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| Practice Trends |What Are You Going to Do To Win?20Interestingly, women entrepreneurs make up a significantsegment of small business owners. This is particularly evident inthe optical business where the data show that women arebecoming the most dominant part of the workforce. In Canadawomen own and operate 35 per cent of small businesses.New immigrants are often risk takers. It makes sense, whenyou think about it. People who immigrate to Canada areembarking on a huge adventure. Often language and professionalqualification equivalency are a challenge. Family support has beenleft behind either by choice or by necessity. But, according toCanadian Newcomer Magazine, 16 per cent of immigrants(approximately 40,000) employ themselves.But sadly, 23-25 per cent of Canadian small businesses failin their first year, a further 22 per cent fail in their second yearand at the end of five years, less than one third of new businessessurvive (Key Small Business Statistics: Stats Canada).Statistics are interesting but why so many new small businessesfail is the more important issue. Another Stats Canada surveyfound that management deficiency, financial management andpoor marketing strategies were a common thread. Underestimatingthe amount of start-up capital required is another pitfall.But failure is not necessarily the future of independentbusiness. The title of this essay is a sub-title taken from thespecial workshop for business owners and aspiring entrepreneursthat will be given at Vision Canada 2007 in Kelowna on October12th. The actual title of the workshop to be facilitated by GradyLenski is “Navigating Uncharted Waters – Developing a BusinessStrategy.”VISION | jul_aug | 2007This half-day workshop is sponsored by OAC CorporateFellow, Transitions Inc. Grady Lenski is senior director fornational retail, sales, marketing and customer service. He holdsa bachelors degree in chemistry from the Illinois State Universityand an MBA from Arizona State. Grady first worked for Transitionsas director of the Asia-Pacific region and returned to Transitions’North American office in 1999. Since 2004 he has providedcohesive marketing, strategic planning, technical andoperations support to the integrated sales organization.In keeping with the Transitions philosophy of providingenabling marketing and sales tools to the profession, Gradywill take registrants on an interactive journey from learningwhat elements go into developing a successful business strategyto helping them discover their niche in the marketplace,to working with a limited budget and – most important –building into the business strategy the key milestones thatwill allow measurement of success.Whether your goal is increased sales, organizing yourbusiness more efficiently so you can spend more time withyour family, targeting a new demographic or starting your ownchain of stores, measurement of success needs to be built intothe strategy. Is your aim to increase sales by a specificpercentage? Are you going to focus more on increasing your“second pair” sale? Maybe you’d like to retire in five years andwant to groom someone within your organization to take overfrom you.Deciding on the measurement of success is a verypersonal exercise but the work you put into your strategy atthe beginning will set the stage for realizing your ambition. It’seasy to fall into the trap of saying; “I will be successful if Iachieve my goal.” But how do you decide if your goal isrealistic? What if circumstances beyond your control throw yourstrategy off course?The five steps of learning are:• Exposing your lack of knowledge – “There are things Idon’t know.”• Acknowledging what knowledge you lack – “I didn’trealize I needed to do that.”• Learning.• Following instructions to apply your newfound knowledge– “I checked off each step as I performed thetask.”• Applying what you learned automatically because it’sintegrated into your thinking – “I am confident enoughto apply this knowledge without needing to refer to mycheck list.”Goal-setting sounds easy enough but try this exercise. Fillin the following statement, “I will (state your goal + the measurementof performance) by (state how you will achieve thisgoal).” Don’t be easy on yourself. It’s not good enough to say,“I will increase my business by the end of the year.” Or, “I willlose weight in time for my sister’s wedding.” Quantify howmuch you are going to increase your business (will you useyour gross figures or your net figures?) and state how you planto do it (by adding a new service? By revising your price list?By pursuing contract work?).A workshop is an excellent environment for going throughthis process. Joining other registrants with a targeted interestin the theme enhances the experience. The setting is intimateand interactive and needs to be because the learning processis often a humbling experience. There is a limited subscriptionto this workshop and first refusal will be given to thosewho are currently owners of businesses or who have aninterest in starting a business.Sign up now by going to the Vision Canada website atwww.vision-canada.ca.ISI