August 1st 2004

Our Next Discussion Topic: We all face this common problem every day! What is the best way to acquire new clients? Join us as we brainstorm ways to build our client base both on and offline. Get advice, give advice and have fun with this diverse group of women.

Our meetings are always held on the first Sunday afternoon of every month.

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July 4th 2004

Topic Discussion: Present your Elevator Pitch! Get advice on ways to deliver your pitch to ensure people are hearing you at Networking Events! Establish your USP! (Unique Selling Point)

WENS – 3^rd Round Table Meeting Minutes

Date: July 4, 2004

Time: 3-6 pm

Location: Sandra Clark’s home

I Overview

A. Agenda

- Refine our elevator pitches, as developed since last meeting

- If time, work on our USPs (Unique Selling Proposition)

Roles

- Host: Sandra

- Meeting planner: Jennifer

- Chairperson: Francesca

- Note-taker: Kathryn

C. Procedure

- No tape recorder on during this meeting

- Francesca set timer for 10 minutes while each person spoke

- After each person spoke, those who wished to, summarized their comments or provided additional feedback on index cards provided by Sherry and gave them to the speaker, either signed or anonymously.

D. Attendance

Present

1. Connie Jocasta

2. Francesca Riley

3. Jennifer Gasoi

4. Kathryn Presner

5. Marie-Evany Sarafian

6. Sandra Clark

7. Sherry Thacker

Absent

1. Ana Robillard

2. Britta Heintzen

3. Gabrielle Zacek

4. Patricia Snow

E. Next Meeting Information

Date: Sunday, August 1, 3 to 6 pm

Host: Marie-Evany

Meeting planner: Connie

Chairperson: Jennifer

Note-taker: TBD once we confirm who’s coming (Sherry will be backup note-taker)

Topic: Prospecting for new clients

II Round Table Discussion

A. Overview

- Sherry outlined the overall purpose behind the Round Table

B. Introductions

We each introduced ourselves to the group informally

C. Elevator Pitches

1. Kathryn

· pitch: design fabulous and functional Web sites, and specialize in revamping sites that are stale and dated

· impressions: much too short, people want to know what redesigning their site will do for them

· emphasize that Zoonini works with client to develop a unique site that will work for them & fit their unique needs, add that she also works with clients to help develop their Web site text

2. Sandra

· prior to meeting, received recommendations through the Yahoo group that she should remove or de-emphasize some of the “I”s in her pitch, found it difficult to do

· pitch: helps people become debt-free and financially independent, provides free financial-needs analysis, explains strategies to employees during lunch-and-learn seminars in the workplace

· feedback: try to connect with the audience more, we want to get the sense that you really care about your clients; play with the order of your pitch points, put the free offer at the end to leave people with a tantalizing free offer in their minds

3. Jennifer

· wanted to present her pitch as if to a music distributor since that’s her current target audience

· pitch: singer-songwriter who’s produced own album, which is being very well received and recently won a gold parents’ choice award

· impressions: what do distributors want to know about you? That your music is sellable and marketable, so emphasize how well it’s selling already just via self-distribution – “there’s a demand for my music already”; some people want to buy the CD but don’t want to buy it online, need a wider audience through a distribution company; don’t be afraid to emphasize the award – go for the big gold sticker on the CD case!

4. Connie (new participant, friend of Jennifer)

· just moved here from Kingston, originally from Vancouver

· looking to start a part-time business

· has MBA, skills in marketing & business development

· would like to teach business skills to immigrants who are new to Canada, including the cultural & practical aspects of doing business in Canada; helping people who were already in business in their own country do business here

· could offer workshops, courses, manuals; not sure where the money is yet

· brainstorming ideas: teaching at CEGEP, university; consulting with government-funded groups for immigrants; workshops at YES; other possible niches – sensitivity training (multiculturalism), consulting for companies bringing in or sending employees from/to other countries

· no elevator pitch yet because hasn’t fully developed business idea yet

5. Sherry

· pitch: Web site to bring together many resources for women entrepreneurs, group to allow women to network with each other in-person and online

· impressions: too practiced; need to make a personal connection between WENS and your own experience, why did you create the group?

· second attempt (without reading): founded WENS because when looking to start a business she found online resources scattered all over, decided it would be helpful for her and other women if as many resources as possible were brought together in one site. Networking group was outgrowth from that, allowed her to meet all kinds of women with similar entrepreneurial interests.

· second impressions: huge improvement, the pitch was brought to life and had a much bigger impact on the audience, was much easier to follow and enjoy.

6. Mary-Evany (new participant, met Sherry at YES Conference)

· moved back to Montreal a year ago

· was a PR executive, has background in business/psychology/education

· looking for new opportunities

· strengths: multilingual, well travelled, passionate about people, negotiation skills

· roadblocks encountered: lack of Canadian experience, needs to make more contacts

· challenges to overcome: how not to let negativity get you down, how to get confidence back

· ideas: read motivational books, work on changing attitude, find support groups, find a focus/niche based on what she loves to do most

· no elevator pitch because business idea not developed yet

7. Francesca

· pitch: midlife maestro, orchestrates transitions in people’s lives by helping design a structure for them

· impressions: very strong, clear and catchy, not sure what “design a structure” part means

· challenge: how do you convince people to get professional help rather than just buy a self-help book

· idea: teach course at Champlain College to get people interested in pursuing the next step via coaching

D. Wrap-up

- With about 40 minutes left in the allotted time, we discussed whether or not to move on to the USPs and decided to put them off until a future meeting.

- We discussed whether Sundays were still working for everyone or whether we wanted to consider moving meetings to a weekday evening. Consensus was that Sundays were still best for most people.

- We discussed other ways of proceeding with future meetings, such as having each person bring an issue that was facing them, but it was decided that continuing to have “themed” meetings where each of us would approach the same topic, would benefit the group the most. We decided that Prospecting for Clients – how to get new clients – would be the next meeting topic, as it’s an issue relevant to most of us.

- We listened to some delightful tunes from Jennifer’s CD.

June 6th 2004

Topic Discussed: You've started your business and you're all set to go. All you need now is your USP and Elevator Pitch! Catch up on what our discussion group came up with during our 3 hour brainstorming session!

Don’t Forget! We are continuing our discussion and brainstorming session all this month through our Yahoo Chat Group! Participate today and NAIL DOWN your elevator pitch before our next meeting!

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RTD Feedback

June 6th 2004 3pm to 6pm

Was today's meeting what you were expecting with respect to the topics of discussion?

Yes, I was pleased with the topic and I benefited from today's meeting. ~ 100%

Would you attend another Round table discussion? Please explain why

Yes, I will attend next month's meeting ~ 100%

I found the exchange of information personally very valuable. I also enjoy the aspect of being able to help others. It is a great non-threatening forum for us to practice our pitches and get unbiased feed-back.

Were you happy with the way the event was organized? Please explain why

Yes, I thought the event ran smoothly ~ 100%

I think we all got a chance to talk which is always best. However, the people who spoke near the end lost a little on the feedback portion. But I think we all recognized that and have already agreed to be stricter with our time allocation. In general, I was very satisfied with the meeting and timing for each person.

Were the location, price and time frame suitable for this event?

Yes, it was all perfect! ~ 100%

Please tell us how you would like future meetings to operate. Topic wise, how it is organized, location, structure.

I think we're a bit overly concerned with how the meetings are run, i.e. it's a bit more formal (timer, etc.) than it needs to be. It's great that we're trying to stay on-topic, but sometimes when a good idea comes up it's valuable to keep the discussion rolling in that direction for a little while.

I think the format you have is working great. I am still thinking on other topic ideas.

I think everything worked very well. Sometimes a Sunday is hard - since it is usually a day away from work and business. Especially over the summer.

Excellent meeting. Very well run, the timer worked great.

Comments:

Sherry, this Round Table Discussion is very valuable to me and each meeting has helped move my business ideas/thinking to a higher level. We are very fortunate to have such a dynamic, complementary and warm team. Britta Heintzen www.plan4results.com

The Ladies Round Table Discussion group is very well organized so that each participant in turn benefits from the enthusiastic and thoughtful input of the other members. The topics are very relevant to the business needs of each woman. Patricia Snow, Professional Coach 514.684.9626 Helping service based business owners attract more of the right clients quickly and inexpensively.

The 3-hour meeting went by so fast with only 8 people attending, I think we definitely need to keep the group at this size, otherwise we won't be able to spend a sufficient amount of time per person. (Either that, or the meeting will have to be an all-day affair!)

It was great for me for the first time round.

RTD Minutes

June 6th 2004 3pm to 6pm

I. Overview

A. Areas of Discussion for this meeting

Your Elevator Pitch_Map by Britta

See document: WENS_ USP.mmp

Ref Material from Francesca:

Ref Material from Sherry:

B. Roles @ this meeting

Chairperson

Britta

Meeting notes

Britta captured via mindmap high level "Live"data

Francesca edit/finalize minutes

No tape recorder on during this meeting

Timing

Ana set timer for 10 minutes while each person spoke

Francesca timed 1-2 minutes for wrap up

Hostess

Kathryn

Event Planner

Ana

C. Attendance @ this meeting

1. Ana Robillard

2. Britta Heintzen

3. Francesca Riley

4. Jennifer Gasoi

5. Kathryn Presner

6. Patricia Snow

7. Sandra Clark (new member to our group)

8. Sherry Thacker

Absent:

1. Linda Britton (guest of Gabrielle, not WENS member)

2. Gabrielle Zacek (In Europe)

D. Next Meeting Information

Logistics

Date

· Monthly: Each first Sunday

· Sunday, July 4, 2004

Time

· 3 to 6 PM

Roles

Hostess

· Responsible to host the meeting

· Sandra

Chairperson

· Responsible to plan and chair the meeting

· Francesca

Event planner

· Responsible to plan logistics of the event and know who is coming

· Jennifer

· Admin: Collect $5 and give receipts

Secretary

· Kathryn

Plan

Re-do your pitch and ensure you have clear USP (Unique Selling Proposition)

If time permits, Discuss networking & how we use our pitch

At each start @ meetings we plan to say our elevator pitch

E. HOMEWORK (To do before next Meeting)

Post your elevator pitch at WENS Yahoo Group

Http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/WENSCENTRAL/

See document: http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/WENSCENTRAL/

Give feedback on each other’s elevator pitch via Yahoo group

Modify your own pitch & try to use it as much as possible at every networking opportunity

Capture learnings on using your pitch for next meeting

Respond to Sherry's Evaluation Email

II. Round Table Discussion

A. Overview

The concept of Elevator Pitch was discussed using Britta's map and Sherry/Francesca's Reference material. The USP was not covered since it is imperative we get our elevator pitch down pat and then we will address the USP.

Then each member gave their pitch, discussed their concerns and received feedback via brainstorming.

B. Discussions

1. Sherry

Info & ideas

· WENSCENTRAL

· One stop shop info business center

· Help business grow

· Roadmap

· Online resource service

· Knowledge resources

· Ref Material

· Resource

· Target needs of Women Entrepreneurs

· Organized space

· Running business

· Help succeed in business

· Networking resource

· Connecting women

2. Jennifer

First pass

· Singer song writer

· Own production company

· Called.Sparkling Productions

· Do music for kids

Include passion while speaking

USP

· Adults love this music

Removed "I produced"

New pitch

· I write and perform unique jazz music for kids that adults love

3. Sandra

First pass

· Help middle income companies to become debt free and financially independant

· Money work for them

· Simple strategies

· Develop a plan

· Unique to them

· Financial Analyst

Middle income (look at this term)\

· Self motivated

· Ambitios people]

Info

· Debt free

· Achieve their financial goals

· Use word FREE

What is your niche?

· Think out of the box

What makes you different

· Help them manage their own money

Passion

· Helping people

· Background HR

4. Ana

First Pass

· One stop shop for brides

· Help them have a day to remember

· Like graphic design

· Personalized

· All customized

· Custom design

· Logos

· Ideas

· Professional design

· Help them look good

· Make them unique

· All social events

Graphic artist with two services

· 1 companies look professional

· 2 social events

5. Kathryn

Pitch

· Create unique websites

· Don't look like other websites

· Create unique websites that help your business stand out

· NOT cookie cutter

SE artist conference

· Feedback for event discussed

Ideas

· Unique presence

· Passion

· Stand out and get attention

· Design & editorial, organizer

· Findable for search engines

· Websites that work

· Get results you need

· What it takes to put site together

· Usable

· Functional

· Quality websites

· Website Specialist beyond design function to today’s requirements

· Not only looks good but works

· Create unique functional website that delivers the results you need for your business

6. Pat

Pitch

· I help ... get to the heart of the matter of who they are in their business and market the shit out of it.

Clients

· Service professionals

· Men

· Innovative motivated professionals

Info/Ideas

· Spiritual work

· Is like

· Clear out the underbrush that gets in their way

· Help them actualize their full potential

· Understand your potential

· Realize their full potential to increase your sales etc

· Increase their business

· Example

· X dollars brought to business

· Increase profits

· Improve results

· Back on track

New Pitch

· Help professionals attract more clients to realize their full potential

7. Francesca

Pitch

· The midlife Maestro

· Orchestrating your life

· Help people go thru transitions

· Realize there is a light at end of tunnel

· Why/how

· Bring hope

· Open possibilities

Passionate about

· Getting their careers around

· Motivating

· Inspiring them

· Help create quality of life

· Help people orchestrate thru faster transitions

New Pitch

· Work with people and help guide them thru their transitional period of their life.

8. Britta

Pitch

· I enable engineering teams to be more efficient, mored focused and deliver faster results

Ideas

· Uniquenesss - technical background - can work with engineers, techies, researchers etc. Can be heard better by these client types due to techie and management background. Knowledge-mapping and systems engineering thinking.

· Mindmapping, teams other than engineers

· Corporate - biggest return on their investment, specifically their teams, reduce number of meetings, reduce time spent in meetings, right number of people in the meeting - use mindmapping to have the right things in the agenda, easily add information to map during the meeting, saving time

· Value = work more effectively faster, bigger return of investment, e.g. engineers working at $80/hour - save $ since meetings take half the time.

C. Final Suggestions

Time (2 minutes) given between speakers to gather their own thoughts, and others to capture feedback to give.

Index cards to be used for writing ideas/comments while member speaks.

Timing process to be changed...

May 30th 2004

Topic Discussion: This was our first meeting and we spent the time exploring our businesses and introducing ourselves to the other members. We discussed marketing techniques.

WENS Ladies of Round Table Meeting May 2, 2004

I. Introduction

A. Group Purpose

General Information

Meeting was led by our WENS founder: Sherry Thacker

Goal of meeting is to do Brainstorming and to help each other in areas of groups choice

This is first meeting of this WENS; Ladies of Round Table

A red folder was provided @ meeting

· Intent of folder is to capture meeting information & to suggest areas of discussion (with reference material)

· Envelope provided for business cards or misc ideas capturing

· Notes taken during discussions can be kept in folder

· Bring the folder to each meeting and store any related WENS Ladies of Round Table information to plan for next meetings

Group Knowledge Capturing

Knowledge captured at these meetings will be posted on WENS web site

Goal of Information Capture

· Information Sharing with WENS members

· Archive of minutes for Ladies who missed meetings

B. Areas of Discussion for this meeting

1) The Big Picture

What external conditions will affect my business this year?

Brainstorm the 6 major trends in your industry

· 1. Economy

· 2. Main Competitors

· 3. Technology

· 4. Ecology

· 5. Social Cultural

· 6. Legal/Political

2) My Destination

What are my business goals for the next year?

3) My Customers

Who are my customers and what do they want?

What product benefits do they value most?

4) Marketing Systems

***This Months Group's Preferred Topic for Discussion

How will I find and serve my customers effectively?

Areas to Discuss:

· Product

· What is my USP?

· Ultimate Advantage

· Sensation to Offer

· Powerful Promise

· Pricing

· Distribution

· Advertising & PR

· Personal Selling

· Sales & Promotions

· Marketing Information

· Marketing Experts

Excerpts from:

Book

· The One Minute Millionaire

Authors

· Mark V. Hansen

· Robert G. Allen

ISBN

· 0-609-60949-1

C. Roles @ this meeting

Meeting notes

Britta captured via mindmap high level "Live"data

Francesca edit/finalize minutes

Tape recorder was on during whole meeting as backup to minutes

Chairperson

Sherry

Hostess

Gabrielle

Event Planner

Sherry

D. Attendance @ this meeting

1. Sherry Thacker

2. Patricia Snow

3. Gabrielle Zacek

4. Britta Heintzen

5. Francesca Riley

6. Kathryn Presner

7. Linda Britton

8. Jennifer Gasoi

9. Ana Robillard

E. Next Meeting Information

Logistics

Date

· Monthly: Each first Sunday

· Sunday, June 6, 2004

Time

· 3 to 6 PM

Roles

Hostess

· Responsible to host the meeting

· Katheryn

Chairperson

· Responsible to plan and chair the meeting

· Britta

Event planner

· Responsible to plan logistics of the event and know who is coming

· Ana

II. Round Table Discussion

A. Overview

Each Member gave an introduction & Marketing Concern for discussion/brainstorming

B. Discussions

1. Sherry

Business Info:

· WENS

· Main Focus is getting www.wenscentral.com launched

C. Final Suggestions

Group to read "One Minute Millionaire" It may be a good idea to all to come with a common mind set

Next Meeting to focus on USP's and your "Elevator Speech"

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