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2011 Canadian Small Business Marketing Cheat Sheet
| Guest post by: Gisela McKay |
Article Overview: Own a Canadian small business? Think making a solid promotion calendar is too much work? Here are some tips and a resource to help make this quiet time productive for your business, and get 2011 off to a strategic start!
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Free Download - The Genius Licence By Gisela McKay |
2011 Canadian Small Business Marketing Cheat Sheet
Most small business owners don't take the time to do a proper strategic planning session. Sometimes it's because they are pressed for time, and other times it's because they don't have the tools or know-how.
Fortunately, the Internet provides many great free resources, including one that we create and use every year (it's Canada-specific, because, well, we're a Canadian company) our Small Business Marketing Cheat Sheet.
At its core there is a comprehensive list of key events and dates to build your marketing and PR strategy around. The first part is seasonal marketing and PR topics, and the second is a list of special dates (awareness months, noted dates, and holidays). It helps you figure out what stories to pitch reporters, when to schedule media releases so that they tie into upcoming stories, and basically, create a road map so that you can check against it as the year progresses and things get busy.
It also contains a template for sketching in the year's target opportunities, and a template for Goal Setting.
My suggestion is go through it with a highlighter to pick out what is relevant to your business and map out your promotion opportunities for the coming year.
It is the fifth year we have shared this particular set of tools. Creating this document represents about 8-10 straight hours of staff time, which is hard for most small businesses to invest, so we've done it for you.
Just Google "marketing calendar business partnerships" (it should be the first result) and click the Annual List of Special Dates link on the page to get your PDF.
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Article Tags: canada, marketing, small business
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About the Author: Gisela McKay RSS for Gisela's articles - Visit Gisela's website NaturalHealthcare.ca has spun off a workplace wellness-specific arm Wellergize - www.wellergize.ca - which boasts a speakers roster, information packages, and a wide range support collateral. In addition, Gisela is a development partner in the creation of www.EmployeeCounseling.ca - a pay for play Employee Assistance service currently in pilot testing in the Greater Toronto Area. Ms. McKay says: "I am excited to be included here at Evan Carmichael's. I look forward to helping small and medium-sized business owners experience the benefits of workplace wellness programs that large corporations take advantage of each and every day." Click here to visit Gisela's website   The Genius Licence 2011 Canadian Small Business Marketing Cheat Sheet Social medianetworking tools and small business what does it mean to you and how do you get started Worklife Balance is a personal thing How are you doing with yours Mental Health and the Workplace Repetitive Strain Injuries and the Human Brain |
Related Forum Posts
Re: Sources of Cash
- Thanks for the help. The items will be recorded in the Balance Sheet. But why does the Balance Sheet always balances. Is there a specific reason
New Small Business Topic
- Hello everyone,
I'm on the lookout for new topics to add to my site. We just launched a Franchising section and are planning Human Resources section. Do you have any thoughts for a new section?
Here's a list of what we currently have:
Angel Investors
Branding
Bank Loans
Business Coaching
Business Plan
Franchises (New)
Insurance
Legal
Marketing
Public Relations
Sales
Small Biz Loans
Venture Capital
My entry
- 1. The Best Business Books Ever: The 100 Most Influential Business Books You'll Never Have Time to Read
- this is a fascinating book about the history of Business theory, and I'd recommend it to anybody.
2. The Big Book of Small Business: You Don't Have to Run Your Business by the Seat of Your Pants, by Tom Gegax. Ditto.
3. PADI: The Business of Diving Book
Okay, so this book won't be of use to anyone who doesn't want to start a scuba store, but I did, and this book was of course invaluable to me in reaching that goal.
re: restaurant start-up
- I'm not sure about government grants for restaurants, but my recommendation would be to approach a lender that offers loans under the Canadian Small Business Financing Loan program where the government will guarantee 85% of the loan. You can borrow up to $250,000 to finance equipment and renovations under this program. Restaurants are very risky business, however some of the Chartered Banks will look at restaurants if there is enough of an initial equity investment and you have a solid business plan (experienced management team, good concept and strategic location).
These maybe the coldest franchises out there:
- Here are the worst 15 performing franchises in regards to having the highest Small Business Administration (SBA) loan failure rates. The list is dotted with sub sandwich shops, fitness centers and car shops.
WORST FRANCHISE LOAN FAILURES Failure %
1 OBEE'S SOUP SALAD SUBS 55.56%
2 LADY OF AMERICA 41.94%
3 COUNTRY CLUTTER (BED & BREAKFAST) 41.18%
4 COPY CLUB 36.36%
5 ALL TUNE AND LUBE 35.71%
6 PICKERMAN'S 35.71%
7 PHILLY CONNECTION 35.59%
8 ROLY POLY ROLLED SANDWICHES 34.78%
9 COTTMAN TRANSMISSION 34.48%
10 HAIR COLOR EXPRESS 33.33%
11 LEE MYLES AUTOMOTIVE TRANSMISSIONS 33.33%
12 GODFATHER'S PIZZA 33.33%
13 SMOOTHIE FACTORY 33.33%
14 BLIMPIE 31.39%
15 GOLF U.S.A. (RETAIL GOLF EQUIP.) 30.77%
Source: Small Business Administration, SBA Loan Performance Within Franchise Code for the Period of FY 2001 - 2005
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