Last week I started a new category here on Zoomstart called Whatsis. It’s just a place to talk about cool and interesting stuff. Today I want to talk about acoustic guitars because I love sitting down and jamming on one of mine every once in a while. Let me get this dumb joke out of … Read more
You might have noticed a little something going on called the housing boom over the last few years. (Or housing bubble), however you want to see it. It’s been a sellers market. A friend of mine, Richard “The Rocket”, moved out to Calgary for a while. He bought a pretty typical four bedroom house. After … Read more
Contracts, by their very nature, put people on opposite sides of the table. Friendships and long established relationships of all kinds have been destroyed by bitter contract disputes. But this also happens when there is no contract where there should have been one. The intent of the person or company you’re doing business with is … Read more
Previously, I wrote about a story of industrial espionage in the cola wars. I think everyone knows that large companies like Coke and Pepsi are always engaged in a branding war with their rivals. It’s mostly a game of advertising and it’s waged in front of us everyday on TV, radio, in print, on billboards … Read more
Calm days are not very good for sailing. Funny enough, they’re not very good for investing either. Housing Prices Vs Inflation Robert J Shiller, A Professor of Economics at Yale, showed how housing prices (after being adjusted for inflation) have not changed much since 1890. There were ups and downs, but overall the price of … Read more
The Swiss Watchmaker Breitling makes watches that are popular with aviators. One of their watches is also popular with some boaters; It’s called the Breitling Emergency. The Emergency has a built in ELT (emergency location transmitter). If you become stranded as the result of a downed aircrash or a boating mishap, you simply unscrew the … Read more
A business plan is a launching point. It’s an idea of which direction to travel in. And it becomes obsolete almost as soon as it is completed. Unforeseen events occur. Assumptions are proved wrong. Markets shift. Financing falls apart. Still, and for all the reasons that render a business plan irrelevant, it is the most … Read more
Or, How Microsoft Almost Didn’t Happen. It’s counterintuitive to sell something you don’t have. Most people start a business by building or buying something, and then they try to bring in sales afterwards. Sometimes they succeed. A lot of times they don’t. To ensure success, you have to sell first, raise capital, and then make … Read more
The debate over whether or not to raise the minimum wage is always heated. Politicians always talk in circles on this (and most) issues, so most people don’t get a full understanding of why it’s so controversial or how it affects them. A lot of people see this as big business vs the little guy, … Read more
Huff It? Huffing? Are you a Huffer? There are no heated debates or flame wars on the internet like there are on political blogs like Huffpo. Usually they only happen on Liberal sites like Huffpo because most of the Conservative blog sites mediate out a lot of criticism. Voting And Politics … Hand In Hand … Read more