Journey to showing some neighborhood love!

   There is statement that says "picture is worth thousand words" it has been used by many to describe pictures of various places and experiences.

   Few years ago I did a photo shoot to come up with new picture for my business card. It was process that that was funny, interesting and in the end gratifying.

   When I share my business card with new people usually get the women saying "great smile" or "nice card" and the men not really taking notice. (I okay with that!) In the end its about the experience of make good first impression and then making an awesome followup.

 So when my photographer who took that amazing photograph ask for some assistance to promote her business in the neighbourhood recently, I said Yes!

  It was Friday June 6th,2014 an amazing sunny day and I had arrange to go for sales and promotion walk with her.

  As we sat at the foot steps at her place I shared a story about an experience I had this past December at Camaraderie Coworking Learn more. I am Host and Community Manager. Had be given task to complete with the business in our area.

    As I shared with her the story and what I had done. Which seemed very straightforward and simple, she wasn't that excited about it. When I go to the point that Rachel Young Founder of Camaraderie Coworking told me 'it's about sharing some neighborhood love" my friends all of sudden got very excited about what the plan was for the day.

 I was little perplexed and said "Did you hear anything I said before that?" She said "I did but the last part I could connect with!" 

 I said "okay lets go then"

  I called her the "Mrs Peter Parker" because she had the camera around her neck. She wasn't that thrilled about that!  She wasn't webs slinging!

  We started our walk and by the time we got to the end we had got some interesting results!  Hold on a few paragraphs...

  She visited two places and was in and out very quickly and she got little discourage, I said "lets keep going and enjoy the weather"

  We got to the 3rd place which was  restaurant and she walked in and didn't come out for like 15 minutes! Now I was impatient and happy!

 She eventually came out all happy and had made a great new connections. We continued our journey and visited few other places and again was short and sweet

 The we came to this interesting storefront called "Smiles from Ear to Hear"

                                                 

Smiles from Ear to Hear

   
    She had a great conversation with owner, it was brilliant and engaging storefront which many people who walked by look at it

  As we finished our walk, we went to Tim Horton's for the debrief  (That's what us Canadians do!)

  Final result .. big drum roll... 7 places visited and 2 strong connections

 I told her "That's AWESOME" she said "When are we doing it again?"

  I responded " Your on your own now!"

  Moral of the story. We are on the journey of success,if slow down and observe we can see and notice some amazing people and places in our neighborhood!

 

Power of Rejection

Power of Rejection

Few years ago I had participated in a Toronto Raptors 50/50 draw event . The goal  was to sell 2 tickets for  $5 or 3 tickets for $10 to fans coming to the game. We would be treated watching the 2^nd part of the game from the press box have pizza and pop!

I was excited about  attending the game and was looking forward to do earning it by selling the tickets. I learned few important lessons in selling the tickets. 

When I arrived I was given a shirt , apron and batches of tickets and explained the process on how to sell the tickets and who to report to when I came back with the  money. The next part  I advised  I would go out on my own. (That wasn’t too  exciting)

As I went to my designated spot I had to come up with a plan to sell these tickets on my own.  I knew what to say it was the rejection I was concerned about!

The people started coming  and I started saying.  “Participate in the 50/50 draw 2 tickets for $5 and 5 tickets for  $10 half of money goes to charity”.  I kept repeating it over and over again and nothing happening.  People just get passing by me as if I wasn’t there.  I had started to do some public speaking and one of the suggestions  from my entrepreneurs friends was to relax and take deep breathes and release the pressure, so that’s what  I did  stepped aside and  went to the side and just took some deep breathes and relaxed.

I re-entered the crowd and kept repeating the phrase over and over again. I began to sell some tickets and started to get some confidence and money in my apron. There were still people looking at me and going by, some were ignoring me and others were simply disinterested.

There was  young couple   who approached me holding hands and initially the guy turned me down but his girlfriend bumped him and told him to buy few tickets. I said  “Thank you and good luck!”

Within the next hour I had sold all my books and was full of  cash, I literally ran back with all my cash excited and joy filled. When I got back to give them the cash she said “ You sold them all, very good nobody is back yet, you want to back for more?” I thought more rejection sure why not!

                                                        “Rapid rejection works “ Tom Kaufmann

I headed back with more tickets and hand sold some more I even helped out another set of volunteers with encouragement and education. They tried to give their tickets to sell. “Nice try I said” 

The tides turned very fast and all because I was persistent and determined to succeed and earn to watch the game and eat my pizza.

Patience is a virtue in any situation even in taking all that rejection it eventually turned over and worked for me and it was very exciting when it did.

As half time ended we went back and handed in all our money and remaining tickets and went on the long guided walk to the press box at the Air Canada Centre. The pizza and soft drinks awaited us as we sat down to watch the last 2 quarters of the game.

Had great time in meeting new people , sharing stories of our experience and networking.

At the end the game the Toronto Raptor’s scored more than 100 points and we won another slice of pizza!

 Check out www.21connections.ca for more information on Jim Pagiamtzis

4 Vital Skills for Entrepreneurial Success

Are you ready to start your own business? Or perhaps you already have one and are looking to take it to the next level. Regardless, you already know reaching your business goals will take time, effort and money. But what you may not know, is that there’s a set of skills that will ultimately have the greatest impact on your success. These skills are common among the world’s most successful business people. Those without these skills will likely have to work harder and in many cases, have their success decided more by luck and good fortune.

But not to worry. Even if you do not possess these skills, they can be self taught. And with a little bit of practice and commitment, you too can have the basic essential skills needed to have your business prosper.

Goal Setting
A successful journey is defined by reaching your destination. In business this is called having goals, both long and short term. Not having goals can lead to complacency and stagnated growth. Creating a set of goals is easy. They can be based on anything you want – company growth, new product development, or just making money. Writing these goals down and keeping them in plain sight will motivate you, keep you focused and as a result you will naturally start making decisions that will help you reach them. The key is to keep them specific. Instead of having a goal to “increase sales”, make it read “have annual sales of one million dollars.”

Time Management
Finding time to do everything often leads to nothing getting done. Understand that no one can work 24 hours a day. Some things will get done, some will get put off, and others will never get started. That’s life. What’s important is to categorize tasks by both time and importance. Unless you’re a paramedic, there’s a good chance timing is not as crucial as you think. Make lists of what needs to be done. Categorize tasks by importance and time needed to accomplish them. And be sure to place a daily cap on your working hours, otherwise you’ll be putting in 16 hour days everyday. If the number of tasks are becoming overwhelming, perhaps you need to read the next required skill.

The Ability To Let Go/Delegate
Business owners are notorious for doing everything themselves – sales, purchasing, marketing, book keeping. This is usually due to the fact that they don’t have the financial resources to have others do these things for them. For others, it’s simply because they are control freaks who believe no one can do as good a job as they can. The fact is that no one can specialize in everything. Almost every well known business owner has attributed their success to surrounding themselves with experts in their respective fields. Remember that Henry Ford did not really know that much about cars, and Steve Jobs was not a design engineer or programmer. Do not view outside resources as an expense, but as an investment.

Dealing With Rejection
Between you and me, we both know how great your products and services are. Any customer would be a fool to buy elsewhere, right? Regretfully not everyone will share our opinion. And for that reason you will face rejection. No matter what you’re selling there will be people who choose to buy from some where else, or not at all. The most successful business owners I know do not care. They are too busy working on the next deal. They don’t have time to deal with others who don’t understand or see the benefits of dealing with them. Believe me, I know how it feels to lose a contract to an inferior competitor. But to prevent yourself from becoming dejected and miserable, you have to come to terms with three important points: first, if the customer is only focused on price, is that a customer you really want? Second, just because they leave doesn’t mean they won’t be back. If your products and services are that good, and customers appreciate that, then they will eventually return. And third, there’s lots of other potential customers out there.

Now get out and grow that business!

Marc Gordon is a professional speaker and marketing consultant based in Toronto, Ontario. His firm, Fourword Marketing, specializes in helping businesses create a brand identity and developing effective marketing campaigns. Marc can be reached at (416) 238-7811 or visit www.marcgordon.ca

Spotlight: Dorota Pilkowska

1^st  Working in a diverse city like Toronto, how important is understand and learning how speak and networking with different people?

Being of a polish background and after living in the U.S and then coming to Canada I realized interacting with various cultures was a great opportunity to meet new people and grow my business. Currently I do a lot of networking in the Mississauga area. I like to invite friends from different cultures and business backgrounds to various networking events. It is important that people go to these events dressed for success and ready to talk about their business. I have had friends express their appreciation that they were invited and had the opportunity to participate and learn from various entrepreneurs who attended. Sharing my experiences and opportunities to network with others has led to increased business opportunities through referrals. I have even had friends refer me on my Facebook page!

2^nd  What key lessons have you learned working in the Real Estate industry?

 The biggest lesson I have learned is that you must be persistent and have determination. It can be very hard in the beginning to spend a lot of time knocking on doors for weeks and months only to be rejected. If you fail, you must learn from each experience. I would tell myself “this person was not meant to be my client” and I have learned to “move on”. As time passes it becomes easier. I would make notes about what was working and I learnt that I had to prepare myself more about the area I was “farming” (a marketing term). Being prepared to answer questions and share this market information with my clients is very important. It is always important to leave my clients with a positive impression of me and what I can provide them as their agent. Providing them with professional materials such as business cards and magnetic wall calendars is a good way to remind my potential client that I am there for them when the need an agent. With this information they may call me in the future or offer me as a referral to a friend. In many cases, being persistent paid off with phone calls several months later.

Dorotal Pilkowska

Sales Representative

Coldwell Baker

Terrequity Reality Brokerage

*independently owned and operated

dpilkowska@terrequity.com

www.dodicb.com

“expect the best”

Two awards:

Ultimate  service satisfaction with Excellence in Customer service 2010

Silver Awards Terrequity  Selling and Buying 2010