Monday, December 23, 2013

Entrepreneur Profile 5 - Meet Gary Bizzo

Name: Gary Bizzo
Company: Bizzo Management Group
Location: Vancouver, Canada
Favorite Tweeter: @GeorgeMoen

1. Please provide a 2 sentence biography for yourself and/or mission statement.

Gary has Coached or Mentored over a 1,000 businesses and has consulted with numerous multinationals. He was President of the BC Entrepreneur Development Association for 5 years, an advocacy group of 10,000 Canadian entrepreneurs. He is a APEC Certified Business Counsellor from Acadia University.

2. Describe your business and why you started it.  What is it that differentiates your business model from others?

I'm a paid Mentor. Actually I use a hybrid approach to working with business people. I'm a coach when the client wants me to work with them through problems, a counselor when they want me to show them the way and let them find the answers, a consultant when they want me to tell them what to do and a mentor when they can trust me because I have been there and one that.

3. What is one example of success you have experienced in your business and what characteristic helped you achieve it?

I read an article in the Globe and Mail that had no traction. It was about how charities needed transparency in their finances to be trusted. I ran with it on my blog and Twitter and got the attention of CTV, after CTV started on it an MP from Toronto introduced the bill, Bill C-470 to parliament making charities show transparency. I know how this came down because in Dec 2011, I was asked to go to Ottawa where I presented a brief to the House of Commons about social media and my observations of what 'donors' wanted from charities. The bill passed 300-2.

I learned anyone can make a difference and I liked being an agent of change.

4. Which entrepreneur inspires you and why?  What industry do they work in and what accomplishment is unique to them?

Richard Branson. He once walked into a room of his advisers and said “I want to start an airline, do it” and walked out or so the story goes. An entrepreneur comes up with the idea and works on the business not in it as Michael Gerber says.

5. What is one development you foresee in your industry in the next 10 years?

More coaching will be one-on-one via video chat, although it is being done now it will just be more readily available for everyone.

6. What trait is most important to succeeding in entrepreneurship?

Listening to others and not thinking you know it all

7. What is one piece of advice you would give to someone considering starting a business?

Pick a great idea, make it better and create a business plan.

8. What if your favorite book on entrepreneurship and one lesson you learned?

Michael Gerber's classic book, the eMyth, where he says you must work on your business not in it, i.e. Joe's Garage will always have Joe doing the work because he can't delegate it others. When he has people working for him he is an entrepreneur, before that he is self employed.

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