Blog
Sunk & Opportunity Costs: the Fallacy and the Forgotten
One of the greatest challenges in business is that you must take decisions based on incomplete information while being distracted by your emotions. Opportunity costs and the sunk cost fallacy are essential to master to navigate such a challenging decision-making...
Employing Newton’s Secret to Maximize your Productivity
Imagine a skill so great that Sir Isaac Newton, the father of modern physics and the discoverer of the concept of gravity, attributed his success to it. In his own words, he stated, “If I have made any improvements in the sciences, it is owing more to patient...
Find the Entrepreneur in You
Entrepreneurship is often pitched as this far-off dream that requires lots of knowledge and years of study. I can’t blame business schools for emphasizing the value of their entrepreneurship programs – it is their business to teach as many students as possible....
How to Raise Money for your Business
Start-up capital is the fuel that transforms your idea into a full-blown business. Start-ups typically require capital at three stages: (1) initially to get off the ground; (2) to fund their operations until they reach a basic level of profitability; and (3) to expand and scale their operations.
Selling Unlimited-Margin Products
Selling products with unlimited sales margins (the profit percentage on sold items) should violate the rules of economics. Except there is a way to do it by selling products that cost you nothing. This sounds impossible, but it isn’t. The trick is to focus on...
Strategies to Increase Your Average Order Size
It almost always costs you more to acquire new customers than it does to get your current customers purchase more. This quintessential truth must guide your business’ growth strategy. The first step in that quest is to learn as much information as possible about your...
Writing a (Compelling) Demand Letter
At one point or another, and hopefully later rather than sooner, someone will wrong your business – maybe a customer didn’t pay or supplier didn’t deliver what was agreed upon – such that you are contemplating taking them to court . However, before instituting legal...
Following up to your Success
Data and feedback from your customers is crucial to your business’ success. Judy Garmaise in her book The Power of Follow Up stresses the importance of following up in business to both: (1) be front and centre of mind of your customers and (2) to have early notice of any issues which they might have.
Don’t Lose your High-Value Customers by Charging too Little
Curiously enough, undercharging for your services often leads to your business' highest-value customers not purchasing your products since they are not prepared to wait around for you to service your lower-value customers first. This is due to the fact that your...
The Bankrolled (1-Page) Business Plan
Having a plan is crucial to collect your thoughts and to avoid costly mistakes. Preparing a business plan will help set your business off on the right foot. Although many different models of business plans are out there, I find that they are either too long or too focused on aspects that are really not that important.
Running a Lean (Mean) Business Machine
You sometimes get it right the first try, but more often than not, you only get it right on your third, fourth or fifth attempt. This poses a challenge to a lot of businesses since they just don't have the resources to go through all these different iterations,...
Diderot’s Secret from 1769 to your Success
One of my favourite essays is Denis Diderot’s “Regrets for my Old Dressing Gown”. This piece from the late 18th century tells the tale of how Diderot replaced his old dressing gown for a new, fancy one. Feeling that the furniture and artwork in his study were no...
Sugar and Spice: Sales Margin and Volume
Sales margins and sales volume are two sisters who work hand-in-hand to determine the profitability and therefore the survival of your business. Sales volume is the dollar value of the sales which your business makes during a given period while a sales margin is the...
Constraints to the Rescue
“I don’t have the time and money to start my own business.” People tell me that all the time to explain why they are not following their dreams and starting their own business. However, a more accurate answer is that they don’t believe that they have enough time or...
Finding (Again) the Energy to Work on your Business
No matter how much you like or are passionate about your business, there are times when you simply lack the energy to do what you need to do. This is perfectly normal by the way. In the same way as there is a whole set of strategies to deal with writer’s block, let's...
Pricing your Hourly Rate
You have your business idea, you are excited to get started. Now comes the tricky question: how much to charge per hour for your services? Let's explore some pricing models for service businesses. A service-oriented business is one in which you are primarily selling...
Picking a (Winning) Name and Logo for Your Business
“He was ashamed. Thought of changing my name. Oh, what’s in a name?" sang Timon and Pumbaa in the Lion King. And just like on the African savanna, there is a lot to a name and picking the right one with a solid logo is crucial to your business' success. I see numbered...
Managing Time and Clients to Get Things Done
Did you know that the average knowledge worker only works 3 hours out of an 8-hour day. Cal Newport, the author of Deep Work, believes that this is a symptom of our hyper-stimulated society in which we are constantly being bombarded by distractions which inhibit our...
The (Essential) Parts of your Business’ Shareholder Agreement
They say that good fences make good neighbours. Similarly, shareholder agreements (also written as shareholders’ agreements) establish the rules of the game between the shareholders of a corporation. First off, if there is only one shareholder in your business, there...
Business Cards, Email Addresses, Typography: Presentation Matters for your Business
Same as the first impression on a date, presentation in business is also super important. All the more so during the early phases of your business when you are trying to attract those first prospects and customers…
Money, Money, Money: Managing your Business’ Accounts Receivable
It’s all nice and swell for your business to have great sales, but if it can't collect on its outstanding invoices, it’s all for nothing. The size of a business’ accounts receivable (the amount of money owed to it by creditors) and the ability to collect on those...
Which Business Structure to Choose for your Business
Company, sole proprietorship, general partnership, limited partnership, corporation, LLC, S-Corp, C-Corp. Hold the phone. What do all of those terms mean and how do you decide which one of those business structures to choose for your business? Let’s start by clearing...
Starting a Business on Only a Few Hours a Week
Is a lack of free time holding you back from starting your own business? Why not frame the problem differently: how can I do what needs to get done for my business within the limited number of hours available each week? The reality is that with the right...
How to Find a (Good) Idea for your New Business?
You are interested in starting your own business, but you don’t have a good idea of what your business should do. Let’s explore how to come up with a business idea and to figure out if it’s a good one. Coming up with a business idea Most people are looking for...
Slowing Down to Speed Up: Writing by Hand for Success
Deep Work by Cal Newport raises an interesting question. How could it be that with all of our technological advances that knowledge workers (as opposed to factory workers) are no more efficient and faster than workers in our parents’ and grandparents’ generation even...
Automate Your Tasks (Away)
In any business, but especially in a side business, you don’t have the luxury of using your time unproductively because you only have so many hours to devote to your venture. But, as with any constraint, this presents an opportunity to improve your efficiency. For...
No, you don’t have to Quit your Job to Start a Business
We have all heard the story before. A couple of people quit their jobs and start a business. Everything takes longer than expected and times get tough, but when they are on the brink of giving up and being forced to return back to their old jobs, they hit it big and...
SAFEs and KISSes: the (New) Way to Invest in Start-ups
In the ever-changing world of startups, not only are there great innovations in the products and services created, but also in the ways in which those start-ups try to raise investor capital such as through a Simple Agreement for Future Equity (SAFE) or a Keep It...
More than Debits and Credits: An Accounting Primer
“Data! Data! Data! […] I can’t make bricks without clay.” Sherlock Holmes famously told Dr. Watson. Similarly, in business you need to know your accounting numbers in order to be successful and make informed decisions. Now, I hear you saying, “But I use accounting software, so why do I need to know this?”
A Secret from 1776 to Improve Your Productivity
There are three main approaches to improve productivity: increase worker efficiency; increase working capital or equipment; or increase worker energy and motivation. This post is going to examine the first option to increase your productivity and therefore increase...
Build and Set Up a Website (the Easy Way)
You can now go from an idea to a fully operational website within just a couple of hours. It’s pretty unbelievable how fast and efficient a lot of today’s website builders are and so there’s really no longer an excuse not to have a website with your own hosted domain....
Take Control of your Email Inbox (in 5 minutes or less)
Lawyers are guilty of sending and receiving more than their fair share of emails and I used to always worry that I would miss an important one. This post is about sharing a trick I came up with to take back control of my inbox. Hopefully, it'll help you do the same...
KISS Your Contracts (Goodbye)
Recently, I was reading J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit and I came across a nice little contract hidden in its pages: Thorin and Company to Burglar Bilbo greeting! For your hospitality our sincerest thanks, and for your offer of professional assistance our grateful...
8 Best Business Books of all Time
In business and in life, we are all too quick to try to reinvent the wheel. Although we all have that spark of genius within us, it’s best spent pushing the limits of what is known or done as opposed to simply rediscovering what others have already figured out. This...
Manage Your Time the Pareto Way
Time is our most precious resource, as unlike just about everything else, you can’t get it back once it’s gone. You can’t turn back the clock and do yesterday again differently. I remember reading a book called How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett. The book...
Federal or Provincial Incorporation: How to Choose
One of the most important steps of creating and building a business is to incorporate. Although many believe that first you need to build the business and only after it has seen some success, should you actually incorporate it. I would suggest that you prioritize...
It’s Time to Call Yourself an Entrepreneur
One of the biggest barriers to actually start a business is to overcome the fear of taking that first step. Imposter syndrome is real and even after years of being successful, many businesspeople still believe that they are not fully suited to that line of work. This...
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