Our First Trade Shows!

This involved 2 days of standing in 4 inch heels. Painful YES; but rewarding. It's very encouraging to see that there is definitely demand in the market for the service that we're offering. Of course there's tons of room for improvement and there were many great ideas that came out of the conversations throughout the 2 days.

We were at the Vancouver Board of Trade Business After Business trade show and today we were at SOHO SME Conference & Expo. SOHO was more tailored for our SME target segment and many people saw the value of our service right away. However, we know that we still need to work on the educational process of letting people know how much it hurts to exchange currency at a retail level using existing methods.

The shows were a great way to get a taste of what it's like to market alongside the bigger players. I love how one person from TD bank came over to our booth to learn more about the business, went back to his booth and shortly afterward the entire team came over to ask about it. Hey, even the banks like it - awesome!

We also got a chance to meet other businesses that would be synergistic in terms of making our system more cost efficient; I also learned another way to "participate" at trade shows without becoming an exhibitor yourself. WORK THE FLOOR. If you register to attend the trade show, you could work your way around each booth and pitch your own business; I know I was approached by several business consultants, job-placement coordinators for practicum students and service reps for other small businesses.

Must say that both trade shows did a great job of putting together their events and it's a great venue to get our start up name out to our audience. We're really looking forward to our launch to the public in the upcoming months! Stay tuned!

Getting The Right People on the Bus

There's no easy way but I have found that one factor is critical - that YOU believe in your business and have a vision for where you know it's headed.

Think about it. You are trying to literally "sell" someone to become a part of your team that has nothing but an idea and you're telling them that they can take part in making it a reality.

Here's what's going on in their mind. Do I trust this person to lead the team? Do I think this person has the leadership abilities to exploit the business opportunity? Will other people also want to help out and join the team? Basically, they are evaluating YOUR ability to make it happen.

I can't stress hard enough that you should give them the hard facts up front. You won't get paid a large salary (I'm not even getting paid!) If you expect to help the team succeed you will put tears, sweat (maybe even blood...who knows...maybe you get a paper cut) into building the business. You WILL (and should) lose sleep over it. There is no ONE way to reach the solution (or they may even be multiple solutions to the business problem your team aims to solve). So be flexible, be ready to put in some long hours, and hopefully your new team member will enjoy the ride.

What can you promise them? That they will learn 10 times as fast compared to them sitting in a cubicle somewhere in a large corporation and that those skills will one day be used to build their OWN business. Don't promise a large salary, a ton of equity and perks - because this is NOT what motivates people to work for a start up (of course it plays a part, but the intangibles account for the drive and passion that people feel for building a business).

Good people will realize all of this and stick through it all with the team. It takes dedication, perseverance and believing in the leaders' ability and the vision of the business.

"All things go to those who go after them" - Rob Estes

So dream big and go build not just a good team, but a great team.

Why PeerFX?

"I want to work on PeerFX with you."

That's music to my ears baby.

I've heard that once this past week and I'm thinking of seriously bringing her onto the team. I see a drive, passion, commitment that money can't buy. On relevant skills? I believe that skills can be developed and both of us are in it to learn together. I can't say that I have the most relevant skill set for the business either! But here I am!

The past weeks have been stressful dealing with my partners on the shareholder agreement issues; I'm so fortunate to have my advisor help me out with the legalities of the agreement and to make sure that I am protected as well. Thanks Irf. I'm spending $1500 on that agreement - 20 pages of paper. I suddenly want to go to law school instead.

I need to have someone share the passion I have for the business. The gleam I have in my eyes when I talk about it and the excitement of making an idea a reality. I admire those that have the courage to venture into the unknown and frankly this new candidate that I've been speaking to has that. I just want to make sure they are taking a "calculated" risk and not just risking everything to be part of a new Start Up business because it's just. so. cool.

The Team has Disbanded

So it's a no go. The team I mean. For me that doesn't mean the idea's a no go. I fully intend on taking this on to a very successful finish :)

I understand that people have other priorities, commitments, etc. It feels a bit awkward that the team is suddenly down to....me, myself and Florence. Great. Three people! Yay!

Maybe it's for the better that we figured out whether we wanted to proceed with the business at this time instead of having people drop out a year later. This means now there's more room in the team for new hires! New opportunities are everywhere!

Oh. The road ahead is tough. Good thing I got some tough shoes on as well :)