Who you gonna call? - Atlantic Business Magazine

UP FRONT
TOP
THREE
PHONE TIPS
1
Who you gonna call?
“Phone Lady” says the key to success is in the palm of your hand
“PICK IT UP. MAKE THINGS HAPPEN!” This is the
mantra behind everything that Mary Jane Copps
teaches in her seminars as The Phone Lady. Early
in her career, Mary Jane encountered a common
workplace challenge that few people realized
existed. Many workers are so reluctant to use the
telephone that it affects their quality of work and
their career development. She even found that, in
some cases, it’s a full-blown phobia. “Throughout
my career, I’ve encountered many employees who
have been procrastinating on a task. When you
drill down, you find that they needed to make
phone calls, and they’ve procrastinated on that,”
Mary Jane explains.
Her career has been a long, winding journey
to her most recent venture as The Phone Lady.
Mary Jane has been involved in journalism, sales,
researching and fundraising. Her willingness to
make phone calls that no one else wanted to make
helped her to advance her career in significant
ways.
“I started my career on the phone by accident,
when I started working for a small weekly paper so
that I could put myself through university. I found
that there were all kinds of story ideas that people
wouldn’t follow up on because they involved using
the phone. I would always offer to do the articles
that required phoning famous or important
people, and they usually ended up on the front
page. Eventually, the Globe and Mail called and
asked me to write for them.”
A little over six years ago, a friend asked
Mary Jane for help with his software company.
Recognizing the value in her phone skills, her
friend suggested that she should begin offering
seminars. As an experiment, she sent out 10
brochures that she printed on the office printer.
She received three contracts right away. “And so,
The Phone Lady was born,” she says.
Mary Jane has now conducted meetings and
seminars with more than 60 organizations and
businesses. Her clients contact her on a regular
basis to let her know that they’re still doing
business her way, and that it’s working for them.
She’s even noticing some interesting trends
emerging since she began her seminars. Phone
technology is advancing so quickly that some
demographics are having a difficult time adapting.
“I do a lot of work with universities, because a
lot of them have co-op programs. The universities
will sometimes get phone calls from the employers
saying things like ‘Great engineer, but we really
need them to be able to talk on the phone.’ Today,
kids are growing up with texting, and talking on
the phone is not even something they’re really
exposed to.”
Generation Y is not the only group experiencing
these challenges. She has also noticed that some
workers in the 55-64 age bracket don’t like to leave
voicemail messages. Many of these individuals
find it hard to simply leave a message on a
machine instead of talking to a person. Some are
also uncomfortable with the number of attempts
that it sometimes takes to reach someone.
According to Mary Jane, the key to making
a successful phone call is positive thinking. “I
visualize the person answering the phone. The
majority of people imagine the other party in
a negative way – they either worry that they’re
interrupting, or that the person is going to be
annoyed. If you give that person the skill set, it’s
much more likely to go well.”—Sarah Sawler
It’s important
for companies to
make their phone
personality a part
of their branding.
If your clients hear
an abrupt tone
when calling one
department, that is
the impression that
they develop of your
company as a whole.
2
Use the phone as a
marketing research
tool. If you talk to
your customer, you
can find out what
your customer is
thinking. This is
valuable information
that you can use
to improve your
business.
3
If you need to
reach someone,
realize that it’s
your responsibility
to reach them. If
you have to leave a
message, let them
know that you will
call again if you
don’t hear back. This
lets your client know
that you are making
them a priority.
Online extras: atlanticbusinessmagazine.com | 11
UP FRONT
A different perspective
Artist-entrepreneur sees opportunity in recessionary economy
I
n the Nova Scotia community of
Liverpool, storefronts are distressingly
empty and “For Rent” signs ominously
prolific. Earlier this year, however, Stacy
Smart-Chandler stood in one of these
empty buildings, and through its paperedup windows, saw hope and recovery for
her hometown.
Liverpool and Queens County have
gone through a severe economic slump,
with cuts to the Bowater Pulp & Paper
mill (the community’s largest employer)
leaving many residents concerned about
job stability. In November, part of White
Point Lodge burned down, leaving
employees without work until it’s rebuilt.
Since 2011, about 10 businesses have
closed due to retirement or a lack of
demand.
These depressing changes were one of
the things Smart-Chandler first noticed
when she returned to the community
after receiving her Bachelor of Fine Arts
from Nova Scotia College of Art and
Design. Another was the lack of quality
art supplies.
12 | Atlantic Business Magazine | July/August 2012
“I realized I didn’t have access to the
things I did (before returning home), and
I didn’t want to pay shipping fees all the
time to have art supplies brought in,” she
says. With this realization, Conopeum
Art – meaning ‘art canopy’ in Latin –
was born. Under this umbrella term, her
store’s products include canvases, paints,
yarns, fabrics for sewing and quilting,
sketchbooks and a children’s art section.
Smart-Chandler admits she was initially
skeptical, considering the economy. But
after researching local demographics,
she realized there are a large number of
artists and art enthusiasts in the area.
Even with those optimistic findings,
she admits that she still worries about
Conopeum Art’s ability to thrive. “When
things close, it’s right there, and you
feel that loss in the community when a
product that somebody’s used to getting
is gone, or a storefront closes you are used
to going into.”
Still, she feels that people should stop
treating Queens County as a dying area.
“I don’t think the area should be treated as
When Stacy Smart-Chandler opened Conopeum Art,
an arts and crafts supply store, she hoped it would help
boost Liverpool, N.S.’s flagging economy. She reports
that community support has been “overwhelming”
as people appreciate the opportunity to buy quality
products locally.
a charity case, as there are people who are
willing to work and work hard,” she says.
“There just needs to be the knowledge
available about what people can do; those
things can happen if the businesses here
band together and support new businesses
and new ventures. Something unique can
happen.” — Katie Ingram
UP FRONT
There they grow again
Ela Greek Taverna to expand across region
P
ride, passion, determination, and a little
bit of luck are the main ingredients in
Ela Greek Taverna’s recipe for success. What
started as one restaurant has now expanded
into three locations. Soon, other parts of
Atlantic Canada will be getting a taste of one
of Halifax’s best restaurants.
Owners Costa Elles and Chris Tzaneteas
opened Opa! Greek Taverna on June 6, 2000.
“We use the recipes that our mothers and
grandmothers have used over the years. Our
quality is excellent – I would never feed anyone
anything that I wouldn’t feed my son,” Costa
says.
In 2008, a new location was opened
in Bayers Lake, followed by a Dartmouth
Crossing location in 2009. Chris and Costa
frequently visit all three operations to ensure
consistency. As Costa says: “We know what we
want and we’re our worst critics.”
Despite their efforts to maintain consistency,
Costa and Chris met an obstacle about a year
ago when a trademark issue resulted in a name
change. “A lot of our clients still don’t realize
that it’s the same restaurant. It’s the same
ingredients, menus, staff, owners and passion
that we’ve always had. Opa is Ela, Ela is Opa.”
When asked about the meaning of the word ela
(pronounced el-la), Costa explains: “It’s a term
of invitation, ‘come with me.’ Come eat, come
dance, come join me.”
Pushing forward with their new name,
Chris and Costa are carefully planning the
next phase of their business. “The next market
that we would like to get into is the one that
provides us with the most opportunity.
Moncton is thriving, but we’re even closer to
opening a location in Saint John. There’s a
possibility that within a year, we’ll be there.”
They’re also looking at opening a location in
St. John’s, Newfoundland.
“It’s a challenge because we’ve built our
product on our personalities. People know
us in Halifax.” This is why Costa and Chris
have already decided that they will have locals
running the new locations.
As always, they will continue to ensure that
even with this new expansion, their restaurants
will still carry the same authenticity that the
original Argyle Street location began with
twelve years ago. Ela Atlantic Canada, come
eat. —Sarah Sawler
Costa Elles and Chris Tzaneteas are hoping to
capitalize on the success of their three Ela Greek
Taverna restaurants in Nova Scotia by expanding
into Saint John, N.B. and St. John’s, N.L.
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Online extras: atlanticbusinessmagazine.com | 13
UP FRONT
Life and death
Citizen action committee
resuscitates cottage hospital
W
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14 | Atlantic Business Magazine | July/August 2012
Inks
Whether you’re bringing electrical
service to a public arena, a health
clinic, a restaurant or a
country home...
Setup
Take one old hospital that still has good bones (and a great history), tap into some
federal and provincial coffers, sprinkle with liberal amounts of volunteer hours
and voilà! It becomes the perfect recipe for a major adaptive reuse project. This is
how the Julia Ann Walsh Heritage Centre in Norris Point, N.L., came into being.
hen the Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital
in Norris Point, N.L. closed in
2001, a group of concerned citizens
set up the Bonne Bay Cottage Hospital
Heritage Corporation (BBCHHC), a
not-for-profit community corporation
dedicated to the adaptive reuse of the old
hospital. Their goal was to preserve local
culture and heritage, promote health and
wellness, and contribute to the economic
well being of the community – lofty goals
for a population
of 795.
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physiotherapy
clinic
and admin offices
for cultural festivals. It also and incubates
small business start-ups. It also offers
wellness programs including yoga
and exercise classes, and developed
a community garden replete with a
hothouse.
“The social enterprise model is all
about community. It’s neither public
nor private. Think of it as the third
sector,” says Joanie Cranston, founding
member and current board member of
the BBCHHC. “Although we’ve had lots
of federal and provincial assistance, we
realized early on that at some point we
had to generate revenue.”
The irony is that it’s creating a
Catch-22 situation. “If you get too
successful, you start paying taxes and
this can tip the not-for-profit status over
the edge. In order to retain our not-forprofit designation, about 50 per cent
of our revenue needs to come from
government sources.” So it’s become a
non-stop juggling act. Cranston adds,
“If we could only find a social enterprise
angel investor ...” —Sandra Phinney
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