Bruce Outridge

Evaluating Your Stance

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Bruce

If there is one thing that many entrepreneurs have to do regularly is evaluate what they are doing and why. Many times we create programs that we think may be of interest to others and then struggle to sell them or take them to the level we hope to achieve. This has happened to all of us and if we can take the time to step back and take a whole hearted look at the program as a whole we may find the flaws that are stopping our success.

I recently went through this with one of my own programs, great interest but few buyers. After evaluating the clientele that were interested I found that many people weren’t ready to jump into a coaching program. Having a smaller option to offer them such as my book seemed to be less threatening and more inviting. I am now in the midst of revising the program into several packages that may be more appealing based on the questions I have been receiving from potential clients. The important part is being able to step back and take a look at the services you are offering and make sure they are still making sense to your target market. Target markets have a way of changing as industries change and if you stay with the same programs without evaluating them on a regular basis you may find that you are caught behind the times.

Another area that many people forget to evaluate is their marketing material such as business cards and more. We often will print 5000 out because it is economical to do so but if your information changes you have to throw out much of the material. I now order my cards in quantities of 1000 to 1500 which I know is enough for roughly a year. Get in the habit of evaluating your business on a regular basis and you will find it to be changing and growing the way your clients needs are therefore making you more successful.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a business consultant and author of the books Running by the Mile and How to Start an Artistic Business in 12 Easy Steps. For more information on Bruce please visit his website at www.outridge.ca

Have You Been in the Game Too Long?

Posted on February 21, 2013 by Bruce

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Everyone has a comfort zone and it’s easy to stay in a place that is warm and cozy and closed off to threats, you can feel protected in a place like that, but are you really? Often that type of environment gives a false hope of what is really happening in your life. This is especially true in business and careers where people are making good money, have freedom to do their work unsupervised and don’t feel the need to keep pushing themselves forward. In business if you aren’t pushing yourself forward you will find yourself dead in the water wondering why everyone passed you by, you need to keep improving and redeveloping. This is also true for careers.

I was on the panel for a career fair a few weeks ago and was talking with an individual that had been driving truck for many years. He had some incidents on his license from the past and had worked for companies that didn’t see those issues as a threat. Recently he was fired for what seemed like no reason at all, but when listening to his story I believe the company he worked for started to see a pattern and decided to no longer take the risk. He is now having trouble getting a job doing what he has done for his whole life. As I spoke with him at length we determined that he may be better to start looking at other positions in the industry that don’t require driving capabilities therefore taking the focus off of his record. He was extremely happy with this new direction and went bouncing out of the event.

If he had started to look at another path even when he was driving he may have been able to move in that direction without losing income or reputation. When you’re eighteen or twenty it is hard to see the future past the age of forty, anything after that seems like old age. As you move along in life you need to keep evaluating your future and that may be due to employment, health related matters, or retirement goals. Always be evaluating your current position, is it fulfilling, is it stable, if something happened to the industry or company tomorrow do you have other talents you can do? Asking these types of questions periodically will help keep you open towards learning new skills, keeping your eyes open to other opportunities, or improving your own intelligence. Don’t do what I see too many people do, just bobbing along in life hoping it will turn out alight in the end. The end may be closer than you think!

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a business and leadership consultant and author of the books “Running By The Mile” and “How to Start an Artistic Business in 12 Easy Steps.” For more information please visit his website at www.outridge.ca

Take Some Goodnotes!

Posted on February 15, 2013 by Bruce

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If you are anything like me you are always looking for ways to improve efficiency of your operation. One way of doing that is by using technology to the fullest. As many of us are proud owners of tablets, smart phones and other technological advances carrying a paper and a pen seems redundant. Think about it what happens with a piece of paper, you have taken great notes and the paper lands on your desk back at the office. Once dealt with the topic you either have to file it, throw it out, or share it. What happens if you need to go back and refer to that document, can you find it? This is why using a tablet or smart phone is a great way to combat that as everything is in one place. If you need to share the notes with someone then you have choices such as emailing it, sending it by phone and more. I am one of those people that is trying to take my business paperless as much as possible, I don’t think I will ever get there totally, I just don’t trust computers enough not to crash as of yet but maybe in the future.

Most tablets come with some sort of notes application that allows you to take notes by typing them out and sharing them with others. I like the app itself but when in a meeting typing is not an option for me as it takes too much concentration. I have to concentrate so much on my typing skill that it is pretty rude of me to take notes in a meeting by typing. I wanted an app I could write with that would allow me all of the conveniences of having the information on my tablets. The problem is that you can’t write in the notes app on an iPad which I have so I had to find something different. For me the answer was Goodnotes. Goodnotes allows you to write your information out by hand as if taking notes on paper. You have options such as using lined or plain paper, adding pages, renaming documents, and adding images and graphs. Your documents are sorted like a bookshelf allowing you to delete ones no longer needed or filing as you would with a traditional filing cabinet. There is a free version and a paid version for under five dollars. I suggest the paid version as the free version doesn’t allow you to do much. There is one problem however, if you have an iPad there is no stylus to write with. The solution to that is to buy a stylus at the office supply store and it will work with that app, so you can write notes as if having a full pad of paper that never runs out. I have been using the app for months now and really like it. May I suggest you carry a traditional pen in your pocket, after a while you get so used to not carrying paper that that when you are asked to sign something you will pull out your stylus? Try the app out for yourself and see if it doesn’t make you world less filled with paper.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is a business and leadership consultant and has been in the transportation industry for over 30 years. For more information on his work please visit his website at www.outridge.ca

Being an Entrepreneur is Like Breaking Out of a Shell

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Bruce

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One of my favourite types of foods are peanuts, even better are the ones that you have to break the shell to get them out sometimes to find they are not very big. Recently we were on vacation and I was munching on a bowl of these peanuts and watching the activities in the streets and I started thinking how similar the peanuts were to entrepreneurship. Now don’t start emailing me with comments I am not making fun of entrepreneurs more so the fear factor that goes with entrepreneurship. Think of yourself as the peanut in that shell. Sometimes when people try to break open the peanut shell the peanut breaks in half, this is the entrepreneur that has an idea, but is afraid to move forward so they do everything to make sure the shell breaks away from them. Then there are the peanuts that you find two inside half the shell, these are the entrepreneurs that are sticking close to family because they will tell them how great their ideas is so that they don’t offend them. Finally we have the entrepreneur that jumps right out of the shell on the first break and are ready to go and challenge the world.

Entrepreneurship is not easy, but it is exciting and something that should be viewed as a start on a journey. The important part is to start down that journey and keep tweaking the processes and service you offer until you a successful formula. Many entrepreneurs keep investigating an idea until it is thought out it so much it has passed the introductory phase and is on the market be someone else. Entrepreneurship is meant to be a little scary, it is meant to keep your blood pumping, and the possibility failure or success is what keeps you working hard at your venture.

If you are the first type of entrepreneur afraid to jump out of your shell then find someone with the strengths you lack and take that leap. If you are the second type of entrepreneur that is sticking by friends to keep a friendly atmosphere, but never getting the venture started then find someone you don’t know or introduce it to the market and see if people by it. Friends and family may be telling you what you want hear, but that is not always helpful. If you’re the third type of entrepreneur give it all you got and never look back. The road is ahead of you. Either way becoming an entrepreneur is all about breaking out of your shell.

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is an entrepreneur and author of the books “Running By The Mile,” and “How to Start an Artistic Business in 12 Easy Steps.” For more information on Bruce and his work please visit his website at www.outridge.ca

What’s Your Jump Start?

Posted on January 25, 2013 by Bruce

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An article written by a major publication in the transportation industry rocked the industry as it reported that one of the major carriers who have been in the industry for almost one hundred years decided to let go of all of their company drivers to move toward an owner operator driven company. This company has always been a staple of the industry and the news certainly sent rumbling throughout the industry. I feel for those poor drivers and am sure they will find work with another carrier. It got me to thinking, what makes a person wake up and decide to take their fate into their own hands? In this instance do the drivers find other driving positions, do they buy a truck and become business owners, or do they decide to retire from the industry with a fowl attitude and spread bad blood throughout. I certainly can understand the latter but don’t suggest it.

For myself the end of my employee cycle came in the corporate environment when I found they were looking for a puppet rather than someone who can grow a team and stand behind their decisions. Out of frustration I decided to make my mark on entrepreneurship a serious one and have never looked back. Do people wait for something bad to happen or do they go with the flow and continue down the same old road? There must be a time when you decide to take your life in your hands and grab control, but what sets that off? My calculation is that most will go into reaction mode and probably panic mode and will try to grab the first thing that comes along. They then get comfortable and forget about following their dream or future ambitions. Making sound decisions is the best way to attack the shock of a job and the people that have taken that step to do things right very rarely look back thinking they made a mistake. I personally am glad that I made the jump at the time to becoming an entrepreneur, it has opened a whole new world and allows me to grow in a way that is just not possible in a regular job no matter how well paid.

Once a company changes the culture through a major change it is usually never the same as it was before so the people that try to hold onto those jobs are normally disappointed that they didn’t move on. So I ask you what is your jump start? What makes you want to move on for yourself, take control of your destiny? Maybe it isn’t even entrepreneurship, I know not everyone is cut out for business but there are still ways of taking control of your future. Maybe this is the time to upgrade your skills, start a new position using you expertise or simply expand your horizons. People who lay flat waiting to see what happens will find they are left in the dust, talk to anyone who hasn’t upgraded their computer skills in the last decade. So here is the question to you, what is your jump start to a new life?

About the Author

Bruce Outridge is an entrepreneur, and business and leadership consultant for the transportation industry with over 30 years of experience. He is the author of the business books “Running By The Mile” and “How to Start an Artistic Business in 12 Easy Steps.” For more information on Bruce and his company please visit his website at www.outridge.ca