1. Goals Make sure that you have goals for the meeting. These goals should help you move the opportunity towards being closed. Goals could include both understanding the buying decision and validating a prospect’s interest in your solution. It was a successful meeting if you achieve your goals.
2. Next steps At the end of each meeting next steps should be discussed with the customer or prospect. Next steps can include a proposal, meeting with a decision maker or a demo of the solution.
3. Ask questions At the start of the meeting, ask a lot of questions so you can better understand the target’s pain, environment, and goals. This will help you to align your solutions to the targets interest.
4. What is in it for them Always ensure that you understand why the customer called the meeting. You will want to meet their needs for the meeting as well, not just your agenda.
5. Don’t interrupt If the customer is talking don’t cut them off.  First, it is rude and second, they could be about to say something that would significantly help the meeting.
6. Research before the meeting There are many sources available to research a customer before a meeting. Research the customer and contact through the company site, search engines, and through social media tools like LinkedIn, all of which can significantly help the meeting.
7. Focus on what you have learned Take what you have learned in the meeting from the customer to alter your pitch and focus. Target the things that the customer is interested in versus going through all your products and features.
8. Create pauses Don’t forget to stop talking and allow for comments from the customer. This gives them the opportunity to ask questions or provide comments.
9. Introductions There may be new people in the meeting that you have not met before. Introductions help to understand why they might be in the meeting and the role they could play in the decision.
10. Don’t be late There is nothing worse than being late for a meeting. Always focus on being early; Canada deals with poor weather and traffic conditions, therefore plan your trip ahead by leaving yourself ample time. Before the meeting, find the closest coffee shop with wifi to spend extra time if you do arrive early.

If you would like some help with setting up a team strategy in order to get the most out of your meetings or would like some help booking meetings, please connect with me and we can discuss your needs.

BizWiz is part of a growing realization that if we truly believe that innovation and entrepreneurship represent the next big wave of economic development, we need to start teaching entrepreneurial skills early on, and often.

In Canada, we desperately need to change the public’s attitude toward entrepreneurship as a legitimate career choice. We need to start this conversation early: before students have locked in any preconceptions about career paths and before their own creativity has been stifled by a school system created in the industrial revolution.

To that end, MaRS Education is pleased to announce the launch of MaRS Future Leaders, an entrepreneurship boot camp for students ages 13 to 15.  For one week this summer, students will invent and develop their own business ideas, test their assumptions, meet customers, and work one-on-one with mentors and successful entrepreneurs. Attendees will learn skills critical to their future success, including communication, teamwork, perseverance, creativity, critical thinking and goal-setting.

In his new book, Creating Innovators: The Making of Young People Who Will Change the World, prominent educator Tony Wagner profiles several young people who have grown into dynamic entrepreneurs, applying critical-thinking skills to the problems they encounter, and creating businesses and campaigns for social change.

The one thing these young people have in common is that, from an early age, their parents and educators tapped into a sense of “intrinsic” motivation, and gave them the freedom to explore. Less motivated by grades, these kids want to change the world, and truly believe they can do so.

“Merely giving students more of the same education will not create students who can innovate,” writes Wagner. “For students to become innovators in the twenty-first century, they need a different education, not merely more education.”

Let’s start thinking about how we can create more of these kinds of students, the next generation of entrepreneurs.

Apply now for the MaRS Future Leaders summer program, taking place July 23 to 27 at MaRS Discovery District.

• Ontario is Canada’s solar and wind power leader, housing the four largest solar and wind farms in the country. (See Ontario’s Long-Term Energy Plan for more information.)
• Ontario is developing a smart electricity grid to integrate the thousands of megawatts of renewable energy generated.
• Ontario leads the pack in North America in renewable and reliable energy with $1 billion in investments to deploy smart meters for homes and small businesses.

The strength of Ontario’s energy sector is also highlighted through the province’s electricity exports. Ontario’s electricity market generated $13 million in December 2011 by exporting electricity to other provinces and states. Since 2006, the electricity market has generated $1.8 billion from exports, which helps keep costs down and allows Ontario to develop modern and clean electricity systems for the future. The future of Ontario energy exports should focus on exporting equipment and innovations that will complement electricity exports.

By 2030, it is predicted that Ontario’s population will rise by 28%, increasing by almost 3.7 million people. With our growing roster of talented, innovative cleantech entrepreneurs, Ontario has created a strong manufacturing, service and financial presence in the clean energy sector and now has the opportunity to create a sustainable position in the enormous global export market.

It seems I’ve joined MaRS and the energy sector at the right time! MaRS, in co-operation with local and international energy leaders, will host the Future of Energy Summit on June 8, 2012. This one-day summit will investigate ways of developing the technologies and talent required to improve energy networks and create a future of clean energy. The summit will focus on five main themes:

• Using the power of Ontario’s energy data to drive wider innovation and economic growth
• Designing the grid of the future to enable distributed generation and improved efficiency
• Combining different energy sources and considering the future roles of natural gas and electricity
• Emerging energy generation and storage technologies, including exploring the commercialization path for competitive and reliable energy storage systems
• Supporting the commercialization of new energy technology, including both public and private sector initiatives to commercialize Canadian energy innovation

If you are a stakeholder within the energy industry, we hope to see you at the Future of Energy Summit in June!

I recently interviewed three very smart women—all mompreneurs—whose recent ventures have taken off for them and who all have a history of successful enterprises behind them. Their businesses may be different, but fundamentally the three women share a number of common threads: they’re smart business leaders, determined entrepreneurs and stunningly successful.

First I met with Jaime Martin, who was bitten by the entrepreneurship bug when she bought her mother’s retail store at the age of 19. While she owned the business, she won recognition awards and became a speaker for the local economic development office. The accolades were free flowing. Her store was turning a profit, but it wasn’t big enough to enable her to hire additional staff to help free up some of her time so she could focus more on her family.

After five years, Martin decided to sell the business. Following a year at home with her first child, she took on a secure full-time job at a local hospital. After her second child was born, Martin realized that due to her lack of seniority in her job, she was missing out on events in her children’s lives, like her daughter’s first birthday. That’s when her priorities started to shift. It was during her last maternity leave that she knew she needed to make a change.

Martin was invited to an Arbonne party hosted by a friend—a senior graphic designer who had a secure job and who was also on maternity leave, but “was selling lipstick” on the side. Martin couldn’t figure it out. Multi-level marketing was something that she was very skeptical about, but after being sent home with a sample pack she became a serious fan of the products. That’s when she considered Arbonne as an opportunity for her to “play business again.”

It took Martin only six months to replace the income that she was earning from her full-time job, enabling her to focus on Arbonne full time. Now, 19 months later, she works her business 90% in “nap time” and is a regional vice-president. Some months she can earn anywhere from $5,000 to $10,000. She is successful beyond what she ever thought possible with this business model.

Next, I met with Kristina LaCourse, who also started her entrepreneurial career in the traditional bricks and mortar retail model. She and her husband self-financed and opened up a children’s consignment shop. For almost four years, the award-winning business grew and it came to a point where the business needed to “go big or go home.” LaCourse knew she had to make a decision about whether she would tie herself to a $40,000 line of credit and expand the scope of the business as well as its size. After not feeling well for a consistent period, she realized she was pregnant again. She couldn’t fathom being able to afford having four kids in daycare, so she decided she needed to sell her business, which she did, for a profit.

LaCourse stayed in the vertical she had just left and worked from home for the next three years as a sales rep for distributors of children’s products. A changing marketplace made it more difficult for her to make a consistent income and she realized that she needed to make a change for the sake of her family’s financial well-being. She took on a full-time, community-based role that had her spending time away from her family too often on evenings and weekends, and that took its toll on her own emotional well-being. She wasn’t happy.

It was a friend from her former network of consignment store owners who introduced LaCourse to Stella & Dot. LaCourse thought that “she was pretty much crazy for getting involved in direct sales,” but saw that this friend was making up to $5,000 each month from her own sales and the sales of those women on her team. LaCourse loved the jewelry and was initially looking at the business as a “fun hobby” and a way to get free goods, but within three months, she was able to quit her full-time job.

Now she builds her business mostly around her husband’s schedule and she has never needed child care to support her Stella & Dot venture. Due to LaCourse’s success in her retail and social selling businesses, she splits her time between coaching and managing a team of stylists, as well as acting as a business consultant for entrepreneurs of all stripes through her local economic development office.

Finally, I spoke with Julie Cole. A lawyer by trade and a mother of six, Cole is the co-founder of Mabel’s Labels. She and three friends created the company when they saw that there was a clear need in the market for their product. These moms saw that families were using permanent markers, masking tape and other less than stellar solutions to tag their children’s clothes, sippy cups and toys before sending them off to play dates, school and camp. Mabel’s Labels are well known for being dishwasher, microwave and laundry safe, ensuring that the multitude of children’s items that leave home actually return.

It took Cole and her partners about a year and a half from concept to launch, with many iterations of product testing. “I had items sitting in my dishwasher for over a year!” Julie told me. “It was a good idea that kept nagging at us, and we were all looking to leave the traditional workforce and try to find some flexibility in that ever-elusive quest to balance family, work life and professional aspirations.”

Like many startups, they weren’t able to immediately leave their full-time lives. Two of the founders were on maternity leave and the other two were still working full time. In the early days, “there was a lot of working full time, raising kids and working at Mabel’s Labels from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m.” To the startup community, this will sound all too familiar.

Before you’re inclined to dismiss these businesses overall, let me share with you the following statistics.

• In 2010, Arbonne had almost 669,000 independent consultants globally. They paid out $21 million to those consultants in Canada alone.
• In 2011, Stella & Dot received a $37 million investment from Sequoia Capital, one of the world’s leading venture capital firms. The company started in 2004. In 2010 their revenues were $104 million, and they have paid out commissions to their stylists in excess of $50 million.
• Nine years after launching, Mabel’s Labels has been profiled in Forbes magazine, and in 2009 reached revenues of $9 million.
• According to the Direct Selling Association, $28 billion is spent annually on products sold directly in the United States, and there are 16.1 million sales people, of which 81.8% are women.

There are a number of reasons why these businesses are successful. Social selling is the main driver here. “Moms talk about the products like it’s their job. They talk about it when they do the school drop off, they do it at the sides of the soccer fields,” said Cole. Word of mouth evangelism is as strong a movement as ever, especially now with the advent of social media. You can read more about the impact of social selling in the MaRS series “Merchants of Social.”

This is how all of these female entrepreneurs have built their businesses, both on the micro and macro level. They’re successful because they love their products; they are the ultimate brand ambassadors. And so are their customers, both in real life and online. What other factors affect their success? They’re all smart managers—not only with their time and resources, but also in how they support their networks. They schedule regular coaching calls and, when they can, meet up face to face. And they’ve smartly integrated social media into their business strategies.entrepreneur, funding

Why do these women consider themselves successful? Because they’ve met their goals of maintaining the integrity of their commitment to their families, as well as driving substantial incomes that enable vacations, renovations and savings.

“I’m supporting a family of three and helping 50 other women support their families,” said Martin.

This idea of women leading differently and shaping a better experience is explored in another female entrepreneur’s venture, Natalie MacNeil’s She Takes on the World. If these stories resonate with you and you feel you are ready to take the first step in changing your own future, MacNeil’s book is a great resource to help you get started in taking those first steps.

Clearly, there are worse things to be referred to than a “mompreneur.” Really, you should be so lucky.

But how is Startup Canada taking it to a national level?

They’re spending seven months touring across each province to determine the challenges facing entrepreneurs across Canada. They’re also bringing awareness to various community partners, like MaRS, by providing an additional online platform showcasing over 250 Canadian entrepreneurs and engaging 25,000 Canadians in over 130 events.

Of these events, their signature town halls keep with their grassroots effort by enabling local entrepreneurs to come together to develop action plans and solutions to issues that they face in their communities.

Startup Canada kicked off their tour in Nova Scotia in March and held an official national launch on May 2 in Ottawa. The excitement around their initiative was felt throughout the day’s events with over 450 attendees and the support of many government officials, including John Baird and Stephen Harper.

After a visit to Prince Edward Island, they will be heading back to Ontario over the next two weeks, and then again in September. They will be visiting MaRS on May 18 to meet with our entrepreneurs and advisors.

Their Ontario tour schedule is as follows:

May 2: Ottawa national launch

May 14 and 15: Toronto

May 16 and 17: Waterloo

May 18: Toronto

May 22 and 23: Windsor

May 24: Markham and York Region

September 3 and 4: Sudbury

September 5: Kingston

September 6 and 7: Ottawa

For more information on Startup Canada, including town halls in your area and how to get involved, visit their website at www.startupcan.ca. You can also follow their Twitter updates along the tour at @startup_canada.

The tour was organized and presented by Social Innovation Generation as part of its Inspiring Action for Social Impact speakers series.

Two of Mulgan’s talks were held at MaRS: one was the closing keynote of the Business of Aging conference, and the other was the MaRS Global Leadership lecture on innovation and austerity, the highlight of the trip.

As a frequent advisor to the UK government, Mulgan is familiar with austerity, and as a leader within the think-tank Demos, The Young Foundation and, currently, Nesta, he is also a leading social innovator.

It was no surprise, then, that the MaRS Auditorium was packed full of Canadians fearing the pinch of budget cuts as the government tries to bring down a deficit. Indeed, this was a truly pan-Canadian conversation, with attendees watching a livestream from nine cities, as far away as British Columbia and Nova Scotia.

Mulgan, however, was a man on a mission: to reframe the debate around austerity and show that fear and fatalism are flawed responses to the crisis at hand. Rather, he posited, embracing the possibility of failure and creating safe spaces for risk are key to dealing with spending freezes and building a sustainable future.

Mulgan began his talk with the question: “Is innovation a luxury of the boom years, or does it become more important during times of austerity?”

He proceeded to note that while the private sector routinely leverages innovation to increase productivity and savings, there are no equivalent measures for the public sector. The government usually thinks of research and development, but only a fraction of the benefits from innovation can be attributed to R&D. This highlights a glaring gap between how we think of innovation in the economy and how it is practised by the public sector.

There seems to be a lack of new ideas that can drive positive change, as evidenced by a chart in Mulgan’s presentation showing that as healthcare spending has risen in OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) countries, adult mortality rates have actually gone up, instead of down.

To deconstruct different approaches toward austerity and highlight opportunities for innovation, Mulgan presented a framework of 12 economies that governments pursued. These can be divided into three broad groups:

1. Traditional, such as selling off assets and freezing hiring
2. Organizational, such as aggregating back-office functions, automating work and reducing failure demand (preventative investment)
3. Relational, such as empowering citizens through community asset transfer, reducing regulation and tapping into social enterprise

Clearly, there are opportunities, but how do we make the most of them? The audience was taken through a six-step process for doing just that, starting with prompts for innovation and leading toward systemic change as the selected approaches scale.

Throughout, Mulgan presented a number of practical tips and examples of how Nesta has applied these six steps to a range of problems in the UK. One tip, for example, was using competitions and prizes to incentivize and foster creative thinking. There are a number of resources available to speed up the prototyping process as well. (See Mulgan’s presentation embedded below for more examples.)

One of the most relevant aspects of the talk was how closely it aligned with current MaRS initiatives. For example, Mulgan emphasized the importance of investing in social innovation—which the MaRS Centre for Impact Investing is encouraging by supporting social enterprises and providing recommendations to unlock private capital for public good. He also highlighted the need for institutionalizing innovation in a safe space for failure, and the upcoming MaRS Solutions Lab is as good a start as any, borrowing from the best ideas around the world.

The thing is, shortcuts don’t really work, and innovation is at least partly about destroying things that we love—which is a hard but necessary pill to swallow. Ultimately, Mulgan’s point was that the economic crisis is an opportunity for transforming public service, and that looking at this change with hope, rather than fear, can enable a different—and ultimately more productive—public discourse about austerity.

Watch the presentation video below:

Click here for presentation slides.

Similarly, in Toronto we’ve recently launched JOLT, an accelerator based here at MaRS. Our goal is to foster the success of the best high-growth web and mobile companies, with a clear emphasis on designing ‘wickedly good’ user experiences. In addition to workspace and seed capital, JOLT startups gain access to an incredible network of 80+ industry experts, entrepreneurs and investors, all offering their expertise with an emphasis on accelerating growth.

JOLT workspace — 5,500-square-foot space with 75 co-working seats

Interested in joining an accelerator program?

My advice to those interested in these types of programs is to not only think globally in terms of the programs available, but to also clearly define how the program will help you turn your vision into reality.

I recommend you keep the following in mind when evaluating an accelerator:

1. The types of capital and terms being offered, and how they will help your startup’s development.
2. The breadth and depth of the advisory team as it relates to programming.
3. The industry experts on the accelerator’s roster in terms of how they can help you.
4. The types of networking opportunities the accelerator offers.

Next, I suggest you assess how the accelerator program will help guide you through the ‘customer discovery’ process. The steps are captured nicely in Steve Blank’s The Startup Owner’s Manual and summarized here:

1. Customer discovery: Captures the founder’s vision and develops a plan to test the business model.
2. Customer validation: Tests whether the resulting business model is repeatable and scalable.
3. Customer creation: The start of execution, it builds end-user demand and drives it into the sales channel to scale the business.
4. Company-building: Transitions the organization from a startup to a company focused on executing a validated model.

In a startup, the founders define the product vision and then use customer discovery to find the customers and market for that vision. As a result, your choice of an accelerator may also depend on its proximity to the market where you will turn your vision into reality.

Last, but not least: The application

Lastly, you have to think about the accelerator application itself. Besides being ‘ready’ in both your personal and professional life, you will have to complete an in-depth application and be ready for rounds of reviews. This must be taken seriously, no ‘ifs, ands or buts’ about it. My colleague, Ryan Poissant, Advisor in the MaRS ICE practice, provides four key tips on completing accelerator applications in his JOLT blog, Getting in: Four keys to writing a solid accelerator application:

1. Team and traction trump everything.
2. Get in early!
3. Do the legwork.
4. Honesty is always the best policy.

Once you’ve reviewed the steps above, you just might be ready to change the world, and an accelerator program might help you do so. But first, you have to apply!

Interested in seeing how JOLT can accelerate your startup? You have until May 30, 2012 to submit an application.

He started off by remarking that this meeting would not have occurred 20 years ago because the focus would have instead been on what governments should do to create competitiveness.

In light of the austerity budgets at the provincial and federal levels, Porter’s message is timely: Businesses must work together to enhance regional competitiveness.

But what does he mean by the term “competitive”? Porter considers companies competitive when they can compete globally and when they can support the raising of wages and living standards. This message certainly resonates with us at SiG@MaRS. Businesses should not be engaged in a race to the bottom to try to reduce wages and appear competitive; rather businesses should realize that competitive companies mean prosperous citizens.

We need well-developed clusters for startups to flourish

What we need—and what MaRS has been promoting—are well-developed clusters: collections of like firms in close proximity to one another and supporting each other’s success. For example, when you visit a city, you find hotels, sightseeing companies, restaurants, souvenir shops, foreign exchange services and other services needed by tourists, all clustered together within walking distance of one another.

So what happens when you apply this same strategy to startups? Research shows that startups emerge more quickly within a cluster and that they succeed longer. Other outcomes include faster job growth, higher wages, more patents, new business formations, more rapid growth and longer survival.

But there are other factors that affect competitiveness. At the national level there are issues of tax policies and intellectual property, and there are similar policies at the provincial level. Interestingly enough, Porter argues that policies at the municipal level are key drivers of competitiveness. By municipal level, he does not necessarily mean cities; rather he means “regions,” as “economics does not care about borders.” Porter argues we should follow the natural patterns of trade.

The strength of regions depends on the strength of clusters

The strength of regions depends on the strength of clusters, and each region needs its own strategy, including effective policy co-ordination. Our own regions don’t currently collaborate particularly well.

Porter outlined the Massachusetts biopharmaceutical cluster as an example of success:

Support services

• Health and beauty products
• Diagnostics
• Medical devices

Products

• Hospital (teaching)
• Biological products
• Biopharmaceutical products
• Research
• Organizations

Specialized business services

• Risk capital
• Services
• Labs

This creates opportunities for venture capital to congregate.

Porter encouraged the audience to think differently about competition, to try to attract more companies to their cluster, to create a more vibrant community and to not try to keep competition out of the region.

Not that this will happen overnight—it can take a long time to build clusters and competition. For example, it took the Australian wine industry 20 to 30 years to become a leading exporter.

So what are Toronto’s high-potential clusters?

• Financial services
• Logistics
• Hospitality
• Education/knowledge
• Biopharmaceutical/medical devices
• Information technology
• Entertainment

However, the type of cluster is not as important as achieving scale in any one cluster. Developing clusters can provide an opportunity for collaboration with unusual stakeholders, including government, educational institutions and firms of all sizes, and clusters can facilitate investment.

The point is, businesses can take action. Creating competitiveness is not up to government alone—it’s an opportunity available to all of us.

Watch the video below for highlights from the Toronto Region Economic Summit, including keynote speaker Dr. Michael Porter.

At last week’s final Entrepreneurship 101 lecture of the year, pitch master Peter Evans divulged the secrets to creating and delivering an effective investor pitch.

The paradox that startups face when seeking investment is that entrepreneurs and investors are looking for different outcomes: one group is trying to get to a ’yes’ while the other is looking for a ‘no.’  Your biggest advantage for getting to ‘yes’ with an investor is to come well prepared:

1. The first step is to do your research: investors all want different things, so it is essential to do your research and find the right investor to approach with your pitch.  This means somebody with a relevant portfolio, capacity to invest and no directly competitive investments.
2. Next, tell your story like a narrative and hit investors on all three levels of engagement: emotionally, rationally and financially.  Think of your pitch as a storyboard and relate to the team’s personal experiences when possible. Don’t be afraid to include graphics and images when relevant, but avoid overdoing it with the details – sometimes less is more.
3. Furthermore, focus on the following four components and sell them to your audience in 12 minutes: real problem, attractive market, unique advantage and compelling investment. See Peter’s slides for a suggested framework on putting together a 12-minute pitch.
4. Finally, Peter summarized his presentation with these 11 key signals that investors look for:

To hear more about why these are so important, watch the quick hits video below, or click here for the full lecture video.

Join us on May 30, 2012 for the annual Entrepreneurship 101 Up-Start! Competition where our 10 finalists will pitch their business ideas to a panel of judges for a chance to win $10,000, along with a pitch video production package from MaRS Media with a retail value of $4,000.  Click here for more information.

The Entrepreneurship 101 series will begin again in September 2012. In the meantime, catch up on previous lecture videos here.

Resources:

• Article: Preparing for your investor presentation
• Article: Elements of a pitch deck
• Article: Building a strong presentation
• Workbook: Financing Workbook 4: Developing and Delivering a Winning Investor Presentation
• Video: Raising Money from VCs
• Video: Business Communication Tools

Want to connect?

• Join the LinkedIn Group
• Follow the conversation on Twitter: #ent101
• Get updates on Vimeo
• Download the course schedule

Have you ever thought: I’m good at getting things done. Should I move to the next level and be a leader (so I can help others get things done)?

If so, read on!

At last week’s Best Practices session, Charles Plant, Founder and Chairman, Material Minds, took us through the seven key skills you need to make the transition from manager to leader.

Skill 1: Getting results – Good leadership produces great results!

In order to get exceptional results you need to: plan, organize, staff, direct and control.

Skill 2: Metrics – You should have metrics in place to measure your (and your team’s) performance!

Always measure quality, cost and speed.

Skill 3: Materiality - Did you ever say – “Good enough move on…”?

If something does not have a material effect on your metrics, don’t spend any time on it!

Skill 4: Hiring – Hire for attitude, train for skills!

Always invest a good amount of time in hiring the right people.

Skill 5: Delegating – Everybody hates micro-managers. You’re a good leader if you let people own their jobs/projects and help them get the work done.

You can always try MBWA (Managing By Walking Around)!

Skill 6: Listening – Listening is rated as one of the most important leadership qualities.

By listening, you learn about your employees and their issues, and grant them openness in speech and thought.

Skill 7: Emotional Intelligence – To become a great leader, try to meet the needs of your employees by connecting emotionally with them and helping them solve problems.

Empower your team by connecting with them on an emotional level.

Watch this video of Charles to gain key tips on the things that separate leadership from management:

Watch the complete best practices presentation here.

For your reference, Charles’ presentation slides are posted here.