EQ Journal

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How did Ross Video Experience 21 Consecutive Years of Growth?

(Portions of this article originally appeared in Ottawa Business Journal, March 30, 2012: http://www.obj.ca/Opinion/Bruce-Firestone-5444.) The sky is falling, the sky is… Many observers of Ottawa’s tech scene seem to think it’s the end of Silicon Valley North but try telling that to David Ross, 90% owner of Ross Video. The other 10% is owned by [...]

MMB, Magic Marketing Button

(How Picture Inc can Develop a Sustainable Community Built Around its Redesigned Biz Model) If your enterprise cannot connect efficiently and cost effectively with customers and clients, you’re dead. This is the sine qua non of marketing. It also means that each enterprise (non-profits, charities, for-profits, even NGOs and gov’t departments) needs to have a [...]

Bundling

I think bundling is going to be a big factor in terms of leveraging entrepreneurial ventures in this century. For example, Lululemon Athletica not only sells active wear they also have Yoga classes in their stores. In essence, they are housing two complementary businesses under the same roof. But there is no reason why they [...]

70 Ways to Raise Bootstrap Capital

There are certainly hundreds or even thousands of clever techniques entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs are using to raise cheap/free capital, aka bootstrap capital. No list is ever going to be complete. But here is our summary of what people are doing these days to self-capitalize their new products/services/enterprises. If you would like to add to our [...]

Raising Capital by ‘Issuing’ Script

(Plus Tapping Sponsors/Co-Branders/Strategic Investors and Partners for Free Capital) There’s nothing new about raising money by issuing script. The Reynolds Brothers ran a sawmill (established in 1870 by Orson L. Reynolds) in the Adirondacks that in addition to central logging and operating their mill also ran a company store and developed other sources of income [...]

25 Steps to Entrepreneurial Success

I am often asked: “What are the keys to success?” I have developed some ideas on this over the years and, like any list in this area, mine is incomplete. Worse than this, many of these ideas for success are contradictory. Things that I learned from my Dad, Professor O. J. Firestone, like “Never take [...]

Negative Cost Marketing

Negative Cost Marketing (NCM) is all about getting other people to pay some or all of your marketing costs, in effect, turning your marketing function from a cost centre into a profit centre. NCM is a specific form of Guerrilla Marketing*. The 1964 Tribute Band (Beatles) does this with an ingenious promotion during concerts. They [...]

Strategic Investor

Introduction One of the most overlooked sources of self-capitalization (bootstrapping) for new enterprises is the strategic investor. What is a strategic investor? Ans: someone who has a strategic interest in your success. How do you find them? Ans: look through your value chain. Check out your supply chain, your customers (and their customers too), would-be [...]

Best Homes 4 U

Create a Virtual Homebuilder, Please In 2000, in a speech to the Indo-Canada Chamber of Commerce on Parliament Hill, I tried to get Ottawa-area home builders to create a Virtual Homebuilder but failed; this is a very conservative industry. Here is what I had in mind: -put their available lots and designs online in a [...]

Valuing Your Business?

Selling Your Business? Introduction Many entrepreneurs are very good at building their businesses. They know how to grow a business often with limited access to financing. They know how to persevere in difficult circumstances and how to push the right buttons in their industry to make their business profitable. However, many business owners fail to [...]

How to Get Sponsors For Practically Anything

How to Find Launch Clients Useful Co-opetition Strategic Investors Social Norms v Commercial Ones For entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs working with NGOs, Not-For-Profits and Charities, getting sponsors is always top of mind. But I have found that you can get sponsors for practically anything. When I worked with the NHL’s Ottawa Senators, a (hopefully) for-profit business, [...]