4 Networking Groups You HAVE to Join

Are you interested in networking but not sure what groups or events to go to?

I’ve been getting a lot of questions lately about networking events, and what are the best groups to join.  As you may recall, I mentioned networking in my blog about the 5 Ways to Recession-Proof Your Business.

Networking is a great, cheap way to meet potential clients and make important business contacts.  But what networking events or groups are worth your time?

Every business is different, and each industry has their key groups that you should join.  But assuming you’ve already done that, networking outside of your industry will allow you to expand your reach and meet new people.

Here are my “one size fits all” recommendations for networking in the Toronto area.  These networking groups are good for almost anyone, and can act as a means to help you get comfortable with the idea of getting out there and pressing the flesh.

1.    Vaughn Chamber of Commerce:   The City of Vaughn is growing fast, and some of the most exciting new businesses are coming out of there right now.  They are a great chamber to join, offer great incentives and benefits to become a member, and throw great networking events.  To learn more about becoming a member, click here.

2.    BNI Canada: One of the classic networking groups in the world, BNI has a Canadian division that is broken up into local chapters.  Their unique networking sessions focus on referral marketing and encourage members to refer business to each other, and no chapter can have two people marketing the same business.

3.    JCI Canada: The Junior Chamber International has a Canadian division that is just great.  The JCI specializes in young entrepreneurs and is an amazing place to meet young professionals.  I recently attended an event and was absolutely blown away by the energy and ideas that the group had.  If you are between 18-40, you should definitely be checking this chamber out.  Click here to learn more.

4.    The Italian Chamber of Commerce Toronto (ICCT): Quite frankly, the ICCT is the best chamber in Toronto for my money (and I’m not just saying that because they are a client of ours!).  They have a tremendously supportive staff, throw amazing networking events, have a wide variety of members, and offer great advertising opportunities.  Best of all, they coordinate their efforts with every other Italian chamber in the world, so if you need help expanding a business internationally they are ideally suited to help you.  Click here to learn more about joining.

Visit and attend some functions of all of these chambers before you decide to join any.  All great networking places allow you to audit a few events before you become a member.

Membership fees are very affordable, and they offer you a chance to interact with other members and receive great member benefits that often result in savings of thousands of dollars for many businesses.


Yusuf Gad
President, a5MEDIA inc
http://www.a5media.ca

a5MEDIA Stimulus Plan for Small Business

Small business represents 85% of the market place.  And it’s vulnerable to the economic uncertainty ahead.

Now, more than ever, small businesses need help to secure their sales and grow their business.

While governments on both sides of the border are doing their best to stimulate the economy, none have really put forward a plan of action for small business that goes beyond token tax cuts.

Well, a5MEDIA has other ideas.  And we’d like to share them with you.

Introducing a5MEDIA’s Stimulus Plan.  A balanced, demand based strategy to help businesses attract clients, minimize government intervention, and help usher in a renaissance of entrepreneurship.

As any good entrepreneur will tell you, 90% of sales is convincing people to spend money.  And this is done through developing a strong brand and a strong marketing campaign.  For small businesses, this is now VITAL to do, but with a shrinking economy, most are unable to afford it.

a5MEDIA is proposing that governments offer a series of tax credits for the next 12 months for all businesses who invest in developing a stronger brand, understanding their market better, and marketing and attracting new clients and customers.

Doing so will not only result in a more robust small business segment in the long run, but will help some businesses grow at a faster rate that they wouldn’t have before.


The Details of the Plan:

a5MEDIA recommends that governments on all levels join forces to help businesses invest in themselves.

Tax credits for the following:  (For every one dollar spent on the following, the government will count it towards your next tax year.)

1.    Market Research – 100% tax credit: any exercise that helps businesses understand their clients and market better will result in stronger businesses with better products and services.  Encouraging businesses to do this will help them create a strong and focused plan of action and will help reduce the chance of costly mistakes that lead to failure.
2.    Branding – 100% tax credit: businesses need to be able to stand out to survive.  Having a unique brand and a unique offering is central to this.  Investing in a branding exercise results in stronger companies, more disciplined management, and happier customers.
3.    New Website -100% tax credit: too many businesses don’t have a website.  Having one is CRUCIAL to our national competitiveness on the net, and is desperately needed to help businesses to attract new clients.  Empowering businesses to get a new website will do more to jump start an economy that any tax cut that government can come up with.
4.    Upgrade of an Existing Website- 50% tax credit: many businesses have a website but need to upgrade it to feature new products and services, or integrate new technologies.  A tax credit will allow these businesses to post more relevant information, feature new events, and attract new clients.
5.    Ecommerce – 100% tax credit: a disturbing number of businesses don’t have an ecommerce system set up.  This is preventing entire revenue streams from entering their business, hampering growth, and preventing government from collecting tax revenue from a major source of spending.  Making it easier for companies to do online business is a win-win for government and business.
6.    Advertising – 100% tax credit: perhaps the easiest way to attract customers is through advertising.  Offering a tax credit on advertising is not just good for small business, but good for the entire system as well.  Newspapers, radio stations, networks are all being hammered because of a drop in advertising revenue.  By encouraging businesses to advertise by way of a tax credit, we will not just be helping small business, but also the media networks from collapsing.
7.    Direct Mail – 90% price cut, 100% tax credit.  One of the main reasons why so many businesses can’t take advantage of the most successful marketing tool available is cost.  By asking the post office to slash direct mail prices by 90%, more businesses will be able to reach out to more customers.  As an added bonus: most non profits live and die based on their direct mail campaigns.  By making it more affordable for them during this economic downturn, we are increasing the chances of them attracting new and desperately needed donors.

The benefits from such a stimulus plan would be significant:

1.    We will be empowering small business owners to grow their own businesses
2.    We will be creating a  stronger small business sector
3.    Will be encouraging grass roots, local purchases and trade
4.    We will be investing in 85% of our market place and ensuring the economic diversity of the nation
5.    We will be protecting the jobs of a far greater amount of people than the auto industry
6.    Tax credits can be phased out after 12 months, so there are no long term costs for tax payers to absorb

a5MEDIA knows how important it is for businesses to be proactive in their own survival.  This plan will not only protect tax payers, but will lay down the foundation for future business growth, and help create a stronger small business economy for years to come.

Yusuf Gad
President, a5MEDIA inc.
http://www.a5media.ca

a5MEDIA's Small Business Stimulus Plan

If you're like me, you are probably sick to death of hearing of big banks and big companies getting billions of tax payer dollars, while small businesses get relatively nothing.

Small business represents 85% of the market place, and as such, I think we deserve a piece of the pie too.

With all of the emphasis on the big guys, no one seems to be looking out for the little guy.

Well a5MEDIA is going to change that.

Next week, we are going to announce our free marketing consultation service for small business. If you're a small business and you don't know how to grow, we'll help We'll sit down with you for an hour, go over your strategies, your materials, and then provide you with a plan of action report to help you understand the steps you need to take to grow.

If you want our help beyond that, we are here to serve. If not, you will have a solid road map that you can use to focus on over coming your business's weaknesses, playing up it's strengths, and getting the most out of your marketing bucks.

Stay tuned for more!


Yusuf Gad
President, a5MEDIA inc
http://www.a5media.ca

The Importance of Domain Emails To Marketing

I'm not going to lie.

I cannot believe that -9 years into the 21st century- I have to write this blog post. But it seems that many businesses just are not getting the message.

Domain email addresses are VITAL to your marketing success. Not all email addresses are the same.

There are two kinds. For the sake of this blog, we are going to call them Domain Email Addresses and Residential or Free Email Addresses.

Domain email addresses would be something like yourname@yourcompany.com.

A residential email address is -for the sake of this blog- everything else. Hotmail, GMail, Yahoo, Rogers, Sympatico, Interlog, AOL, of any free email service or any email service that comes from your Internet service provider.

Having a domain email address is not just important because it is the professional business thing to do. There are several KEY reasons why you need to start using a domain email address:

1) It is central to maintaining your brand when conducting any kind of online communications. When you use a residential email account, you are not pushing forward your brand (yourcompany.com), you are pushing your free email account's brand (Hotmail, Yahoo, etc).

2) At every turn, your clients must be reminded of who you are and what you do. This is no more easily done that having your company name as part of your email. And before you ask: NO. It doesn't count if you place your company name with a Hotmail account for example. (yourcompany@hotmail.com).

3) They tend to be more reliable in service than free email accounts.

4) They integrate easily with Blackberry and iPhone systems.

5) Many domain email accounts come with back up options to ensure that your correspondence is always preserved in case your computer crashes

6) Almost all domain email accounts allow you to either download your emails to your local computer via a mail reader like Outlook, or they allow you to access your mail via a web portal. This means that you can access to your emails from anywhere.

7) Almost all web hosting providers offer email services. So if you have a website, odds are you can have a domain email as well. Setting one up is easy, and your hosting provider will be more than happy to assist you.


Many people choose to use a residential or free email service because it comes as part of their home Internet package or because they think it is easier to use.

The problem is that using it makes you look cheap, and unsophisticated -something you don't want to be seen as in the business world.

But other than the pure optics of the situation, there are really important NOT to use a residential or free email services:

1) They don't come with any kind of guarantee of "up time". This means if your email server crashes, your free email provider has no obligation to get it back up and running within any window of time. You can be out for hours or even WEEKS. Heck, Hotmail can shut down tomorrow with no warning and there is nothing you can do about it.

2) They tend to have very paranoid SPAM and virus settings that might toss important messages or messages with important attachments into your JUNK folder where you may not see it. In some cases, attachments will be deleted all together because of virus fears.

3) Many professional companies flag emails received from residential or free email accounts, so YOUR emails might be sent to the JUNK folders of your clients or potential clients.

4) With the rise of online scams, many businesses are no longer taking seriously correspondence coming from free email accounts.

5) Some clients might take issue with important and potentially confidential business correspondence taking place over a 'freebie' email account, as they are subject to constant hacker attempts. In fact, you might be subject to legal action as a result.

Domain email accounts are so important to your online business image. Getting one is easy, affordable, and fast. Believe me, you are going to lose more business by NOT getting one, than you will spend using one.


Yusuf Gad
President, a5MEDIA inc
http://www.a5media.ca

2009. The Year Marketing Changes Forever

I rarely look into my crystal ball, and even more rarely go public about my thoughts and predictions for the future. But in this case, I feel that I have to as no one is really talking about this in the media.

It goes without saying –and I mentioned it in our first post- that 2009 is going to be a bloodbath for business. I like to fancy myself as an arm chair economist, and –this time- I can see the writing on the walls: The stock market is only going to sink more, more American banks are going to tank, and more layoffs are going to happen.

We’ve all heard of the troubles of City Bank, Ford, Chrysler, GM, AIG, Freddie Mac, Fannie May. And those are just the really, really big ones. There are a host of other big companies that are on the ropes, waiting for the knockout punch.

In 2009, three streets are going to fail, and forever change: Wall Street, Main Street, and Madison Avenue.

We’re all familiar with the issues on Wall Street, and we all know how this is affecting things on Main Street. (You know. Where regular people live, losing their jobs, and are getting evicted from their homes.)

But if these two streets are seeing bloodshed, wait till you see the massacre on Madison Avenue.

Madison Avenue is where most of the big advertising companies reside. It’s also a euphemism for the entire marketing/advertising/PR industry.

If you know anything about this industry, you know that for all the hype surrounding the big firms, they are all basically the same. Almost all of them focus almost only on Fortune 500 companies, almost all of them have HUGE office buildings and carry a massive overhead, almost all of them get 80% of their wealth from 1 or 2 big customers, and almost all of them are on life support right now.

Right now, the marketing industry is seeing layoffs at a rate that hasn’t been seen in decades, and it hasn’t even got really bad yet. Many will collapse before the end of 2009. And the ones that survive will never be the same.

Why? Because the entire industry has fixated itself on the really big guys, when the really big guys go broke, the industry starves. Big corporations cannot pay their rent any longer, let alone an advertising and interactive marketing campaign.

However, there is an important silver lining to these dark clouds and –for once- it’s the little guy that will benefit.

Firstly is that there is going to be a FLOOD of talented designers, writers, PR people, and advertising specialists hitting the markets as they continue to be laid off. If you require an in house specialist for a short period of time, now is the time to look. There is some great talent out there looking for work.

Secondly, advertising rates are expected to drop this year sharply. Now is the time to go out there and push your business. Newspapers, television stations, and radio stations are desperate for ad revenue. If you are a good negotiator you will get yourself a great deal. Don’t believe me? Here’s a list of news papers that have gone or are almost bankrupt in 2009 alone!

Thirdly, with larger firms not advertising as much, mid-sized firms have a chance to increase mind share by being more aggressive in their marketing. While the confidence in large companies wanes, smaller firms can position themselves as a stable more reliable alternative.

Fourthly, if you are a fellow marketing firm of modest size, this is the year to get noticed. A lot of the larger firms will be no longer able to service their clients at reasonable rates. A small firm can clean up this year with a great strategy to get those clients.

From the very beginning, a5MEDIA structured itself to be the anti-agency. We deliberately focused on smaller businesses, and had a business model that demanded a variety of clients of all sizes. As of 2008, a5MEDIA has set itself up to not require a physical office to work from (lowering our overhead and reducing our costs to our clients), but also instituted an online collaboration system to allow us to work more effectively with clients no matter where they are in the world.

I’m not saying this (just) to toot our own horn. (Toot!) I’m mentioning this because this ‘market correction’ in the advertising world is going to affect the way a lot of businesses do their marketing.

Ultimately, Madison Avenue will come roaring back. But it won’t be this year or even next. But these two years will forever change the industry in my opinion. Firms are going to get more humble; they will rely more and more on out sourcing and freelancers, and will ultimately take on more medium sized clients to diversify their client base. (Sound familiar?)

In the meantime, it’s a golden opportunity for small business and small marketing firms. Don’t let this year pass you by without taking advantage of it!


Yusuf Gad
President, a5MEDIA
http://www.a5media.ca

Restaurant Marketing Tips – Part 2

Last time, we talked about the fundamentals of restaurant marketing. Today, I want to talk about the digital age has affected restaurant marketing, and what steps a restaurant or diner can take to help see their sales grow.

The Internet has revolutionized restaurant marketing like it has revolutionized everything else. But it is still concerning to see how many restaurants have not taken advantage of what the Internet has to offer in terms of great marketing solutions.

Too many restaurants still rely on word of mouth or pedestrian traffic for their sales. While this will always be the mainstay of their business, it is becoming increasingly more and more competitive to ensure consistent sales growth for individual eateries.

2009, with all of the financial issues we are facing, is going to be tough for most businesses. It will be ESPECIALLY difficult for restaurants. Now, more than ever, restaurants need to focus on long term strategies for consistent growth.

The Internet provides a perfect vehicle to do just that. So let's see what can be done on line to get more patrons at your eatery.

Get a Website: Why is it that more restaurants don't have a custom website is mind boggling. No matter what the upfront cost is, by not spending it you are jeopardizing much more in potentially lost sales. So get one. NOW! A good website will be custom done -from scratch- to convey to the visitor your restaurant's experience. It will be search engine friendly, have lots of pictures of your establishment, lots of pictures of your dishes (people eat with their eyes), your menus (both food and drink), prices, hours of operation, map of your location, and contact info (both phone and email). Don't forget to make sure that your location is listed on every page. This is a great way to ensure that you are found. Nowadays, people want to learn as much about a business before they drop their cash. A website is a great way of doing that.

Start Email Marketing: On your website, allow people the chance to sign up to your mailing list so you can easily send them email updates about specials, events, and promotions. And send these emails out regularly. At least once at week but no more that 3 times a week. When you give your customers their bill, give them a card they can fill out and provide their email information and let them know you want to stay in touch. Some great and affordable email marketing tools include 12ALL and PHPList. Email marketing is completely under utilized by restaurants, so make sure you take full advantage of it and be creative in your use. (More on this next).

REALLY Start Email Marketing: Now that you have a database of customers, and great email marketing software, keep in touch with your subscribers. And keep in touch creatively. Don't just let them know about this weeks specials, use email marketing to help you with your downtime. Use it as a means to kick up sales on a bad day. For example, anyone who owns a restaurant knows how a rainy day can kill sales. So instead of spending the day alone at your eatery, send out an email and offer a 'rainy day special'. Try and make an offer that will entice people to brave the weather and join you for a meal!

Be Wary of Restaurant Directories: In Toronto, restaurants are tempted to join MenuPalace or Dine.TO. While I have nothing against these businesses per se, they all merely glorified restaurant directories. Ultimately, they offer you little in ways of a tactical advantage. Most people will still use Google or Yahoo and do a search for the kind of restaurant they are hungry for. Many of these kinds of sites will offer to develop a website for you for cheap. I recommend against it. Many times, they use template based solutions, that make all of their websites look exactly the same. You're has to stand out. Worse yet, much of the time they do websites in Flash, that aren't search engine friendly. It is much better for you in the long run to invest in a well designed website that is search engine friendly.

Get on Facebook: Facebook groups are a great way to extend your brand. They allow you to reintroduce it to your friends, and allow your advertising to grow organically. Social networking is going to be the dominant marketing tool for the next 5 years, so get used to it. Get on Facebook, start a group, add lots of photos, and start inviting people. It's free, it's easy, it works, and -did I mention?- it's free.

Get on Twitter: Along with Email Marketing, Facebook, and a Website, Twitter is a great way to send out quick messages to your fans. Twitter is basically an on line paging system. Type a message, hit enter, and anyone that is following you on Twitter will get your message. This is a GREAT tool to use in conjunction with an email marketing initiative and ties in very well with Facebook.

Take Professional Photos: I've mentioned this already before, but it bares repeating. People eat with their eyes. The more delicious your food looks the more people will want to eat it. Make sure your photos are professionally done, so they look their most yummy. Once you have them, post them everywhere: your website, Facebook, Twitter, everywhere!

The Internet provides all the tools you need to get a great marketing campaign off the ground for your business quickly, and affordably. And you HAVE to start using it. Effective use of on line marketing techniques can be a Godsend for your restaurant.

Get to it!


Yusuf Gad
President, a5MEDIA inc.
http://www.a5media.ca