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Your answers to my question… what is the worst and best thing about starting a business?

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Thank you to everyone who responded on Facebook. If you didn’t get a chance to see the posts, you may have other thoughts. Please share (although when you see this I will be out of town on an adventure and will see them when I return.

Below is a summary of responses on Facebook.

What is Best About Being an Entrepreneur?

  • Excitement/Freedom
    • Sleepless nights from excitement
    • Worth it in the end
    • Final Decision maker – freedom to decide
    • No bureaucracy
    • Flexibility/choice
    • Freedom to decide when you want to work (which 100 hours a week!)
    • We can be there for our kids/grandkids
  • The work
  • Unlimited opportunities
    • Creative freedom
    • A business in an act of creativity
    • Opportunity to create
  • The People
    • Collaborations and Cool people,
    • Unexpected supporters
    • Mentorship (Mentor magic)
    • We speak the same language
  • Being the best employee!, Loving your boss (lol)

What is the Worst About Being an Entrepreneur?

  • The buck stops here
    • No-one else can do it for you (or sometimes even help)
    • Huge responsibility
  • The work
    • The amount of work
    • Financial and other Paperwork
  • The personal side/confidence: 
    • People who don’t support you (they may be family!)
  • Financial stuff:
    • The days you don’t get paid (unpaid sick days)
    • Financial Valley of Death
    • Cash Flow
    • Starting without financial resources
    • Financing
    • Having the funds
    • Taxes
  • The Unknown/learning
    • Jumping into the unknown/ Uncertainty
    • The learning curve
  • Stamina
    • Having enough energy
    • Exhaustion (avoid illness)
    • Sleepless nights from worry
  • Our choices
    • Not asking for help sooner
    • It can take over your life without boundaries
    • We limit our income potential
    • The little voice that tells us to play it safe

What helps?

    • Staying fit
    • Beer (or for me, wine)
    • Build up cash reserves before you start
    • Tell the little voice (that urges you to play it safe) to take a back seat and watch
    • Also good advice for skeptical friends and family
    • Don’t tell them – Show your family and friends

WSIB Rate changes update for 2020

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Last week I attended a WSIB webinar and the link to their presentation is below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/17Hk3OPFi3wdaU6dxo19T0MDtVFpdIq9c/view?usp=sharing

They have also noted that this information is subject to change. If you had a question that was not answered during yesterday’s session, or would like additional information, you can contact us at 1-800-387 0750 or rateframework@wsib.on.ca and a member of their team will be in touch shortly.

WSIB also encourages you to visit their website that provides more information about the new model and other useful resources that will help you prepare for January 1, 2020.

Doing business with Simcoe County

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Thank you to Bruce MacGillivray of Instant Imprints… who attended the event and is sharing purchasing information!

There are 4 presentations that are in Google Drive. Links to view are below:

1. Overview of GBAPPC

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1auGlsUnoiabNGaL2DVns649MKnOR0_Xl/view?usp=sharing

2. Doing Business with Public Agencies

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Wdjk0rJSS3KzYnOExIdLnrIA7JBPdKlg/view?usp=sharing

3. Purchasing 101

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1acJL84mwW6RIc9UaATqS8YLeMtT1uX4B/view?usp=sharing

4. Electronic Bidding

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gXfaPmg1NTCLU4JiO4TnhA91h80iL6nA/view?usp=sharing

Patricia

If you want to be nominated for the Chamber’s Women in Business Awards…

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Act now: If you’d like me to nominate you – the last day I can do that is December 10th! (They close December 13th.)

If you wanted to be nominated for a Women in Business Award.. do these things:

  1. Check out the categories and decide which one applies to you (url is listed below)

  2. Send me an email before 3 pm on December 10th asking me to nominate you for that category!

  3. You would then have to complete your application and obtain references….

Patricia

patricia@growvantage.com

Invitation to all Grow Vantage Office Hours – Wednesdays and Fridays (till December 6th, then again in January)

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Have a question to discuss? Need advice? (For all former and current GVers)

Join us for Office Hours: Join Zoom Meeting using this link!
https://zoom.us/j/121826251

Time: Dec 4, 2019 08:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)
Every week on Wed, Fri, until Dec 6, 2019, 2 occurrence(s)

Dec 6, 2019 01:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

Please download and import the following iCalendar (.ics) files to your calendar system.
Weekly: https://zoom.us/meeting/vJYsf-uurD4r6ZfHOUzBScNFBbwVDL0UTg/ics?icsToken=98tyKuiqrzMoHNaQsV_9a7UvW5n4bN-1kCd0rItyqQXHMCN9RCH0IdRmHuJKJN-B

Meeting ID: 121 826 251

One tap mobile
+16475580588,,121826251# Canada

Another source for Black Friday tech deals…thanks to Camp Tech

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Hi folks – you are probably up to your eyeballs in black Friday everything…but I thought this resource may prove useful. A couple of years ago I got my Blue Yeti microphone for half price on Black Friday!

check out the link if you are shopping:  https://deals.mobilesyrup.com/collections/black-friday-2019?utm_source=Camp+Tech+Email+Newsletters&utm_campaign=4ea6ca7393-Nov+29+email&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_7397b52d3f-4ea6ca7393-107400989&mc_cid=4ea6ca7393&mc_eid=d1745db1c1

Patricia

Grow Vantage Office Hours… for all GVers!

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We have just had our first Grow Vantage office hours over Zoom where our community can come together to raise ideas and get suggestions from other colleagues for challenges they may be facing in their businesses.

Please join us if you have anything you want to discuss, or if you are interested in helping your GV colleagues with their challenges too!

I will host the Zoom calls twice each week (except when I am away or on holidays).

Schedule:(for 2019: Now until December 6, 2019, resuming January 8, 2020)

Wednesdays: 8:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Fridays: 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm

Zoom Link 

 https://zoom.us/j/121826251

Not familiar with Zoom?

Here is a link to the instructions document: https://drive.google.com/file/d/17NBPzDhaLy-xYLfJkXnPR1-9boipMdZU/view?usp=sharing

See you on Zoom!

Patricia

 

Have you thought about hiring a VA (Virtual Assistant?)

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One of my colleagues from my Launch Club mastermind is training VAs in Africa to provide an alternate income in a poverty-ridden country. Some of these women have professional careers and yet they cannot earn more than $100 per month.

I love buying local and will continue to do so – but I also believe we need to look out for those who don’t enjoy the security and abundance that we have in Canada.

Please let me know if you are interested in learning more!

Patricia

patricia@growvantage.com

Growth Accountability Mastermind: Do you want to move your business forward in 2020?

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Growing your business is the most important and demanding job you have as an entrepreneur – apart from starting your business in the first place.

What if you were part of a small and powerful mastermind group? One that had your back and helped you to be accountable to a growth plan you develop for 2020?

This could be the year you break through the growth ceiling to claim a new level of performance.

Email patricia@growvantage.com for a 20 minute consultation to see how this will work for you

Details:

  • The first Mastermind meeting will be in January.
  • Create your focused growth plan for 2020, in an initial half day working session, and set milestones for your mastermind to hold you accountable and to help and encourage you through hurdles
  • Each month you will participate in a 3 hour group session (in person or via Zoom) and an individual session (in person or via Zoom)
  • This is a focused group who will function as a brain trust or advisory group for a limited number of members.
  • Why are Masterminds effective? They hold you accountable for your plans while you gain support, strengthen your business abilities and analyze your state of the nation on a hot seat. Through mastermind groups, you can build and maintain momentum in your business while you overcome challenges.

We all want to do more, so get the help and support you need to move ahead.

If you have questions, please email patricia@growvantage.com

P

YouTube Changes starting Nov, 13th (in case you didn’t see it)

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YouTube
Hi Patricia Dent,
Important changes that may impact your monetization and content discoverability are coming.
Starting November 13th, all creators are required to tell us if their content is made for kids in order to comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and/or other applicable laws. To help you comply, we are introducing a new audience setting in YouTube Studio.
Depending on the amount of made for kids content on your channel, you can set your audience at either the channel level or the video level. For those who are setting at the channel level, it is just one click.
Potential Audience Settings
These changes are required as part of a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and NY Attorney General, and will help you comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and/or other applicable laws.
We know that these changes won’t be easy for some creators, and that this required change is going to take some time getting used to. But these are important steps to take to ensure compliance with the law.
Please read more below to understand your legal obligations and the impact these choices may have on your channel.
What is changing?
Starting today, all creators are required to mark their content as made for kids or not made for kids in YouTube Studio.
Starting in January: we will limit the data we collect on made for kids content to comply with the law. This means we will disable personalized ads on this content (which affects revenue for creators making content for kids), as well as certain features like comments, notifications and others. Note: You may see some small changes as we experiment and refine our systems over the next few months.
For a list of affected features, go here.
Why is this happening?
These changes are required as part of a settlement with the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and NY Attorney General, and will help you comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and/or other applicable laws.
Regardless of your location, we are required to ask you to set your videos as made for kids if they fall into that category, please make these settings as soon as possible.
We’ll also use machine learning systems to help us find content that is clearly made for kids. But do not rely on our systems to set content for you — like all automated systems, ours are not perfect.
If you don’t set your content or if we detect error or abuse, we may set your audience for you. If you fail to set your content accurately you may face compliance issues with the FTC or other authorities, and we may take action on your YouTube account.
What is “made for kids” content?
We cannot provide specific legal advice, but according to the FTC’s guidance on COPPA, a video is child directed (which we call “made for kids”) if:
• It is directed to children as the primary audience (e.g. videos for preschoolers).
• It is directed to children but children are a secondary audience (e.g. cartoon video that primarily targets teenagers but is also intended for younger kids).
Learn more about the factors that determine if your content is considered as made for kids here.
We know this won’t be easy for some creators, and that this required change is going to take some getting used to. While we cannot provide legal advice, we are committed to helping you through this transition.
You can learn more about your own obligations under The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the tools we are building to support you here.
The YouTube Team
©2017 Grow Vantage