Worldline Sets a Record: A September to Remember…

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Out with the old…

…and it ain’t even done yet.

Worldline has been going about its business quietly and steadily for a full decade now, providing the best telecom services possible for the fairest price, and over that time it has developed a very satisfied customer base.

However the key work in there is “quietly.” Relying on a non-traditional marketing strategy, the company has been experiencing steady consistent growth, but it was decided that in 2013, that was all going to change. For the first time on the company’s history, and actual marketing budget was created. Actual marketing dollars were set aside to help build the business, create awareness and develop the brand and a marketing team was built.

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…in the the New

Over these past few months we’ve changed the logo and the look. We’ve introduced our Super Hero Kids, we’ve been holding contests, sponsoring sports franchises, putting up billboards, and put together a comprehensive social media presence.

It’s been a ton of work, but if you are going to try to compete with The Big Three, you can’t simply rely on providing a great service, you have to be prepared to shout out about it a little bit.

So we did, and here we are.

With a week to go in September, we’re having our best month ever with getting new customers on board.

By a lot.

From all over Canada, we’re signing up customers to our Home Phone and Long Distance Packages, our Unlimited Internet options and to our Unlimited High Speed Internet & Digital Home Phone Bundle, and the feedback has been both terrific and inspiring.

Saving money for people is one thing, saving them from the aggravation of having to deal with indifferent and sometimes brutal customer service, or being gouged by confusing  and ever changing contracts for a service that has become for most of us an absolute necessity, is another.

Worldline made a decision as a company in 2013 to aggressively enter the Canadian telecom marketplace for a whole bunch of reasons.

First, it’s just good business, which is good for us and especially great for our customers.

But second, and perhaps more importantly, we, as a company, were sick and tired of having so many Canadians getting ripped off, when they had a perfectly viable option in Worldline, that they simply didn’t know about.

Of course, we’re just getting started. What we’re seeing now is a direct result of the last few months work.

What we have planned for the future, and I do mean just around the corner…

…well, it’s going to be really something.

So stay tuned, and to all our new customers, welcome on board!

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CTV Clip: Worldline’s John Stix reacts to Blackberry’s Downsizing

JSCTVBlackBerry shocked investors Friday afternoon as it warned of a second-quarter loss of almost $1-billion, largely related to a huge charge on unsold BB10 devices. It plans to slash 4,500 jobs, cut operating costs in half and retreat from much of the consumer market.

Beyond the ramifications for the company and the tech industry, there are also they local concerns. After the largest layoff announcement in Waterloo tech history, what’s next for all those Blackberry employees?

Worldline co-founder and CMO sees only opportunity:

http://kitchener.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1008563

Attention all Entrepreneurs: It’s Startup Weekend!

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Last Year’s Winning Team with their Mentor (and our CMO) John Stix

Ever wondered what it takes to be an entrepreneur? The professional and personal challenges, the high and lows, the failures and the success?

Startup Weekend is a global grassroots movement of active and empowered entrepreneurs who are learning the basics of founding start-ups and launching successful ventures. It is the largest community of passionate entrepreneurs with over 400 past events in 100 countries around the world. From Mongolia to South Africa to London to Brazil, people around the globe are coming together for weekend long workshops to pitch ideas, form teams, and start companies.

How a Startup Weekend Works: anyone is welcome to pitch their start-up idea and receive feedback from their peers. Teams organically form around the top ideas (as determined by popular vote) and then it’s a 54 hour frenzy of business model creation, coding, designing, and market validation.

The weekends culminate with presentations in front of local entrepreneurial leaders with another opportunity for critical feedback.

Last year the winner of the first Startup Weekend Kitchener Waterloo was HomeFed who pitched a platform to connect travelers with home-cooked and authentic foods wherever they are, by matching them with enthusiastic local hosts who will cook for them.

Our Co-Founder and CMO John Stix worked all weekend long as a mentor to these young entrepreneurs, and helped with the business development and marketing plans for  the third and first place winning teams.

This weekend he’s at it again at the Communitech Hub.

Who will be Canada’s next hotshot entrepreneur?  If you want to see what it takes, you can follow online LIVE online here, and on Sunday night, watch the awards presentation.

(A good bet is, the teams that have the best shot will be sitting with John.)

A Worldline Profile: The Indispensable Dawn Gamble

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Dawn, raising funds for her upcoming 5K Run for the Cure, rocking her Pink Pumps

CEO Jody Schnarr and CMO John Stix share an office at the front of Fibernetics headquarters because they’ve collaborated in everything, even office space, since they started the company ten years ago, and it’s no time to break up that winning formula.

Standing guard in front of their door is their Executive Assistant Dawn Gamble, who runs their working lives, (and, to be honest, a lot of their personal lives as well).

She is the indispensable Dawn, what every successful company wants and needs.

Capable to the max, beyond her duties to the two bosses, she takes on any internal role required, as different as strategic marketing planning to changing the light bulbs in the ladies bathroom ceiling (in heels). As part of The Fun Bunch, she’s been at the heart of every fundraising venture the company has held this year. Ever capable and creative, she functions as the event and social co-coordinator for the corporation, organizing off-sites like company town halls, trade shows, even golf tournaments.

From her work space at the front of main floor office space, her desk functions as the epicentre of the company, around which everything seems to revolve. If anyone wants or needs something, seemingly the first recommendation from everyone in the company is, “ask Dawn.” Usually she’ll have the answer, and if not, she’ll know who does. As a trade off however, first you get to hear about what her son Austin or her husband Steve are up to, or her latest workout regime, or her latest healthy recipe.

Seemingly always with a side project, this week she’s been baking every night making these awesome yet healthy treats that she’s selling for $2/piece to raise money for her upcoming 5K CIBC Run for the Cure.

Dawn_fightThis is a personal for her because she is recent breast cancer survivor. Battling the disease through 2011 and most of 2012, today she has a clean bill of health.

Very few at work had any idea she even was fighting cancer because they couldn’t tell from her constantly upbeat personality.

The few who did find out did so during her chemotherapy only after asking her if she was “doing something different with her hair.”

That’s why Tuesday was such a surprise for many in the company because a camera crew from The Marilyn Denis Show descended on Fibernetics to whisk her away for a three day makeover in Toronto, and then a live shoot of the show on Friday celebrating her, and and her best friend’s, victory over breast cancer.

Dawn and Sandy Peacock Fullerton wrote into the show thinking that their story of how they became best friends while battling the disease together, was worth sharing and Marilyn agreed.

The camera crew ambushed her in the cafeteria, with the entire staff in tow, where she was so shocked she was, perhaps for the first time in her life, speechless.

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From all of us here at Fibernetics, Worldline and NEWT, have a great time Dawn, and we can’t wait to tune in Friday to see your national television debut.

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