A Writer from London interviewed me the other day about Mentoring in relation to career mentoring for a British publication. I thought I would share my answers here.

1. please could you tell us a bit about yourself

I am a Management Consultant from Vancouver. I have mentored over 1000 startup businesses. I worked with Michael E. Gerber, the #1 business coach in the World and author of the Emyth.

2. how do you mentor?

I use a hybrid technique of coaching, mentoring, counselling and consulting. They are so distinct that I typically use a bit of each. Some clients want advice (mentoring) some want immediate results so I tell them what to do (Consulting), some want to be guided to their end decision (Coaching) and some want to be guided but in the end decide themselves (Counsellor).

3 .How do you think career mentoring can benefit towards someone’s future career? Read the rest of this entry

A client of mine was approached by a foreign company the other day which wants to develop their product in my client’s’ territory. The obvious first overture by the big co was to find out how large my client is and determine the appropriate acquisition model. The big company, we will call Xenon, suggested a collaboration where they install their expertise in my client’s software and sell it as a more robust package. You can call this the synergy approach where the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.

Xenon had only briefly mentioned the word ‘acquisition’ but I felt it might be more a problem than my clients think. The more I looked at the scenario that could unfold the more I wanted to explain to my clients what the acquisition model might look like once they had moved into our territory. Xenon had a few reasons to form an alliance then acquire my client’s company. Xenon had already captured 50% market share in their country and had no where to go except new markets with a similar product base and similar demographics.

Why would a company want to acquire another smaller company? Here’s a few considerations to ponder while you try to figure out how much your business is worth to a potential buyer (that’s another blog topic). Read the rest of this entry

1. Strive for the Best Quality

If some aspects of your business are suspect or you are struggling with finance, HR, or whatever, as long as the quality of your product or service is high on your priority your customers will appreciate it and come back again and again. Trying to find new clients has a cost associated with it and if you can give them your best they will come back. The other issues will have to be dealt with but you will have a customer base.

2. Make Your Customer King

You need to continuously ask your customers for feedback. Consider issues that you would want addressed if you were the customer. Client feedback should be a welcome component of your sales cycle. You and your employees need to relish customer feedback so you can improve your product offering. Read the rest of this entry

1. Find a Way to Connect (Be Persistent)– I know a guy who sells stuff like printing, promo stuff, telemarketing etc. He used to call me every month for 5 years to try to sell something in his arsenal of products and services. I kept telling him no but he was relentless. One day he called and offered me telemarketing services – I bought it, he now does work for me regularly. Unlike him, if I don’t see progress in 2  meetings towards a job I move on.

2. Your Phone Pitch – Be able to get your pitch out in under 40 seconds when talking on the phone, if you need to explain it for 5 minutes they won’t get it

3. Have standards – you need to manage your time, the way you operate your business and the way people see you both in person and online. Read the rest of this entry

A marketing nightmare, pie in the sky, powerful possibilities or all of the above. Let me tell you the challenges. The book is about How to Immigrate to Canada and is written by a well-known Canadian writer, Nick Noorani and recognized Immigration Lawyer Catherine Sas both of Vancouver. The challenge is that it’s a niche market requiring marketing to foreign countries including India, China both Mainland and Hong Kong, USA, England and Ireland, is coming at a time when there is major change in the immigration rules in Canada and the US so it is timely and people may think with the low price of $4.99 its a trick. Wait – these are all positives, so what’s the big deal in selling the book to the masses.

Social media is a very unreliable method to sell anything no matter what the ‘pros’ will tell you. However, there is a combination of things that will enhance the acquisition of clients and mitigate the obstacles of the media. It also helps to have exceptional relationships with the eBook publishers like Amazon Read the rest of this entry