Happy Halloween! In the spirit of tonight, here is an excellent Tweet from Kevin Crenshaw (@krcen) about company perks that will ‘scare you to death’. Have a look and never forget that providing your employees with an amazing business environment is key to company success.
6 (Excellent) Company Perks That Will Scare You To Death http://t.co/nQIGriWLeu #hr #recruiting #hiring #career
— Kevin Crenshaw (@kcren) November 1, 2013
WizOf.Biz is a unique online platform that works hard to give you professional business feedback, mentorship and advice. We are 100% committed to helping businesses like yours, communicate efficiently, develop quality business content and improve your chances of success
What We Do For You:
Everyone has instant access to a large online network of mentors with over 20 years experience in their field. We pride ourselves on giving you affordable hands-on advice when you need it most.
We offer business managers and company owners a second pair of eyes, whether you are writing and important letter, formulating a sales pitch, business plan and more.
If you are looking for a new job opportunity, need help with a marketing strategy or need branding advice, we’re happy to review your approach. With a 24 hour turnaround time, you can stop worrying and start making things happen faster.
All you have to do is submit your materials online or use our templates as examples to help you create what you need.
That’s WizOf.Biz in a nutshell; but enough about us. Let’s talk about you. These series of posts pose an important question to you, our clients, which is simply, “How Can We Serve You Better?” Every so often, I will ask you to answer a couple of questions on this topic. Your answers will give us a better idea of how you would like us to tailor our services and the types of changes you would like to see, that will enable you to take full advantage of what WizOf.Biz has to offer.
We invite you to take a moment to answer these questions:
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According to the report, Bell will use your personal information such as your television viewing habits, what you search for on the web, who you call on your phone or mobile, your on-line purchases, and any other information they can glean from your use of any communications you make using their network to target ads at you. I don’t know about you, but I did not sign any contract with them which allowed them to invade my private life and space!
I can see it now: ads aimed at you that promote porn sites if you were ever unfortunate enough to end up on such a site. That way, you can also share all the ads you receive with anyone who also shares you computer, like your kids, your wife, your mother, or your significant other. How about the person you are living with starting to receive ads for dating sites when they were not the one looking? This also reminds me of the marketing campaigns by some hotels years ago who sent former guests thank you letters for the recent stay by you and your wife. However, when reading the mail, your wife did not remember going to that hotel. There are hundreds of other scenarios that I believe can illustrate how bad this idea is. As someone else commented: “The fact that they are going to be tracking my 13 year old daughter is just plain creepy.”
I can also imagine the class action law suits that Bell can deal with from various groups complaining about the misuse of “targeted ads”.
BTW, their “anonymizing” of your data is nonsense. There already exist techniques for analyzing data to uniquely identify users, even without information like names and addresses. For example, if the same IP address is used to send emails to a number of people, then the originating source can be identified by being the one person in common amongst all the people contacted.
There is also misleading statement in the article about opting out of this “service.” I immediately went to the URL http://bell.ca/relevantads and tried to opt out of all such “targeted ads,” However, the only thing that they let me enter was my mobile phone number. This implies that this opt-out facility was only good for my mobile phone use. However, the article in the Globe stated that the use of targeted ads applied to all my devices, including my TV, my phone, my Internet connection, and who I call on my land-line. Given that their reporter was told by Bell that the use of “targeted ads” covered their whole range of products, the reporter was mislead, if not lied to, about being able to opt-out of everything. Bell Canada should be called on their misleading statement and reprehensible behaviour.
Please write to newspapers, blog about this invasion of your privacy, tweet about it to your friends, family and acquaintances, and contact you MPP and MP. Let Bell know in no uncertain terms that what they plan is totally unacceptable!
Finally, this posting uses some strong language, but here at http://WizOf.Biz we take privacy very seriously. I believe notifying others about this issue is worth writing about and bending our own rules about “rants” on our blog.
Other good discussions on this subject can be found at: http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/6979/125/ and https://secure.dslreports.com/forum/r28755397-Bell-Expands-Its-Consumer-Monitoring-and-Profiling
Reg Charney, CEO, WizOf.Biz
Vital to any business is strategic planning. But where do you begin? How do you get started? What are you planning to achieve? @Bizolly sends a tweet this week with a great link talking about the mysterious process.
8 Questions to Ask: About The Strategic Planning Process http://t.co/2VUXs7WVFY #Entrepreneur #Innovation #Inspiration #Education
— A Grand Expedition ► (@Bizolly) October 22, 2013
Congrats @Bizolly for being our tweet of the week.
Is your business not going quite right? Well, no use in crying over spilled milk, because you are not alone. As you know, all businesses start with an idea and an intention but you will not, nor should you have all the answers 100% of the time. Just remember, someone’s always in your corner, with WizOf.Biz, you can be sure to find fresh ideas on business development, strategic planning, mentorship and more. Our business experts believe, that when it comes to running a business, as in life, you have to be willing to take risks, think outside the box and bend the rules; but most importantly have a sense of humor!
I will go ahead and turn the odds in my favour by showing you the lighter side of business with FAIL BLOG, a popular comedy photoblog and search engine, that gives “funny” a leg up. Lets take a look at a few of my favorite business pics that will get the haha out of you.
1) Cat in the box: Sometimes in business, you just have to get creative even if it means placing yourself in a box to be kissed by complete strangers; more kisses, more dimes. Not only is it a brilliant publicity stunt, but you might even get a promotion. Take for instance,the Temporarily Unpopular Marketing Ideas a unique organization that takes your wacky ideas and makes them a reality.
Often we forget that when it comes to running a business, it is important to be yourself, think outside the box and give people what they really want; to share in who you truly are, what you think and how you can make a difference. If Sir Richard Branson can wow people with his sense of humor and a winning personality, you can too.
2) Selling Crap: So, what? Lots of people make money selling shit. Take for instance Holy Crap I mean, does anyone think it is actually good? Hmmm….however, the people behind the crap, are friendly, approachable and they did a superb job packaging their product. I’m saying its not what you’re selling but how. Think on your feet and put your best crap forward. You never know who will pick it up.
3) Casual Business Attire: There is no shame in wearing shorts for business as long as you do it with purpose and confidence. If you can laugh at yourself, people will laugh with you. FunnyBusiness.ca can make any business meeting or event into a laugh out loud shindig where, you too, can let it all hang out.
4) Homer Reading Encyclopedia On Marketing: You don’t need to be a genius to come up with some of the most Remarkable Marketing Campaigns Ever! Yes, it funny, yes it might even be outrageous; but it works!
Whether you are re-branding or about to lend a new client, remember, you’re in the business of selling yourself first. The truth is most people buy into you, before they ever buy into your product or service. So sell your ideas first. If you sell the why -what you believe in, you are on the right track.
For more inspiring posts visit the WizOf.Biz blog or connect with us on Twitter @wizof_biz. We are here to help.
It’s important to remind ourselves every so often that women and men face very different realities in many areas of life. The workplace is no different. In this week’s tweet Dianne Bevelander reminds us that women in Canada still often feel overworked and underpaid.
Women in corporate Canada still feel overworked, underpaid: survey http://t.co/aSEmx1t4oZ
— Dianne Bevelander (@Dianne_RSM) October 17, 2013
Take a moment to look at the linked article and think about what we can do as employers to value our employees. Employees who feel valued are more likely to be our excellent employees.
More and more startup tech businesses are choosing to set up shop in Toronto, says Toronto Star’s Business reporter Danna Flavelle (Twitter: @DanaFlavelle) in her article entitled Toronto tech: City is fourth best place in the world for a startup. According to a California based research organization, Startup Genome, Toronto is the fourth best ranked city for startups and tech related businesses, while New York City and London taking the lead.
Canadian serial entrepreneur Christian Lassonde is an excellent example of the growing scene in Toronto. He has has recently come back home from the USA, to “bring some of that entrepreneurial spirit back to Toronto.” Christian is currently chief venture adviser at The Next 36 a UofT based initiative that chooses a total of 36 undergraduate students each summer to work on 9 tech and mobile apps companies.
I cannot but agree with Lassonde, when he says “It’s hard to start a business anywhere. There’s no question there’s a higher concentration of venture capitalists in Silicon Valley, but we have quite a few VCs here and it’s certainly not a barrier to starting a company in Toronto.”
We need to foster the entrepreneurial spirit of our city. It’s crucial to our economy, to continue to encourage startups and young entrepreneurs to pursue new business ideas through mentorship and innovation. It is up to us, as a city to persuade others to invest in our future and that of young entrepreneurs who are ready to flourish.
For more information on how WizOf.Biz can help your company or startup move forward contact us directly or find us on Twitter @wizof_biz
