Business Networking

One of the challenges many entrepreneurs and business people face when they establish a business, set up their LinkedIn profile for the first time, delve into social media on a business level or start networking is creating the proper image that aligns with their business or position.

Business people often find it difficult to get the right person to capture them in a photograph. What they find equally challenging is determining how best to present themselves in their headshot in order to come across in a positive, flattering and professional way.

What can be even more difficult for many is effectively writing a biography that captures in words their experience, skills and education while at the same time striking a balance between being overly boastful or drab to the reader. Many people find it hard to speak about themselves in an overly positive manner, thinking they’ll be perceived as arrogant.

What can be especially difficult for business people is to find professionals that are good at all of the above, and who can also provide a complete, packaged service at an affordable price. Having identified this need, photographer Laurinda Shire, copywriter Ian Turner, and image consultant Janelle Long have teamed up to provide a fabulous and cost-effective package.

The package consists of an in-home image consultation, a professional headshot and a professionally written bio for only $200 +HST. This will take place at the eSpot on Thursday July 21^st from 10am-12pm. Bring a friend and let them take advantage of this great offer too! For more information or to book your appointment, contact Laurinda at 289-242—5547 or laurindashire@hotmail.com.

Let us help you create the right impression – in both words and picture – so that you can impress your clients, colleagues and network and set yourself up for success!

If you are women in business who is looking to meet and network with, other women business owners, please join Cheryl Scoffield, Follow Up Specialist, Trainer and Coach and Brooke Milne of Because You Said So for 

Speed Networking For Women - Monday, June 20, 2011, from 7 pm – 10 pm.
an opportunity to meet amazing women while enjoying yummy treats and wine.

One lucky winner will leave the event with 2 bottles of STLTO wine!

This will be a relaxed networking event where you start the evening with Cheryl Scoffield, Follow Up Specialist, Trainer and Coach speaking about - What to do after you receive the business card while business networking? How To Turn Leads To Sales Growth. Then have an opportunity to enjoy yummy treats and wine and meet with every woman attending the event to promote your business, career or self!

Buy your ticket by registering here on Eventbrite for only $10!

Please join Brooke Milne and I for this networking event presented  by Because You Said So ..  Promotions and Events …

Location: ING Direct Cafe at 221 Yonge Street, 2nd Floor, Toronto, Ontario. Register here on Eventbrite.

Look forward to seeing you there!

At Sydcam Marketing Communications, we believe that social media should be an important part of the communications mix for many small and medium sized businesses. And the reason why is simple – it provides a cost-effective strategy to grow your business and build your brand. Twitter is one of the more popular social media tools for doing just this.

To help your business utilize this resource effectively, we’ve provided you with 8 tips we believe are critical to successfully using it.

Rule #1 – Have a communications strategy: know what you want to say, how you want to say it and to whom (i.e. your target market). Try to never stray from this approach.

Rule #2 – Remember, it’s all about them: Twitter, much like every other social media service, is about adding value to your client’s experiences, of giving back in a tangible way without expecting anything in return! Do things differently and you’ll damage your brand.

Rule #3 – Never, ever tweet more that 5 times a day: This way seem counterintuitive for some of you that think you need to be on Twitter 24/7. Remember, you’re a business, not a frat member or a groupie for a band. If you send out too many tweets, especially low value ones, you’ll irritate your audience as you’ll push everyone else’s tweets down the list. Their action to you will be swift and permanent – they’ll unfollow you! It’s all about quality over quantity.

Rule #4 – Make your tweets interesting: Somewhat related to #4 above, if you’re a business and you’re trying to promote your brand and add value to your followers business and personal lives, don’t waste your time and theirs telling them you’re at the bus stop waiting for the 11:30 shuttle to pick you up. They don’t care!

Rule #5 – Multi-tweet posts should be avoided at all cost: These are hard to follow and end up annoying people more than helping them. If you have more of a story to say, write it up in a blog post and link that to your tweet.

Rule #6 – Twitter is in the public domain: Everything you say and write is available to anyone and everyone – so watch your Ps and Qs! Anyone from your mother to your chief competitors could be watching and/or following you on Twitter so be careful what you say.

Rule #7 – Make sure your tweets are informative: As was mentioned earlier, Twitter like most if not all social media is all about adding value. Make sure your content is what your followers would be expecting from you. If you’re a chef, give out cooking tips, great recipes, etc., but not what your dog Waldo is having for dinner tonight!

Rule #8 – Never underestimate the impact of your statements: One of the dangers with social media, especially in the business space, is that many people come there to learn and to be informed. Treating this audience in a flippant and indifferent manner can do you and your business permanent and irreparable damage. Stay focused and on message at all times!

If you would like to follow Sydcam Marketing Communications’ tweets on Twitter, our user name @sydcam_marcom.

Linkedin, the social media site for professionals has established itself as the place to go for service professionals, solopreneurs and small business owners to generate leads and build their business.

I’ve been using Linkedin actively for 3 years, and have found it to be an extremely powerful lead-generation tool, especially for self-employed service professionals, but it works equally well in creating new business opportunities for all kids of businesses.

Recently I asked members of Linkedin how much new business they generate and 57% said: Zero! Frankly, I am not surprised. Linkedin is getting bigger and more feature-rich, so the learning curve for new users is getting steeper and steeper. Because of this many people open an account and then get discouraged when they start exploring the site. Unfortunately, it is not immediately apparent how can one use Linkedin to get more clients.

If you’re struggling with making Linkedin work for you, come to my popular 2-1/2-hour workshop *Linkedin to the MAX* and learn my secrets. Click here to register today for the next session on May 5.

Here’s one participant’s testimonial — Since participating in your Linkedin to the Max! workshop, I have been expanding my list of connections, and have already seen positive results. I have made some great connections that could result in business opportunities. Your workshop presentation was clear and very informative. Even I, a self-proclaimed “techno-idiot”, learned a lot, and have started to put some of your recommendations into practice. – Thank you!! — Jim White (click this link for more testimonials for my seminars)

Boris Mahovac R.G.D.
iBizAcademy – Online Marketing For Small Business

Last month, we at Sydcam Marketing Communications spoke to you about why we felt social media was a critical and viable marketing strategy for most small (and medium-sized) businesses in this country. Today we would like to talk to about what we believe are the key social media tools small businesses need to consider in executing on their social media program.

The key elements in your social media strategy

With the myriad of social media tools, resources and options available to small business, the question many owners ask us is which tools are best for our needs? While this is sometimes a difficult question, and one that may vary from one client to the next, the most common recommendations we make at Sydcam Marketing Communications are the following:

Blog: Your social media strategy needs to be centred on the creation of a blog (just like us!).  The ability for a blog to provide fresh, new content to your website on a regular basis is one important reason for its value, especially given the impact it has on your search engine rankings.

Twitter is another fabulous tool that enables businesses to send short, targeted messages of interest to their ‘followers’.

Facebook is great resource for promoting your business to clients – old and new – and most importantly for creating a community of people that ‘like’ your business for what you do, how you do it and what you stand for.

YouTube: No one can deny the power of video in capturing an idea or a moment and bringing it all to life. YouTube does this and so much more by creating a medium to house all your company videos in one neat area, and to then use the video content to put a whole different light on your business. Love that Google juice!

LinkedIn: The odd one in the bunch, LinkedIn, while perhaps not the most obvious social media tool for promoting your business, provides an incredible avenue for promoting yourself, your background, skills and credentials and enabling you to connect with colleagues and associates around the world. It helps to build that personal credibility that so many small businesses thrive on for their success.

So there you have it, a multi-pronged approach to social media that can have a noticeable impact on the success of your small business in the near term. And to be clear, it is not essential that you go an open an account tomorrow for each of the services mentioned above. Pick and choose those that you think can benefit you the most, or better still those that you feel most comfortable implementing yourself.

If you’re looking for help and advice on devising your social media strategy for your business, please contact us at Sydcam Marketing Communications. We’d love to hear from you and provide you with some insight, guidance and support to help you grow your business’ presence in this growing area.

The following is a list of the speakers for the next 4 months. Each speaker has 10 minutes to speak about their business to the group. If you cannot attend on your scheduled day, please contact Ian regarding switching. If you would like to book a time, please contact either of us to see if we have a cancellation or can accommodate you.

March 2: Grace Attard

March 16: Cheryl Scoffield

March 30: Susan Cloutier and Joanna Turlej

April 13: Olin Vanek

April 27: Sarah Mulaner

May 11: Charmaine Idzerda

May 25: Ian Turner

June 8: Diana Boudrahem

June 22: Erick Nettel

Are you a Business Manager, Small or Medium Sized Business Owner, Sales Professional and Entrepreneur who invests time and money attending trade shows, monthly association meetings and business networking events?

Do you have a process in place for business networking with the specific intent of following up and connecting with MOST of the people you met? Or do you often just end up with piles of collected business cards?

Did You Know?
80% of sales are won on the fifth to twelfth contact – yet 48% of all business managers never follow up beyond the first contact.

Join Cheryl Scoffield, Follow Up Specialist, for  Set The Stage For Follow Up -   Monday night March 7, 6 – 9 pm – $89.00 in Oakville, Ontario. (Additonal Spring 2011 dates available.)

Beat that statistic! Learn how to Business Network With Specific Intent of engaging people in conversation, connecting and then following up to add value, rather than just selling.

If you are tired of;

• not getting the results you need to grow your business from your business networking efforts
• spending your time searching for that wonder phrase that will convince prospects to buy from you

This business training will lay out a a step by step, straight forward, systematic strategy you can implement right away!
Start taking proactive action and make sure EVERY prospect you met finds their way into your sales funnel and is followed up.

Register for “SET THE STAGE FOR FOLLOW UP“  training  Monday night March 7, 6 – 9 pm – $89.00 

Learn how to easily start conversations and maximize your subject matter expertise, enabling you to follow up, build relationships and the all important - know you, like you, trust you factor.

March 7, 2011 ,  $89.00
2.5 hours of hands on, skills based interactive business training in Oakville Ontario.  

Join Cheryl Scoffield, Follow Up Specialist, Trainer for Enterprise Toronto, Learning Enrichment Foundation and others in Toronto, Ontario for  Set The Stage For Follow Up -

Learn how to maximize your business development investment and utilize proactive marketing to raise the visibility of your business. It just makes cents.

This date doesn’t fit into your schedule? No problem!
Find other available Spring 2011 dates for Set The Stage For Follow Up and the next step - Automate Your Follow Up Process where ACT (CRM database) and Swiftpage (set up email marketing will be discussed).

Other on-site training and consultation options;

Follow Up – Discover Your Next Step

Follow Up  -  Take Action

Hear what other people are saying about Follow Up Training with Cheryl Scoffield.

Do you collect a stack of business cards at trade shows, networking events or association meetings?
Are you looking for ways to make meaningful connections with people after and keep the conversation going to the 5th – 12th contact where 80% of sales are made?  

If so, join Cheryl Scoffield, Follow Up Specialist for  Automate Your Follow Up Process . This business training will help you grow sales by putting the business processes in place that begin to Automate Your Follow Up Steps.

Automate Your Follow Up Process – Advanced Training
November 8th & December 6, 2010. Eachsession is from 6-9 pm in Oakville, ON, $89.

This business training builds on Set The Stage For Follow Up  Training. The next session is November 22, is from 6-9 pm in Oakville, ON, $89.

It is not necessary to have taken Set The Stage For Follow Up to benefit from Automate Your Follow Up Process business training. The tips and techniques covered during this training will help you put business processes in place enabling you to stay in conversation with larger numbers of prospects beyond the 5th -12th contact where 80% of sales are made.

Hear what others are saying about Follow Up Training.

Find out about other Follow Up Services perfect for Business Managers, Small or Medium Sized Business Owners, Sales Professionals or Entrepreneurs.

Follow Up – Discover Your Next Step
Follow Up – Take Action

Perfect next steps after you attend Follow Up Training

or other Sales Support Services that open doors to greater sales.

Database Set Up- Dataabase Maintenance

If you are a Sales Professional, Entrepreneur, Business Owner or a Business Coach interested in learning how to grow sales by building relationships and making connections. This sales follow up training with Cheryl Scoffield, Follow Up Specialist will set you up for generating leads and increasing sales opportunities in your business by teaching you to network with the specific intent of following up. 

Getting started is easy with  Set The Stage For Follow Up -  September 13, 2010 in Oakville, Ontario

2.5 hours of hands on, skill based business training teaches you how to engage people in conversation, rather than just sell. A straight forward strategy that builds the know you, like you, trust you factor and maximizes your subject matter expertise.

Hear what others have to say about Set The Stage For Follow Up;

Cheryl Scoffield, Follow Up Specialist, has developed a 10 Step Follow Up System that manages and maximizes your follow up activities. As in the follow up needed after you meet new prospects for your business; return from networking or the follow up needed to turn that stack of business cards on your desk into paying clients. If you need to know what to do next, Cheryl is the person you need to meet.

Kristeen Sopeju Edwards, Gifting Specialist, Business Owner, The Wreath Queen, Oakville, Ontario

Enterprise Toronto has chosen this training for their fall sessions in Toronto, Ontario.

Then progress to Automate Your Follow Up Process – Advanced Training on November 8th, 2010.

Hear what others have to say about Automate Your Follow Up Process;

Cheryl showed me how to get more from ACT by setting me up with Swiftpage. (Automate Your Follow Up Process) Cheryl gave me a guided tour through the basics demonstating how they work together. As a sales representative, following up and increasing sales opportunities is a top priority, but time consuming. The expertise that Cheryl showcased and the tips she shared, will help me automate the process and maximize the time I spend staying top of mind with prospects and clients.

Fabia Zampieron, Account Executive
Boothworks Inc., Toronto, Ontario

Follow Up Training is specifically designed to give you enough ideas, tips and techniques to empower you to Follow Up to the 5th -12th contact where 80% of sales are WON!

I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE IT. 

Book your session or  have this training come to your office by contacting Cheryl Scoffield, Follow Up Specialist today! 866-642-5145

Cheryl Scoffield, Follow up Specialist at Executive Sales Support, presented at Oakville Networking on August 20. Automate Your Follow Up Process explained some of the first steps you can use to maximize the time and effort you spend on lead generation.  This short presentation outlined how business card contact information entered into an excel spreadsheed can be used with a mail merge word document or an email to automate (read speed up), your follow up to many people with the click of a button. 

Let’s face it, you invested your time and money to network and get your business in front of more prospects. Not following up and maximizing that investment confirms the statistic that 48% of business managers never follow up past that 1st contact conversation. While you may not be alone, you might not be in the best crowd either! Cheryl Scoffield helps companies and individuals get started following up and building a Follow Up System.

Follow up makes sure that the door to greater sales stays open to the 5th – 12th contact where 80% of sales are WON. Maximize your networking investment and put your business in the position for an increase in sales.

If the topic of Follow Up interests you, I offer several options that you can use to move forward and increase the statistics for your company or your organization.

Follow Up Training is available in a group format on Monday nights in Oakville from 6 pm – 9 pm. Or arrange a session at your office.

Set The Stage for Follow Up – Learn what to say during your follow up so you connect with people and build the know you, like you, trust you factor rather than coming across as a busy sales person. Register for the next session  September 13 and November 22.

Hear what others are saying about this Follow Up Training;

I met Cheryl Scoffield, the owner of Executive Sales Support, over a year ago and every time we talk business I walk away smarter. Yes, I said smarter! I walk away with usable information that will help my business.

Cheryl Scoffield, Follow Up Specialist, has developed a 10 Step Follow Up System that manages and maximizes your follow up activities. As in the follow up needed after you meet new prospects for your business; return from networking or the follow up needed to turn that stack of business cards on your desk into paying clients. If you need to know what to do next, Cheryl is the person you need to meet.

Why am I telling you this? Honestly, it’s because I have gained valuable knowledge from Cheryl over the past year and I am excited that Cheryl is now offering training sessions where she will share some of her tips and hints.

Kristeen Sopeju Edwards, Gifting Specialist, Business Owner
The Wreath Queen, Oakville, Ontario

Automate Your Follow Up Process- Learn how to maximize your efforts with automation. ACT and Swiftpage (email blaster) are demonstrated. Register for the next session, November 8 and December 6.

Follow Up Steps, Follow Up Process & Follow Up System – Learn to do it yourself  or collaborate with me and I do the bulk of the work! 

Follow Up -Discover Your Next Steps - This 2 hour session focuses on developing your first proactive Follow Up Steps that keep the conversation going past the 1st contact conversation. Book you Private & Group coaching session. Get started with one session or purchase multiple sessions over time to match the pace you choose to move forward.

Hear what others are saying about this Follow Up Session.

Cheryl’s first (Follow Up – Discover Your Next Step) meeting with us was nothing short of insightful. She listened to our wish list and quickly came up with advanced innovative marketing strategies in today’s competitive markets. She went as far as volunteering time to achieve our goals. Her experience provided us with actionable ideas to generate leads and a sequence of follow up steps.

Andrea Skerry, Relationship Manager
Park Lane Financial Group Ltd., Burlington, Ontario

Follow up – Take Action - This 2 hour session focuses on setting your Follow Up Steps  into your Follow Up System. Book you Private & Group coaching session. Get started with one session or purchase multiple sessions over time to match the pace you choose to move forward.

Interested in letting your group hear about this topic? Book a  Follow Up – Networking Keynote   and learn How to Maximize Your Networking with Follow Up .

Let’s face it, you invested your time and money to network and get your business in front of more prospects. Not following up and maximizing that investment confirms the statistic that 48% of business managers never follow up past that 1st contact conversation. While you may not be alone, you might not be in the best crowd either!

Follow up makes sure that the door to greater sales stays open to the 5th – 12th contact where 80% of sales are WON. Maximize your networking investment and put your business in the position for an increase in sales.