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The Guest Advisor Program is Available Again

The Alberta E-Future Centre is Pleased to Release 9 New Guides

The Alberta E-Future Centre, a specialized initiative of The Business Link has added 9 brand new info-guides to their collection of e-business resources. The Alberta
E-Future Centre can help you with your questions about e-business and how you can use it to improve your small business. Feel free to download the guides from the website at
www.e-future.ca/alberta
/ebusiness/infoguides
.asp.

Building an Effective Website
Learn how to plan the development of your site by analyzing your competitors and your website users, selecting the right developer and avoiding common mistakes.

Essential E-Business Partners
Find out who you need on your e-business team and how to work effectively with them.

Return on Investment
Understanding the importance of getting a return on your e-business investment is vital for success. You will learn how to measure ROI and what the expected costs of a web-based project can be.

Internet Privacy
Discover the importance of having a privacy policy and how PIPEDA, PIPA, and the laws of other countries will affect how you operate your e-business.

Internet Security
Learn about the importance of computer security on the Internet, data isolation, backup, firewalls, malicious software, encryption, and gain some practical tips on how to protect yourself from security threats on the Internet.

Online Legal Issues
A lot of confusion exists on how the law affects
e-business. Read how contracts, legal regulations, and intellectual property may affect your online operations.

Selling Online
Some of the things to consider when selling online are: development and design, electronic storefronts, and payment processing. Also security, privacy policies, taxation and duties, shipping and order fulfillment will be discussed in this guide.

Internet Payment Processing
If you want to find out how online payment processing works, how you can implement it on your website and what other factors you will have to consider before you can accept payments online, you should read this guide.

Internet Marketing
Understand how to use web development, search engine optimization, online advertising, e-mail marketing, blogs, and affiliate programs to increase traffic to your website.

Stay tuned for the release of 7 more guides on other important e-business topics on the Alberta E-Future Centre's web site.

Do's and Don'ts of Business Entry into the United States

"Do's and Don'ts of Business Entry into the United States" is a half-day training session presented by the Export Link, a specialized initiative of The Business Link. The session will provide information to exporters as it relates to the regulations governing business entry in the United States under the North America Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). Whether you're going to the U.S. to perform a contract, service a piece of machinery or conduct training, this seminar will help you prepare and ensure you make it across the border! This session will be offered across Alberta on March 16, 2005. For more information and to register, visit our website at www.cbsc.org/alberta/
exportlink/dosdonts.cfm.

International Sales Seminar for High Technology & Life Sciences Businesses

This one-day international channel development seminar will provide a detailed overview of the elements required to implement an international channel strategy. Led by Harald Horgen, President of the York Group, this seminar will offer participants a well-documented methodology that encompasses three phases of channel development... internal preparation, partner recruitment and partner management. Harald Horgen and other York Group staff will be available the day immediately following each seminar to conduct free one on one, one-hour meetings with interested seminar attendees.

Cost: $75 (Includes GST, Continental Breakfast, Lunch and Course Materials)
When: February 28, 2005 in Edmonton and March 2, 2005 in Calgary

For more information please visit Alberta Innovation and Science's web site at: www.innovation
.gov.ab.ca/inno-series/index.cfm.

Correction

In the January 2005 issue of E-News! the number 780-495-6376 was listed incorrectly, as a contact for the Export Link. Please call 888-811-1119 to reach our service for new and potential exporters.

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Your feedback is welcome at any time to help us improve and enhance our services for Alberta entrepreneurs. Simply use the "Feedback" function located on the toolbar at the top of E-News! to send us your views.

Welcome to a new issue of E-News! from The Business Link. Whether this is your first time receiving E-News!, or you've been with us from the first issue, we hope you will enjoy this quick monthly
e-newsletter. Our goal is to keep you informed of upcoming events and services at The Business Link and other items of interest to Alberta's small business community.

The Business Link's Spring Season

The new season of Brown Bags and Small Business Seminars starts February 1^st. Our high quality sessions will be offered here at The Business Link and around the province via video conferencing. The new season will offer more Brown Baggers and Small Business Seminars than ever before in more locations than ever before. This season, three of our Small Business Seminars will be offered in the afternoons at The Business Link and around the province via video conferencing. For more information on the upcoming season, visit our site for a list of Small Business Seminars at: www.cbsc.
org/alberta/seminars.cfm and for a list of Brown Bag presentations go here: www.cbsc.org/alberta/brownbag.cfm.

Sessions marked with a are available via video conferencing. For location and registration information, check out our video conferencing schedule.

February Schedule Date Time Topic Cost 01 12 noon - 1 p.m. Networking in The New Year! FREE 03 12 noon - 1 p.m. Power Selling: High Impact Salesand Marketing Strategies FREE 03 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Promoting Yourself and Your Business $32.10 08 12 noon - 1 p.m. Planning for Profit Works! FREE 10 12 noon - 1 p.m. Business Plan Development Strategy FREE 10 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Preparing a Business Plan $32.10 15 12 noon - 1 p.m. Exporting 101 FREE 17 12 noon - 1 p.m. Blood, Sweat, Equity... FREE 17 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Starting a Small Business $32.10 22 12 noon - 1 p.m. What Users Want From Your Web Site FREE 23 12 noon - 3 p.m. Search Engine Marketing for SmallBusiness $32.10 24 12 noon - 1 p.m. Selling to the Alberta Government:Electronic Tendering FREE 24 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. Tax Saving Tips for the Entrepreneur $32.10

Do you need to widen your business contacts? Visit us at The Business Link for our first Brown Bag presentation of the season, Networking in The New Year! and stay for our February networking session. The session is free and no registration is needed. Be prepared to exchange business cards and gain valuable contacts!

Join us on Tuesday, February 1, from 12:00 to 1:00 for the Brown Bagger, then stay for the networking session that runs until 2:30 pm.

Quality Council of Alberta Brown Bag Sessions

The Quality Council of Alberta (QCA) invites you to attend their Brown Bag Sessions at The Business Link in Edmonton and in Calgary at Bantel Company, #700 6th Avenue S.W. This year’s theme will be “Following the Roadmap to Excellence”. The QCA is offering a number of sessions, presented by noted Knowledge Management professionals, on using Knowledge Management to achieve organizational excellence. The sessions are free to members of the Quality Council of Alberta and $10 for non-members.

Two events will be held this month. The first "Framework for Business Excellence: Customer Focus" will be held in Calgary on Thursday, February 3 and at The Business Link in Edmonton on Friday, February 4. The second "Knowledge Management: Integrating Knowledge Management" will be held in Calgary on Thursday, February 17 and in Edmonton on Friday, February 18. The sessions are held from 12:00 noon to 1:00 p.m. Seating is limited and allocated on a first come - first served basis.

For more information and to register for these sessions, contact Ann Beaque at the Quality Council of Alberta at 780-423-6878, 1-800-224-0848 or by e-mail at: abeaque@shaw.ca.

• Patient and persevering. Successful entrepreneurs are normally willing to work long, hard hours and weather the highs and lows of business.
• Love a challenge and are driven by a need to challenge one’s self.
• High tolerance for ambiguous, unstructured situations.
• Possess a desire for change and constant improvement. Entrepreneurs frequently monitor social trends and adopt new technologies.
• Action-oriented.
• Think positively and quickly get over their failures.
• Learn quickly, enjoy feedback, and are able to learn from mistakes.
• Both listen and communicate well.
• Independent and extroverted.
• Self-confident and determined to succeed. Entrepreneurs should be comfortable with having all of the decisions rest upon them.
• Creative, innovative, and open-minded.

• Ample health and energy.
• Emotional stability.
• Money—enough to start the business, as well as to support yourself during the risky start-up period.
• Time—a business requires a lot of time and attention, especially during its launch.
• Influence from entrepreneurial role models.
• Personal intelligence.

• Able to set realistic attainable goals.
• Love to take risks, but ensure that these risks are calculated, not foolish.
• Able to exert influence and inspiration on others without a need to impose status or power.
• Able to get along with and adapt to all types of people.
• Able to trust others and give out responsibility.
• Possess good communication skills (the ability to put your ideas into writing, as well as to persuasively present your ideas to a group of people).
• Possess general financing, production, administration, human resources, sales, and marketing skills.

• Other commitments and obligations—your decision will not only affect you; get the opinions and input from others.
• Family—there are many added responsibilities associated with having a family. You must not only provide food, clothing, and shelter, but also adequate love, attention, and security. Therefore, you should guarantee that your new venture does not put others at risk.
• Your own happiness and whether you are passionate enough about your business idea to ensure that you will work at it daily. Considering your natural talents, skills, and sources of enjoyment may lead you to the best business idea.

Performance Plus
http://strategis.ic.gc.ca/epic/internet/inpp-pp.nsf/en/Home

How is your business doing when compared to your competitors? Would you like to get an idea of how your future business matches up against other businesses in the same industry? Performance Plus is an excellent interactive performance benchmarking tool, designed to help new and established businesses see how they measure up against the competition. You can confidentially enter your business' data and compare it against industry averages. This web site is an excellent tool for helping you make business decisions, regardless of whether you are in business or planning to start one.

All the Regional Access Sites around the province offer a wide range of services designed specifically to meet the needs of new entrepreneurs and small to medium sized business people in their area. The services can include financing, a wide range of resources to help small business people and many training programs and seminars.

The Centre for Business Development in Red Deer is hosting a business management series called Biz Tip Luncheons. The FREE one hour training programs are offered during the lunch hour so bring your lunch and coffee will be provided. Four sessions will be held during February:

• February 1
  Basic Bookkeeping—this session will help you get the most out of your hard earned money by increasing your bookkeeping skills.
  
  
• February 9
  How to Get Traffic to Your Web site—teaches you how to position and design your site so that clients can find it using search engines.
  
  
• February 16
  Low Cost Advertising—understand the power of advertising and how to use integrated marketing communication.
  
  
• February 23
  Cash Flow Projections for New and Existing Businesses —learn how to project future cash flow for your business by looking at examples of service and product related businesses.