Moody's For Youth

Tatiana Read's Up...

2012-01-03T02:11:00.000-05:00

We had looked forward to reading the Knot PR article "How To Attend An Event Like A Workaholic". (We were genuinely hoping to learn something new.) Established in 2009 by technologically-savvy Founder/Director Tatiana Read, Knot PR firm succeeds in marketing communications for both luxury goods and services as well as for the entertainment world. Clients include the prestigious Cambridge Group Of Clubs (Adelaide Club, Toronto Athletic Club).

Not surprisingly, we read with great interest the article that was written by Read's Director Amy Burstyn Fritz who is also Vice Chair of the Canadian Opera Company's Operanation, a Toronto event highlight we regularly recommend. As the article begins, we learn that having prepared-in-advance clothing, makeup, purse, spare tights and Moleskine are "how to attend an event like a workaholic"... Sorry, but we're now confused. We thought the article would have (1) some time-saving tips and/or (2) some sort of social skills. We were genuinely surprised to read that the author's "preferred good-bye" is a French Leave, something where a person exits an event without saying good-bye to anyone except the person they've just been speaking with(!).

We decided to focus on the firm's Founder Tatiana Read, a refreshingly kind individual who we enjoyed working with via the ET Canada Lounge at the Toronto International Film Festival. Long energized by knowledge management, Long energized by knowledge management, Ms Read founded Knot PR in order to help businesses grow. Passionate about art, French, and travelling, she also volunteers for charities such as Paws For The Cause and indulges in head-to-toe spa sessions at the aforementioned Adelaide Club. (See below.)

Business: Bookstore Owner, Ishwori Sapkota of Kathmandu...

2011-12-19T22:16:00.000-05:00

Selling and buying books for almost two decades,

Ishwori Sapkota Of Kathmandu, Nepal, arranges stacks in her bookstore.

Photo by Navesh Chitrakar of Kathmandu, Nepal

Sole Proprietor

Would you like to open your own bookstore? According to FabJob, as a bookstore owner, you'll get paid to read and recommend new and exciting books, you'll have the freedom to make your own decisions and express your own creative spirit, and you'll have the luxury of selling the type of books you want to sell. You can sell all new books, all used books, a combination of both, or strictly rare and collectible books. You could have a bookstore that sells a variety of categories or one that specializes solely in a niche ("neesh") such as science fiction, children's or art books.

Community Hub
Many booksellers make a significant impact on the city or town where they live, You can enjoy an excellent reputation as an important part of your local business community. Your bookstore can be a venue for exciting events such as book readings and signings with famous authors. It can be a social, intellectual and hip community place where people gather, get to know each other and talk. Just think, your store could become a town institution, a must-see for tourists.

FabJob Checklist:

Decide what kind of bookstore to open (new, used, specialty, etc.)
Create a business plan for your bookstore
Research where to get start-up financing
Research what to consider when choosing a location, including information about permits and leases
Consider Store Purchase Options:

A bookstore franchise
An existing bookstore (found in listings of bookstores for sale)
A new bookstore

Investigate interior design of your bookstore with tips on signage, reading areas, displays, etc.
What equipment and supplies will you need (e.g. book shelves, shopping bags, cash registers, etc.) and where are they found?
Where do you obtain inventory such as remainder books or used books or sidelines (gift items, greeting cards, bookmarks, coffee mugs, candy, etc.)?

From Publishers?
From book wholesalers?

How do you choose a name?
How would you set up a café in your bookstore?

Manage Your Bookstore

Develop effective daily systems for running your business
Find and hire great bookstore employees
Find appropriate inventory management computer software
Create a website to sell books locally and internationally
Organize books in your bookstore
Set your prices
Investigate how to use customer feedback to develop your business and perform customer relations
Organize events at your bookstore
Attract customers through free publicity

Sweety High: Social Entertainment For Tweens With Dreams

2011-12-04T22:39:00.001-05:00

Brand Channel's Sheila Shayon swoons about Sweety High, a creativity-powered social game for tween girls that was just moved from beta. Co-founded by writer/producer Frank Simonetti and Veronica Zelle, a music video producer who has worked with Madonna, Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake, Sweety High's original programming is for the branded entertainment-meets-social-networking portal. This includes SweetBeatTV, a show that features Sweety High users as correspondents covering pop culture events, as well as Food Star, a cooking show featuring community participants and teen celebrities.

The site aims to offer a safe, tween-friendly, incentive-based environment promoting leadership and fair play while engaging with the real world in real-time. Game play is built around quests and achievements that reward self-expression and creativity. Virtual currency is applied to prizes and unique opportunities for young girls with big aspirations.

Girls can earn rewards that harvest virtual “hearts”. These hearts unlock exclusive programming such as the six-times-a-year Be a Star contest, while the girls work their skills up the 40-plus levels of the game. Included in this contest is the Project Runway-inspired Make Your Way to the Runway where high achievers with positive peer feedback meet fashion industry mentors to design an outfit. These outfits are to be produced by Bebop Clothing. Established in 1989, family-owned apparel company Second Generation Incorporated's BeBop Clothing has evolved to become one of the exclusive providers of junior clothing in the United States: clothes that are casual at heart and designed to keep up with the active lifestyle of the BeBop Girl. This means that the Make Your Way to the Runway contestants' outfits will be made with a combination of the latest trends, superior fabrics, and unique accessories then, the clothing will be featured in the Sweety High series Glam Squad.

According to Chief Creative Officer Zelle, “Filling the gap between real and virtual worlds can change lives, allowing girls to discover their dreams”.

For the complete Sweety High article, please click HERE.

5 Biggest Blunders First-Time Investor Make

2011-11-28T01:20:00.001-05:00

Photo: Sharla Patrick

As per Rob Carrick's Globe & Mail article, Vancouver financial adviser Ian Collings believes that there is a close relationship between do-it-yourself and blew-it-yourself investing.

1. Not realizing you lack the time, knowledge or self-confidence to invest for yourself...

2. Half-hearted diversification, or worse

3. Focusing too much on stock trading commissions and not enough on other costs

4. Mistakes of inattention

5. Focusing on trading rather than on investing

Here are some ways to place your money in relative safety and earn at least a small return while you decide what to buy...

FOR OUR ARTICLE, PLEASE CLICK HERE.

Business Lessons From Wu-Tang Clan

2011-11-27T03:59:00.001-05:00

Ghostface Killah with Killah Priest, Sheek Louch and Peter Jackson plays Club Soda in Montreal on November 27th, Toronto on December 2nd, 14th, and other Canadian cities through December 13th. According to Dave Morris' Globe And Mail article, “To go back and embrace the fans that love me and the ones that I love… It’s gonna be real nice, yo.”

Born Dennis Coles in 1970, Ghostface happily talks about his early days in the notorious Stapleton housing projects on Staten Island. Ghostface met Divine – the Wu-Tang’s eventual co-manager. Divine’s brother RZA became the mastermind behind the group’s era-defining beats and business strategy. "We was up late nights writing rhymes – boom, boom, boom – so we were sleepin’ on the couch. Next day, do the same thing." The nine-member rap collective had a barrage of million-selling solo albums, movies and video games. Crews were common in hip-hop, but none had ever branded both their music and their merchandise as though they were a blockbuster movie franchise.

BUSINESS LESSONS FROM WU-TANG CLAN

Wu-Tang Clan
Enter the Wu-Tang (36 Chambers) (1993)

The group’s first album was a platinum-selling hip-hop classic, making stars out of the marquee rappers and, more importantly, serving as a powerful asset in negotiating their solo record deals.

Ghostface Killah

Ironman (1996)

Ghostface and other band members skipped industry practice by signing with different record labels, creating the diversified model that future groups would later profit from. Ironman went platinum, as did Method Man’s disc Tical; three other Wu debuts went gold.

Raekwon

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx… Pt. II (2009)

After lackluster commercial sales, Wu Tang-Clan looked to the movie industry in deciding to do a sequel. Raekwon’s Cuban Linx… Pt. II sold 68,000 copies in its first week alone, debuting at No. 4 on the Billboard charts.

2012 is the 20th anniversary of the group’s first single Protect Ya Neck. “That’s gonna be crazy,” he says. "I believe that 2012 is going to be a very good year.” Still, labels may prove a hurdle as Ghostface’s recent releases have been questionably marketed. “I don’t really like the Internet, but if the label ain’t doin’ it, you gotta do it yourself. Hopefully your fan base sticks by you.

For WTC's full schedule, see Peter Jackson Music.

For the complete article, please click HERE.

AUDIO 1

Notable's Julian Brass, 30...

2011-11-26T14:14:00.001-05:00

Julian Brass Celebrates Post-Birthday, Post-Event (Notable Awards), Pre-Vacation

“Young. Professional. Connected.” A guy after our own hearts, Julian Brass launched notable.ca in 2008 in an effort to offer young professionals an online destination of their own. Its mission is to bring relevant and engaging content to young, driven and trendy professionals: the premier destination for hip Canadians to find out what's going on around town, a database that can be leveraged to generate revenue through advertising, sponsored content, event sponsorship and eventually licensing NotableTV content to other media.

A commerce graduate from the University Of Guelph, Mr. Brass's event management background at Silicon Valley start-up engage.com, a hybrid social networking and online dating website, helped him to lay the foundation for Notable. The website's engaging videos, photos, articles and events speak to young--mostly upscale--professionals like Brass who understand what's relevant and important to his peers.

Now a regular keynote speaker and emcee, Brass is also a voracious competitor who was once named Entrepreneur of the Year Under 30, and he has succeeded as a finalist in nextMEDIA’s Digital Hot List contest and KPMG-sponsored IMPACT National Conference's “Canada’s Next Great Start-Up” competition.

Brass has received much media coverage including the Globe and Mail "Toronto's Hottest Young Entrepreneurs", Marketing Magazine “Five Geeks and Gurus Every Marketer Should Meet” has, and appeared on BNN's The Close, the Financial Post, The Globe And Mail and CBC’s The National.

Julian Brass at Notable Awards with...

CP24's Melissa Grelo, MTV's Aliya Sovani, Risky Business' Brett Wilson, Singer Keshia Chanté

~
BRASS TACTICS
(via the National Post)

FOCUS, FOCUS, FOCUS To build an audience for a networking website necessitates that entrepreneurs have a clear concept of their target audience, and how they want to talk to them. Create a strategy and stick with it. Modern technologies offer a myriad of clever bells and whistles to engage an audience, but business owners absolutely cannot become distracted by the possibilities. “If you try to do everything, you get nothing done,” Brass says. “Ideas are a dime a dozen. It’s all about executing.”

CREATE ATTENTION OFFLINE Your audience may use your website as a main point of contact for your brand, but don’t ignore opportunities to have them interact offline as well. Events are especially effective. NotableTV hosts networking parties that have attracted hundreds of members. It has also partnered with New York Fries to raise funds for National Kids Cancer Ride, calling on NotableTV’s membership to meet at downtown New York Fries locations, with proceeds going to the charity.

QUALITY BEATS QUANTITY “It’s good for your ego when you see new people joining your network,” Brass says. “But I know every time I send out an e-mail, I’m going to lose a couple of people. The process, however, is critical." The value of a membership community hinges primarily on its level of engagement. An engaged membership is going to be far more appealing to sponsors and partners than a community that doesn’t act on the information it receives.

Read Brass's weekly Metro newspaper column “Notable Now”.

Millionaire Simon Rowland, 31, Writes A Letter...

2011-11-26T04:47:00.000-05:00

Dear Toronto City Counsellor or Member Of Provincial Parliament,

I've written a short paper that computes the economic stimulus effect of proposed Transit City investments. Both interest and principal on mass transit investments are recovered easily within existing taxes. This stimulus effect is made possible by our relative high unemployment, and because this investment is mostly spent within Ontario's tax base.

For the complete paper, please click HERE.

Transit investments:

- contain the cost of living for families

- save time for both drivers and riders

- increases our savings rates

- creates permanent jobs for tens of thousands of residents

Each new line would be built directly in the regional economy and would put Ontario on growth footing. Investments in serving new regions and ongoing operating costs are both spent within our local tax base to a much greater degree than money spent on car parts or gasoline.

In terms of the economic impact, let's consider what would happen if we deleted Highway 401 from our landscape:

- Cost of getting to work would be higher

- Cost of delivering goods would be higher

- Public-sector jobs lost which echos into private-sector job losses

- Less time remains for residents to invest in families

- Less money remains for residents to save and invest

- Loss of regional appeal and competitiveness

- Lower property values due to deteriorated prosperity and transportation costs

Public transit spending has an even greater positive economic and regional impact than spending on roadways. Just like the 401, our Public Transit assets are a collectively-owned income property, with financial returns well above the cost of provincial bonds. These assets add measurably and substantially to our prosperity.

In addition to social and environmental returns, Public Transit assets clearly provide large economic dividends on our investment every year. I'm happy to answer questions concerning the economic impact of transit spending. Another wonderful resource is Todd Litman of the Victoria Transport Policy Institute.

Warm regards,

Simon Rowland

CEO, Direct Leap Technologies, Inc.

simon.rowland@directleap.com

416.406.8073 x221