sentiment.

Never Down for the Count

Most of us probably remember Britney’s breakdown a few years back. She got into a bad relationship, shaved her head, and found more press in the tabloids than from the Billboard rankings.

However, with some good guidance and direction from her father, Britney has been able to get herself back on track and she has regained much of the success that she had lost. She’s rocketed back to the top of the charts, gone on tour to promote her new album, and she seems to be much more “together” than she has been.

In business, you’re going to get knocked down. Sometimes, it’ll be your fault and other times, it won’t. The key is having the ability to get back up time and time again.

Stick to What You Do Best

When coming up with a “comeback” for her career, Britney Spears (and her father) did not try to reinvent herself. She didn’t suddenly try to dabble too heavily in country, hip hop, or whatever was the current flavour of the day.

She’s a pop artist who sings “catchy” radio-friendly tunes. It was with this exact same genre that she managed to come back into the limelight. People didn’t want a “new” Britney; they wanted a more grown-up version of the “old” Britney (and it worked).

At the same time, she was able to capitalize on new technologies like Twitter to improve her chances at a successful comeback. Small businesses need to grow with the times, but the core product must remain true to the brand.

About the author: http://michaelkwan.com" target="_blank">Michael Kwan is a professional freelance writer based out of Vancouver, Canada. He can be found blogging at http://btr.michaelkwan.com" target="_blank">Beyond the Rhetoric.

Posted via email from Virtual Assistants