Career Professionals of Canada News Feed
By Marian Bernard. “Not everyone is your customer,” said Mark Imperial, the Chicago-based marketing genius behind www.imperialaction.com. When I first heard Mark utter these words, I thought, “You are SO right on, Mark!” It is far easier for me to partner with clients with whom I can share my experience and equip them with the knowledge they need to advance in their careers. My intent is to uncover each client’s UVP (Unique Value Proposition) so that the brand message resonates with potential employers. Michael DiFrisco, “The Affordable Branding Guy” and…
By Adrienne Tom. Career professionals are well aware of the importance of branding as part of both a personal and professional strategy. Many of us provide branding support to clients, but sometimes we forget to give our own brand the required time and attention it deserves. Solidifying and fostering a strong business brand is a key component to business success. According to the Small Business Encyclopedia on Entrepreneur.com, branding is defined as “The marketing practice of creating a name, symbol, or design that identifies and differentiates a product from other…
By Janet Barclay. Although December is the busiest month in the retail industry, as a career professional, you may find that business is slow, as clients are busy with holiday shopping, parties, and preparations. Why not take advantage of this downtime to review your activities and achievements over the past year? If you have a formal business plan, hopefully you’ve been following it throughout the year, but if it’s just been sitting in a file, take it out and dust it off. Even if you started the year with just…
By Janet Barclay. With music and magic in the air and retailers telling you it’s time to go shopping, it can be hard for even the most dedicated entrepreneur to stay focused on business. Here are a few tips to help you continue networking, without missing out on all the fun! Attending holiday-themed networking events will help you to have that festive feeling without feeling guilty that you should be working on building your business. Take some time from away your usual networking activities to provide a service in your…
By Skye Berry Burke. When defining success as an independent career professional in private practice, we might lean towards measuring the number of clients we have, the amount of revenue we generate, and the size and location of our office space. With this kind of measuring stick, we can end up feeling frustrated by the constant chase for more. Instead of enjoying the ride, we burn ourselves out. Rarely do we examine success as a deeply individual experience. Yet, as independent/ private practitioners, our entire journey is individual. We each chose…
By Lise Stransky. Informal referral relationships are a strong source for ongoing business, but small career services typically run into certain challenges. When I first launched Careers That Work For You, I partnered with almost anyone who approached me. Now, I am very cautious about working with friends and family, because the last thing I want to do is destroy a solid, pre-existing relationship. This is one of the reasons my husband and I have a no career coaching rule in our marriage! I’m too close to him to be objective. Fellow CPC mastermind, Adrienne…