Monthly Archives: June 2019

Jun 29

What price should you pay for investment real estate?

By Bruce Firestone | Business Coaching , Business Models , Entrepreneurship , Finance , Ideas , Investing , Real Estate , Real Estate Investment Coaching , Urban Economics

I teach/mentor/coach a buy and hold strategy when it comes to real estate investing. It’s also a truism that you make money in real estate when you buy not when you sell (and since I teach folks to hold property for at least 3-generations), purchasing well-located properties at a decent price (ie, buying smart/buying low) […]

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Jun 26

Five Lessons A Millionaire Taught Me About Life and Wealth, Summary

By Bruce Firestone | Business Coaching , Entrepreneurship , Finance , Investing , Life Coaching , Real Estate , Real Estate Investment Coaching

By Richard Paul Evans (2005) Review (from Amazon): When Richard Paul Evans was twelve, his father, a building contractor, shattered both his legs. With no insurance, no income, and eight children, the family was destitute. At that difficult time young Evans was introduced to a kind multimillionaire who taught him the five secrets of wealth. […]

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Jun 25

Baby boomers have acted in their own best interest

By Bruce Firestone | Architecture , Entrepreneurship , Finance , Ideas , Investing , Real Estate , Real Estate Investment Coaching , Urban Economics

To be honest, I’ve long felt that baby boomers (of which I am one) have acted in a way to favor their generation over younger people. Here’s an article written by Lyman Stone for the Atlantic (June 24, 2019) that extends and builds on that argument… The political ascendancy of the Boomers brought with it […]

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Jun 21

Age Discrimination

By Bruce Firestone | Life Coaching

I’ve written before that it’s a mistake in my view that many companies in North America these days push out employees over 50 (and, in tech, anyone over 40). These people are your time machine, your Wayback Machine (aka, internet archive) if you will. Plus, they know how to work hard, which means, basically, they […]

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Jun 20

Fun with your kids this summer

By Bruce Firestone | Sports & Entertainment

Charles “Chip” Esten (better known as Deacon Claybourne from TV series Nashville) was asked by his writers to come up w/ a song (in just 3-days) he could perform on the show (season 6) as a tune his daddy had once taught him. The result is the fabulous, Itty, Bitty, Ditty, https://youtu.be/ZmMz1UQu0u0 Play it and […]

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Jun 15

How to get sponsors for practically anything

By Bruce Firestone | Business Coaching , Business Models , Entrepreneurship , Finance , Ideas , Investing , Real Estate , Sales & Marketing , Sports & Entertainment , Urban Economics

Bruce M Firestone, PhD, keynote at FanSaves Event May 2019 YouTube video link: https://youtu.be/ZY6j-PgjUFU What is covered? -even Ice Fishing Huts are sponsored! -and keynotes are sponsored! -Ottawa 67s find a way to say “Yes!” to every sponsorship request by turning such asks into a new sales channel by harnessing the give a person a fishing […]

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Jun 15

Dollars are democrats

By Bruce Firestone | Architecture , Business Models , Design , Entrepreneurship , Finance , Ideas , Investing , Real Estate , Urban Economics

Here’s an excerpt from Jenna’s Story, a learning outcome novel I wrote. It’s set in the future; the story revolves around Jenna McConnell, a young revolutionary and Tom Hatch, a business owner and wealthy person. Tom is in love with Jenna, but she views him alternately with suspicion and affection. Jenna speaks with a deep […]

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Jun 15

Planning at Macro and Micro Scales

By Bruce Firestone | Architecture , Design , Ideas , Investing , Real Estate , Real Estate Investment Coaching , Sales & Marketing , Sports & Entertainment , Urban Economics

I have long believed that the best urban condition is one that arises from multiple ownership of land, each of them doing their own thing in a kind of organic growth mode. In other words, the best towns, villages and cities in my view evolve with little in the way of interference from a modern […]

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Jun 13

HST, it’s complicated

By Bruce Firestone | Entrepreneurship , Finance , Investing , Real Estate , Real Estate Investment Coaching , Sports & Entertainment , Urban Economics

Harmonized sales tax (HST) is a value added tax. Believe it or not, it’s a profit center for most businesses (because you are allowed to set off against HST amounts owing to government any ITCs (input tax credits) you may have). From a consumer’s POV, however, it’s just another tax (in most cases). When we […]

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Jun 04

How to give a better interview or be a better interviewer

By Bruce Firestone | Business Coaching , Life Coaching , Sales & Marketing

Sales and marketing are about storytelling, true, but it’s also about improving your ability to communicate. A client of mine started his storytelling business–teaching enterprises how to do a better job at communicating their stories. His first step is interviewing clients using a two-way video tool like Zoom, which he records and uploads (unlisted) to […]

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Jun 04

How to more than double the value of rental property through animation: the PAAN Report

By Bruce Firestone | Architecture , Business Coaching , Design , Entrepreneurship , Finance , Ideas , Investing , Real Estate , Real Estate Investment Coaching , Urban Economics

Most real estate investment coaches/mentors, concentrate on house flipping, no-money-down transactions, cost-cutting, how to buy below market (often by submitting dozens or even hundreds of offers until some naive seller bites on one), purchasing foreclosed property or tax sale property… It all amounts to the same thing IMHO: Everyone is looking for a shortcut to […]

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Jun 03

Why I don’t like retirement residences as an asset class

By Bruce Firestone | Architecture , Business Models , Design , Entrepreneurship , Finance , Ideas , Investing , Real Estate , Real Estate Investment Coaching , Urban Economics

I have felt negatively about these constructs for a long time (I’ve been known to call them “vertical warehouses where people go to wait for death”), but my thoughts crystallized when a friend of mine moved from her farm into a brand-new facility. It costs her $5,500 a month for a room with a cot, […]

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