Jun 282014
 

Eagle Waves Radio is based within VIVO Cafe and is the only one of it’s kind in the world!

With new research showing that working in cafés can actually boost your creativity, former Telstra Businesswoman of the Year, Angela Vithoulkas, has taken it to the extreme by launching the first global radio station based inside a café. Eagle Waves Radio brings together the best of what business people and entrepreneurs want from their working day: a dose of topical, relevant information in a buzzy, creative environment.

“There’s been a pronounced geographic shift in where corporate and entrepreneurial folk are choosing to do business,” says Angela. “Bland and sterile workplaces are proving to be a turn off for many workers and with research showing that ambient background noise can actually help people to concentrate better, it’s no surprise that the café is the new office.”

EWR+Logo+Web+Tagline cropAccording to Angela, the trend for working in cafés has reached new heights with the rise of the ‘coffice’ worker – business people and entrepreneurs who prefer to work in a café over a traditional office.

A survey of almost one thousand small businesses across Australia, found that 15% of small business owners prefer to work in a cafe, or even a hotel foyer, for the ambiance and convenience. So what can small businesses learn from this trend?

“You certainly don’t need to launch a radio station in your shop or office – although it would be a great talking point,” says Angela. “What small business owners can learn from this shift is that their customers are always on the look-out for ways to simplify their working day and increase their productivity. So put yourself in your customer’s shoes, be curious, look at what’s challenging for them, and be ready to embrace change if you want to differentiate yourself from the competition.

“For example, café owners who recognise that ‘coffice’ workers see their venue as a de-facto office, a place where they might work for a few hours a day, can offer services such as wi-fi or even a tailored ‘work day’ menu for customers who stay for breakfast and lunch. Not only will this demonstrate they understand the needs of their clientele, it will also give customers a reason to come back – and in business that’s often the difference between success and failure.”

With six weekly programs featuring expert and specialists hosts across fields ranging from accounting and finance to marketing and PR, Eagle Waves has already attracted a strong following amongst the small business community. To tune into Eagle Waves Radio visit www.eaglewavesradio.com.au.

“Recognising this trend, it made absolute sense to me to launch Eagle Waves Radio at the hub of where my audience finds it most productive and creative to work – a busy café. After all, how many times have we found it easier to finish a difficult task when we’ve had our favourite radio program playing in the background?

“Eagle Waves allows business people and entrepreneurs to get up close to the action. They can pick up relevant information at the same time that they’re dropping in for their morning latte.”

 

Eagle Waves Radio a World First‘ was posted on Eagle Waves Radio Blog.

Eagle Waves is Australia’s first and only radio station dedicated to empowering small businesses. Our commitment, and our passion, is to level the playing field by giving you direct access to the very best business advice guaranteed to inspire practical and profitable solutions.

Listen to Eagle Waves Radio online via the website – www.eaglewavesradio.com.au.

For the opportunity to be a guest on Eagle Waves Radio click here.

 

 Posted by at 6:17 pm
Dec 032013
 

Do you know how to ask for help? What about asking a question of others to find a solution to a problem or challenge? It’s actually a learned skill – from my perspective, and it’s all about being brave enough to hear the answers and listen to the lessons that inevitably come from the conversations with others.

If you are lucky enough to get your hands on a wise person, tie them to a chair and record the Q & A to play back as needed!

It’s ironic that we have no problem with asking people for feedback on our personal lives and relationships; we discuss all this openly and frequently and do what our friends say. But imagine when it comes to business questions, we completely go quiet and freeze up, or in my case we just don’t think about it. For so long it never occurred to me to just ask.

Whether you are a start up or an established business owner, you will constantly come up against, or be forced into, situations that will stump you. Clearly there are moments that Google can’t fix, and where no search bar in the world can provide assistance either. It’s either human contact or find out the hard way. Often, in fact far too frequently, the hard way comes in multiples as well… Why would it be easy? Lol

What if you look bad?

Is there an art to asking? Only if you over think it and care how you ‘look’ or ’sound’ when the questions come out. I like to think of asking as part of my investigation and search strategy. Usually that means me investigating what I don’t know, and searching for the right words to ask about thing I have no idea about, to people who know everything about matters I don’t. Make sense?

You may need a simple query answered, or an investor to deal in to your business, or a contra deal considered; the size of the ask isn’t relevant. It’s learning to ask that has the effect and changes the journey. And one answer I know you will get if you don’t ask, is the horrible echo of nothing.

Deep breaths

Take a good look at collaborative business models, people who have really fined tuned the art of asking and surround themselves with like minded individuals, who gather a complementary brains trust to resolve, construct and grow their unique and combined businesses. They can’t always afford specialist advice and consultants, but they know they need one, so they just ask!

When you do take a leap and want to breathe life into your idea and make the vision more than just a mission statement, wouldn’t it be great to find someone who could answer some basic questions at crucial times, and possibly save you the pain of learning very hard and expensive lessons? Especially if you are like me and you need to break something several times before you realise what it’s all about. If only I had asked…

Courage

Growing a business and leaving your very warm and fuzzy comfort zone where you are the all-knowing-and-seeing Queen and to suddenly stand at the edge of the cliff, facing a blank space is a diabolical dilemma. You either assume you know it all and freefall, or you ask … for transition help.

To overponder the simple task of asking is to waste the very time you would gain by just doing it – maybe avoid sounding like you have inhaled a helium balloon, and it will all be fine. And remember to pay it forward. There is someone around you who wants to ask, right now they are trying to get the courage to come forward and peek through the curtain, it doesn’t hurt to answer their ask.

It’s a big ask was published on Angela Vithoulkas’ Blog.

Sep 172013
 

So, you have taken the plunge, set up a business online and finally seen all of your ideas placed before the world. Self satisfaction meter is pointing towards “cool”, life is good. Of course it’s not a business yet because there is no income and no one knows about it except the people you have asked to test it or look it over. But how hard can the rest be right? I mean, just how hard can it be to build something from scratch online amongst millions of other voices?

When I first had the idea to build a small business radio station –www.eaglewavesradio.com.au I never imagined the obstacles I would face as an online brand. I am a hands on retailer, a Café owner who can literally touch and see and sometimes even smell her customers. Have I ever mentioned Mr Tall Flat White who comes in every morning from the gym freshly showered, flushed…anyway, I think you can see where I’m going with it, lol.

 

On The First Day…

I had an idea, I began to build it and even though I am a seasoned business owner, I still naively thought it couldn’t really be that difficult. It’s the internet, everybody is on the internet and everybody is online, right? Throw up a website, put some content, pics and get going. You have told everyone about your fab idea, they ALL have told you its fab so therefore must be a slam dunk. And then the work begins. The hard hard work of getting your name out there, of building momentum, clicks, hits, traffic and engagement. There is only so much family and friends can do, and it’s not a Facebook page. An online business is about making money, about offering something of value in a world that has layer upon layer of competitor that’s spread globally. Lucky I didn’t think about that when I had my moment.

I think that more than ever people want to identify an online business with a person in some way; they want to feel more secure that there is a heartbeat in the frequent cold climate of online activity. It’s a cut throat world that is even more intense than American TV show ratings. It’s an exact scientific measurement and numbers don’t lie.

One of the truly most enlightening experiences has been seeing and hearing the amount of so called experts who all seem to know how to build your online business. I mean they all just seem to know. They know how to charge as well. I do not mean to slight any professionals out there, and I acknowledge that there are some seriously savvy people who get it ( I work with a couple of them ), but the online world has developed a by product that has taken a few of us newbies for a ride down a suck money out of me lane.

Idea & Reality

When you have the idea and concept for your online business, like many business ideas, you don’t necessarily know how to make the product, you just know there is a need so you start. At this early stage, you don’t see yourself as a web developer, SEO expert or PR magician.

You weren’t born coding or formatting, or at least I wasn’t. But then again, I have never owned a radio station before either.

When I got over how much I didn’t know – it really overwhelmed me at first since my comfort zone was obliterated; I started to edit the noise of the experts. I took off my very dark startup online sunglasses, saw the clarity of what I was doing – building a business just as I have always done. Yes, huge operating differences, but new businesses are not for the fainthearted, it’s the courage under fire scenario that gets you through.

Fresh Is Best

Building your brand reputation online is about building your brand offline as well. Relationships need to be established, nurtured and leveraged. Affiliate marketing considered and you must keep your window fresh. That’s a café analogy, if my deli looks dull then I can’t sell my food. If you don’t keep you content fresh online then it will go stale and nobody likes stale anything, virtual or other.

I don’t have all the answers, but I don’t stop asking the questions and testing the experts. I educate myself around there opinions but take responsibility on my strategy. Of course it’s the execution of all matters that separates the winners. Great idea, sensational concept, online reality and strategic execution all add up to the first step. If you build it right, market it effectively, refresh and develop your idea and content, then the incline won’t leave you feeling as if you have emphysema. But then you have to increase the level of difficulty as well, no rest for you! Online is 24/7.

Who are you online? was first published on Angela Vithoulkas’ Blog and Women in Focus.