This didn't have to happen

Brett Popplewell of the Toronto Star has a touching story today about the pending closure of one of Canada’s oldest businesses: Gibbard Furniture Shops of Napanee, Ont. The furniture maker is 173 years old, and one of Canada’s last pre-Confederation factories.

Gibbard makes carefully detailed, lovingly finished high-end furniture. It was once described by Eaton’s as “the aristocrat of cabinetmakers.” Its website still boasts of “our twenty-step finishing and rubbing process.”

Closing the doors "was the hardest decision that we ever had to make," said Bruce McPherson Jr., who owns the business along with his two brothers and his father. "The company has been up for sale for 15 months, and although we had a lot of interest, it just wasn't happening."

The Star blames Gibbard's pending demise on cheaply manufactured offshore imports. Well, that and the fact that a mahogany dining table and chairs from Gibbard sell for $7,900, vs about $900 for an imported set made with veneered particleboard.

The writer says “it's a source of pride to McPherson” that Gibbard never lowered its standards. Yet he also notes that McPherson “lowers his eyes to the floor and speaks with a hint of regret” as he says, "We maybe didn't need to pay as much attention to detail."

McPherson knows the real problem. He says, "We make furniture that lasts a lifetime... People don't want that anymore."

I hate to see old traditions and heritage industries die. But the fact remains that business is about creating what the market wants – not what you feel like making. If you just want to amuse yourself, you become an artist and starve. If you want your business to survive and thrive, you do what the market tells you.

As I told an audience in Markham the other day in my speech on Marketing in an Uncertain Economy, “Change is part of life and a key part of business. Stability is the exception. We must always be ready for change, and ready to change.”

You can't fall in love with your product. Popplewell writes that a highlight of Gibbard's factory showroom is an 1869 walnut buffet table. According to McPherson, “An elderly lady had this piece in her family for years. She was getting old and wanted to give it away as an heirloom but none of her family wanted it. So she gave it to us.”

I feel for the McPhersons and the 85 employees who stand to lose their jobs. Hopefully, many of them will stick with their work as artisans, and keep the spirit and craft alive.

But when people can't give your product away, it’s change or die.

Read the original story here. It’s terrific, sad and enlightening.

Offspring of the Last Recession

Do strong companies start in the midst of recessions?

Let’s find out. Here is a partial list of companies that were founded in the midst of (or the immediate aftermath) of the 1990-91 recession. All were founded in 1991, '92 or '93. By the year 2000 all were ranked among Canada’s 200 fastest-growing companies by PROFIT Magazine.

Boardwalk Equities
DataMirror Corp.
TLC Laser Eye Centers
Sierra Wireless
Spin Master Toys
Open Text Corp.
Platform Computing
Angiotech Pharmaceuticals
Aware Marketing Group
BRAK Systems Inc. (founded by Robert Herjavec, sold to AT&T Canada in 2000)
RTO Enterprises
Dundas Software Limited.
Triple G Systems (Acquired by GE Healthcare)
Mad Science Group
Summer Fresh Salads
Applanix Corp.
Custom House Currency Exchange
Peak Financial Group
KIK Corp.
MTL Technologies
Biovail Corp.
Total Care Technologies
LearnStream Inc.
Canadian Plastic Lumber
Gary Jonas Computing (Jonas Software)
Chipworks Inc.
e Bridge Software
Jewelstone Systems (acquired by AGF Management in 2002 for $60 milllion)
Transpeed Express
Duplium Corp.
AMR Technologies
Chariot Carriers Inc.
Drug Royalty Group (now DRI Capital)
Great Canadian Dollar Store
Tesco Corp.
Changepoint Corp. (acquired by Compuware in2004)
Apex Corp.
iWave Information Systems
Integrated Paving Concepts
Charon Systems

Many of these companies have changed names, products, strategies and management. Many have changed ownership. Some have morphed into successor companies.
But all of them prove out the thesis that tough times breeed great businesses.

Soft Landing into the New Economy

I got back late last night from Dryden, Ont., which is so far north and west that people go to Winnipeg for the weekend. Flying low over the lakes and forests of northern Ontario is a huge treat in Bearskin Airlines’ Fairchild Metroliners - they may be small, but every seat is a single, so you have both aisle and window.

I was a keynote speaker at the FI:RE 2008 conference in Dryden, put on for the entrepreneurs of the Northwest. (The other keynoters were tireless networker Donna Messer and fashion revolutionary Ben Barry, so it was a dynamite program).

Like many resource towns, Dryden has one big employer: the Domtar pulp mill. It’s been shedding jobs for years, but at least it’s still running. That gives Drydeners a soft landing out of the “old economy” (unlike, say, the folks in Dalhousie, New Brunswick, where the pulp and paper mill my Uncle Earl used to work in was shut down by Bowater in January). Local authorities there are apparently telling longtime residents that it's time to leave New Brunswick's north shore; governments have nothing to offer them.)

That's such a crock. In Dryden I gave a version of my “Future of Entrepreneurship” speech to help local business people and government agency staff recognize that the new digital economy will actually be a huge boon. If it can get its act together, a city that's always been defined by its remoteness has a chance to develop whole new industries and sell globally thanks to the Internet’s capacity for rewarding initiative and imagination while flattening distance.

(You know, it took me an hour to get that idea across in person.)

I also led a workshop on hiring and managing “best practices” for entrepreneurs. With the active participation of the audience, we came up with lots of strategies for easing employers’ HR headaches:

* using your business and personal networks to expand your search;
* giving more time to job interviews and asking much better, open-ended questions (thanks to Cathy Argue for offering, “Tell me about a time when you...");
* getting involved in local schools and networking with teachers to get an edge in hiring the best and brightest students;
* and improving employee alignment by “opening the kimono” to share more information about where your business is going (strategy and values) and how the business is doing.

As so many entrepreneurs tell me, open-book management works because their employees already think the business is making much more money than it really does. So when they get a better idea of how thin the margins really are, they become much more conscious of (and sympathetic towards) the business’s need for higher revenues and lower costs.

In Dryden they put me up at the Riverview Lodge, an elegant inn and restaurant that used to be the home of the manager of the mill. I think I had his master bedroom: I had a great view of the mill glowing at night like a thousand stars.

Check it out next time you're in Dryden.

Dragons Den returns!

Season III of Dragons' Den begins tonight at 8 pm on CBC TV (check local listings). There will be 11 episodes this year.

Watch for lots more deals this season, and for the fur to really fly as rookie panelist Brett Wilson, a socially conscious oilman from Saskatchewan, challenges Kevin ("All I care about is mon-ey") O'Leary for the position of Top Dragon.

To get you into the spirit, there's lots of good stuff at the Dragons' Den website, including episode previews, consulting dragon Sean Wise's "Inside the Den" blog (with lots of teasers and pitcher updates), and a chance to vote for your favorite pitchers. Starting today, apparently, the site will even allow you to buy products that are pitched on the Den. Check it all out at www.cbc.ca/dragonsden/

The latest issue of PROFIT Magazine has a special preview of the new season. The story package includes:

* Profiles of all five Dragons

* A fun story by Sean Wise describing the types of "pitchers" the show encounters. His taxonomy includes blowfish ("We're the next Google!"), cockroaches (they get crushed by big competitors), ostriches (three years in business and no sales yet?), and giraffes (their heads are in the clouds). Click here for more.

* My article looking back at three entrepreneurs who appeared on the show, and what happened next. Whether they won deals or not, things started to happen for them pretty fast. Was it dragon sorcery - or the magic that begins whenever you start taking action and thinking positively? Click here for the full story.

* A useful primer on other sources of startup capital, from credit cards to the BDC and angel investors. For those who don't need Dragon magic.

Hit the "Comments" button to let us know what you think of the show.

Small Business Month starts with a bang

For 1,000 Canadian entrepreneurs, October is going to be the month they turn the dial on their marketing up to 11.

Toronto marketing firm Silver Lining Inc. is launching a cross-country tour Oct. 1 to recharge entrepreneurs and help them build a strategic one-year growth plan.

The system is the brainchild of Silver Lining founder Carissa Reiniger, who is also using the tour to promote the launch of her new book, Inspiring Entrepreneurs: How to Build Your Business To Its First Million. She is also launching a new website geared to entrepreneurs, called thesiteforentrepreneurs.com.

Both the book and the website launch on Oct. 1.

Yes, Carissa is the same 26-year-old entrepreneur I wrote about in the Financial Post a few weeks ago who has just taken over as president of Women Entrepreneurs of Canada. Ah, the energy of youth!

Free to attend, the Silver Lining seminars are sponsored by a host of organizations, including Research In Motion, Staples Business Depot, Intuit Canada, and Citi Financial. Each half-day event includes Reiniger’s presentation plus a half-hour workshop by a local accountant on “Financial Planning for Growth.”

Most of the events take place at Staples stores across Canada. The launch event on Wednesday, Oct. 1 takes place at the Ontario Investment and Trade CentreGalleria, 250 Yonge Street, in Toronto. Things get underway at 8 am each day.

Here’s the tour schedule:
October 1: Toronto
October 2: Ottawa
October 9:Winnipeg
October 14: Edmonton
October 15: Calgary
October 16: Regina
October 17: Vancouver
October 20: Halifax
October 22: Moncton
October 24: St. John's

You can register for these free events by clicking here.

Naturally, Reiniger is planning a similar U.S. tour for January-February 2008. Details to follow.

Entrepreneur of the Week: James Fleck

This week we salute long-time entrepreneur, business professor and philanthropist James Fleck, who was honoured tonight at a $500-a-plate dinner for his accomplishments in business, the arts and society at large.

Fleck, 77, founded Tillsonburg, Ont.-based Fleck Manufacturing Inc. almost half a century ago. Specializing in wiring systems for appliances, it started with 10 employees and a piece of wire. When it was sold to Noma Industries in 1994 for $42 million, it had 3,000 employees and $100 million in annual sales.

Fleck has since spent his time helping to build other standout businesses, such as Alias Research, ATI, and CUC Cable.

At the same time, Fleck has also had a standout career in academia (he’s taught at Harvard Business School, York University and the University of Toronto) and government. He was CEO of the Office of the Premier of Ontario, Secretary of the Cabinet, and deputy minister of Industry and Tourism.

The 600 attendees at the tribute dinner included a who's who of Toronto arts, business leaders and politicians, and senior staff of every arts group Fleck has helped over the years. Proceeds will go to LOFT Community Services, which provides housing and support for 4,000 homeless people in Toronto. Fleck himself will match the proceeds, promising to donate $100,00 each to the National Ballet of Canada, Soulpepper Theatre and Rotman School’s “Prosperity Institute.”

As Roger Martin, dean of the U of T’s Rotman School of Management, writes on the Fleck tribute website (http://www.jimfleckgala.com/), “Dr. Fleck is truly a Renaissance man with accomplishments in so many fields it is both breathtaking and humbling. In many ways, he is the perfect honouree … because of his accomplishments in fields spanning Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design, Museum Studies, Health Science and Social Work in addition to Management."

Martin also refers to an innovation that Fleck developed as he raised funds for his various causes: the “Fleck Flinch Test.” It may just work for you, too. Here’s how it works:

“When on a fund-raising call, the rule states, think of a number you think appropriate for the donor – let’s say $5000 – and ask the donor for that number – $5000. Watch their face and if they flinch before they have a chance to say no, clarify that you are asking for $5000 over five years, $1000 per year. If they don’t flinch, clarify that you are asking for $5000 per year for five years. I will probably never be as effective as Jim Fleck using the Fleck Flinch Test, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t use it often.”

Congratulations to the multitalented James Fleck, our Entrepreneur of the Week.

Hottest of the Hot

Congratulations to Richmond Hill, Ont.-based MortgageBrokers.com, which ranks No. 1 on PROFIT Magazine’s Hot 50 list of emerging growth companies.

The new list is available in the October issue of PROFIT, or online by clicking here.

The Hot 50 list, founded nine years ago as “Canada’s Hottest Startups,” ranks emerging companies (three and four years old) by two-year revenue growth to find out what sectors are sizzling and who’s getting traction, how. The ranking originated in the dot-com days, but many different types of companies have always made the list.

Twenty of the top 50 this year are involved in business services, seven in software development, five in distribution and five in construction. There are four manufacturers, and four companies in consumer services. Rounding out the ranks are three retailers and two online publishers.

The diversity in the Top 5 is fascinating. There’s a network of mortgage brokers (MortgageBrokers.com), a Calgary-based drilling company (Pacesetter), a land developer (Simcoe Canada Land Development), a model-train manufacturer (Rapido Trains Inc.) and a developer of business-improvement software (Ottawa-based Apption).

To show just how new and hip this group is, two of the top five companies are based in Concord, Ont., a fast-growing Toronto suburb most Canadians couldn't find on a map.

What do these companies all have in common? A clear vision in a specific niche market, commitment to service and product innovation, and some facility in raising capital.

The result: average two-year revenue growth of 756%. The average company on the Hot 50 has sales of $6.7 million and employs 41 people.

And here’s some more good news: seven of the CEOs (14%) are women. While that’s not a huge percentage, it’s a big improvement over the ratio found on most lists of Canadian growth companies.

Here’s where to find more information:
* Browse the Hot 50 Rankings
* Read the thematic Overview
* How fast-growth companies hire
* Management lessons from the PROFIT HOT 50

Time for a motivational check-up?

Early birds save money at the SOHO Business Conference and Expo, coming up soon in Toronto (Oct. 1) and Vancouver (Oct. 15).

Both conferences feature a main presentation on “The Future of Marketing on the Internet,” by Kerry Munro, general manager of Yahoo! Canada. Their major afternoon speaker will be Kyle MacDonald, a B.C. blogger who captured the world's attention when he set out to trade a single red paper-clip for a house. Fourteen trades and countless stories later, he succeeded – demonstrating the power of vision, building relationships, and thinking big.

Some portions of the conferences, including seminars and trade show, are free if you pre-register ($25 at the door).

The Toronto conference, held this year at the Westin Prince Hotel in North York, includes freebie presenters such as the amazing Michel Neray (“Everything Starts With a Conversation, Including Your Next Sale!”), Shane Lawrence of TD Bank (“Proven Techniques To Improve Your Cash Flow”), Rory (“Find your Magic Number”) Sheehan, and Elizabeth Williams on “Telecommunication Technologies and Trends: How All that Annoying Stuff Your Kids Use Can Actually Help Your Business.”

Let’s face it. You could use a boost of business motivation. You need a personal recharge day. Your vision is probably in need of a check-up. And you really should improve your understanding of today’s newest marketing tools.

What’s stopping you?
For more information or to pre-register, check out http://www.soho.ca/.

Political Paradox

We don't usually get political on this blog. But I was impressed with the way Garrison Keillor, the Minnesota-based author and broadcaster (Lake Wobegon, A Prairie Home Companion) managed to capture, in a recent column, the central paradox of John McCain's campaign.

"So the Republicans have decided to run against themselves. The bums have tiptoed out the back door and circled around to the front and started yelling, "Throw the bums out!" They've been running Washington like a well-oiled machine to the point of inviting lobbyists into the back rooms to write the legislation, and now they are anti-establishment reformers dedicated to delivering us from themselves."

That's pretty much what was bothering me during the whole Republican convention two weeks ago. Although I couldn't put it into words the way he did.

To read the rest of Keillor's column, click here.

7 Survival Skills for Tomorrow's Leaders

What entrepreneurial skills do today’s students need to succeed?

I took a crack at that question in a presentation yesterday to about 50 students at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo. They were attending a get-acquainted session for SIFE (Students in Free Enterprise) – the Laurier branch of an international organization dedicated to building students' business and entrepreneurial savvy.

SIFE is a remarkable organization. Through SIFE, students across Canada get involved in ambitious projects designed not only to build their skills, but make the world a better place. A few of the programs SIFE Laurier is working on: helping coffee-growers in Mexico create a fair-trade co-operative; teaching business skills to inmates of a woman’s prison in Kitchener; and helping disadvantaged aboriginals in Toronto start businesses.

Building on this week’s apocalyptic events on Wall Street, I warned the students that they will be graduating into an increasingly uncertain world, where big business and government no longer have the answers. It will be up to each of them to carve their own path.

And these are the seven key disciplines I suggested they master:

* Critical thinking: Learn to question everything, to look for alternative solutions. Find the weaknesses in other people’s ideas and plans. Learn to articulate what is wrong with them and why things should be different.

* Understand strategy: Strategy is a consistent process of analyzing your assets and liabilities, understanding your opportunities, setting objectives and making appropriate plans to meet them. Strategic planning is the key tool of business. Planning what we'll do before we do it is what separates us from the apes.

* Understand a balance sheet: If you don't know how much money you have, and how long it’s likely to last, you won't be in business for long.

* Understand how to communicate: Your ability to tell explain your ideas, and convince other people to share in your enthusiasm, is essential to success in life and in business.

* Learn to tell stories. Stories are the way humans have always exchanged knowledge and information. Tell stories with beginnings, middles and end, heroes and villains and quests and obstacles. This is how people remember information; not through facts and names and statistics, but through stories.

* Embrace the Responsibility of Leadership: The world needs leaders. Leaders are simply people with ideas and visions, and the ability to convince other people to follow their lead. Confidence, passion and integrity are the leys to leadership.

* Give back: Virtually every successful entrepreneur I know is committed to giving back. No business succeeds alone: businesses win by engaging the support of whole communities of employees, investors, customers and supporters. In my experience, most business owners want to give back to the community that nourished their companies, and they are generous in doing so. They believe in kharma.

Entrepreneur of the Week: Dick Gusella refines the oil business

Seven years ago, Calgary-based Connacher Oil and Gas was worth about $1 million. This year, it has doubled quarterly revenues to the $200-million mark, and this month it cracked the Alberta Venture list of Alberta’s 100 largest companies. And it’s all due to CEO Dick Gusella, whose vision and entrepreneurial smarts have built Alberta’s newest “mini-major.”

Gusella, the 66-year-old former head of Sceptre Resources, had several business setbacks in the past decade (remember when oil was selling at $10 a barrel?). “I had to start over again when I was 58 years old,” he says.

In 2001 he and a few partners bought a shell company and then raised $1 million from investors. Today Connacher is an integrated oil producer with interests in conventional crude, natural gas, oil-sands production and refining – at a time when most of the industry is specializing in “pure plays” (just one form of production). “We are where we are consciously as opposed to sheer serendipity,” says Gusella. “Our attitude was to bring an oilfield approach to the oilsands instead of the megaproject mentality.”

Connacher's big break came when its technical team identified some promising properties being sold by the Crown near Fort McMurray. In January 2004, while most people were still recovering from Christmas, Connacher acquired 98,000 acres for $1.3 million. Just one site on that property, dubbed Pod One, is now known to contain enough bitumen to produce 10,000 barrels of oil a day – for 25 years.

Oilsands production requires lots of natural gas, so Gusella acquired a gas producer. Then he bought a 10,000-barrel-a-day heavy-oil refinery in Montana. As a result, he’s achieved true balance – if gas prices rise, he’s protected. If bitumen-refining capacity shrinks, he’s still okay.

Pod One began commercial production last December. By June, quarterly revenues had leapt to $200 million – and a second processing plant is in the works. As one analyst told Alberta Venture magazine, “You can't argue with results.”

We Easterners tend not to know a lot about the oil business, but it’s as dynamic and creative as any industry. For never giving up, for buying low, and for cracking the top 100 by defying conventional wisdom, Canadian Entrepreneur is proud to select Dick Gusella as its Entrepreneur of the Week.

(For more info on Connacher, click here.)

Turnaround at WEC

Last week's Post column dealt with some of the positive changes at WEC, Women Entrepreneurs of Canada.

When it began nearly two decades ago,WEC seemed determined to be a national voice for women business owners. It has been pretty quiet lately. But I was talking to the president-elect, Carissa Reiniger recently, and she's working on initiatives that will change all that.

You can read the story here.

Unfortunately, some members of WEC have taken offence at my article. They say the new plan has been in the works for quite a while, under the current board which is mostly leaving office later this month. They seem to bridle at Reiniger getting all the credit.

I certainly apologize to anyone who feels put out. Reiniger at no point criticized the current board or executive, and neither did my article. My comments about the weak pulse at WEC has been uttered many times by many entrepreneurs I have met in recent years. And everyone will welcome WEC's return to relevance.

Congrats to the current board (which includes Reiniger), and to the incoming board members, for a great plan. Now let's see the new folks execute.

The quotes keep coming!

The fact that our “Best Ever” quotes series has just come to an end doesn't mean you won't find any more inspirational quotes on this blog. It just means you don't have to wait till Monday for them!

So here’s a great quote from Donald A. Connelly, a U.S. motivational speaker and marketing consultant to the retail brokerage industry. He’s been a Wall Street broker, financial planner, branch manager, wholesaler, national sales manager and senior marketing officer.

This quote should be printed out and hung on the office walls of all growth-oriented entrepreneurs:

"The more successful we become, the further we get away from the basics that made us successful in the first place. In the final analysis, it all comes down to remembering the basics and keeping the focus on your clients' needs."

Connelly is well known for simplifying business concepts. It doesn't get any simpler than this.

You can visit his website for more.

Entrepreneur of the Week, Part I: The Return of Aaron Fish

Nearing the age of 70, award-winning Montreal entrepreneur Aaron Fish sold his lock-making company, Unican, in early 2001. But fate decided that seven years of retirement was enough. A year ago, Fish bought back the east-end Montreal factory where Unican first began.

And now, by working closely with his staff to lower costs and increase efficiency, Fish has returned that plant to profitability and is creating a new model for manufacturing in the 21st century.

Times had been tough for Unican since its $880-million sale to Swiss-based Kaba Holdings. Capital Industries Ltd., the lock and furniture-handle factory from which Unican sprang, employed 683 employees in 2001; by last year the staff had fallen below 200. The problem, as you might guess: fierce overseas competition.

Last November, according to journalist Marianne Ackerman, writing in the Montreal Gazette, Fish spurned his wife's advice and bought back that part of the company. "I bought it on Wednesday,” Fish boasts, “and by Monday morning we were in the black!"

It didn't come easy. Fish cut out the management fees paid to Kaba, and outsourced costly accounting and legal services to small local firms. He also cut a deal with his staff : if they agreed to a freeze of their pension plans, they would get 25% of future pre-tax profits. According to Ackerman, sales started growing almost immediately.

"Manufacturing is not dead in Canada," says Fish. "What we have to do is put our heads together with employees and find ways to compete, look for new markets and new ways of doing things."

Half of Capital's business is in metal furniture parts such as door handles. The rest involves components for locks and electronics. "We are not the most efficient operation around," says Fish. "If you need 50,000 of something, go to China. But if you want 10,000 and assured delivery, call us."

With rising labour rates in China and increasing transportation costs, Fish foresees a resurgence of specialty manufacturing in North America. Capital is now looking at opportunities in aerospace and transportation. “Bring us the designs," says Fish, "and we can make pretty well anything."

For perseverance, creativity, his concern for others and his unbounded confidence, Canadian Entrepreneur is proud to name Aaron Fish our first Entrepreneur of the Week.

You can read his full story here.

Coming Monday: Entrepreneur of the Week!

I've been dropping hints about the new Monday series that will replace the "Best Ever" Motivational Quotes we've been running for the past two years.

The new series is: Entrepreneur of the Week. A weekly salute to a Canadian business owner or innovator who has captured our imagination (or the headlines).

It's a bit of a gamble - but we think we can find someone worthy of the title every week. Your suggestions and nominations will always be welcome. Just email rick (at) rickspence.ca.

How will we choose them? An Entrepreneur of the Week must embody most of these seven entrepreneurial traits and values:

* Innovation
* Success
* Risk-Taking
* Creativity
* Growth
* Strategy

* Impact

We'll see you Monday for our first Entrepreneur of the Week. This owner's story will be as dramatic as it inspiring.

Starting a Business in one easy question

I just started using Yahoo’s online “Answers” service to suss out some anecdotal information for an upcoming speech. Today I discovered its daily archive of questions relating to “small business.” Scores of people looking for very specific business intelligence, such as how to conduct online surveys, how to make aromatic candles, or, hmm, how to recruit actors for an adult video business.

Anyway, the more general questions fit my expertise. I wrote the following reply to a recent college grad who says he hates his current job and wants to open a private music studio in his apartment. (Of course, most of this advice will relate to starting any kind of business.)

Some of the best businesses in the world have been started by people who hated their jobs and longed for something else. But new businesses fail when they are launched on impulse, without proper planning. Don't you make the same mistake.

You will be telling your students to practice every day - and so should you. In business, it's called planning. You must know what your costs are going to be, how much you will charge, how many students you need to make a profit, and how you are going to attract them.

Set out a timeline for starting your business. Allow adequate time for researching the market, preparing demo videos, developing a professional name and logo, researching your pricing, identifying potential allies and partners, creating a thoughtful marketing plan, and exploring zoning and licensing laws (you can flout them if you want, but you should know what the laws are that you are flouting),

Most importantly, find a mentor (or maybe two): someone who has run a business like yours, knows what he or she is doing, and is willing to share experiences and teach you the ropes. Don't try to do it all yourself: you will be wasting time reinventing the wheel and making old mistakes.

You may have to stick with your job for another few months. But it will be easier knowing that you are working on an exit plan. And you will have more time to bank money to support you during the first lean months.

For online advertising, learn about pay-per-click ads: Google AdWords, for instance. They let you target people who are searching for information on specific keywords - say, "music teacher" or "saxophone lessons" - within your own geographical market. And you pay (say, 20 cents a click - you set the price!) only if someone clicks through to your website.

Your site can be a one-page information site to start - that often comes free when you buy a domain name.

The good news is that since you are used to working for minimum wage, your revenue goals can be modest. If you are good at what you do, and you do a proper marketing job, you should have no problem replacing that income.

Follow your dreams - but run a check on them first to make sure they make sense.

* For more questions and answers on small business issues, check out Yahoo Answers here.

Should you start using Yahoo Answers? It may help your search engine positioning. I registered three days ago. Today my Yahoo registration (with my scanty record of questions and answers) ranks 9th when you Google my name. That ranks ahead of all my columns in the National Post or (sigh) 19 years of writing for PROFIT Magazine...

Did your RickAlert arrive this week?

In answer to many (okay, three) requests, two months ago I started sending out a weekly email with a link to my latest Financial Post column (and occasional other writings in PROFIT, MoneySense or TechData magazines). It's small-business intelligence on demand!

If this offer sounds enticing, just send an email to rick(at)rickspence.ca. Please mention "RickAlert" in your subject heading or text, and I will add you to the mailing list.

RickAlerts contain no advertising, and you can cancel your subscription any time. And of course I won't sell, rent or otherwise abuse your email address. That's just bad business.

This week's Post column looks at ways to beat the current slowdown, hands-down. It ends with a rhetorical flourish that' s meant to remind us that things really are cheerier now than in past recessions:

Excerpt: "...There are also opportunities that were unimaginable in the recessions of the '80s and '90s: the emergence of voracious new consumer markets in India and China; vibrant commodities and exploration markets; the increase of free-trade deals with foreign markets (and the exporting infrastructure to go with them); the boom in health care and personal services for affluent Baby Boomers and the availability of low-cost e-commerce options....
The future really is in your hands."

For the full story, click here.

Easy Zoom, Easy Go

The CBC website has a mainly sympathetic story about Anglo-Canadian entrepreneurs Hugh and John Boyle, whose six-year-old Zoom Airlines Ltd. crashed and burned last week.

The article describes Hugh Boyle as “the classic entrepreneur: a man with ideas, and energy, and a great deal of self-confidence. And he's followed a classic path: start with next to nothing, win big, retire, get bored, start again. And fail.”

The Scottish-born Boyles made their fortune in Britain in the direct-sell travel business. Hugh retired and moved to Ottawa in 1998, where he became frustrated with the lack of direct airline flights to sun destinations. In 2000 he started his own direct-sell tour operator, and then launched Zoom to provide airplanes for his tour company.

Before the closure, 2007, Zoom and its British sister company Zoom Airlines Ltd. had more than 600 staff and revenue of some $250 million. The business was apparently quite profitable until rising oil prices hiked costs expenses by an additional $50 million a year.

Asked in late 2007 if anyone had told him he was crazy for starting Zoom, Hugh told the Ottawa Business Journal, "I probably am. My wife tells me I am most days."

Also interesting, as always, are the reader comments. One CBC.ca reader praises Zoom for filling a market gap with its transatlantic flights, while another lambastes the company for selling tickets right up until the closure, and for deserting and/or stranding passengers without notice.

Sadly, this has emerged as a common risk that Canadians take when they fly with discount airlines. You never know if you’re home free until you’re safely back home.

Other than that, I don’t fuss over these airline bankruptcies. Most passengers get their money back, and in the meantime thousands of Canadians have saved big money on their vacations.

It’s very different from other businesses. If a factory closes down, the jobs and the value it created are usually gone forever: the equipment gets scattered, and the owner’s web of customer/supplier relationships can’t be duplicated. But when an airline closes down, the planes are merely re-leased or resold, and there’s always another entrepreneur willing to try his luck and start again (giving the workers a chance to stay in the industry).

Happy Trails, Zoom; what colours will your planes wear next?

For the full story, click here.

Best-Ever Entrepreneurship Quotes, Week 100

This is No. 100 in our series of weekly inspirational business quotes. I hope you have enjoyed this series; you can never have enough motivation. In fact, you can re-read any entry in this series any time by browsing though our archives).

We conclude this series with an observation from John W. Dafoe, greatest of Canadian newspaper editors, as well as a publisher, statesman and canny marketer. Born in "Canada West" near Ottawa before Confederation, he watched the country grow up and assume the responsibilties of nationhood through his 43-year stint as editor of the Winnipeg Free Press. (He died in harness in 1944, stll editing the paper at age 78.)

Perhaps only a Western Canadian, filled with boundless optimism, could have said, as he did in the middle of the Dirty Thirties, "The future will be what we make it." But such a sentiment is surely the hallmark of our greatest entrepreneurs.

Next week: An exciting new weekly series begins. Please join us.

The Mistakes that follow Failure

You may not recall the name Julie Wainwright, but you probably remember the company she led: Pets.com.

Founded in August 1998, the online pet-supply company went public in February 2000 and went bust nine months later. Since then it has acquired iconic status as the classic dot-com disaster – a domain name looking for a business plan. Its mascot, the infamous sock puppet, became a much-satirized symbol of Internet excess.

Prior to buying into Pets.com and becoming CEO, Wainwright had enjoyed a stellar entrepreneurial career. As CEO of Reel.com, she grew the online video store sales from $1 million to $20 million in a single year, then engineered its sale to Hollywood Video for $100 million. At Berkeley Systems, she oversaw a strategic shift from producer of software utilities (such as screensavers) to a developer of interactive entertainment (including the popular game, "You Don't Know Jack").

Wainwright resurfaced recently as company-founder of SmartNow.com, an information site (beauty, health, fitness, relationships, you know the deal) for women over 30. In a brave move, she has written an editorial about her personal problems since closing Pets.com.

“What most people don’t know is that the very same week that Pets.com failed, my marriage of seven years failed as well. Actually, it had been failing for a long time. It became officially over that week. My husband decided to call it quits the day before I announced to the employees and the public markets that I was shutting down Pets. It was a really bad week.”

Why is this relevant to Canadian Entrepreneurs? Because it’s so easy to make the same mistakes Wainwright did: focussing too much on your business, and taking the rest of the world (including your spouse) for granted.

“Now, I would like to tell you that [after the failure of Pets.com] I was down but not out. That I just brushed myself off and got on with life. I didn’t. At first, I kept myself hyper-busy. That lasted for about three months. Then, I sank into a depression. I’m sure I was in shock for a long time. It was a very dark, confused time in my life. I kept pushing myself to get back to normal. That didn’t happen.”

Check out Wainwright’s list of “Five Life-Changing Mistakes and How I Moved On.” Here’s a quick summary:

Mistake 1: I allowed others to define me. I completely defined myself as a failure, as the press did.

Mistake 2: I built my image of myself on two main supporting pillars [being “smart,” and being married].

Mistake 3: I stopped believing in myself. You can see how the first and second mistakes might lead to the third.

Mistake 4: I stopped taking care of myself. I had gained weight over the years and stopped exercising. When Pets was collapsing, I started exercising again and the pounds had started to come off, so my physical health had started to improve. What I didn’t realize is that my emotional health was deteriorating. I did not recognize my own depression. For at least two years after Pets shut down, I didn’t care if I lived or died.

Mistake 5: Allowing my head to rule my heart… The head is the ego. Mine was shattered. I had to exercise my heart in order to heal.

Wainwright’s article includes a lot more information, including details on how she coped with each of these problems. It’s candid, revealing and inspiring.

As Wainwright concludes, “If you have made your own mistakes and are not sure how to get on with your life, perhaps my reflections will help you. And if you make mistakes in the future, I hope my lessons help you in some way and that you will learn from your humanness and not slip slide into a dark place for long.”

Check out her story here.

Gold-Medal Economics Lesson

Economist William Watson had a great column last week in the Financial Post on why the Olympics works differently from the world economy.

Noting China’s sudden dominance in gold-medal victories, Watson figures some Canadians might be wondering whether the developing nations that are beating us so handily now at track, gymnastics and field hockey will soon be wiping the floor with us economically.

It’s a good question. Fortunately, as Watson writes, “economic life is very different from Olympic life.”

Point 1: In the Olympics, you're either a winner or a loser. There are no medals for fourth place, even if you finish one-tenth of a second out of gold. “But in economic life,” says Watson, “close counts a lot.”

If you are lucky enough to be the country whose living standards are ranked fourth-best in the world, you still have it pretty good. Iceland last year was No. 1, with a score of 0.968 out of a possible 1.0. Canada was fourth, with 0.961. The difference among the top countries is essentially negligible.

Point 2: Economics is not a zero-sum game. Winners create wealth, they don't take it from other countries. With China, India and other countries emerging from poverty to become industrial powerhouses, Canada may lose some companies, and indeed whole industries. But we also gain billions of new customers, with growing appetite for imported goods and services that smart businesses are moving to supply.

As Watson concludes, “economic life is almost infinitely expandable. The number of medals available to be won is limited only by our imagination and entrepreneurship. There are plenty for everyone.”

You can read Watson's original article here.

Best-Ever Entrepreneurship Quotes, Week 99

This is No. 99 in our list of motivational business quotes. The series, begun in September 2006, ends next week with No. 100. Feel free to guess which Canadian Entrepreneur we have chosen to finish off our series.

Two weeks from now, a bold new weekly series begins on this blog.

In the meantime, who else could we quote in our 99th week than Wayne Gretzky, the man who redefined hockey for a whole generation of sports fans? Hard to believe it’s been 29 years since I first met him in the Edmonton Oilers’ dressing room as a budding sports reporter for Alberta Report magazine. Since then he’s been named the top player in NHL history, and his jersey number, “99,” has been retired not just by the teams he played for, but by the entire league.

Not the strongest or fastest player on the ice, Gretzky developed a breakthrough strategy involving timing, anticipation and positioning. Journalist Peter Gzowski, who followed the Amazing Oilers for a whole season, thought Gretzky could “see” a play developing faster than anyone else in the game. It’s a powerful reminder of the importance of stepping back from a situation and seeing the big picture, rather than chasing everyone else around the rink – or your competitors around and around your market.

Gretzky’s unique and thoughtful approach to hockey produced a surfeit of motivational quotes that apply to sports and business alike. Here are just a few of them:

* “A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.”

* “I wasn't naturally gifted in terms of size and speed; everything I did in hockey I worked for.”

* “Procrastination is one of the most common and deadliest of diseases, and its toll on success and happiness is heavy.”

* “The highest compliment that you can pay me is to say that I work hard every day, that I never dog it.”

But my favourite motivational Gretzky quote involves his understanding of opportunity, and the sheer importance of taking a chance:

“You will always miss 100% of the shots you don't take.”

What can we learn from the Olympics?

Del Chatterton of Montreal-based consultancy DirectTech Solutions, an occasional contributor to this blog, has written a terrific (and timely) newsletter article offering 12 “Olympic Ideas for your Business.” (I love "Tear and Repair.")

Since I couldn't find a copy of the article to link to, I will copy and paste below, and hope Del doesn't mind.

The Olympic Games of 2008 have already provided inspiring examples of what the human spirit can accomplish, but there are also some interesting ideas from the Olympics that can apply to business. Consider these ideas.

The four-year planning horizon: Set aside your current plan. Review the results for 2008 and define new Olympic performance objectives for 2012 with specific milestones for each year until then.

Focus on your strengths: Choose to compete in the areas where you are most likely to succeed. Michael Phelps selected eight events he could win in - he did not try 15 events hoping to win eight.

Decide: You have to make choices to either give it your best effort over a long period of time or quit.

Push your limits: Test your capabilities and endurance to the maximum. "Tear and repair" is the way to build strength and endurance in muscle tissue; maybe in your organization too.

Learn from the leaders: What do the top competitors do that you can also do? Look at their preparation and training techniques; the little things that add up to a big difference.

Learn from your losses: Study your own performance and learn what makes the difference between your best results and your second best.

It's not for the money: You have to love it enough to do what it takes to be a winner. The money will follow if you have the passion and persistence to excel.

There is only one gold medal: You may have to settle for being the fourth, or sixteenth, best in the world at what you do.

Prepare for upsets: The best competitors know how to deliver for the big events and usually avoid surprises. You could be the upset winner when the opportunity arises if you are equally prepared and committed to maximum performance when it's required.

Have a world-class support team: Coaching makes a difference. Check that your consultants, advisors and support staff are up to the Olympic standard.

Don't cheat: The short-term glory of victory will eventually be replaced by the long-term disgrace of breaking the rules.

It's never too late: Canadian equestrian Ian Millar finally won a medal at age 61 after competing in nine Olympics. American swimmer Dara Torres at age 41 won three silver medals at this Olympics after coming back from retirement. Her first medal was at age 17.

Del also offers creative, practical business management solutions at DirectTech.ca

Purdy Crawford spills the beans -- Updated

What's going on in the ABCP imbroglio? What's the future of Canada's commercial paper market? What will happen to the $32 billion in frozen asset-backed commercial paper? And how can we make sure messes like this never happen again?

You can get the latest info from the horse's mouth today at 3:30 pm (I'm presuming that's Eastern Time; so 4:30 Atlantic time, and 12:30 Pacific) at the Globe & Mail website. Purdy Crawford, the retired Imasco CEO brought in to clear up the asset-backed paper mess, will appear live on the Internet to answer your questions and explain what happens next.

If you can't make it at 3:30 EDT, you can submit questions prior to the event, and check out the transcript later.

I will post a link to the transcript after the event.

Get more info on the event here.
Submit your question by leaving a comment here.

Read useful background information here:
Court strikes down ABCP challenge
In ABCP ruling, judges approve legal shield

Kudos to the Globe for arranging live interactive sessions like this. They build awareness and create dialogues that could happen no other way (since no sane person listens to talk radio any more).

UPDATE: You can read the transcript here. It's not much like a dialogue, after all: it reads more like a terse email exchange with someone who doesn't really want to say much. Still, it's a newsmaker caught in amber at a busy time, so you may enjoy.

I asked a big-picture question: What have we learned that might help us avoid similar fiascoes in future?

Crawford's reply: "I have committed to appear before the House of Commons finance committee to review what reforms if any should be made in this matter. At this stage, we have been working to complete the restructuring and have not focused on what the reforms, if any, should be."

History on the run, bah!
Read all 6 questions and answers here.

Best-Ever Entrepreneurship Quotes, Week 98

Here's your inspirational quote of the week as we begin our countdown toward 100.

This week, a motivational gem from a man who's been hailed as the greatest Olympian of all time. U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps has just set a record for winning the most gold medals in one Olympics game. (If he were a country, he'd be in sixth place.)

"You can't put a limit on anything. The more you dream, the farther you get".

Michael Phelps (born June 1985), member of the U.S. Olympic swim team, 2008

Advisory Boards Work

My column in this week’s Post looks at advisory boards. Ever since I worked on a series abut advisory boards with entrepreneur Greig Clark for PROFIT Magazine last year, I am seeing more and more businesses that could use a formal set of advisors – to help them with marketing, developing contacts, sourcing financing, creating more efficient processes, improving their recruiting efforts, cracking new markets, and so much more.

The truth is, however, that advisory boards are complex structures that require the entrepreneur to be organized, proactive, inclusive and accountable. It’s like getting a dog. Once you bring it home, you're responsible for it forever: feeding, bathing, brushing and walking. The closer they get to your company, the more your advisors will expect to be kept regularly informed, consulted, heeded, and perhaps even rewarded for their efforts.

Yes, you're opening a Pandora's box.

But if you're the type that welcomes organization and governance, knows how to ask for advice (and take it!), and can swallow your ego and accept direction – you can really benefit from an advisory board that helps solve problems and expands your access to resources.

Where do you find advisors? Use your personal network, and that of your friends. Strike a balance between smart, communicative entrepreneurs and disciplined, experienced professionals. Meet with each candidate a few times and ask lots of questions to make sure you're compatible before you bring them on board – you may be going through hell together, so make sure they’re the sort of people you want on the journey.

My secret hope is that some bank, university or other organization that markets to small business will pick up on this. What we need is an annotated directory of Canadian entrepreneurs and advisors willing to participate on advisory boards. Any organization that offered to sponsor such a useful resource would make friends fast.

But I digress. Click here to read my Post column and find out why accountability trumps autonomy.

Best-Ever Entrepreneurship Quotes, Week 97

I was in Windsor, Nova Scotia this past weekend for a Spence Family Reunion. The events included a brief tour of Haliburton House, the home of Windsor’s favourite son, Justice Thomas Chandler Haliburton (1796-1865), who was one of Canada’s first best-selling authors.

His “Clockmaker” books, chronicling the comic misadventures of Yankee salesman Sam Slick, were best-sellers in North America and England, putting him in the same leagues as Mark Twain.

Although little read or remembered today, Haliburton was the first to coin (or just popularize) many phrases and expressions that are still in common use today. Examples:

* As quick as a wink
* Seeing is believing
* He drank like a fish
* I wasn’t born yesterday
* A stitch in time saves nine
* Barking up the wrong tree
* A miss is as good as a mile
* The early bird gets the worm
* And that perennial favourite, “This country is going to the dogs.”

For motivational purposes, however, you can’t beat this zinger:

“Punctuality is the soul of business.”

In a world of broken promises, how do you use punctuality to beat the competition?

Your Bucket List

Happy August Holiday Monday!

The Post does not publish today, so look for my column in tomorrow's paper.

As a holiday treat, here's a link to last week's column, which dares you to think about what would happen to your spouse, family, staff or executors if you were suddenly to die or become incapacitated.

Not a fun thing to dwell upon. But wouldn't you rather be remembered for your success and business acumen, rather than for a messy desk and your lack of comprehensible records?

One entrepreneur has already told me that his wife has been after him about this for years. The dog days of August might just be a good time to get your "business will" in order.

Here's the link: A bucket list for business owners

Thanks to Elizabeth Verwey for doing all the work.

Best-Ever Entrepreneurship Quotes, Week 96

Here’s your weekly motivational message, personally selected to get your week off to an inspired start.

This week: a formula for success.

Quality = Results of Work Efforts (divided by)
white typewh Total Costs

W. Edwards Deming, 1900-1993. Consultant, Statistician and founder of the “quality” movement

Dr. Deming believed that when people and organizations focus primarily on quality, defined by the above ratio, quality tends to increase and costs fall over time.

Alternatively, when people and organizations focus primarily on costs (standard human behavior), costs tend to rise and quality declines.

Why? Deming blames the failure to monitor and minimize waste, ignoring amount of rework occurring, taking staff for granted, not rapidly resolving disputes, failing to notice lack of product improvement... Plus, over time, the loss of customer loyalty.

What's your choice?

Get your staff to do more

How do you get your staff to dig deep and “go the extra mile” for you?

An Oshawa, Ont. entrepreneur asked PROFIT Magazine that question, and this week a number of other entrepreneurs offered their solutions. This “Peer to Peer” feature is one of the coolest resources for Canadian entrepreneurs, because it’s not some journalism grad telling you what to do – it’s experienced entrepreneurs telling you what’s worked for them.

The question: “How can I encourage my team to be more entrepreneurial? Why don’t they care more about my business?”`

Here’s a selected look at some of the answers PROFIT’s readers came up with.

Answer 1: You can’t. That is why they are employees and not entrepreneurs. What you can do, however, is to start finding out what is truly important to them, then gearing their compensation (financial and other types) around it.
Most employees will not put in the extra effort if they believe it won’t get them something they value in return. ... If you do this, you’ll start to see a gradual change over time towards a more employee-preneurial atmosphere.

Answer 2: The most important thing you need to do is set expectations—from the recruitment process, during employee orientation, in regular team meetings, and with your performance-management programs.
To find entrepreneurial people, you need to identify in the recruitment and selection process those people who are keen to grow a new business.

Answer 3: Change the feel and atmosphere from “my company” to “our company.” … The staff have to see and feel the results from going the extra mile.

… When they feel the results—or lack of them—from their work and the effects on “their company,” they will feel empowered… Raving Fans: A Revolutionary Approach to Customer Service by Ken Blanchard comes to mind first as a recommended read, but there are many others.

Answer 4: Commitment comes from a sense of ownership. In some cases, selling shares or parts of the company to key employees is an effective option, though it is not usually very easy or simple. …

The other option is to create leaders. When someone is (really) in charge of a project that they helped get started or that originated from their ideas, that person essentially “owns” the project and will often go the extra mile to see it through.

… Talk to your people, asking them questions such as, “Are there operations that don’t make sense?”, “What would make a given task easier?” “How would you do it?” and “How should it be done?” Not only will you probably be surprised at their answers, you will likely perceive some of your staff differently.

You must be willing to involve them in improving certain aspects of their job, as well as get them involved in something bigger than simply completing the order, shipping the units or finishing the project.

Great stuff, huh?. Click here now for the full story.

For other Peer to Peer solutions, click this way.
This page also includes a clickable form for you to ask a question of other Canadian entrepreneurs. Go for it!

Do You Use Meaningless Words?

Tele-sales consultant Art Sobczak of www.BusinessByPhone.com reminds us that when we are selling, we have just 10 seconds or less to capture a listener's attention, break their preoccupation with what they’re doing, and place them in a positive, receptive frame of mind.

That's why you must never “muddy up your call with wasted words, or meaningless words.”

Here are some of the words and phrases that Sobczak considers overused and essentially meaningless:
* "cost-effective"
* "leading," or "premier," as in, "We're the leading company in this field." According to whom?
* "solution provider" (Who isn't?)
* "I'd like to discuss how we can meet your needs."

Sobczak offers this advice for your next sales call: Use clear terminology to quickly create interest. “Do this by alluding to what you might be able to do for them, and then asking a question.”

Example: “Art, depending on how you're using your existing list of customers, we might have a way to help you get two or three times the amount of repeat business you're doing now. I'd like to ask a few questions to see if it would make sense for us to speak further."

He finishes his article by quoting French essayist Joseph Joubert: "Words, like eyeglasses, blur everything that they do not make more clear."

Best-Ever Entrepreneurship Quotes, Week 95

A special motivational message.

“I'm not a dreamer, and I'm not saying this will initiate any kind of definitive answer or cure to cancer, but I believe in miracles. I have to.”

Terry Fox, 1958-1981
Canadian dreamer. Canadian hero.

Terry Fox was born on July 28, 1958. He lost a leg to cancer in 1977. In October 1979 he asked the Canadian Cancer Society to support his run across Canada to raise money for cancer research. His letter included the above quote.

Terry's Marathon of Hope saw him run halfway across Canada on an artificial leg before his illness forced him off the road. He died in June 1981. Since then, the annual Terry Fox Run and related charities have raised $400 million for cancer research.

Today is Terry’s birthday. He would have been 50 years old.

What's your dream?

Working ON your business, not in it

In his classic book The E-Myth, Michael Gerber identified the No. 1 challenge of entrepreneurship: working on your business, not in it.

But how do you make that leap from day-to-day “technician” to visionary executive?

In the E-Myth blog this week, Susan offers a simple process for busy entrepreneurs.
Her first point: Take one step at a time.

“Baby steps are better than nothing,” she says.

Next: “Make the most of your time,” she says. Free up time by taking control of your to-do list: Organize, Prioritize, Book the Time, and Delegate.

“Effective Time Management” is all about keeping a Time Log. A time log enables you to learn how your time is actually spent, and helps you put a value that time. The process shows you just how expensive you are to employ. You’re probably doing a lot of technical work that you could pay somebody else to do—just as well—for less money.

For more information and lots of great ideas, see Weber’s full article here.

Best-Ever Entrepreneurship Quotes, Week 94

Here’s your weekly motivational message, intended to get your week off to an inspiring start.

"How you think when you lose determines how long it will be until you win."

G.K. Chesterton, British author and essayist, 1874-1936

What’s going on with e-commerce in Quebec?

Is Quebec falling behind in online retailing?

Internet strategy specialist Jean-Francois Renaud of Montreal-based consultants Adviso wonders in a recent article why Quebec companies offer so few transactional websites.

More than 40% of Quebecers bank online, but only 19% of consumers shop online. Renaud blames that dismal performance on the fact that Quebec companies don't take e-commerce seriously: 93% of them do not sell online.

“It is mostly the large websites with well developed English versions that have a real e-commerce presence online,” writes Renaud in a recent newsletter. Yet he is convinced that Quebecers, like consumers everywhere, want to use their computers to shop, to read up on future purchases and explore store locations.

He also warns that e-commerce is the future. “Who will be the consumers of tomorrow and of the next 10 years? Generation Y, the greediest and most exacting when it comes to the information found on websites they visit. This generation places importance on a web presence and values sites that offer just that.”

To demonstrate how businesses are missing out, Renaud compares two Quebec retailers, each of which has between 50 and 100 stores. “One offers a transactional website that is extremely developed offering all their products and more, has an aggressive email marketing strategy, and web promotions with the goal of driving store traffic. The other has a prehistoric transactional website that is not even Web 1.0.”

The result? The first store boasts more than 50 times the online revenues of the second store. “In short, it is more than a profitable project.”

To be fair, Renaud notes that it’s hard to find good e-commerce solution providers in Quebec. Many offer entry-level solutions and some offer costly state-of-the-art systems, but “few providers offer a medium solution, for projects between $25,000 and $75,000.”

Sounds like a market offering a few opportunities...

You can read Renaud’s complete article here.

Why Blockbuster busted

Long before he became leader of the Green Party, Jim Harris was a business writer and strategist. His best-selling book Blindsided was one of the first great expressions of the new disruptive economy, in which established businesses can be skunked almost overnight by aggressive new competitors with innovative approaches.

Now that he’s a former politician, Harris is back to writing/speaking/disrupting. In the latest issue of Backbone magazine (which covers business and technology), he looks at how the once-mighty Blockbuster chain has been squeezed by video-rental upstart Netflix.

“One day in 2000, a tiny start-up company met with the Blockbuster execs. It offered to sell a majority of the company for a US$50-million investment. And the Blockbuster execs looked at the little company’s business model and decided it was deeply flawed. Instead, the wise Blockbuster execs signed an exclusive 20-year video on demand (VOD) deal with Enron.

"The little rejected company was Netflix, and it soon grew up: as of May 2008, it was worth US$1.9 billion. Blockbuster is valued at US$345 million.”

(I love the little dig about Enron. Enron! Who knew?)

Netflix is an online movie rental service with 8.2 million subscribers who can access more than 100,000 movie and TV titles. Its most popular subscription plan lets customers rent three titles at a time, with no due dates, late fees or shipping charges (on an unlimited number of rentals), for just $16.99 a month.

With Blockbuster now closing many of its stores and Netflix gaining market share in the video download market, Harris declares, “Blockbuster can’t survive in its current form.”

For the full story, click here.

(In Canada, Zip.ca does much the same thing as Netflix. This year it wil ship its 10 millionth DVD.)

Your 10-Point Guide to Speaking and Selling

My column in the Post this week offers 10 tips for more effective public speaking.

(Guaranteed applicable to story-telling, sales presentations, copywriting, and other common marketing situations.)

Check them out here.

Best-Ever Entrepreneurship Quotes, Week 93

Here’s the latest entry in our 100-part series of inspirational quotes, personally selected to get your week off to an inspiring start.

This week, the secret of selling - and of not being sold.

"Life is pain. Anyone who tells you differently is selling something.”

William Goldman, novelist and screenwriter

The Princess Bride

How to stay up to date and out of the sun

Montreal marketing guru Mitch Joel has just started writing a column for in the Montreal Gazette. His inaugural column reveals how to get started in digital media.

“Without a doubt, my answer is always the same,” he says. “Get yourself a news reader (also known as a RSS reader). I prefer Google Reader, but you can use iGoogle, My Yahoo!, Netvibes or any other Web-based tool that enables you to subscribe to websites.”

Here's the benefit of a news reader: When you find content information you like on the Web, the Internet will notify you when the website or blog has been updated. No more searching for the news: it comes to you!

Joel also recommends you start reading up: some of the world’s best marketers share their expertise freely on their blogs, so why not take advantage of these gifts? His seven favourites:

- Chris Brogan blogs about how business can better build communities.
- Seth Godin “The best-selling marketing author… Godin's posts are short, pithy and brilliant.” (Seth is also a favorite here at Canadian Entrepreneur.)
- GrokDotCom is the corporate blog from Future Now Inc. It focuses on “the human reactions to marketing, sales, PR and media.”
- How to Change the World - the personal blog of Guy Kawasaki, for entrepreneurs and start-ups. (I love this one too.)
- ReadWriteWeb – “If something cool is happening on the Web and it affects business, it's on ReadWriteWeb.”
- TechCrunch – “It's about all things geeky, but in an understandable context.”
- Web Strategy - By Jeremiah Owyang, a senior analyst at Forrester Research. “The latest and greatest on what companies are (and should be) doing in business today.”

More summer reading to keep you out of the sun!

You can read Joel’s column here, or visit his blog here.

Best-Ever Entrepreneurship Quotes, Week 92

Here’s the latest entry in our series of motivational quotes, personally selected to get your week off to an inspiring start.

This week, a seasonal cue to understanding customer behaviour.

"People don't notice whether it's winter or summer when they're happy."
Anton Chekhov
Russian physician, playwright and short-story writer, 1860-1904.

Flying High in an Industry Downturn

Did you know 2.5 million people will fly with Montreal-based Air Transat this year?

The plucky charter airline, barely 20 years old, continues to thrive while big scheduled airlines cut back. And it’s improving its customer service, not cutting back.

How do they do it? Travel writer Sam Ion chatted with the company’s brass and produced this report.

Based on her findings, I would say the secret is:
1) Know your niche.
2) Service the heck out of it.
3) Invest in training so your people know the right way to treat your customers – especially if you're asking for problematic things such as fuel surcharges.
4) Integrate vertically to expand your services while controlling costs.

As Air Transat president and CEO Allen B. Graham, told Ion, "In the end, giving customers what they want is all that matters.”

Jim Estill: Solid Gold

Globetrotting CEO blogger Jim Estill of Guelph-based Synnex Canada is blogging up a storm, even during his current trip to China. As always, his observations on business, productivity and life are pure gold.

In this post, he writes about 10 shortcuts for mastering speed-reading. They're all quite doable, starting with No. 1, "Know your purpose. What are you trying to learn?"

In "Managing Gowth Businesses," Jim finds time during his trip to China to blog about the six keys to successful mission statements.

And in a June 5 post called "Junior Achievement Banquet," Jim muses on the difference between small businesses and big ones - and why there will always be opportunities for entrepreneurs and startups.

Here's how he sums up the advantages that small business has.

"I always love the enthusiasm of youth. I love that many of them want to start businesses. Their fears in starting a business are that other companies are bigger, more established and have more resources.

"My fear as a larger business is exactly the opposite. We have resources and are well established but this means we are not as nimble as we need to be. It means things can cost more than they should. Overheads can be higher. The battle for larger business is to try to act small."

There's lots more good stuff from Jim. Just click on www.jimestill.com and read down till you stop learning.