RLC update from May 9th

Last session was taken up with 5 of us pitching ideas for businesses or unmet needs and receiving ideas, information, observations and questions from the group. It was largely a brainstorming session, resulting in expansion of the field of possibilities for each idea. The ideas were:

· Wholistic Health and Wellness Centre
· Consulting to help businesses find efficiencies and synergies that emerge out of Earth-friendly practices
· Urban Farming – Permaculture style
· Connecting Immigrants with the Aboriginal community
· Composting systems for restaurants and townhouse/apartment clusters

There were revealed a lot of connections and ideas, particularly around funding, appropriate business models and markets. As we move forward, I’d like to have a structured way to ensure we are covering our bases, but at this early stage, it was very nice to have lots of ideas stimulating research, not to mention the emotional support of the group.

We will be skipping this coming Wednesday in favour of Jordan’s SeedStock launch. This will also give us a little time to catch up on our various homework tasks. It is encouraging that members of the group are beginning to connect with each other outside the circle. In fact, I would like to suggest that we find time to talk to other members we are comfortable with about our Gifts/Passions/Purpose charts, and to include family members and friends in our exploration of the sweet spot and what emerges out of it. It is also helpful to get others to give their perspective on the 14 core competencies quiz – I tend to think I’m good at everything, so it’s useful to hear another point of view. We don’t have to be competent at everything, and knowing where our strengths and weaknesses are can free us up to do what we do best.

We didn’t come up with an agenda for our next session on May 23. Perhaps others who didn’t get a chance last Wednesday will want to explore their ideas. We can also talk about tapping into the existing entrepreneur networks in the city and internationally. I have posted a few of the ones I found at the top of our Research/Ideas document. Please email me with your agenda ideas and suggestions.

I have confirmed with Dave that we will be doing our Market Research exercise with him on May 30th at 6pm sharp. I will check with Dave if there is any preparation work we can do beforehand.

I had to return my copy of Sweet Spot to the library – probably one of you has it now. I’m going to go ahead and order enough copies from Amazon to get free shipping. If any of you want one, let me know by Monday (May 14) so I’ll be sure to order enough.

-cabot