SBCN Small Biz Podcast

SBCN Co-Founder Linda Ockwell-Jenner chats with Dorothy Sinding of Elite Training Facility.A car hit Dorothy when she was 5 years old, physiotherapy followed and because of the accident, she decided to follow her passion.The Team Spirit Programme is a big part of Elite Training Facility and you can find out more about Dorothy & Clint, her partner, and how fitness programmes can ready you for everything you do in life.They say that a healthy body leads to a healthy mind, so don't miss some fantastic approaches to maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle.

Chris Davis returns with Linda Ockwell-Jenner, co-founder of the SBCN,  to delve deeper into the subject of IT downtime and what it means for your business. It's quite easy to think of downtime purely as the situation where your PC stops working, but as you'll discover, there's so much more to it than that.What is Downtime?Many small businesses do not have a solid plan for preventing "bad things" from happening to their computer networks. "bad things" such as server/desktop crashes, firewall crashes, or router/switch malfunctions can take down an entire network for many, many hours. These instances are considered downtime, but they have another hidden component that is possibly even more costly than when a network device crashing.Things you may not realize that contribute to downtime can be as simple as  waiting for applications to load.... waiting for slow web pages to load..... Waiting for pages to print on the printer.... When you recreate deleted and missing documents... these are all forms of downtime that can quickly add up.Employee deletes something by mistakeAnd employee clicks something they shouldn't - crypto lockerWait time to restore files and systemsIt comes down to:RTO how much downtime can you tolerate? (Recovery Time Objective)RPO how much data are you willing to lose (Recovery Point Objective)Free Calculator on the Polarverse web site: http://rcalc.polarverse.com calculates RTO and RPO.That is just protection from failure, it doesn't mitigate issues cause by a poorly maintained network and that is where something like managed services comes in where your network is monitored with regular maintenance. Does your car run better with regular maintenance and care? Would you just drive it till it stops working?The main benefits of Managed Services is discovering and fixing problems before they can negatively impact your business. A well maintained, proactively serviced computer network always runs better than a network serviced by a break-fix method. Proactive network monitoring, patch management, and desktop optimization performed on a regular basis, you will notice a tremendous difference in reliability. With this type of service you can typically reduce your annual IT costs by 30 to 50%. 

Linda Ockwell-Jenner is joined by Loretta Morrison, who shares some valuable tips she's learned on her journey to business success. Driven by a desire to spend more time with her family, and to enjoy the flexibility that comes from owning a successful business, Loretta created some winning strategies to lead her toward her goal. She now applies these to help other businesses find their success, fast!

In this episode, Linda Ockwell-Jenner chats with our featured guest, the ever bubbly Sylvia Pond! Sylvia is well known for two things: great photography and being part of great local networking events. If you've ever wondered how professional photography can help your business, Sylvia has some excellent insight and great tips for you.

In this episode, Linda Ockwell-Jenner is joined by Chris Davis, Founder and CTO of Polarverse IT Services to talk about IT Managed Services and specifically around Business Continuity. With IT forming an important backbone of our businesses, it's important that we're able to have resilience in the face of interruptions, so that IT problems don't become business problems!

Linda Ockwell-Jenner interviews one of our SBCN Ambassadors, Brendan Waller and talks about the stratgies that his business relies upon to differentiate and provide value to their clients. Brendan is always looking to innovation in the marketing space, so don't miss some insightful hints into how Unison Measurable Marketing approaches the space.

In this episode, we continue to explore some valuable tips for small businesses. Gunther Kramer, CEO Gecko Websites, joins SBCN Co-Founder Linda Ockwell-Jenner to cover some of the tips that's helped Gunther's business recently celebrate 20 great years!

SBCN Member Mike Diamond of Appcast joins Linda Ockwell-Jenner to discuss some simple IT tips that any small business can use. Since IT is so important to many of our businesses, we need to make sure it's reliable and effective, so these tips are invaluable to keep business rolling!

Wagepoint CMO, Leena Thampan joins Linda Ockwell-Jenner to share a number of important tips for small business that keep her sane. These include Leena's tips for managing email, taking time to meditate and more. Wagepoint was founded in 2012 and has grown to over 1,000 customers.You can find out more about Leena and Wagepoint on the SBCN website member directory https://www.sbcncanada.org/whois/4680

Linda Ockwell-Jenner is joined by Tim Elgar, Director of Small Business Services, American Express Canada to discuss the latest Small Business Monitor. This ongoing study, of which this is the 17th report, looks at issues facing small businesses. It provides excellent insights into what motivates small business owners and it's perhaps not what you think!The latest Small Business Monitor commissioned by American Express Small Business Services examined the change in SBOs attitude towards work-life balance, revealing how they’re reclaiming control by working to live, rather than living to work.  Some key findings include:55% of SBOs believe their work and personal lives blur because their business is their passion64% of SBOs believe technology makes it nearly impossible to disconnect from work   To find out more check out the SBCN Small Biz Podcast.