Category Archives for "Business Coaching"

I spoke with my friend Victor Menasce about the Ottawa Senators, the NHL, real estate investment and more on his podcast… I explained how we purchased (in the early 1990s) 600-acres in the far west-end of Ottawa (Kanata) for $12,000 an acre ($7.2 million, if you are counting), plunked an NHL expansion franchise (aka, the […]

There are some benefits to getting older. You tend to have more patience and perspective; you tend to make better decisions and, consequently, make fewer mistakes. After I left the Sens, I wanted to figure out what to do next and, at the same time, my spouse, Dawn Mac Millan Firestone, was training to become […]

[Excerpt from soon-to-be-published Gadgets and Gizmos, Bruce M Firestone, 2020] How could you give workers in the fast food industry a living wage? The only way (sustainably) is to make them more productive. Here is my thought about this: Turn your existing biz processes inside out. If I owned a fast food business, I would […]

I coach some fantastic entrepreneurs in the US, Canada and elsewhere. However, there is an experience common to entrepreneurs the world over except for the US. Their business ecosystem is different. I wrote to a Canadian woman I coach who runs a real estate portfolio focused on Airbnb and student rentals who is expanding her […]

The story of Tamworth, a small town in Ontario “Animation” is a term I use to describe ways of adding new revenue streams to an existing property. For example, clients of mine are adding storage sheds, backyard workshops, basement apartments, backyard coach houses, play areas (things like outdoor ping pong tables), private patio areas, outdoor […]

[Another GaVinci Report by Corey Oliver] Pivot – in the business world it means to shift. To move to Plan B when Plan A isn’t working. It’s the art of recognizing change in a market or industry before the impact of those changes can damage a business or organization. The challenge is recognizing WHEN to […]

Substantial completion (aka, substantial performance) in real estate is usually defined this way: When approximately 97% of work outlined in a construction contract is done. This milepost is crucial in this industry for a number of reasons: a) so, a contractor can get paid out without having absolutely everything done, b) so, an owner can […]

A client of mine, a top notch property manager (and, no, that’s not an oxymoron) who manages nearly a 1,000-doors wrote to me saying, “Some realtors who have helped their clients buy investment properties are reluctant to refer them to us even though we are probably the best property managers in our area. Why? Because […]

As someone who has tackled hundreds if not thousands of projects, I know the difference. It’s why now as a real estate investment and business coach, I preach using biz models instead of doing “projects.” In my day, I created over 1,200 home sites in multiple subdivisions, dozens of office buildings and shopping plazas, started […]

This is the wrong questions to ask. Why? Because every entrepreneur knows how to pull endless rabbits out of his or her hat. So, what is the right question to ask? How do we turn a cost center into a profit center? This is what we did at Dunrobin Lake. We got permission from MNR […]

I talk a lot about animation of individual properties–how to add new revenue streams to your real estate investment portfolio and boost your ROI and property value. But there is a whole other dimension to animation–how can you animate a whole neighborhood, indeed a whole town or city. If you learn something about property animation […]

Think about it—Mr Buffett has been buying stock in well-managed, top brands for many decades. These stocks (for the most part) pay dividends, which Mr Buffett used to pay down debt he took on (through his principal investing vehicle, Berkshire Hathaway) to purchase these investments in the first place, which (again, for the most part) […]