From the editor: The confidence virus
For many companies and consumers, there’s still a cloud over the economy. Exude confidence in your own business prospects, and customers will catch on.
Your next big thing: Doom and boom
Thanks to ‘Teotwawki,’ terrorists and tectonic shifts, companies and consumers are getting in touch with their inner survivorman. Are you prepared to profit from them?
Advice: Retail revival
What are the hottest ways to grow retail revenue? PROFIT asked speakers appearing at the Passion for Retail conference in Vancouver on May 4.
Innovation: The new way to get divorced
Today’s consumers are more willing and able to seek new alternatives to old models. Enter the discount divorce.
Marketing: The bold and the dutiful
A Toronto firm’s wildly successful marketing stunt shows there’s a process to be daring without being dumb.
Instant MBA: How to keep your business growing
The secrets to sustained growth and the case against hired guns.
Franchising: The hand of experience
At a new massage chain, the wellness boom meets veteran franchisors and a proven system — in the U.S., at least.
Social media: Facebook is a terrible thing to waste
Why so many companies are failing on Facebook, the mega-popular website and, yes, essential business tool.
Business plan: Another piece of the pie
CellWand’s #TAXI service helps millions of North Americans order cabs each year. But in the fast-growing mobile space, is #PIZZA the next logical step toward long-term success?
The 50 Best Small and Medium Employers in Canada
These employers know that business success stems from employee engagement. This is how they get it.
How to build a super staff
Four simple strategies that turns good employees into great ones — with financial results to match.
What makes people care
The first step to having great employees is to create an environment that fosters engagement.
Innovations@Work winners
This year’s Innovations@Work award winners not only have built better mousetraps, they’ve actually gotten them to market. Their stories show the right ways to develop and commercialize new products — and some wrong ways, too.
When kids run the family business
Three kids who revitalized their family businesses reveal how to convince the parents your way is better than theirs.
Open-source software: Not too good to be true
Erase your doubts about open-source software: it really can be powerful, flexible and free. Try these five open-source tools today.
Open-book management: Doing business in the buff
Open-book management can dramatically improve employee performance and loyalty. It all comes down to how you strip.
Referrals: Highly recommended
It’s pure gold when a happy customer steers a prospect to you. Here’s how client-referral masters make this happen consistently.
How to get the money you’re owed
In business Utopia, you deliver the goods and your client pays. In real life, you sometimes get stiffed. Here’s what to do if — sorry, when — it happens to you.
Social media: Tips for Twitter quitters
With all its cryptic commands and lingo, Twitter frightens many new users into social-media silence. You don’t need to be afraid.
Advisory board: How to find great salespeople
Why you should change your sales recruiting ways, adopt Skype and worry about the HST. Plus: staff surveys and export funding.
Branding: Smear of the unknown
When someone trashes your brand online, it pays to respond in a constructive manner — if you can tell who the are.
Ask the legends: Peter H. Thomas
The entrepreneurship champion, philanthropist and self-described ‘franchise guy’ reveals how he spots winning opportunities, picks good business partners and stays strong when everything else is going wrong.
