Month: November 2018
Build in Canada Innovation Program (BCIP) – 55% success rate in testing innovation
Government of Canada committed to supporting innovation in Canada’s business sector by launching the Canadian Innovation Commercialization Program (CICP) as a pilot program. Budget 2012 committed to make the pilot program permanent and add a military procurement component. The permanent program is known as the Build in Canada Innovation Program (BCIP).
Build in Canada Innovation Program (BCIP) helps companies bridge the pre-commercialization gap by procuring and testing late stage innovative goods and services within the federal government before taking them to market by:
- Awarding contracts to entrepreneurs with pre-commercial innovations through an open, transparent, competitive and fair procurement process.
- Testing and providing feedback to these entrepreneurs on the performance of their goods or services.
- Providing innovators with the opportunity to enter the marketplace with a successful application of their new goods and services.
- Providing information on how to do business with the Government of Canada.
The BCIP targets innovations in the following priority areas:
Standard Component
Environment
Safety and security
Health
Enabling technologies
Military Component
Command & Support
Cyber-Security
Protecting the Soldier
Arctic and Maritime Security
In-Service Support
Training Systems
The BCIP is managed by Public Works and Government Services Canada (PWGSC), and implemented by the Office of Small and Medium Enterprises (OSME). OSME advocates on behalf of small and medium enterprises in federal procurement. The government also organizes and/or participates in regional events and trade shows (see Event Calendar) so that Canadian businesses can showcase their innovative concepts to federal representatives.
Five Call for Proposals were published, the first was on 2010-10-05 and closed on 2010-11-16; and the fifth was published on 2014-06-19 and closed on 2014-09-17.
Out of these process over fife years the following reported 55% innovations has been tested. as of the reported information of August 11, 2015.
the details is as follows:
120 Project Awarded
87 Technologies available for testing
17 bid expired
6 has been withdrawn
for the list of the projects visit this page on buyandsell.gc.ca
if you like to discuss this post shout me an email. badawy@badawy.ca
Originally posted 2018-03-02 06:33:00.
Is Entrepreneurship For You?
Starting your own business can be an exciting and rewarding experience. It can offer numerous advantages such as being your own boss, setting your own schedule and making a living doing something you enjoy. But, becoming a successful entrepreneur requires thorough planning, creativity and hard work.
Consider whether you have the following characteristics and skills commonly associated with successful entrepreneurs:
- Comfortable with taking risks: Being your own boss also means you’re the one making tough decisions. Entrepreneurship involves uncertainty. Do you avoid uncertainty in life at all costs? If yes, then entrepreneurship may not be the best fit for you. Do you enjoy the thrill of taking calculated risks? Then read on.
- Independent: Entrepreneurs have to make a lot of decisions on their own. If you find you can trust your instincts — and you’re not afraid of rejection every now and then — you could be on your way to being an entrepreneur.
- Persuasive: You may have the greatest idea in the world, but if you cannot persuade customers, employees and potential lenders or partners, you may find entrepreneurship to be challenging. If you enjoy public speaking, engage new people with ease and find you make compelling arguments grounded in facts, it’s likely you’re poised to make your idea succeed.
- Able to negotiate: As a small business owner, you will need to negotiate everything from leases to contract terms to rates. Polished negotiation skills will help you save money and keep your business running smoothly.
- Creative: Are you able to think of new ideas? Can you imagine new ways to solve problems? Entrepreneurs must be able to think creatively. If you have insights on how to take advantage of new opportunities, entrepreneurship may be a good fit.
- Supported by others: Before you start a business, it’s important to have a strong support system in place. You’ll be forced to make many important decisions, especially in the first months of opening your business. If you do not have a support network of people to help you, consider finding a business mentor. A business mentor is someone who is experienced, successful and willing to provide advice and guidance. Read the Steps to Finding a Mentor article for help on finding and working with a mentor.
Still think you have what it takes to be an entrepreneur and start a new business? Great! Now ask yourself these 20 questions to help ensure you’ve thought about the right financial and business details.
Originally posted 2018-03-01 11:50:00.
How to Make Your Business Plan Stand Out ?
One of the first steps to business planning is determining your target market and why they would want to buy from you.
For example, is the market you serve the best one for your product or service? Are the benefits of dealing with your business clear and are they aligned with customer needs? If you’re unsure about the answers to any of these questions, take a step back and revisit the foundation of your business plan.
The following tips can help you clarify what your business has to offer, identify the right target market for it and build a niche for yourself.
Be Clear About What You Have to Offer
Ask yourself: Beyond basic products or services, what are you really selling? Consider this example: Your town probably has several restaurants all selling one fundamental product—food. But each is targeted at a different need or clientele.
One might be a drive-thru fast food restaurant, perhaps another sells pizza in a rustic Italian kitchen, and maybe there’s a fine dining seafood restaurant that specializes in wood-grilled fare. All these restaurants sell meals, but they sell them to targeted clientele looking for the unique qualities each has to offer. What they are really selling is a combination of product, value, ambience and brand experience.
When starting a business, be sure to understand what makes your business unique. What needs does your product or service fulfill? What benefits and differentiators will help your business stand out from the crowd?
Don’t Become a Jack of All Trades-Learn to Strategize
It’s important to clearly define what you’re selling. You do not want to become a jack-of-all trades and master of none because this can have a negative impact on business growth. As a smaller business, it’s often a better strategy to divide your products or services into manageable market niches. Small operations can then offer specialized goods and services that are attractive to a specific group of prospective buyers.
Identify Your Niche
Creating a niche for your business is essential to success. Often, business owners can identify a niche based on their own market knowledge, but it can also be helpful to conduct a market survey with potential customers to uncover untapped needs. During your research process, identify the following:
Which areas your competitors are already well-established
Which areas are being ignored by your competitors
Potential opportunities for your business
Originally posted 2018-02-28 20:37:00.
Why Mediate or Arbitrate?
The Price of anything is the amount of life you pay for it. – Henry David Thoreau
Why Mediate or Arbitrate?: Participants in mediation or arbitration voluntarily submit to these processes. People who arbitrate or mediate realize that conflict has its costs. Costs include:
Financial Price
o Attorney Fees
o Lost Productivity
o Time Lost
Physical Price
o Stress-related Illness
o Accidents
o Lack of Sleep
Intellectual Price
o Adversarial Assumptions
o Mistakes
o Failures
Emotional Price
o Anger
o Distrust
o Fear
o Grief
o Pain
Social Price
o Broken Relationships
o Distracted from Meaningful, Desired Relationships
o Risk of Escalation
o Loss of Family
Spiritual/Heart Price
o Surrendering to Bad Character
o Imbalance
o Values Warped
o Loss of Joy, Love and Hope
Systemic Price
o Dysfunction
o False Polarization
o Lost Opportunities
You have better things to do. Through mediation and arbitration, you can control and reduce the costs of conflict. Parties to mediation and arbitration can control the time it takes to resolve a dispute.
Consider the alternative. Litigation can be forced on a person. If you are sued you have to respond or you will suffer an adverse judgment. Attorneys must be hired. Litigation is an adversarial process in which each party attempts to out maneuver and gain the upper hand. Conflict, with is costs, escalates. The court imposes its deadlines. The parties have little control of the costs, timeline or outcome. In the end, the Court imposes an outcome which might not meet the needs or desires of either party. In litigation the parties lose control. In mediation the parties retain control over the outcome.
When litigation is threatened or even after it has started, you can always suggest the alternatives of mediation or arbitration or a court appointed referee.
What is Mediation? Mediation is facilitated negotiation. Mediation seeks a mutually beneficial solution. Parties discuss their values and motivations. Solutions evolve as parties understand each other, gain knowledge and explore resources. A trained mediator facilitates the meetings. The mediator remains neutral and does not make decisions for the parties. The dispute is settled only if parties are in agreement.
Is Mediation Effective? Studies of mediation of domestic disputes show 95% of participants did not believe mediation would work before they began. Yet 71% reached agreement on some, if not all, the issues they faced. Doubt is normal and does not predict the outcome of mediation. Divorced couples who had a judge decide the outcome of their divorce are 7-8 times more likely to bring future disputes to the court than those who mediated.
Is Mediation for Everyone? If a person is afraid to be in the same room as the other party or does not feel able to speak up or disagree with them, mediation might not be appropriate. Such concerns should be shared with the party’s attorney and mediator before mediation sessions.
What Happens During Mediation? Generally the mediator opens the session with an introduction. Rules for the discussion are established. Issues are identified. The parties may be invited to state what they want and why. Discussions follow. The mediator summarizes agreements reached.
Types of Mediation: The extent to which the mediator directs the outcome of mediation varies from mediator to mediator. On one end of the continuum are mediators who refuse to interject their opinions into the process. On the other extreme a mediator might evaluate the evidence and arguments of the parties and recommend a specific outcome. In some mediation sessions the parties stay in constant contact with each other. In other mediations, the mediator uses a process called caucuses. A caucus is a meeting with the mediator and just one side to the dispute. The mediator may shuffle between separate rooms where the parties are and communicate information, listen, ask questions and discuss the arguments and evidence presented by the other side. The type of mediation used depends upon the mediator, the issues to be decided, and the desires of the parties.
What is Arbitration? Arbitration has been described as “rent a judge.” A neutral person is hired who reviews evidence and renders a decision. Under Iowa law, an arbitrator’s decision can become a decision of a court and is enforced is a similar fashion. Subpoenas are available to compel witnesses and evidence to be brought to the arbitrator for decision.
What are the Advantages of Arbitration? Some of the benefits of Arbitration include:
a) The parties can agree to control the costs and time necessary to resolve a dispute;
b) Arbitrators are legally trained to make judicial decisions based upon law and evidence. The risks of a biased or an emotionally driven decision is less when compared to juries.
c) An Arbitrator can also be asked to investigate and collect the evidence. The costs and time necessary for a dispute is greatly reduced. See the article on Investigative Binding Arbitration.
d) Arbitrators with special technical expertise can be hired to reduce the risk of error.
e) A case can be handled piecemeal. For example, in an auto accident case the arbitrator can first determine if the defendants are responsible to pay any damages. Only if a defendant is responsible will there be need to incur the cost of presenting additional evidence about damages.
f) The parties can agree to a less formal process and allow evidence to be presented by summaries, reports, or other convenient means.
Referees can play an important role high conflict divorces. Since parties share parenting responsibilities even after the divorce, the potential for ongoing bitter disputes and new disputes is great. In high conflict divorces, the parties find it impossible to resolve minor disputes. The cost and delay of going to court results in escalation of conflict as the parties battle against each other for control and influence over the children. The children suffer in the midst of parental conflict. The court can give a referee authority to hear, investigate and decide such disputes. Decisions can be made in days rather than 7 to 12 months it normally takes in litigation.
In summary, to avoid investing an undue amount of your life in conflict, try mediation, arbitration and special masters.
Originally posted 2018-02-27 20:48:00.
How to Test Niche Markets
Looking to start making money from a new blog or website? Often the best way to do this is to create a product or to sell an affiliate product – and often the most popular type of product for marketers is a digital product.
Digital products include eBooks, online courses, reports and other files and software. The great thing about these is that they have no overheads, no delivery and no storage costs; all of which means you can start making money and keeping the profit as soon as you have an audience. There’s no manufacturing to consider and you won’t need to hire a warehouse.
But while this might sound like a license to print money, it’s important to consider the amount of work involved in creating a website or blog and building a big audience for it. The very real danger here to consider is that you could spend years creating a website and building it up, only to then find that you can’t make any money from it anyway!
The brilliance behind this is that it lets you start testing your niche right away, before you’ve invested lots of time creating your own niche or building up your audience. This is what you call ‘verifying’ your business model, before you spend time and money creating it.
How to Get Started
To get started, you can find things to sell and sell them however you wish. What you’re then going to do is set up a landing page and try running Facebook ad campaigns to direct some relevant traffic there.
A good eBook should only set you back a few hundred dollars at most and you will be able to recoup this over time. Why not create a few landing pages with a few different products to test which markets are ‘hot’ before you spend lots of time and money creating your own audience?
For more information sign to Win Your Brand mailing list
Originally posted 2018-02-27 15:42:00.
The Top Types of Website/Blog You Hadn’t Considered Creating
If you’re planning on creating a website or a blog, then there’s a good chance you’re considering one of the major niches like ‘fitness’, ‘making money’ or ‘dating’.
The only problem is, these ‘big’ types of blogs are very overcrowded and if you create a new site in that niche you’re going to be going up against a lot of already established competition.
So the question is: how do you stand out with something completely new? And what other types of blog are there that you hadn’t considered?
Instead of going with a very generic and very derivative topic, why not try making something entirely new so that you will be more memorable for your visitors and so that you’ll be able to monetize in more creative ways? Read on and we’ll take a look at some of the top types of website and blog that you perhaps hadn’t already considered…
Fan Sites
Creating a fan site is a great strategy for a number of reasons. For starters, there doesn’t tend to be that much competition – particularly when compared with the bigger niches. At the same time, creating a fan site means you’ll be creating content for a highly committed and passionate audience that likely has a strong community. Head over to the ‘Doctor Who’ Google+ pages and you will see there are people there ready to eat up new content.
Career Content
Don’t have a hobby or interest? You probably at least have a job and probably that job is something that many other people share. There’s all kinds of information you can create in this field!
Education
You can create a lot of novel type of content in the education niche. This can range from teaching other adults a new topic as you learn it, to providing research materials for students. Or why not go one step further and create a website for children? Do bear in mind though, that this will mean selling to the parents rather than the children themselves.
Entertainment
Not every website has to be serious! While it’s harder in some respects, you can potentially be very successful with a website that’s funny or that publishes fiction. Just look at things like XKCD!
Broad Niches
A niche can also be broad enough to encompass multiple other niches. Think of magazines like ‘Men’s Health’ or ‘Wired’. These focus on a lifestyle rather than a strict niche and cover lots of topics together as a result.
For more information sign to Win Your Brand mailing list
Originally posted 2018-02-27 11:57:00.
How to Brief a Case Using the “IRAC” Method
When briefing a case, your goal is to reduce the information from the case into a format that will provide you with a helpful reference for review. Most importantly, by “briefing” a case, you will grasp the problem the court faced (the issue); the relevant law the court used to solve it (the rule); how the court applied the rule to the facts (the application or “analysis”); and the outcome (the conclusion). You will then be ready to not only discuss the case, but to compare and contrast it to other cases involving a similar issue.
Before attempting to “brief” a case, read the case at least once. Follow the “IRAC” method in briefing cases:
Facts*
Write a brief summary of the facts as the court found them to be. Eliminate facts that are not relevant to the court’s analysis. For example, a business’s street address is probably not relevant to the court’s decision of the issue of whether the business that sold a defective product is liable for the resulting injuries to the plaintiff. However, suppose a customer who was assaulted as she left its store is suing the business. The customer claims that her injuries were the reasonably foreseeable result of the business’s failure to provide security patrols. If the business is located in an upscale neighborhood, then perhaps it could argue that its failure to provide security patrols is reasonable. If the business is located in a crime-ridden area, then perhaps the customer is right. Instead of including the street address in the case brief, you may want to simply describe the type of neighborhood in which it is located. (Note: the time of day would be another relevant factor in this case, among others).
Procedural History*
What court authored the opinion: The United States Supreme Court? The California Court of Appeal? The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals? (Hint: Check under the title of the case: The Court and year of the decision will be given). If a trial court issued the decision, is it based on a trial, or motion for summary judgment, etc.? If an appellate court issued the decision, how did the lower courts decide the case?
Issue
What is the question presented to the court? Usually, only one issue will be discussed, but sometimes there will be more. What are the parties fighting about, and what are they asking the court to decide? For example, in the case of the assaulted customer, the issue for a trial court to decide might be whether the business had a duty to the customer to provide security patrols. The answer to the question will help to ultimately determine
* This applies to case briefs only, and not exams. Use the IRAC method in answering exams: Issue/Rule/Analysis/Conclusion.
whether the business is liable for negligently failing to provide security patrols: whether the defendant owed plaintiff a duty of care, and what that duty of care is, are key issues in negligence claims.
Rule(s):
Determine what the relevant rules of law are that the court uses to make its decision. These rules will be identified and discussed by the court. For example, in the case of the assaulted customer, the relevant rule of law is that a property owner’s duty to prevent harm to invitees is determined by balancing the foreseeability of the harm against the burden of preventive measures. There may be more than one relevant rule of law to a case: for example, in a negligence case in which the defendant argues that the plaintiff assumed the risk of harm, the relevant rules of law could be the elements of negligence, and the definition of “assumption of risk” as a defense. Don’t just simply list the cause of action, such as “negligence” as a rule of law: What rule must the court apply to the facts to determine the outcome?
Application/Analysis:
This may be the most important portion of the brief. The court will have examined the facts in light of the rule, and probably considered all “sides” and arguments presented to it. How courts apply the rule to the facts and analyze the case must be understood in order to properly predict outcomes in future cases involving the same issue. What does the court consider to be a relevant fact given the rule of law? How does the court interpret the rule: for example, does the court consider monetary costs of providing security patrols in weighing the burden of preventive measures? Does the court imply that if a business is in a dangerous area, then it should be willing to bear a higher cost for security? Resist the temptation to merely repeat what the court said in analyzing the facts: what does it mean to you? Summarize the court’s rationale in your own words. If you encounter a word that you do not know, use a dictionary to find its meaning.
Conclusion
What was the final outcome of the case? In one or two sentences, state the court’s ultimate finding. For example, the business did not owe the assaulted customer a duty to provide security patrols.
Originally posted 2018-02-26 18:16:00.
Learn to Master Your Niche Research Skills
If you want to succeed in any given niche, then you need to offer something different that the competition isn’t already offering. This is how you stand out as different and memorable and this is how you make links ‘clickable’ and sharable.
But coming up with new content is hard. Especially in a crowded niche where there are thousands of new articles published every day!
Moreover, you’re going to have to do your research if you want to appear accurate, reliable and trustworthy too. So how do you go about mastering your research skills so that you can really stand out? You read on, that’s how!
Your Inspiration
The more information you take in, the more inspiration you put out. Without meaning to get too philosophical here, most psychologists now agree that there’s no such thing as a truly ‘original’ idea. Instead, our ideas are created when we combine different ideas we already had.
So the more information you are taking in on a regular basis, the more bits of data you will have available to recombine into something brand new.
And this shouldn’t just mean reading on the topics that you’re writing about either. Reading on different topics is also important as this way you can bring related knowledge in from other fields or combine subjects in order to come up with something completely new.
What’s more, reading other blogs and websites can give you ideas for structuring articles or spinning them that you can apply to your own work in new ways. Like that article on how to dress like a bodybuilder? How about taking it and applying it to your own niche for an article on ‘how to dress like an entrepreneur’?
Great places to get ideas and material then include:
- Websites
- Blogs
- Magazines
- Books
- TV
Subscribe to some RSS feeds and keep reading!
Looking for News
It’s also important to try and stay up-to-date by following the latest news and developments. This sometimes means going straight to the source, which can mean reading journal studies (look for them on Google Scholar) or looking at press releases (you can find sites that collect and publish these).
Taking it Further
The truly unique and interesting stuff though comes when you start going deeper and really researching into your topic. Often this begins with asking the right questions. When you next read an article telling you about a new discovery for instance, ask why that’s true. Why does that new workout routine work so well? And what if you were to turn it up a notch or introduce a new element?
For more information sign to Win Your Brand mailing list
Originally posted 2018-02-26 09:51:00.
The Biggest Impacts of Choosing a Niche
When you pick the niche for your new site, you are actually picking much more than just a niche. This decision isn’t just going to affect what you’re writing about for the lifetime of your new business – it’s also going to impact very nature of your business model and the very fabric of your website…
It can’t be overstated just how important this is for the eventual success of your blog as a whole. So to demonstrate just what a profound impact this one decision will make, read on to see some of the top areas affected by your choice…
The Look
When you choose a niche, this will almost certainly impact the design of your logo. In turn, this is likely to spill over into the look of your site if you want to strengthen your brand identity. As a result, your web design will be heavily influenced by your choice of subject matter – which is why football sites tend to be green and technology sites tend to be white/blue/silver.
The Tone
The niche you choose is also going to dictate the tone of your site and the ‘voice’ you use. A website on lifestyle for instance might have a colloquial and ‘fun’ tone of voice, as though you are speaking directly to your audience. On the other hand though, a website on finance or on medicine is going to sound a lot more professional with far more terminology.
Your Audience
This is one of the biggest ways your niche will influence your business model: once you choose your topic, you will also have decided on the type of person who is likely to read your content. In turn, this will influence the types of interactions you have on your site, the amount of loyalty your audience displays and even their disposable income.
Monetization Options
The way you monetize your website will depend on which products and adverts are available. If you’re in the ‘make money’ niche for instance, you’ll find there are tons of eBooks and courses being sold on the topic and that people are willing to spend a lot of money here, viewing it as an investment.
But on the other hand, if you’re writing about your favourite TV show, there won’t be many things you can sell without facing copyright issues – which means you’ll likely make most of your money through Amazon sales.
Originally posted 2018-02-26 08:02:00.
How to Use Pen Names to Penetrate Multiple Niches
Choosing a niche is one of the most important things you have to do when you first set out to create a blog. A niche doesn’t just impact on what you’ll be writing: it impacts your target demographic (your audience), your web design, your earning potential, the types of products and adverts you can earn from and much more.
If you get your niche right from the start, you’ll find you can quickly rise to prominence as one of the top bloggers and start earning a lot of stable income. Get it wrong and you might find that you struggle to get noticed, or that there’s no money to be made even when you start making progress.
So instead of stressing about it and letting this decision stall your progress… why not just enter multiple niches right from the start?
The Benefits of Entering More Than One Niche
There are plenty of very good reasons to try entering more than one niche and this is something that can help any blogger.
For starters, being in more than one niche is fun. It means you aren’t constantly writing content on the same topic and you won’t find you get bored of your ‘day job’ too quickly.
What’s more, being in multiple niches at once gives you resilience. In business terms, ‘resilience’ basically means that your business model is stable enough that a single thing going wrong won’t be devastating for your company. In other words, if you’re in more than one niche, it doesn’t matter if one of your websites – or even one of those industries – stops being profitable.
And on top of all this, with multiple niches you will have multiple different audiences and multiple different opportunities to start making money online.
Using a Pen Name
So how do you enter into these different niches?
One thing that can help is having more than one pen name to use on the web. Why? Because that way, your efforts in one area won’t negatively impact your efforts in another.
Having multiple blogs all on different subjects and using the same name could look as though you’re a ‘Jack of All Trades’ and expert at none. It could appear as though you’re just interested in making money rather than having a real passion for what you’re writing about. Finally, it prevents you from referencing or linking to your other blogs without it appearing biased.
So come up with a few names and enjoy writing on multiple subjects simultaneously!
For more information sign to Win Your Brand mailing list
Originally posted 2018-02-26 04:43:00.