Rick Spence

Rick Spence is a Toronto-based writer, speaker and marketing consultant who specializes in helping entrepreneurs grow their businesses. His expertise includes strategy, marketing, finance, startups, and best practices.

Spence is the long-time former editor and publisher of PROFIT, The Magazine for Canadian Entrepreneurs. He is currently the national entrepreneurship columnist for The National Post, and continues to write features and columns for PROFIT.

Spence specializes in presentations that get people excited about the untapped opportunities in their businesses and motivates them to strive for excellence, quality and results. He is also a sought-after emcee for business functions and award events.

He wrote the first Canadian book on growth business (Secrets of Success from Canada’s Fastest-Growing Companies, published by John Wiley & Son). He has taught “New Venture Start-up” at Ryerson University and currently sits on the board of directors of a Toronto-based software company. His weblog, Canadian Entrepreneur (canentrepreneur.blogspot.com), is must reading for Canadian business owners.

ADDITIONAL LINKS:

canentrepreneur.blogspot.com

• 8. Dealing with Dragons:  The Perfect Pitch

  Every week on the hit CBC TV show Dragons’ Den, entrepreneurs ask successful tycoons for money to bring their business ideas to life. Most of them fail, because they don't know how to forge instant connections with the people they're pitching to. If your team members want to perfect their pitches, Rick Spence can help. As an advisor to Dragons’ Den for four years, Rick understands how to deliver pitches that connect with the recipients. Discover the most common mistakes that most pitchers make, in business and in life. And learn the  seven persuasion steps that build trust and lead to winning deals!

• 7. Entrepreneurs' Idea Exchange

  In this interactive session, Rick Spence shares the latest ideas for management success – and then challenges members of the audience to share their own best tips with each other. Guaranteed to raise the roof with the energy and buzz!

• 6. Becoming the Ultimate

  To build sales and customer loyalty, more and more entrepreneurs today realize they need to position themselves as trusted experts and advisors in their markets. Earning trust is a difficult task, but when it's carried out properly and authentically, it can make a huge difference. Through stories and examples of current Canadian business successes, Rick Spence presents compelling new tactics for establishing your personal and company brand as a trusted advisor, and transforming clients into lasting friends and raving fans.

• 5. Learning from Canada's Top Growth Companies

  From sales to HR and innovation, the executives behind Canada's leading growth companies have developed their own unique tactics for success. Here's how today's growth leaders succeed – with easy-to-implement lessons for managers and executives in big business and small business alike.

• 4. 10 Trends that will Rock Your Business

  From social media and nanotechnology to demographic conflicts and "the must called Trust," Rick Spence examines 10 key trends that will influence our business and personal lives over the next decade.

• 3. Building a "Customer-First" Company

  Today's interactive electronic media have empowered individuals to demand better service and more attention from the businesses they patronize. Now more than ever, business owners need to learn how to put clients' needs ahead of their own. Using current examples and case studies, Rick Spence will offer unique and doable strategies for becoming a "Customer-First" Company: Understanding clients' needs better than they do; encouraging continuous feedback; making the most of social media; and sharing the risks and rewards. The payoff: deeper relationships, rising market share and a unique competitive advantage.

• 2. Avoiding the 7 Deadly Mistakes in Small Business

  From expanding too fast to ignoring technology, many business owners make the same costly mistakes over and over again. In this presentation, Rick Spence analyzes 7 of the most common mistakes in business, and offers original and proven solutions for overcoming those errors and getting your business back on track.

• 1. Surviving the "Recovery"

  The recent economic downturn hasn't gone away. Even though the recession is technically over, most sectors of the economy remain vulnerable, and business leaders will succeed only by rooting their companies firmly in innovation, cost control, value creation and market leadership. Using lessons from past recessions and real-life business success stories, Rick Spence provides up-to-the minute strategies for nurturing innovation in your organization; aligning your staff; inviting customers into your company; and embracing social media and measured marketing.

• Thank you for helping us make the "Thinking the Unthinkable" seminar a tremendous success. We really appreciate you agreeing to be our MC for the second year in a row. As always, you did a great job of keeping the day running smoothly and in pulling the presentations together for our attendees.
  Family Service Association of Metropolitan Toronto
• On behalf of our members and guests, I wanted to thank you for sharing your insights and ideas with our group. Your presentation was informative and thought-provoking, and was the topic of a great deal of informal discussions after the event. I personally came away with ideas that have immediate application to my industry.
  Sales and Marketing Executives of Toronto Inc.
• I have produced many corporate events over the years with various MCs at the helm. I can honestly say that Rick Spence is the best MC of a business awards show I have ever seen. He is always smooth, engaging and well prepared. He keeps things moving with his upbeat style, while his humorous ad-libs keep audiences grinning. Not bad for a print guy.
  Ontario Global Traders Awards

• 
  September 1997

  Secrets of Success From Canada's Fastest-Growing Companies

  Secrets of Success from Canada's Fastest-Growing Companies tells the inspirational stories of the most stunning accomplishments in contemporary Canadian business. Based on PROFIT Magazine's annual PROFIT 100 survey— Canada's definitive report on entrepreneurial success— Secrets of Success provides Canadians with the inspiration and hand-on insights that can inject ann extra dose of confidence and entrepreneurial savvy into any business or start-up.