Wouldn’t it be better to encourage small business ownership than punish it?
Chris clobbered me on the side of the head and then swam over me. Coughing and sputtering I came up for air and yelled foul. The referee blew his whistle and Chris was sent off to the side of the pool. I laughed and played on. It was all part of the game of water…
It’s time to take the plunge: to take a good idea and turn it into a profitable venture, you need to take a risk
Christopher O’Byrne stood on the edge of the cliff, looked down, considered jumping and then stepped back. He repeated the process over and over. He would walk away and then back. His mind told him to jump but his body just wouldn’t do it. Christopher knew he couldn’t take the internal dialogue any more, or…
Reaching out to wayward customers can not only reinvigorate your sales, but allows you to do a lot of market research
Grant was on the ground yelling as I came around the corner at high speed on my mountain bike at dusk. He had flown off his bike instead of hitting a moose standing on the trail. I skidded to avoid him. I could still see two moose, a cow and her year-old calf, on the…
When we take the time to engage with our customers and be sincere and interested, the dollars roll in
It was a Friday afternoon in Alberta. I’d met with some clients and had time for a walk. I decided to head to the strip mall near where I was staying. My first stop was the Peavey Mart hardware store, since I’d never visited one before and it looked interesting. I entered the store and…
Selling might come naturally to some people, but there’s often more than meets the eye to a truly great salesperson
The Gilbert family seem like they were born to sell. Will Gilbert sold 16 cars in June while the average car salesperson in North America sold only 10 vehicles. Will never did work for me, although I did have four other Gilberts employed over the years. Each sibling broke the sales records for departments that…
How much leeway do you give your employees to be generous with your products or services?
Brad Bonner was in a panic that June morning in Victoria. His luggage had been lost and he had an important meeting in a few hours. Getting up early, he walked the downtown streets looking to see which store would be open the earliest where he could buy some suitable clothing. He discovered that lululemon…
With limited resources to fall back on and failure not an option, newcomers buckle down and make the most of their new life
When Henry Novak and his brothers arrived in Canada in 1967 to escape a lack of opportunity in their native Slovenia, they had no option but to work hard. They came without money or English. They hoped to get a job with their brother Tony, who preceded them ito Canada and was working as a…
Air Canada could have reduced a lot of stress among its passengers by clearly conveying the winning message it intended
“Why are you making us do this?” the lady screeched to the Air Canada check-in attendant at the Dublin Airport recently. “I’ve never been asked before to put my carry-on luggage into those things.” She pointed to the metal stand into which her teenage kids were forcing their obviously oversized bags, to estimate appropriate size.…
Leaders need to find ways to relieve that burden. To find balance in their lives and set aside time to refresh. And they need the support and kindness of others
I’ve met many politicians but the hardest working one I know is Shirley Bond, the MLA for Prince George-Valemont in northern British Columbia. I first met Bond in the early 2000s, when she was starting out in provincial politics and I was starting out as a trouble-maker in an environmental group trying to clean up…