Tips for fast and focused meetings in Toronto

5 TIPS FOR FAST AND FOCUSED MEETINGS. NO MORE CROWDED ROOMS OR RAMBLING OPINIONS — MEETINGS CAN EASILY BE SPEEDY AND PRODUCTIVE WITH THESE FIVE TIPS.

 

If you slowly feel your soul draining and your mind turning to mush right now–and if you’re reading this on your smartphone–there’s a very good chance you’re currently sitting in on a truly unproductive meeting.

Rather than getting bogged down in any more overcrowded and underproductive business meetings, try implementing these five tips, and start refining those daily tests of endurance.

1. CUT THE NUMBERS

When too many people cram into a meeting room, solutions gravitate toward the lowest common denominator. As film director Darren Aronofsky puts it, “Ten men in a room trying to come up with their favorite ice cream are going to agree on vanilla.”

 

Read the rest…

How to be more productive in the meeting room

5 TIPS FOR MAKING MEETINGS MORE PRODUCTIVE  – Lou Orfanos

Whether taking place over the phone, online or face-to-face, meetings are where deals are made, decisions agreed, and relationships with clients and colleagues strengthened.

Yet, despite offering many benefits, they can also be a big drain on workers’ time if they aren’t managed effectively or organised with a clear purpose.

A study by Epson and the Centre for Economics and Business Research suggests that less than half of the time Brits spend in meetings is actually productive. With the average worker in meetings for four hours a week, the impact of unproductive meetings can be substantial. In the UK, estimates suggest that unproductive meetings could be costing the economy as much as £26bn each year.

Here are five tips for having more productive meetings.

1. Be prepared

As any good businessman will tell you, preparation is the key to success and meetings are no different. Whether you’re attending a weekly catch-up or pitching to a big-name prospect, it’s important to have a back-up plan in place in case the session doesn’t go as expected. For instance, if you are due to give a presentation but your PC won’t turn on, it could be game over, but if your files are saved on a USB stick or stored in the cloud, you can simply switch to another machine.

When presenting, practice really does make perfect. It is well worth taking the time to rehearse what you want to say so that you can see how much time you will need to say it. If you keep running over or find yourself being repetitive, you can cut down on your slides or how long you spend on each item and prioritise the points that you want people to remember.

 

Read more of this ‘Real Business’ article… 

Marketing tips for small businesses

BE IMAGE CONSCIOUS AND FLEXIBLE: MARKETING TIPS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES. IT IS ESSENTIAL YOU THINK CAREFULLY ABOUT THE IMAGE YOU WANT TO PROJECT AND SPEND TIME ON A MARKETING PLAN – BY JAMES CAAN

Marketing is essential for the success of any business. It doesn’t matter how great the product or service you are offering is if nobody knows about it. You need to market every strand of your business – and that includes yourself.

Businesses are built by people and their success is dependent on the quality of those people. Both you and your employees represent your company so it is essential you think about the image you are projecting. When creating and implementing your marketing plan, it is important to think about your branding and how you want your business to be perceived, both in the short and longer term. Here are my key tips for successfully marketing a small business.

Read more of this “Guardian’…

 

Meeting Room Special: Book One, Get One 50% off

 

The Rostie Group - Book One Get One Summer Special

 

After a long and dreary winter, we are ready to celebrate SUMMER. We are excited to be offering a summer special for meeting room reservations.

Book your meeting online with one click!

During July and August, when you book one meeting room, you get the second one for 50% off.  Simply book both your meetings at the same time and get 50% off the second one. Please note that the discount is applied to a second meeting reservation of equal or lesser value and does not include catering or AV requirements.

The Rostie Group is Toronto’s premier mid-sized meetings and conference centre and boutique provider of fully furnished personal and shared workspaces including virtual offices, team rooms, workstations, pro and coworking spaces as well as event spaces. Situated at Bay and Queen’s Quay in the city’s thriving south core, our experienced and professional staff are always on hand and dedicated to your business success.

Please feel free to contact our team if you would like to take advantage of this limited time offer or if you have any questions. We can be reached at 416-214-1840 or meetings@rostiegroup.com

Meetings

 

 

Hiring For Small Business — Overcoming Challenges And Tips For Success

By Jason Whitman (Huffington Post)

According to the most recent ADP employment report, small businesses added 82,000 jobs to the U.S. economy in April. Also, according to the Small Business Administration, small businesses provide more than half of all jobs in the U.S. But, as every small business owner knows, each and every one of these individuals within your business makes a difference and has the opportunity to move the needle depending on whether that individual is the right fit for the business.

We interact with small business owners every day to help make that right hire that is so essential to the bottom line. It’s clear that not having the right person in an open role can make or break the future success of your small business. But hiring that perfect talent for an opening is not always something that small businesses feel well-equipped to tackle.

Often, small business owners feel a lot of similar pain points, which typically fall within three major areas:

Time is of the essence for a small business owner looking to hire talent. In contrast with a larger company, where hiring managers do workforce planning, have some flexibility and often can afford to be patient when hiring, small business owners can’t. Typically, if they don’t fill an “empty seat” quickly, the work to be done accelerates in a ripple effect, seriously increasing the workload of the rest of the employees.

Read more of this ‘Huffington Post’ article here…

5 Tips for Launching a Successful Product

GroundReport | Author: KM123
Filed Under: HealthLifestyle | Posted: 05/13/2014 at 6:28PM
Region: Colorado | United States

According to the Small Business Association,small businesses have provided 55 percent of all jobs and 66 percent of all net new jobs since the 1970s. In today’s economy, small businesses are struggling; although many people have great product ideas, few of them follow the fundamental steps necessary to successfully bring those products to market. A success story, Peter Champe’s idea for a new kind of nasal aspirator started with a personal need—his infant son was chronically congested and he discovered that the standard bulb and battery-powered aspirators didn’t work. From this problem grew the Baby Comfy Nose, a nasal aspirator that uses the parent’s own suction, now sold at 7800 Walgreens retail stores nationwide, and he is sharing his five tips for launching a successful product.

“In the process of creating and marketing my first invention Baby Comfy Nose and then founding the larger company Baby Comfy Care, I have some advice that could be useful for others developing their own products” explains Peter Champe, engineer and owner of Baby Comfy Care. “I’ve condensed these ideas down to 5 principles to make them easier to apply.”

 

Read more of this ‘Ground Report’ article here…

 

Starting A Business? Two Common Management Issues And How To Solve Them

By Gabie Boko, Executive Vice President of Marketing at Sage North America

Is there a downside to job market recovery?  If you’re an aspiring entrepreneur, there may be.

A recent Kauffman study showed that entrepreneurship suffers when the job market is in recovery mode.  In 2013, 476,000 new businesses were created each month, down 7 percent from 2012 when 514,000 new businesses were created monthly; highlighting that people who might have started their own business became employees instead.

As an advisor to small business owners, here are some of the biggest personal and business issues I see entrepreneurs face when getting started, and some thoughts on how burgeoning business owners can move past these challenges:

Read more of this ‘Forbes’ article here…

Business Tips To Build Lasting Relationships With Your Client

By Deborah Asseraf | Social Pulse | May 12, 2014

It’s not about me – it’s all about YOU!

May 12-16 is National Small Business Week. This annual spotlight on small businesses began in 1963. It recognizes the essential contributions of America’s entrepreneurs and small business owners. Every day, they’re working to grow small businesses, drive innovation, increase America’s global competitiveness, and jobs. More than half of Americans either own or work for a small business, and they create about two out of every three new jobs in the U.S. each year.

A small business owner must have hundreds maybe even thousands of sales conversations over the course of a year in order grow their business. So there are plenty of opportunities for authentic connections, shared insights and the occasional foot-in-mouth moment.  Here are a few ways to ensure you’re connecting and putting your best foot forward – instead of in your mouth.

Make the conversation about the other person

The need to be heard is one of the most powerful motivating forces in human nature. The first instinct is to share what we know, think or care about instead of putting the focus on the person we’re talking to.

Read the rest of this ‘The Epoch Times’ article, click here …

 

Book your meeting online with one click! The Rostie Group is Toronto’s premier mid-sized meetings and conference centre and boutique provider of fully furnished personal and shared workspaces including virtual offices, team rooms, workstations, coworking spaces and event spaces. Situated at Bay and Queen’s Quay in the city’s thriving south core, our experienced and professional staff are always on hand and dedicated to your business success.