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
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
No Respect Vending machines never get any respect. If you’re a YouTube aficionado, you have probably seen a video like this one, on how to hack a high-tech vending machine. When I was a kid, there were still a few of the old single door vending machines around. You would put your money in, open … Read more
The big secret here is … you have to get the right copy of the book. Every year, throughout the year, Soundview Executive Summaries takes the best business books on the market and and boils them down to an 8 page summary. No fat, no gristle, just 8 pages of meat! Time is money, and … Read more
It’s hard to find good people. Really hard. I have a whole binder full of business cards and phone numbers of tradespeople, suppliers, former clients, and people that used to work for me. Right now, I’m involved in a great little startup company. I pulled a pile of business cards out of my big binder … Read more
A friend called me the other night to tell me that The Apprentice was on. It’s one of the few shows I enjoy watching occasionally. Because of the highly publicized feud between Trump and Rosie O’Donnell recently, I knew the new season was supposed to start soon. I didn’t know it had already started because … Read more