tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11842097421986714612024-03-18T20:57:46.810-07:00Changing ExchangingA Daily Dose of Business Awesomeness.Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.comBlogger182125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-55081851252389595832010-12-09T17:32:00.000-08:002010-12-09T17:32:02.891-08:00Some Emotions Just Can't Be Transferred to an AdI really, really wanted to let this one go but it has seriously been bothering me for more than 2 days now.
I was driving in my car the other day and this ad comes on the radio. I believe it was an ad for action.gc.ca where they had new regulations for credit card fine print and terms and conditions changes.
The radio ad had one man pleading for the credit card holder to give him another chanceFlorencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-81975677573567284152010-12-09T17:21:00.000-08:002010-12-09T17:21:02.271-08:00A Customer Experience Story (Part 2)So I got the new Macbook Air - the totally decked out version. This was half a functional decision and the other half totally irrational (as with all of our purchases).
Following up on my last post, where my supposedly "fixed" macbook air decided to black out on me again after I replaced its hard drive for two hundred dollars plus, I called and left a message where I worked hard to repress my Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-50240866556726409572010-12-05T22:10:00.000-08:002010-12-05T22:10:40.809-08:00A Customer Service Experience StoryIt happened this morning when I woke up.
My Macbook Air had mysteriously put itself to sleep, or rather, turned itself off entirely, refusing to start.
I did not freak out because of a data loss, since everything important had already been backed up, but I needed my computer to work on things, and not being able to work on things when I want to drives me insane. I booked an appointment to bringFlorencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-48430578491408142372010-11-30T12:13:00.000-08:002010-11-30T12:13:24.904-08:00A LARGE audience doesn't equate to a captive audienceFirst off, it's been a long, long time since I've posted and I might even consider myself a bit rusty, so bear with me.
I recently started to use Twitter to promote for a hobby website of mine that I started on the side. It's totally unrelated to the finance industry so I won't go into detail about it. The point of this post is to discuss the use of Twitter.
I have noticed the majority ofFlorencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-72457601402622360332010-07-30T11:22:00.000-07:002010-07-30T11:22:03.425-07:00Winners Don't Quit (Part 2)Since my post on Winners Don't Quit a couple days ago I've gotten quite a few emails asking whether I'm OK and what's going on.
My only response at this time is that I"m handling the change in the business quite well and actually love the fact that we'll be able to reconnect with our roots and original goals of Changing Exchanging for the better. I'm really living the entrepreneurialFlorencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-11056540082294699122010-07-26T14:07:00.000-07:002010-07-26T14:07:49.065-07:00Winners Never QuitI've hit so many roadblocks since day 1 in this business that it doesn't come as a surprise to me anymore when I hear this line: "We can't work with you because you are in the financial industry and are a Money Service Business."
I can't help but think that the big boys are influencing the regulations so that the growing businesses like PeerFX, that actually want to do something for the Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-79854335322146746892010-07-12T18:32:00.000-07:002010-07-12T18:32:31.505-07:00How Employers ThinkI'm on the verge of spitting blood going through tons of resumes coming in for our PR and Brand Management position. I think the job description really captures how fun and awesome this position will be, and its a job that I would have jumped at to do some real hands-on marketing if I wasn't already doing my job as President with PeerFX :)
Here are a couple things I noticed that grinds my Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-39679327723426822492010-07-09T09:12:00.000-07:002010-07-09T09:12:24.626-07:00Dear Employer, I am a fantastic candidate for this job...How?
1) ...you are sending in generic cover letters?
Blows me away how most if not all of the applicants to our PR and Brand Management position send in cover letters that sound like they just changed the name of the company.
I tuned out immediately after I read the first line. "Dear Employer/who it may concern/hiring manager, I am a fantastic candidate for this job (because I have Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-55453851449433815392010-07-07T10:11:00.000-07:002010-07-07T10:11:32.525-07:00This is a TestEarlier this week when I just got back from LA I was faced with some Monday morning crisis. I say crisis because it was unexpected news that was delivered to me with one week's notice to do something about it. Usually getting your entire operations set up again takes more than a week.
If I didn't find an alternative solution this crisis could put me out of business.
This is a TEST.
Did Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-10261543839779112592010-06-29T13:20:00.000-07:002010-06-29T13:20:51.576-07:00No Other Business Does What I Do - BS!Complete BS.
If you seriously think whatever you're doing has not been done or is not being done by someone else right now - let me tell you, it WILL be done by someone else SOON, really soon.
Or for those that say other businesses can't do what they do - again - BS.
Have you thought about the number of substitutes out there that do exactly what you do?
Example: Need: Quench Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-37797601862623263172010-06-27T22:27:00.000-07:002010-06-27T22:27:18.020-07:00DELETE THE WORD SHOULD...because it limits your creativity for what you can do with your business.
IMO, and this is similar to one of those theories that Dilbert makes up, the word should was not in our dictionary when we came into this world (yeah yeah, neither were the other 10 billion words we would soon learn).
As soon as we learned the word should, here's what happened.
...you should eat your vegetables.Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-67136555192953973872010-06-25T13:19:00.000-07:002010-06-25T13:19:05.908-07:00We Humans are Social AnimalsImage by Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten via FlickrAccording to the new book titled "Herd" that I've picked up and just started the first few pages. It'll have to wait until I finish "Rework" today :)
Caught this excerpt from one of the blogs that I follow Inc.com by Max Chafkin.
Social networking? Feels kinda like falling in love. Over at Fast Company, Adam Penenberg talks to neuroeconomistFlorencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-2723572495570735412010-06-24T08:57:00.000-07:002010-06-24T08:57:23.756-07:00Planning Extremes - ZERO or 5 years out?Image by adria.richards via FlickrI started reading "Rework" by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson. I picked it up because on its front cover it said "Ignore this book at your own peril." - Seth Godin.
Just kidding. I flipped through and it did appear to be written by founders of businesses and not some businessperson who has never built a business before themselves lecturing Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-30956975745035161972010-06-21T15:13:00.000-07:002010-06-21T15:13:53.845-07:00The G20 - Ground Level Woes?Image by roch lasalle (farinn veiĆ°a) via FlickrI've just returned from Toronto and luckily avoided the G20 that's happening starting this weekend.
There hasn't been a lot of positive press for the G20 happening in Toronto, especially on the point where many are criticizing us for the large sums we've spent on the event to date. Here's what The Economist had to say about it in their Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-85660664669265054772010-06-18T14:24:00.000-07:002010-06-18T14:24:28.609-07:00CTV News Website - Florence's article "Learn Lessons from Failure, but Do it Fast"So a while ago Darren Dahl from the Sauder School of Business asked me to chat with him about some lessons that every start up owner should know or may have experienced and be able to relate to.
I had just gone through an entire revamp of my website and made a decision to severe our ties with our old system, essentially incurring significant sunk costs. It was worth it though, and a lot Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-29484456102415853682010-06-17T07:59:00.000-07:002010-06-17T07:59:53.623-07:00The Three Roles of Great EntrepreneursI've shared this link on Facebook already (see below) and when I read it I can agree with the fact that our list of to-dos just pile up everyday, but entrepreneurs start out getting all frustrated about why they can't finish everything on the day that they planned for it. THEN, we realized that out of all of our to-dos, there are multiple ways to deal with it, I think my different categories Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-73128422940233791392010-06-10T10:36:00.000-07:002010-06-10T10:36:44.391-07:00"How to Give the Best Performance Reviews to Your Team and Employees" - a PeerFX Power Tuesdays WebinarHere we go again!
Our team has been traveling the country to bring on board quality salespeople, and met some interesting businesses that I thought we could feature in our webinar series.
I came across Rypple, and I see it as an online collaborative platform that makes performance reviews, an exercise that most managers dread and most employees hate because it's vague and fluffy, Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-18700287634074537002010-06-03T10:07:00.000-07:002010-06-03T10:07:00.259-07:00Positive "Networking" = GIVING FIRSTI think within over the past 2 days I've had this same conversation with 4 different people. How do you network? How do you build your network?
I have to say that I rarely think about how I'm expanding my network, because I think what I do is build relationships instead. Some people still like to tie it to the word networking, hence the term positive networking.
The way Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-23324490316926284532010-05-28T14:39:00.000-07:002010-05-28T14:39:10.145-07:00Writing Your Business Plan - Make it Modern?Many of us learned how to write our first business plan in business school. My first business plan, was a whopping 120 pages of...fluff, diagrams, thousands of pages of projections, etc. Read like a textbook - BORING.
How does yours look like? The longer I've been running PeerFX, the more I find that everybody is constrained on time, and usually a 20 slides slide deck or an Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-13119760903868265952010-05-27T09:39:00.000-07:002010-05-27T09:39:45.581-07:00American Express Accepted EverywhereOver the years I grew up with American Express being positioned as a prestigious, high status credit card brand. They worked so hard on it that they made sure their cards were accepted only at places of high status - luxury restaurants, hotels, etc.
Then I saw this at Eaton's Centre in Toronto the other day. Made me think: "Burger and American Express? Really?"
An Amex Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-24248647105792920582010-05-26T19:47:00.000-07:002010-05-26T19:47:23.851-07:00The Mirror Test Book Review + Interview with Kodak's CMO Jeffrey HayzlettImage by www.dld-conference.com via CrunchBaseJeffrey Hayzlett's book "The Mirror Test" is a hands-on guide for small business owners and entrepreneurs that are looking to start a business or are reevaluating their current way of doing business. After reading it I actually think it's a wake up call for business owners and start ups that are getting too comfortable with what they're doing.&Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-72584422102292871542010-05-25T11:51:00.000-07:002010-05-25T11:51:14.358-07:00Can Superb Service Exist with Scale?I am sitting here in Timothy's World Coffee at the corner of Bay St and College St. The service is one of the best out of all the coffee shops I've been to, in many different countries including Japan, Hong Kong, Korea, Canada and the US.
The service was friendly, and it looked like the owner was manning the cashier today. They also heated up my sandwich and brought it out for me. I saw Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-48874853462599780022010-05-20T10:17:00.001-07:002010-05-20T10:17:44.113-07:00Just Do ItEvery moment spent whining, worrying, talking about a problem is one extra moment that you are NOT DOING ANYTHING. So just get off your behind and make things happen!
Rant of the day.Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-33087581596060049232010-05-14T08:00:00.000-07:002010-05-14T08:00:58.848-07:00Are You Guilty? Judge Says I'm GuiltyImage via WikipediaFor not doing things you said you would for your business? For not being your best self everyday?
Here are some key points that would tell you if you are guilty:
You list out your agenda items for the day, don't end up completing them and push some items to next day (huge backlog)
You are busy putting out fires and make up some excuse for not Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1184209742198671461.post-71848975709158173692010-05-12T15:27:00.000-07:002010-05-12T15:27:56.447-07:00What People THINK They WantI find it funny - that most people perceive an office with tons of people bustling around to be a sign of stability, efficiency and hard work.
Contrary to this belief, most of the time these offices are overstaffed, people are looking busy on Facebook and expensing their friend's dinner gathering on the company's tab :)
What's the problem with having a small staff base if things are Florencehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03854540453999666499noreply@blogger.com0