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Have you ever lost your wallet?
May 8, 2012 / 5:00 am
Photo: Contributed Have you ever lost your wallet? Or your keys? When these small items going missing it can really disrupt your life and leave you cold. “Where did I leave it?”, “When did I have it last?” You are now trying to figure out a way to...
Business & charity: 'Smart' combo
Feb 5, 2012 / 5:00 am
The desire to give back, to create value beyond the balance sheet and income statement, has long been a goal of thoughtful business people across the generations. The charitable efforts of Bill Gates for example are well known today as were those of Steel Magnate Andrew Carnegie in his time. As...
Choosing professional services
Dec 4, 2011 / 5:00 am
Photo: Contributed - (Photo: vichie81.jpg) I have spent much of the last 15 years of my business life either as a consumer of professional services or a seller/deliverer of them. In both capacities I have seen the broad range of options that are available out there,...
Motivation and Trust
Sep 11, 2011 / 5:00 am
Over the past five years, I have spent a lot of time learning and studying the subject of trust. The driver to study this subject so much was the result of having spent a lot of years handing out trust like candy on Halloween and then having some relationships blowing up like the...
Urban Farming - Lead by Values
Aug 12, 2011 / 5:00 am
Can you imagine being in a fledgling business where there are tones of competitive products, and prices are dictated by the market and the work level is high. Business theory tells you that in this case you need to stream line, standardize and automate to gain scale economies. But...
What is your pricing strategy?
Jul 8, 2011 / 5:00 am
My dad was a career grocery store guy. He had many other interests, but this was the work that he put most of his adult life into doing. A lot of what he did seemed not that interesting to me as a kid, until one conversation I recall very well to this day. I was about nine or ten at...
Niche to meet you!
Jun 24, 2011 / 5:00 am
Photo: Contributed When business opportunities seem everywhere, aggressive and insightful entrepreneurs can be easily distracted and drawn to the many “bright lights” of the multitudes of untapped opportunities that they come across. It is...
Grow your business with integrity
Jun 10, 2011 / 5:00 am
Photo: Contributed Integrity continues to dominate the thinking of many business people as one of the critical keys to the “Nirvana” of business success paths. As an example, recently I watched a Piers Morgan interview with business icon Jack Welch who restated...
Demographics and strategy - boomer style
May 28, 2011 / 5:00 am
In 1996 a great book was published called Boom Bust Echo, in which the author, David Foot, outlined how the behaviours and spending habits of specific demographic groups, particularly the Baby Boomers, could be used to drive business and investing strategy. Targeting the Baby Boomers...
My Daughter: Business start-up Genius
May 13, 2011 / 5:00 am
This past week my youngest daughter, who is not nearly as athletic as her bigger sister, learned how to ride her bike. I was amazed at her tenacity, her desire to continue to press on to learn how to ride a bike despite little or no progress for many days. She kept trying and no...
Three “low and no” cost start up ideas
Apr 15, 2011 / 5:00 am
With two current businesses in the incubation stage, I have been coming across some neat resources for small business. My goal for these two businesses is to start with the least capital possible. Both of these new businesses are giving me exposure to many new ways of getting things...
Go wash your car
Feb 1, 2011 / 5:00 am
Recently I sat at a local gas station waiting to meet with someone who ended up being incredibly late - more than two hours. I had parked near the car wash area and was able to get a few things done while I waited. During this time, I could not help but notice the vehicles that were in line. There...
Best business way to use e-mail
Jan 18, 2011 / 5:00 am
There have been a number of cases recently in the Canadian courts where e-mail and Facebook messages have been used against a person as evidence. In one case a person lost his job due to criticizing his boss on Facebook. While this is a new reality of our computer age, it is also useful to consider...
Real business growth: Web 2.0
Dec 21, 2010 / 5:00 am
Watching the CBC morning news recently the commentators were interviewing the well known Canadian comedian Ron James, who had just created a world record by Tweeting for 18 straight hours, resulting in about 500 tweets. This led me to think a bit differently about Twitter, social media and all of...
Reduce risk of bankruptcy
Dec 7, 2010 / 5:00 am
As a business person you have been aware of the common exposures to personal bankruptcy that you need to avoid such as, too much credit card debt, a highly leveraged mortgage, no emergency funds and identity theft. A lot of recent business theory has focused on more inclusiveness and openness in...
Alternate hiring practices
Nov 23, 2010 / 5:00 am
If you are in the position to hire people, you have had a pretty easy go of it over the last four years. A buyer's market has been the norm due to the weak economy. Employers have had plenty of great people to choose from. Staff turnover has not been much of an issue. However, demographics tell us...
The current state of the economy
Nov 9, 2010 / 5:00 am
Today’s economy is among the hardest to make sense of in more than a generation. Consider that recently in the Financial Post, it was noted that Second-quarter GDP “…will likely come in far weaker than many had originally anticipated given the downside risk posed by the widening trade...
The views expressed are strictly those of the author and not necessarily those of Castanet. Castanet presents its columns "as is" and does not warrant the contents.
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