Small Business Blog from Atlantic Canada

Did you take a moment to notice the tag line for this blog? “Helping Atlantic Canada’s businesses achieve their BHAG (Big Hairy Audacious Goals)”. So it is only natural for us to seek out individuals who set their goals high, do not fear failure and work smart to achieve their BHAGs. The quest to meet such individuals in Atlantic Canada led me to Dan Martell. A native of Moncton, New Brunswick, Dan is a serial entrepreneur with a string of companies, successes and failures - Maritime Vacation, iThink Interactive, Spheric Technologies Inc and now Flowtown.

We now have a new domain for Atlantic Canada’s Small Business Blog. Change of domain was easier than I had expected it to be. Took me all of 5 minutes. The hardest part is to wait for the new domain to propagate on the web and hope that Google still retains all the respective page ranks. We’ll know in a couple of days.

If a risk has already occurred in your business and you are looking at solutions (i.e.; reacting to the risk), then it is an “issue” - a “problem”. It is no longer a risk. Risk is the possibility that something good or bad is likely to happen in the future. So when a risk has occurred, there is no such thing as probability then – the risk has turned into an event. Risk management is a continuous and iterative process in which you are constantly evaluating your good and bad risks, its probability of occurring and plan what you would do if the risk occurs. If you have not thought about a particular risk and it occurs, then you will immediately switch into a reactive mode and take decisions that you have not thought through. Risk management is all about being proactive. But do not undertake a risk management strategy exercise without a strategic plan in place.

Rivers is a very interesting individual. The enthusiasm in his voice when you talk to him about internet marketing and entrepreneurship is infectious. His biggest strength is to conceptualize ideas and lay a solid foundation of a business enterprise. We saw this in action with his cooking venture – The Chef Group. He has recently launched The Marketing Factory – a series of internet marketing seminars in Atlantic Canada. Rivers believes passion drives successful entrepreneurs. His passion is to build businesses from scratch. So we caught up with him last week to discuss his successful entrepreneurial ventures. We wanted to learn the ingredients to be a successful entrepreneur?

Who is John Galt? If you recognize the question, you have no doubt read Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged. This question portrays a sense of helplessness and despair in her novel. With each passing day, did you not notice the things that are being done in the interest of the “public”. Are we traveling down the same path as mentioned in Rand’s book? The similarities are striking. New Brunswick seems to understand that where the Premier Shawn Graham promises to lower personal income taxes to 9% and 12%. I say abolish taxes totally with immediate effect.

How would you react when you notice a bunch of sharks keeping their distance from a bloodied meal? Imagine in your mind’s eye: speculators and hedge funds (sharks) circling around the meat (the US dollar), but still apprehensive to go in for the kill. After all we are talking about the world’s largest economy, albeit a one on crutches. Why haven’t we seen a hammering of the US dollar as we have seen in past crisis across the globe? Being the vehicle currency, the US dollar enjoys dominant share in central banks’ reserve portfolio worldwide. While there are some countries who have reduced their exposure to the US dollar, no country has given up trading in the US dollar altogether.

If I were an American International Group Inc. (AIG) employee I would quit – in a hurry. I’d rather be at home than become a government employee. Isn’t that what an AIG employee has now become? “Because the government gave me money, I got to do what the government asks me to.” I cannot run my business (unit) without thinking if my actions are going to upset the government and public. Today it is the retention bonuses – tomorrow I’ll be told I can’t make money. AIG won’t be returning to profitability any time soon in this scenario

Now that you have your business objectives that are measurable as defined by your strategy you need to look at the initiatives (programs) you need to undertake. Simply put, a program is a series of related or unrelated projects that further a certain goal. Just to drive home the point, the program is a portfolio of projects designed to achieve your organizational goal (strategy). Having a good program management also ensures your resources are prioritized and aligned.

“The current crisis is unprecedented!” “Governments globally are reducing interest rates to historic lows in response to this crisis.” “Government is urging banks to lend.” “TSX is down another 100 points …”

Not a day goes by these days without us hearing the words of economic gloom and doom. Deficit’s seem to be the new economic mantra. It seems to be the magic wand that will seemingly fix our economic woes. And perhaps it will. But I am not sure that getting into a deficit to fund infrastructure spending is the key to our economic recovery. A deficit may be effective depending on how we get into deficit.

I received the following email a few days ago. From my experience working with an investment bank, I know that VCs NEVER send out such emails soliciting clients. This is most likely a scam. This is the first time I have received one. Beware of such emails - you have been warned!