Kickoff Event Results

At our kickoff event on October 19, 2009, we asked those in attendance to answer a few questions, and then each attendee to vote on the 3 issues of highest importance to them. Here are the complete results from the evening, ranked in descending order of popularity, including the number of votes each item received (in brackets).

Where speakers were suggested, they are in italics next to the topic.

What is your #1 business goal this year?

  1. Balancing growth with organization & efficiency (25)
  2. Stronger sense of community / building your tribe (21)
  3. New markets & clients (18)
  4. Sustainability – avoiding burnout (11)
    Establishing / refining online presence (11)
  5. Defining perceived value (9)
    Drum up business & keep it (9)
    Networking (9)
  6. Actually starting your business (6) – Danielle Laporte
    Defining your niche (6)
    Branding / rebranding (6)
  7. Building your relationships (4)
  8. Ongoing business development (3)
  9. Starting 2nd projects (0)

What do you want to learn?

  1. PR & infiltrating the media (12)
  2. Marketing in general (11)
    Sustainability – avoiding burnout; work/life balance; stress management (11)
    Brand(ing) strategy (11)
  3. Effective networking (10)
  4. Intellectual copyright law / trademarks & copyrights (9)
    Better accounting (9)
  5. Effective social media presence (8)
  6. Leadership skills & management (7) - Leigh-Anne Stitt
  7. International market expansion (6)
    Offline marketing (6)
    Managing growth (6)
  8. Increasing sales & finding target market (5)
    Expanding your business network (5)
    Productivity (5)
    Angel investors / venture capital / shoestring (5)
  9. Home business (4)
    Outsourcing (4)
    Effective sales methods (4)
    Grant funding (4)
  10. Community involvement / giving back (3)
    Customer retention (3)
    Sustainability – environmental (3) – Marianne Amodio
    Point of sale / e-commerce integration (3)
    Project vs hourly billing (3)
    HR/employee management (3) – Teza
  11. Business engineering: From step one forward (2)
    Website / e-commerce (2)
    Division of roles (2)
    Software learning: hands-on (2)
    Managing multiple businesses / clients (2)
  12. Blogging (1) – Joy Jose
  13. Finding advertisers (1)
  14. Legalities of online businesses (1)
    Prospecting, e.g. cold calling (1)
  15. Staff retention (0)
    Spousal business partners: communication (0)
    Open source / proprietary content management / software (0)

What do you NOT want from this group?

  1. Sales pitches – but it’s OK to give references (34)
  2. Formal atmosphere (26)
  3. Corporate business advice – want to learn from other small businesses (10)
    Cliques (10)
  4. Too specialized – want to be open to diverse membership (9)
  5. Motivational speaking (8)
    Formal presentations without interactions (8)
    “Experts” – prefer peer support (8)
  6. Twitter (6)
    Fundamentals & basic business planning (6)
    Staying in your own comfort zone – people you know (6)
  7. Roleplaying (5)
  8. Rashes (4)
  9. Verbal beatings (2)
    Technical advice (2)
  10. Hugs (1)
  11. Moral support & kumbaya (0)
    Marketing systems (0)

A key question that came up which we did not have a chance to address was around governance & transparency, i.e. Who’s organizing this? Is it sustainable with just two people (Emira & Lauren) organizing it?