PROFIT BusinessCast

By PROFIT Magazine & PROFITguide.com

What's PROFIT BusinessCast about?

The PROFIT BusinessCast helps entrepreneurs and innovative executives address their strategic and day-to-day business issues. Through engaging interviews with preeminent business owners, industry experts and renowned authors, the PROFIT BusinessCast delivers information and insight that helps entrepreneurial businesspeople seize new opportunities and hone their competitive edge.

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PROFIT BusinessCast episodes:

01.05.2017
3 Tips to Make Your Firm Economically Agnostic
During the peak of the last economic downturn, Brian Gracon found himself spending a lot of time at the mall. Stopping in to grab some food on the way back for meetings, he was surprised to see crowded parking lots...
12.15.2016
What's Next for Equity Crowdfunding in Canada?
Regulatory changes at the beginning of 2016 opened equity crowdfunding up to more Canadian companies and retail investors. In the months since, a number of startups and growing ventures have sold small stakes to the public via online portals, though...
12.01.2016
Who You Should Listen to When You’re Building Your Business
Whether they’re looking for it or not, there are plenty of people willing to bend entrepreneurs’ ears with suggestions and ideas about how to run their businesses. But not all advice is created equal. “Everybody has an opinion, and who’s...
11.17.2016
3 Good Reasons Not to Franchise Your Business
Everyone knows ‘a guy.’ You drop your phone, or it just stops working, and in an effort to avoid paying hundreds of dollars for a new one, you go to your ‘guy’ to get it fixed. But “it’s not a...
11.03.2016
Why Digital Media is Having a Moment
Gaming is a $3 billion industry in Canada. The sector has seen successful titles from independent studios and the local outposts of multinational corporations alike. But while there are plenty of players in the space already, there’s always room for...
10.20.2016
3 Tips for Building Business Relationships
Eight years ago, Jeremy Choi started working out at Clance Laylor’s downtown Toronto gym. Over the years, serial entrepreneur Choi helped the trainer with some branding and strategy decisions. When Laylor decided to turn his strength and performance coaching regimen...
10.06.2016
3 Questions to Help You Disrupt Your Industry
Nicole Tapscott was referred to her current job by a friend. Well, sort of. Tapscott’s friend, a resident of New York city, was raving about a purchase he’d recently made, and the product in question—a mattress from U.S. e-commerce retailer...
09.22.2016
4 Tips for Successful Influencer Marketing
Nicholas Reichenbach may have been the only person in North America who hadn’t heard of Josh Donaldson when his agent called the Canadian entrepreneur last year. “I don’t follow baseball—I go to a Jays game once in a year,” admits...
09.01.2016
What It Takes to Build an On-Demand Business
The modern consumer isn’t used to waiting. Technology—whether it’s searching on Google instead of in library books or reading emails instead of waiting for letters to be delivered—has led us to expect the rapid fulfilment of our needs and wants. So...
08.18.2016
3 Podcasting Lessons From 400 Episodes of BusinessCast
When Andrew Brown and I first started meeting in a Bagel House location to record our conversations about business and entrepreneurship, podcasting was in its infancy. Apple had enabled this new form of media on iTunes not long before, and...
08.04.2016
The 3 Things You Need to Scale Successfully
It’s been 27 years since a high school student idling in the drive-thru lane at a McDonald’s had the flash of inspiration that turned into a major Canadian entrepreneurial success story. In line behind an old pickup truck with ‘Mark’s...
07.21.2016
3 Tips for Coming Up With More Creative Ideas
Marilyn Barefoot learned the technique she now teaches from Tetra Pak—the company, not its namesake packaging. Barefoot, who spent most of her career in the advertising industry, was set to work with 600 of the firm’s employees at a conference...
07.07.2016
Why Community is the Most Valuable Thing Your Company Can Build
After he graduated high school, Daniel Dubois spent six months backpacking in Australia with a friend. For part of their time Down Under, the two were put up by a local family. “We’d wake up early in the morning and...
06.23.2016
3 Launch Lessons From a Fintech Entrepreneur
Thanks to her generous parents, Arti Modi made it through university without student loans. Modi did have a credit card, but she almost never used it. It’s the kind of responsible behaviour she should have been rewarded for. But to a...
06.09.2016
Why You Shouldn’t Just Give Clients What They Say They Want
A prospective customer who approaches Jon Voigt’s firm about a project is likely to hear one question a lot: Why? Voigt and his team aren’t just mimicking the inquisitive phase of childhood. They’re gathering critical information. More than half of what...
05.26.2016
6 Legal Matters You Should Tackle at Startup
There’s no shortage of things to do in the days after you decide to go into business for yourself. Your list will include big decisions such as what your company will do and be called, where it will operate from,...
05.12.2016
9 Tested Steps for Equity Crowdfunding Success
As any entrepreneur knows, raising funds for a successful startup can be inconvenient at best, and hopeless at worst. But for those dreading knocking at VC’s doors, take heart: there may be a new way to raise the capital you...
04.28.2016
What You Must Do Before Launching an Equity Crowdfunding Campaign
Snowbirds may flock to Florida for the Sunshine State’s balmy weather, but Canadian technology entrepreneur Oscar Jofre found something even better on a trip to Orlando: an idea for a new business. Jofre had his eureka moment while listening to Douglas...
04.14.2016
When Fewer Clients Means More Business
At an age when his friends were busy hanging out and knocking back beers, Nick Karadza was flipping houses. “I started investing when I was 21 years old—probably too young to know any better,” he recalls. Without much by way...
03.31.2016
What You Need to Know About Crowdfunding Right Now
Once a niche funding source for personal projects and products no consumer would ever want to buy, crowdfunding has evolved into a legitimate, common form of capital for startups and innovative businesses. Want proof? Look no further than the agenda of...
03.17.2016
The Crucial Question Too Many Organizations Fail to Ask
There’s a line of thinking in the business world today that the most crucial part of any organization is it’s ‘Why.’ And David Horsager agrees that purpose is important. “If you have a strong enough ‘Why,’ you don’t need the...
03.03.2016
5 Things to Consider Before Making an Equity Crowdfunding Investment
While high net-worth individuals and private equity firms have made plenty of money off smart early investments in high-growth startups, retail investors haven’t been able to do the same—until now. The new equity crowdfunding regime that took effect in five...
02.18.2016
Why Crowdfunding is So Hot Right Now
Since the days of the first Kickstarter campaign, crowdfunding has grown from just another quirky form of Internet commerce to a well-established way to raise funds and generate buzz around a new product or company. Need proof? At January’s Consumer Electronics...
02.04.2016
9 Key Questions About Equity Crowdfunding Answered
Crowdfunding used to be a way for companies to generate some orders and build some buzz around their products pre-release. But thanks to regulatory changes that took effect in five provinces last month, businesses can now offer backers equity instead...
01.21.2016
How to Create a More Focused Workplace
Over two decades as an entrepreneur in the manufacturing industry, Kira Leskew saw what lapses in concentration could do to workers and companies. “If you trace back quality problems, a very high percentage of the time [it’s because] someone didn’t...
01.07.2016
How to Develop a Product the Right Way
Access matters, Dave Wilkins believes. “[It’s] a critical ingredient to entrepreneurial and career success,” he says. “If you don’t have access to the right type of person to bounce around ideas or get guidance, you will not be as successful...
12.10.2015
What For-Profit and Not-for-Profit Organizations Have in Common
Kathleen McGinn is well acquainted with what it takes to run a sizeable organization. McGinn co-founded Beerbistro, a successful downtown Toronto eatery she operated for a decade. At its peak, the business had 58 staff and $4.5 million in annual...
11.26.2015
How to Survive Being Disrupted by Apple
Curtis Priest’s childhood bedroom had a large poster on one wall titled “All I Need to Know About Life I Learned from Star Trek.” On it was a lesson he’d come to keenly appreciate in his later entrepreneurial career: don’t...
11.12.2015
6 Steps to Marketing Your Business Online
Being fired from a job is not a pleasant experience for anyone. So when it happened to Mike Brcic twice in short order, he decided it was time for a change. “I discovered that I was probably not a great...
10.29.2015
5 Steps to Building a Sustainable Web Presence
Paul Chato’s company has built over 2,000 small business websites, so he’s had a front-row seat to the web’s takeover of the business world. “Canadian businesses are brutally behind almost everybody in the world,” he says. “Even though we have...
10.15.2015
The Challenges of Creating a Technology Platform for Professionals
When Dr. Meghan Walker first started seeking listings for Bright Almond, a service that connects consumers with licensed naturopathic professions, she assumed it would be easy. “I was a practitioner and I said, ‘I want to see more people and...
10.01.2015
5 Startup Lessons from a Student Entrepreneur
In case passing the final year of aerospace engineering wasn’t pressure enough, Rahul Goel has a job. When he’s not in class, the University of Toronto undergraduate is also co-founder of PheedLoop, an event engagement tool. PheedLoop started as a way...
09.16.2015
What Generation Y Wants From Employers
Whether it’s winning their business as consumers or recruiting the most talented ones as employees, millennials are today’s in-demand demographic. But Generation Y is also a source of anxiety amongst bosses, who are still learning how to engage and retain...
09.03.2015
3 Steps to Make You a Better Team Leader
A nine-person team at an educational institution had recently gotten a new leader, after several years of working for the same, beloved manager. The new boss called in Carol Henry help make the group gel. “He knew he had fabulous people...
08.20.2015
3 Ways to Make the Most of Business Coaching
Today, Evan Williams is an entrepreneurial inspiration for his work as co-founder and CEO of Twitter. But in 2005 he was running Odeo, the company that would develop and spin out the social network a year later—and not everyone thought...
08.06.2015
Why Flat Organizations Make for Better Startups
Julian Bolster runs six businesses, simultaneously. Not content with that entrepreneurial workload, Bolster is also an executive coach at the Bolster Life Group, and is in the process of launching yet another venture. Thanks to his experiences as a serial CEO,...
07.23.2015
Why John Sculley Believes Now is the Right Time to Take Your Moonshot
To run one of the world’s biggest companies is an impressive achievement; to have run two just seems greedy. Fortunately former PepsiCo president andApple CEO John Sculley, isn’t hoarding the insights he gained in those two high-profile jobs and the...
07.09.2015
5 Tips for Running a Successful Niche Business
The art gallery business in Toronto is cutthroat, but fortunately Marianne Katzman knows what she’s doing. Katzman, director at Katzman Contemporary, has spent over a decade in the art world, and done everything from hanging paintings to ordering supplies and...
06.25.2015
How a Strategic Filter Can Help You Make Better Business Decisions
One of Ian Chamandy’s clients is a company that installs retail shelving. When a new Home Depot opens, for example, this firm fills the big box with the racks that hold $13 magnetic tape measures and $65 high-leverage cutters. “Once...
06.11.2015
Why the Sales Funnel is No Longer Useful
Every salesperson knows the sales funnel. Prospects go in at the top, deals come out at the bottom. But that analogy for the sales process is no longer useful according to Lisa Shepherd, president of The Mezzanine Group, a B2B...
05.28.2015
4 Steps to Creating Shareable Content for Social Medias
Most businesses realize that engaging with consumers on social media is now a necessary part of brand management, but that doesn’t mean they’re doing it right. “I think most brands are blowing it,” says Erica Ehm, creator and publisher of...
05.14.2015
How to Build a Viable Big-Event Business
The organizers of the Boots and Hearts country music festival were facing an enviable problem: their product was too popular. The annual camping concert event had been held at MoSport Speedway for three years, but could only sell 30,000 tickets...
04.30.2015
3 Questions to Ask About Your Just-in-Time Workforce
If you operate in an industry where work is cyclical or your business executes projects requiring specific skillsets, retaining a full-time permanent staff can be a crippling cost. To fix this problem, increasing numbers of these kinds of businesses are...
04.16.2015
3 Steps to Building a Truly Disruptive Business
There’s a lot of water out there now in the marketplace—all the soft drink companies have moved to water as the new cash-cow. But Nicholas Reichenbach believes there’s still room for a truly disruptive company to shake up the packaged...
04.02.2015
The Secret to Success in a Creative Industry
Entertainment is a lot like entrepreneurship. Making a career in either field means a life fraught with risk and competition, and very few will make much money doing it. But the secret to succeeding as an entertainer or entrepreneur is...
03.19.2015
3 Simple Ways to Reduce Your Rent
Where you choose to locate your business could make all the difference to it’s success. But too many business owners and executives find the right place to open their doors, only to pay far too much for the privilege of...
03.05.2015
3 Mistakes to Avoid When Seeking Investor Capital
Matthew Castel should know. The Head of Strategy and Global Macros at Logos LP has been on both sides of the financing table. Castel cautions that attracting capital requires patience. “No matter how good your business or investor pitch is,...
02.19.2015
No Brand Means No Business
Jeremy Miller’s company needed a reboot. Faced with a declining market for its services and with no clear differentiating factor, Miller and Associates had to choose between two difficult options: “We could either reinvent ourselves and find a new path...
02.05.2015
How to Recover From a Near-Death Experience
Claudia Harvey had a major order to fill, the spring quota of a big-box retailer. But when the co-founder of Dig It Apparel examined the inventory delivered by the outsourcer manufacturing her merchandise, she realized she had a major problem....
01.22.2015
The Partnership Route to Growth
Your company may be the best at what it does, but that doesn’t mean anything unless you can get your products to market and service your customers. “You may have for example some of the best programmers in Kitchener-Waterloo but...

What's PROFIT BusinessCast about?

Download our free app to listen on your phone

PROFIT BusinessCast episodes:

3 Tips to Make Your Firm Economically Agnostic

What's Next for Equity Crowdfunding in Canada?

Who You Should Listen to When You’re Building Your Business

3 Good Reasons Not to Franchise Your Business

Why Digital Media is Having a Moment

3 Tips for Building Business Relationships

3 Questions to Help You Disrupt Your Industry

4 Tips for Successful Influencer Marketing

What It Takes to Build an On-Demand Business

3 Podcasting Lessons From 400 Episodes of BusinessCast

The 3 Things You Need to Scale Successfully

3 Tips for Coming Up With More Creative Ideas

Why Community is the Most Valuable Thing Your Company Can Build

3 Launch Lessons From a Fintech Entrepreneur

Why You Shouldn’t Just Give Clients What They Say They Want

6 Legal Matters You Should Tackle at Startup

9 Tested Steps for Equity Crowdfunding Success

What You Must Do Before Launching an Equity Crowdfunding Campaign

When Fewer Clients Means More Business

What You Need to Know About Crowdfunding Right Now

The Crucial Question Too Many Organizations Fail to Ask

5 Things to Consider Before Making an Equity Crowdfunding Investment

Why Crowdfunding is So Hot Right Now

9 Key Questions About Equity Crowdfunding Answered

How to Create a More Focused Workplace

How to Develop a Product the Right Way

What For-Profit and Not-for-Profit Organizations Have in Common

How to Survive Being Disrupted by Apple

6 Steps to Marketing Your Business Online

5 Steps to Building a Sustainable Web Presence

The Challenges of Creating a Technology Platform for Professionals

5 Startup Lessons from a Student Entrepreneur

What Generation Y Wants From Employers

3 Steps to Make You a Better Team Leader

3 Ways to Make the Most of Business Coaching

Why Flat Organizations Make for Better Startups

Why John Sculley Believes Now is the Right Time to Take Your Moonshot

5 Tips for Running a Successful Niche Business

How a Strategic Filter Can Help You Make Better Business Decisions

Why the Sales Funnel is No Longer Useful

4 Steps to Creating Shareable Content for Social Medias

How to Build a Viable Big-Event Business

3 Questions to Ask About Your Just-in-Time Workforce

3 Steps to Building a Truly Disruptive Business

The Secret to Success in a Creative Industry

3 Simple Ways to Reduce Your Rent

3 Mistakes to Avoid When Seeking Investor Capital

No Brand Means No Business

How to Recover From a Near-Death Experience

The Partnership Route to Growth