It's a BIG world; Go Get It !

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Debit Card Fraud Hurts Businesses AND Individuals

Debit Card Fraud Hurts Businesses AND Individuals
Tina Crouse, Strategist

Having been victimized, yet again, by debit card fraud, I took it upon myself to find out if anyone else in my neighbourhood had as well. Sure enough, within 24 hours of a listserv query, 26 people responded and we all live and shop in the same places. Attempts to get the banks and the police to coordinate and stop the theft proved futile. You can read the newspaper article here.

My research indicated that many businesses are also victimized because it isn't them who are doing the scamming; it's their debit machine supplier (or their dishonest staff) using skimmers. Discussions online and at the bank told me that although the business may not know of the criminal activity, once it is established that it occurred at their site, the business is severely impacted, many perish. All for criminals using technology to steal. No protection for the business; No protection for the individual.

Although there are no failsafe methods to deal with debit card fraud, many people are trying various things to limit their exposure. I'd like to hear of them. There are several hundred people in my community who have been following this and now, several thousand who have read about it.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Business Webinars - You still need good teachers

Business Webinars - You still need good teachers
Tina Crouse, Strategist
I 'attend' about 2-3 webinars a week. Usually, they are free and I'm always scouting for things to help clients and myself understand business better. When I come across a good one, I try to post or tweet about it because they are few and far between.

It's a sad reality that people with specialized knowledge assume that they just have to 'speak' it and everyone will get it. They throw up some good but incomprehensible slides (without explanation) and then go into babble-speak because they don't prepare limited talking points for each slide and just begin tangent explanations of how they got to where they are in the presentation. If you guessed that's where I get off the webinar, you're right. I don't have time for babble but I do need the information that they are giving. I'd really like to give some feedback about it but people have forgotten the old standby - 'questionnaire to rate the presentation'. With SurveyMonkey, it's easy, cheap or free and you get real data if you ask the honest questions: Did you like this webinar ? Was it useful ? What didn't you like ? Did the presenter do a good job of getting the information across ?

As I mentioned, I like to promote good ones so if anyone can recommend a good business webinar, whether on InBound Marketing, Social Media, Business Development or the like, please share. Everyone should be able to benefit from this cheap and easy medium.

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Business - measurement and certainty

Measuring what ?!? Really understanding your business

Tina Crouse, Strategist
While looking at two different projects this week, it was impressed upon me once again, the usefulness and the need to measure hidden apsects of our businesses and projects to ascertain some hard 'truths' and to make decisions based on those.

In speaking with my associate, Veronica Feihl, who is an expert in helping organizations to understand and enhance their web presence, it was clear that her measurement of a potential project was dead-on and if the client was willing to do this same assessment of their 'business', they would realize that they didn't understand what they were asking for, didn't need what they were asking for and could develop cheaper, simpler solutions. Knowing a fantastic 'business' development opportunity and gaining valuable insight is important for every business, big and small and every non-profit, big and small. See examples of Veronica's work here.

I also spoke to Anshula Chowdhury of SAM. Her blog this week focused on social metrics. The last slide was of particular interest because it indicated the cost and benefit of many hidden aspects of a non-profit's or social enterprise's 'business' : their social network.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

Social Purpose Real Estate

Social Purpose Real Estate = Social Business + Assets

It was really exciting to have been at the first ever Social Purpose Real Estate conference in Vancouver BC. The many, many innovative and successful social enterprises, foundations, funders and newby's was unbelievable and immeasurably informative. If anyone doubts that business can be done differently to make a profit and have a heart, you need to view these people now.

So here are the fantastic, the un(der)-known and the successful people leading the way towards making business what it should be: good profit = good life (for all people). And I think we'll get a 'good' happy, healthy planet along the way too.

Central City Foundation: a century of investing capital and building community in Vancouver BC
Fraserside Community Services; making a difference in people's lives BC
Nonprofit Centers Network: premiere learning community on nonprofit shared space and services - Canada and the U.S.
Potluck Catering and Cafe: improving the quality of life and economic vitality in the Downtown Eastside
Real Estate Foundation: supporting innovative projects which will stand as examples of responsible and sustainable land use BC
Renewal2: provides opportunities for investors to participate in the development of business at the forefront of social and environmental innovation.
Social Innovation.ca: creating the spaces that social innovation needs to thrive (Toronto, ON)
Tides Canada: uncommon solutions for the common good
Vancity Community Foundation: in the business of connecting values-driven donors with values-driven work in community.
Urbanspace Property Group: inspiring the integration of commerce, culture and community.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

New Radio Show and the enp social enterprise meet-up

Tina Crouse, Strategist
Wow ! Action packed couple of days at the enterprising non-profits social enterprise meet-up.  Had some great, great presentations and I was particularly taken with Octopus Strategies whose outstanding marketing work and excellent crowd management techniques made them a pleasure to listen to and learn from. By accident, I stumbled into a promotional opportunity for the new Social Finance radio show and didn't realize I was there until it was over. While seeming to do everything wrong, the marketing opportunity still came out right; people remember that there will be a social finance radio show starting soon. Objective met.

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