Category Archives: Articles

Toronto: Ranked Fourth Best City For A Tech Startup

Toronto_ON_Toronto_Skyline2_modifiedMore 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

 

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Pinterest: Content & “Attention Marketing” By James Flint

Maximise-Your-Pinterest-SuccessEveryone is going bonkers over Pinterest; a pinboard style photo sharing website, that lets users browse through images based on themes, interests and hobbies. In his recent Telegraph article Attention Marketing, The Real Social Revolution, British journalist James Flint, further discusses a fresh spin on the traditional lead generating technique that this popular social media tool  uses to maintain their forty-five million a year in projected revenue and keep the attention of its users. What’s more, Pinterest does not rely on ads for cash flow, nor does it charge for service use. So how exactly do they do it?

1) “Pinterest revenue comes entirely from links placed by users on the site”. says Flint. In other words all users have to do is place a link to a product or service directly onto the site. The minute someone else clicks on that link to buy, Pinterest makes money. Currently there are over ten million people using the site-everyone wins.

2) Unlike in the traditional ad displays, in the case of Pinterest, the leads are chosen by the users themselves and are entirely based on their actions and interests. The idea is that you are now automatically marketing to users who are already interested in what you’re selling; no groundwork necessary, which no doubt, is a brilliant marketing strategy.

Relying on affiliates, for lead generation means online content companies like Amazon  and BestBuy have a much more targeted approach, that Flint suggests is about “capturing people’s attention and channeling this attention to the appropriate vendor when it presents itself as a genuine desire to buy.” As a business person, I too, believe that this strategy unlike any other, enables people to make informed decisions about the product or service they are interested in without the added pressure of an unwanted, online ad campaign or third party product pushes. In the case of Pinterest, it offers users a fun, unique and interructive way to choose their content, which implies a hands off approach when it comes to making a purchase; which is all that people ever want when making a choice.

We invite you to browse through our blog for more informative posts like this one. If you want to find out, how WizOf.Biz can help your business make the right choice with professional feedback and advice, visit our website at: wizof.biz You can also connect with us on Twitter and Facebook.

 

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Tips to Avoid Burnout

Burnout - tired at workOne article that recently caught my eye, is from the The Globe & Mail, entitled “Ten Ways To Avoid Burnout At Work”, by Harvey Schachter. This piece intrigued me in part, because it tells the story of a young enterpreneur, Andrew Dumont, who at the age of 18 left school to launch his startup Tatango.com.

Andrew shares with us his own experience with burnout. He further explains that it is something that we all experience but are often unable to spot.“Ten Ways To Avoid Burnout At Work”, shows you how to recognize the first signs of burnout, followed by ten simple ways to avoid it at work. These tips will help keep you at the top of your game, while not forgetting to come out and play.

For another ten tips, check out “10 Surefire Ways to Avoid Burnout” by Bruna Martinuzzi on OpenForum.com.  It’s the same theme and another great set of advice for all the entrepreneurs out there who are feeling overwhelmed.

You can also visit Andrew’s blog Always On, his twitter at @AndrewDumont or check out the WizOf.Biz blog for great advice posts like this one.

Creative Commons Licensed Image

 

 

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Institutional Knowledge Preservation in the Future

Bina48

What if there was a way to take all of your personal characteristics and experiences and preserve them? How about a way of preserving institutional knowledge and passing it down generations?

Well, you can. Take for example entrepreneur Dr. Martine Rothblatt who had commissioned a project, run by roboticists Dr. David Hanson entitled Bina48, which would allow for all of her husband’s characteristics to be preserved in an android.  

A Financial Post article by Dan Ovsey, on the Future Face Of Institutional Knowledge Preservation confirms, that when technology tycoon Bruce Duncan, and the Executive Director of the Terasem Movement Foundation and supervisor of the LifeNaut Project Dr. David Hanson get together, anything is possible.

The LifeNaut project, allows people who wish to have their knowledge and experiences preserved in alternative forms such as avatars, androids and clones, to do just that. This, many argue, is the future of knowledge preservation and a way to hold on to our human experiences. A three-day conference recently held in Toronto such as Ideacity, served as the perfect opportunity for Duncan to introduce Bina48 to its participants.

The passage of information within an organization and through generations is vitally important.  It is what allows the continuation of a business and an continuity required to ensure trust and success.  Technologies such as Bina48 are going to revolutionize business and enable exciting new businesses and new ways to grow on our existing knowledge.

I invite you to read the full interview and their discussion on the future of Bina48. You can also check out the WizOf.Biz blog for more exciting posts.

Image courtesy https://www.lifenaut.com/bina48/

 

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Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos: Success Tips For Business Executives

When Jeff Bezos discusses what makes him successful, business people everywhere should pay attention.  As founder and CEO of Amazon.com, business advice from Jeff is invaluable.  In case you didn’t know, Amazon.com sells a wide number of books, products and accessories to happy clients. Despite feedback from skeptics and publishers, Bezos went on to introduce a whole host of innovative technologies which opened up opportunities for other internet based businesses.

The Five-Time Tested Success Tips From Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos is a fantastic article by The Globe & Mail in which this brilliant business innovator gives entrepreneurial executives his top five tips for business success.  

One of the things in this article that resonates with me the most is the idea that the type of corporate culture you introduce into your business can drastically impact the end results. Making sure that you hire the best minds in the business is crucial. People on your team who know how to be both stubborn and flexible in their decisions, will be the ones better able to add to and enrich your business vision.

Don’t forget to visit the WizOf.Biz blog for more expert business advice, helpful websites for entrepreneurs and more articles like the one shown in this post.

 

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