Bruce Outridge

Marketing during the summer

Posted on July 8, 2010 by Bruce

Many of us are extremely busy during the summer months. Maybe you have extra duties due to children or are in the middle of tradeshow season, many entrepreneurs stop marketing in the summer. Your marketing program should be running approximately 3 months ahead so the contacts you make today may not need your services until fall. The key is to make sure you are marketing at all times and letting people know about your services. If you don’t you may find that the work drys up and you have to start all over again. Keep handing out those business cards and look for opportunities in the fall.

Good Luck!

Its All About The Shine

Posted on July 2, 2010 by Bruce

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As many of you are aware the Fergus Truck Show is coming up this month in Fergus Ontario. For those of you getting ready to attend with your truck the competition can be very tough. I am always amazed at the quality of equipment at these shows. If you are new to the show circuit then the article called” Show & Shine” will be of interest to you. To read the article click on the link under articles.

See you in Fergus

Heat Buster

Posted on June 24, 2010 by Bruce

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Spring came in like a roller coaster as far as the heat goes and summer looks like it will be a hot one as well. Heat can take a lot out of you as a professional driver especially if you have to do any kind of hands on work out of the truck. Heat can make you drowsy, irritable, and truly unprofessional. The way to handle it is through proper planning. Take a look at my article called heat of the season http://www.outridge.ca/heatseason.html and gain some tips on how a professional driver can handle the heat.

Stay cool

Using the tradeshow for the entrepreneurial advantage

Posted on June 17, 2010 by Bruce

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Well tradeshow season has officially begun. As many of you know I will be at the Striling Truck Show this weekend myself. For those of you selling wares along with the many other vendors remember a couple of things: one, enjoy yourself. The shows are suppose to be fun for everyone including the vendors. Two, if you sell everything then great, but use this time to talk with customers and find out what you could be doing differently. Three, keep an eye out for new product opportunities. Fourth, get to know your competition and your friends. I have had tradeshows where no one showed up, but I ended up getting work from other vendors because we struck up a friendship. Every person in attendance is an opportunity.

Good luck and enjoy.

Bruce

Building Business Relationships

Posted on June 10, 2010 by Bruce

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It continues to amaze me how important business relationships are to the business world and our own intimate circle. As many of you know the transportation industry is huge and many of us think once we see someone we will never see them again. Then bang! You run into them in another meeting etc. Until you meet them you never see them, but once you know them they seem to appear everywhere. The lesson here is be nice to the people you meet, you’ll never know when you will run into them again. In fact they may become your very own cheering squad.

Until next time,

Bruce