Starting Advantage - Practical tips on how to start a business for the new entrepreneur

Public relations, or PR, is a helpful tool that founders can use as a force multiplier to build credibility and increase their reach. What does it mean to have a force multiplier for your business? Find out in this podcast episode. You will hear from, you will hear from a public relations expert, Jonathon Narvey, about his entrepreneurial journey and how to grow your business faster through PR strategies, whether you have the budget to hire a PR firm or want to find DIY inspiration. Jonathon Narvey is the Founder & CEO of Mind Meld PR Inc. As a reporter covering the tech scene, he learned the craft of storytelling. Now in PR, Jonathon and his team use those skills to earn media coverage for innovative tech companies. Mind Meld PR is a Public Relations Agency in Vancouver, B.C., serving clients in the USA and Canada. They work with innovative startups and scale-ups in SaaS, AI, EdTech, HealthTech, CleanTech, FinTech, and more. "Public Relations is a subset of marketing that is a force multiplier for your overall marketing. So actually PR is not, absolutely not, the first thing that your company would invest in ... Once you've got some traction, you got some money ... now you can throw money at PR and this is going to be the force multiplier. It's the pouring gas on the fire that you've already lit and helping you scale up quicker." - Jonathon Narvey We discuss in this episode with Jonathon: Full show notes, the transcript, resources, and how you can connect with Jonathon, can be found here: https://www.startingadvantage.com/ Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast player. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

What do you do as a new entrepreneur with self-critical thoughts that make achieving success hard and keep you feeling stuck? Terry Boyle McDougall is an Executive & Career Coach and CEO of Terry B. McDougall Coaching. She helps high-achieving professionals remove obstacles that keep them stuck so they can enjoy more success and satisfaction in their lives and careers. Before becoming a coach, Terry was a long-time corporate marketing executive where she led teams, developed strategies, and advised senior leaders to drive business results. "I think that all of us have that voice in our head that says, 'Oh, you need to do this or you need to do that and if you don't something bad is going to happen. I call it a gremlin, that voice in the head. A lot of times the gremlin is very harsh with us, right. It's critical. It's perfectionistic. It sometimes catastrophizes about, 'Oh, if you don't do this, you're going to get fired or you're gonna lose your house', or whatever. And it's very important, number one, to recognize that the gremlin is there to try to keep us safe, but the gremlin has no nuances." - Terry McDougall In this episode with Terry: inner critic inner critic Full show notes, the transcript, resources, and how you can connect with Terry, can be found here: https://www.startingadvantage.com/ Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast player. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Every business has a company culture. Culture impacts everything from employee performance and engagement to how your company is perceived by your customers. Johanna Lyman is the Principal Consultant and Practice Leader for Culture and Inclusion at Kadabra. She helps small companies get to their next level of success, build a culture that supports sustainable profitability, and develop their teams to their highest potential. She has helped thousands of people all over the world build the business of their dreams and step into being the leader they’ve been called to be. She is a certified coach and business development expert with more than fifteen years of experience helping executives, consultants, and business owners build and develop successful businesses. Prior to starting her own business in January 2005, Johanna was a CFP(R) at Merrill Lynch, a Divisional Vice President of Sales at Warnaco during the peak of their success, and she had a 10-year career working up the corporate ladder at Filene’s Department Stores, a division of May Co. She’s a Certified Change Management Specialist and Six Sigma Lean Professional (Green Belt). And people don't always realize this, but culture is going to happen in an organization, whether you plan it or not. But when you don't plan for it, it ends up being one of those companies that I worked with that I had to escape from, because it's not good. It's not values aligned. People don't feel respected. They don't feel appreciated. They don't feel like they belong." - Johanna Lyman In this episode with Johanna: Maslow's hierarchy of needsconscious capitalism culture happens self-awareness brave culturecore values mindsets Full show notes, the transcript, resources, and how you can connect with Johanna, can be found here: https://www.startingadvantage.com/ Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast player. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Finding opportunities to help your business grow can be strongly influenced by your chosen mindset. Founder, Arjun Rai, has successfully used mindset and equity crowdfunding to grow his business quickly. He is an NYC-based entrepreneur who is on a mission to support small businesses with the power of visualized data science and artificial intelligence for digital marketing at HelloWoofy.com. A firm believer that every SMB should have an unfair advantage to compete against unlimited marketing budgets. He has raised from professional investors and personally invested nearly $500,000 in pre-seed VC funding as well as obtained corporate partners (including Fortune 500 companies, such as Microsoft and Google) resulting in over $135,000 in strategic resources. HelloWoofy is an AI-enabled digital marketing tool that helps you save time and optimize your social media strategy using visual data science. "One of the things that we've been allowing our customers to do is actually invest in the company. So while we have a goal to build the biggest company in the world, helping the smallest, something new that I encourage every founder and every entrepreneur take a look at is equity crowdfunding ... to build a company for your customer, with the customer itself, beyond just having a discovery group or a customer discovery group and feedback loop, actually bringing them in and saying here, come on our Cap Table, own a piece of our company as a thank you to believing in us early on." - Arjun Rai In this episode with Arjun: mindset Full show notes, the transcript, resources, and how you can connect with Arjun, can be found here: https://www.startingadvantage.com/ Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast player. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Starting your own business can feel like a daunting task. There are many things to consider, and you may feel at times like you don't have the skills or knowledge necessary to succeed. A success strategy that most successful entrepreneurs have in common is to start taking action before you feel ready. In this episode: Full show notes can be found here: https://www.startingadvantage.com/35 Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast...

This week's bonus episode has an exciting update for you: Startup Advantage has had a slight name upgrade to Starting Advantage. While the podcast looks (and might feel) a bit different, you can continue to join Tania for episodes as you usually do. You'll continue to hear conversations on success strategies, habits, and mindsets for first-time entrepreneurs. Wondering why we are going through this change together? Tania shares more on this in this quick update. Do you want to help shape...

Being intentional about taking imperfect action can support you in gaining the clarity you need to become a successful entrepreneur. Founder, Lydia Lee, learned to take intentional imperfect action into entrepreneurship and now guides others to do the same. She is the Work Reinvention Coach and Freedom Instigator at Screw The Cubicle. Since 2013, she's helped hundreds of people transition out of the golden corporate handcuffs and build meaningful businesses that support them in living the life they want. She believes in intentionally creating purposeful work with our strengths, values, and personality in mind, so that we’re building a business we love, and want to keep for years to come. "If I don't get started in what I know for right now, I'll never get started. We need to take imperfect action. We need to trust what we know with what we have as assets and knowledge at the moment, and give ourselves permission to evolve that body of work and not embrace such permanence to our decisions in business." - Lydia Lee In this episode with Lydia: Full show notes, the transcript, resources, and how you can connect with Lydia, can be found here: https://www.startingadvantage.com/ Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast player. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Most entrepreneurs have to pivot their dreams in order to achieve business success. Entrepreneur, Joshua Littlejohn, learned to pivot his dreams to achieve business success. You'll hear advice on his success strategies, habits, and mindsets, including insights on networking, being deliberate when it comes to skill development and the benefits of running your business so that it looks like a large corporation. Joshua Littlejohn is a Canadian entrepreneur, marketer, and author. In January of 2017, he launched Norgress, an Edmonton- based technology company where he currently serves as the chief executive officer. He is also the author of "The Marketing Fallacy: How Any Small Business Can Look Like A Large Corporation, Without The Large Costs". Joshua believes any small business can look like a large corporation without the large costs to experience the benefits that go along with it. "It's funny, the older you get, you really do pivot on your dreams. Whether it's a case where you realize, okay, it's just not going to work. Or somewhere along the line, you lose motivation." - Joshua Littlejohn In this episode with Joshua: .The Marketing Fallacy' - Full show notes, the transcript, resources, and how you can connect with Joshua, can be found here: https://www.startingadvantage.com/ Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast player. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

When you start your own business it can feel challenging to manage your time or to create a daily schedule and routine that is optimal for both your productivity and your mental health. In this podcast episode, you will hear about how you can use pre-planning of your day as a time management strategy so that you can both optimize your productivity and avoid burnout. We discuss in this episode: means benefits for entrepreneurs 3 tips Full show notes can be found here:...

There’s more to being a frugal entrepreneur than how you spend your money. In this podcast episode, you will hear about what it means to have a frugal entrepreneurial mindset from an entrepreneur who shows others how to launch and manage an online business on a budget. Sarah St John has created several startups throughout her entrepreneurial career of over a decade. She is an entrepreneur, podcaster, and author and describes herself as an animal lover and world traveller. Sarah currently owns a podcast production agency called PodSeam and she is also the podcast host of “Frugalpreneur: Building a Business on a Bootstrapped Budget”. "You could do like I did and try different things out. But at a certain point you do need to pick that one thing and focus on that one thing, because I learned that when your hand is in a bunch of different things, it gets overwhelming. If you're putting 20% of your energy and focus into five different things instead of a 100% into one thing, none of them are going to be that successful." - Sarah St John In this episode with Sarah: entrepreneur at heart internal strugglemain reason whyfailedfinancial peace inspirationFrugalpreneur.How to get started most common mistakeHow much timefrugal with your timeonline Full show notes, the transcript, resources and how you can connect with Sarah, can be found here: https://www.startingadvantage.com/ Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast player. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If you want to make it easy for new customers to find your business, and for existing customers to repurchase from you, you should prioritize your online presence. Having a strong online presence will support you in making your business more accessible to customers amid COVID-19 safety concerns and uncertainties and it can add credibility to your brand. We discuss in this episode: being accessible through an online presence benefits Full show notes can be found here:...

Finding or creating opportunities to build strong customer relationships, as we navigate through a time of change, starts with perspective. Patti Mara is an expert on perspective whose passion is helping people find the perspective that will enable them to generate extraordinary results. She has spent nearly 20 years helping companies and individuals take a fresh look at the way they operate and has worked with hundreds of entrepreneurial-owned and operated businesses to reposition them for success and dramatically increase their growth, customer retention, and profit. Patti is a popular speaker to groups from diverse industries, ranging from finance and commercial real estate to restoration and cleaning, restaurants, and independent pharmacies. She has also been a featured speaker to North American women’s and entrepreneurs’ groups. She is the founder of Maranet Inc. and the creator of The Profit Generator Program*, which takes business owners through a process of developing the ability to see through their customers’ eyes. She also created the Breaking Through Barriers Program*, which helps business owners identify and eliminate the bottlenecks that impede growth and success. She is the author of UpSolutions – Turning Your Team into Heroes and Customers into Ravings Fans. "We have buying patterns and everything's been interrupted right now. For businesses that are going out there and engaging in increasing accessibility and trust and building relationship and providing confidence, this is the biggest opportunity you'll ever have to create really strong customer relationships." - Patti Mara In this episode with Patti: Full show notes, transcripts, resources, and how you can connect with Patti, can be found here: https://www.startingadvantage.com/ Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast player. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Goal setting is a well-known best practice for business owners, especially at the beginning of a new year or project, but many first-time entrepreneurs fail to have specific written goals for their business for the short, medium, and longer term. If you want to increase your chances of business success, writing down your goals is an activity you should make time for. We discuss in this episode: Why it's importantleads to successwhat the leading business coaches agree on success rate Full...

Becoming purposeful about your productivity can give you a competitive advantage in your business and in life. In this podcast episode, you will hear one of the world's leading experts on productivity and high-performance share advice on how entrepreneurs can become purposefully productive. Matt East is one of the world's leading experts on productivity and high performance. Matt’s books, podcasts, and coaching teach you how to plan your day so you can spend more time on the projects, activities, and relationships that are most important and meaningful to you. He's best known for his one-on-one coaching, where he's been lucky enough to work with many brilliant creatives, entrepreneurs, and business professionals. Matt is the author of The Purposeful Planning Method: How to Plan Your Day, Beat Procrastination, and Regain Control of Your Time. And hosts two popular podcasts, The Goal Achievement Podcast and the Better Humans Podcast. If you start making progress, just incremental progress, day after day, magic can start to happen. You can start to feel like, 'hey, I'm actually doing it; I'm actually doing the things that I'm setting out to do'. In this episode with Matt: all of us struggleclarity mattersdeveloped his business model top priorities each daymost common productivity challengemaintain a productivity mindset Full show notes, transcripts, and resources and how you can connect with Matt can be found here: https://www.startingadvantage.com Enjoyed this episode? Please leave a review to support the show on your favourite podcast player. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Having a mentor to turn to is one thing many successful entrepreneurs have in common. But how do you find a more experienced entrepreneur to mentor you, especially if you're a new entrepreneur? In this podcast episode, you will hear about best practices on how to find a mentor; especially if you want to try mentorship for the first time. We discuss in this episode: can support yourealistic expectationsHow to know if you'refinding a mentor Full show notes and resources can be found here:...

One thing many successful entrepreneurs have in common is a close relationship with a mentor. However, many entrepreneurs (especially new founders) do not seek out a mentor as a trusted advisor as hard as they try to find a co-founder, partner, or investor; likely because they don’t understand the value of mentorship. In this podcast episode, you will hear about what entrepreneurship mentorship is briefly (as host Tania can talk about it for hours); you will also hear about what a mentor...

In the past month, have you experienced any of the following: If you did, you share some of the common signs among entrepreneurs of imposter syndrome. In this podcast episode, you'll hear about what you can do to start working through feelings of imposter syndrome. We discuss in this episode: Common signsmeansmaintain good mental healthmong entrepreneursworking through Full show notes and resources can be found here: https://www.startupadvantagepodcast.com/24 Enjoyed this episode?...

COVID-19 has impacted entrepreneurs in unpredictable ways and while some are thriving, many others are struggling to stay motivated. Do you need some encouragement? And some advice on how to keep moving forward when you don’t feel motivated? This is what this episode will support you with. In this podcast, you will hear about three steps that you can take to find motivation in taking action. We discuss in this episode: not a feelingisn't always the effect of motivationfive-second...

Putting thought behind how you approach a co-founder search can support you in finding a strong fit for you and your business. By taking the time to get to know potential founders first, you're more likely to find a partner that will be someone who will help you build your startup from the ground up through good and bad times. But how do you know when you’ve found a good co-founder match? In this podcast episode, you will hear about how asking purposeful questions can help you during your...

Each co-founder relationship is unique, but there are things any founder (including you) can do right from the start to ensure you are in agreement with your co-founder from the get-go on the important aspects of your working relationship. It's important to have purposeful conversations and the necessary written documents in place to start working together on a strong foundation of agreement. In this podcast episode, you will hear about what you can do at the beginning of your relationship...