Week 3 of LeapIN at Leap Junction

Week 3 was all about sales and networking and this was our first week travelling outside Leap Junction!

Day 1: James and Anita from Tech Alliance came to Leap Junction to teach us about Business to Business sales. We learned a lot about how to sell to other businesses and what tactics do and don't work. The rest of the day was filled with snacks, coffee and business planning.

Day 2:

On Wednesday we travelled to Tech Alliance to visit the MVP labs and learn more about business to customer sales. We worked on perfecting each other's sale pitches and how to drive sales. Next, we had our first cohort presentations, Alex taught us how to brand our business and tactics to help improve our brand. We got to learn about Alex's journey with his art collections and many other cool things, thank you Alex it was an amazing presentation! Next Shannon from Diamond Studios showed us how to change a tire.... IN HEELS!! It was actually so helpful and interesting. Between both presentations I know everyone learned something new!

Day 3:

On Thursday we had a very special guest speaker, Gui for our customer service workshop. Gui has build a multi-million dollar business on the principle of giving the best customer service possible. We had a round table discussion on what being a successful entrepreneur means. Some of our favourite quotes from this workshop were:

• Be memorable

• Don’t be beige 

• The grind everyday is the most important thing - act and think 

• People buy from people they trust

• Be persistent and consistent

• The struggle is in the climb

• You define success

• Adversity doesn't build character it reveals it

We finished the week off by heading to CTRL-V a VR arcade in London, owned by one of our previous LeapIN incubator cohorts. What a fun time!!

Another amazing week wrapped up! We are so excited to see everyone collaborating so much already!

Week 2 of LeapIN at Leap Junction

Week 2 was all about planning and research, we had three long days of learning, collaborating and discovering, there was a lot of coffee consumed!

Day 1: Our entrepreneurial coach Dave, took us through the business model canvas and our value proposition. It was very interesting to dive deeper into our business, uncover missing opportunities and new potential customer segments. This workshop was so valuable and something we will be thinking about for the next 9-weeks!

Day 2:

On Wednesday we had a special visitor Ethan Lang from the City of London come to our office to teach us about the city's bi-laws and regulations to make sure we are running our businesses in a safe and legal way. There were so many valuable take aways from this workshop!

Next, Todd Kanik came in from the business school to teach us about the importance of market research. We started off with an activity, the goal was to build the largest free standing structure with only paper, rope, scissors and tape! We learned that in order to create a successful product we DO need the help of others. As a business owner having qualified market research is SO important which is very evident after this workshop.

Day 3:

Our day started out with a lovely visit from Donna and Paula who work in Fanshawe's library. We learned HOW to get data from the Canadian census and from online programs. We are so thankful to have access to these resources. Next we had the centre for research and innovation come in to teach us about the grants that are avalible to us as small business owners. A lot of amazing ideas came out of this workshop and we hope all of our leapers continue with their ideas! Finally Kelvin from the Fritter shop joined us for our brag and drag to finish up the

Another amazing week wrapped up! We cannot wait for sales and networking next week. Two weeks done only seven more to go!

Week 1 of LeapIN at Leap Junction

We are SO excited that our favourite time of the year is finally here, our summer incubator program LeapIN! We have 13 entrepreneurs in our space for the next 9 weeks. We will be teaching them the ins and outs of their business with the help of some amazing community members and our own personal knowledge. We have a wide array of businesses but we have already watched the collaboration between the members begin (This is our favourite part!).

Day 1: It was like Christmas morning with all the LeapIN swag laid out for everyone while we eagerly awaited everyones arrival. We started the day off getting to know one another, with a few ice breakers and fun games. After an AMAZING lunch catered by the Pierogi Queen (who was in our incubator last summer, full circle!) we focused on Goal Setting. Kelsey went over how to make a specific goal and Marley went through a Dreamlining workshop inspired by the 4-hour work week. We ended the day laying out what the next 9 weeks will look like and everyone got really excited!

Day 2:

Our day started out learning about the personality dimensions MBTI, Laurel and Larissa from Career services came in and taught us about the strengths of our personalities. It was very interesting to learn about what makes people tick and how we can collaborate by playing with everyones strengths. After that we went to the photography studio and look our famous leaping photos! Suzanne has a containable energy, and made our afternoon!

Day 3:

Rachel from R-Traction came in to teach us about the Hero's Journey, this focused on story telling and WHY we started our business and WHO our customer is. It was a very interesting and eye opening workshop and all of us are leaving with some new business ideas and learned more about our business. We also learned what a B-Corp is and why it's so amazing. Next Nicole Snobelen came in to lead our Brag and Drags, where everyone talks about something positive and something negative happened during the week and we all provide each other support.

What an AMAZING first week, we are so pleased with our group and already can't wait for next week.