I attended the VISA big thinking conference on Monday and it was quite good. Most of the sessions I went to were really informative and interesting. If you’re a small business owner in the Toronto area, I strongly encourage you to attend next year.

Here are some of the most compelling thoughts from this year (in my humble opinion). It’s a very brief list considering have about 7 pages of notes from the conference.

• Your job as a business owner is to make stress go away. Understand your customer’s stress and make it go away more effectively than your competition. — Donald Cooper
• Specifics are engaging. A niche doesn’t necessarily have to define what you actually do — but it helps your target audience identify your particular product/service with their situation. — Michel Neray
• The first secret to coaching your team is to demonstrate that you are dedicated to helping everyone on your team become everything they want and everything you need. Build their self-esteem or don’t say it. — Tom Stoyan
• Three business imperatives: (1) focus employees on customers, (2) measure, track your progress and redirect resources when necessary and (3) have a management system in place to keep you on track. Also, having fun should be a part of your management philosophy. You need to incorporate fun into your management style. — Kraig Kramers
• Make decisions quickly. You have to be working all the time. Always keep the message the same (look at their ticker symbol TFR i.e. two-four). Never wait until tomorrow to do something that can be done today. — Teresa Cascioli

I think these events are primarily supposed to be about meeting people and I did a lot of that too. But thanks to VISA for putting on such a quality event. Excellent stuff.

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