Alex Fleming was a solid young farm boy from Lochfield farm in Ayrshire, Scotland. Bright enough, at around thirteen he won a two year scholarship to the local academy, then moved to London for further education, eventually settling into the tedium of entering numbers as a shipping clerk. By age twenty he’d really had enough…
General Isaac Brock, Canadian hero of the War of 1812, called Tecumseh the most brilliant military tactician he had ever known. Yet while his military expertise was second to none, Tecumseh was also a statesman, orator, and negotiator of the highest order. Brock met Tecumseh first at the Battle of Detroit, where 500 warriors were…
In Parts I, II, and III, we discussed various factors that play into the value your business, or the value some of its component parts, can have when it’s time to sell. We also gave some thought that you need to put yourself into the shoes of a potential buyer to ensure that you are…
There are two ways to sell an old car: roadworthy, or for parts. The same is exactly true for the sale of a business. The “you plus” kind of business is much easier to sell as a going concern, the “just you” business is much more likely to get picked apart like a rotisserie chicken….
You’ll recall that last week we briefly looked at the two basic business and professional models: the one that’s “just you”, and the one that’s “you plus”. Let’s unpack those a little more. The “just you” model is exactly what it sounds like. For all intents and purposes, you and you alone are the business….
More than once I’ve counselled professionals and business owners who have come to an awkward realization. They no longer want to work the business, they desperately want to retire, but they are stuck because the business is not sale-ready, and may never be. And yet, they’re done, cooked, fried, toast. They want out so badly…
One of the things which struck me most in law school was that those who asked the most questions generally got the best marks. Now, there may be some false correlations there, including that those people became “the teachers’ pets” and were therefore favoured. I think not, because some of the questions were tough ones,…
One summer as a kid I worked for the caterer at a potash mining camp in Saskatchewan. Everything from maintaining the bunkhouses to working in the kitchen to running the tuck shop – what an exposure to real life! As you might imagine, I met many an interesting character. None more so than the man…
It’s easy to confuse advising, coaching, and mentoring, but they’re definitely not the same things. To be sure, while there is considerable overlap, there are also important differences. Advisors, whether lawyers or financial advisors or policy whizzes, essentially tell you what to do or what is the best course. Once they’ve told you, their job…
In 1975 I was a young and enthusiastic teacher in a progressive middle school in rural Eastern Ontario. By then I had aggressively completed my bachelor’s degree at night school and summer school, once knocking off five full courses in one calendar year, the same as if I had been a full-time student. I had…