Category Archives for "Business Models"

Fifteen minutes outside of Olhão, Portugal, you will find a 30-hectare olive oil plantation that combines sustainable farming practices with agritainment. Most mornings around 10 or 10:30 am, a Monterosa (favorably reviewed on TripAdvisor–62 reviews, five stars) staffer will take a group of around 30 (made up of locals on holiday and tourists) around the […]

I actually don’t like going away but, when I do, I find that things which were complicated suddenly aren’t. Here’s what I do to gain perspective: -exercise 4-6 times per week (20 minutes after I finish, problems miraculously “solve themselves”) -“move the furniture,” which means getting up from your desk and walking around—for example, when […]

Don’t worry. Your customers and clients will teach you all you have to know, says Horse Country Campground founder Walter Willett.   In a kind of reverse Socratic methodology, all you have to do to create a world-class enterprise is to begin. Over time, your customers and clients will ask you all the right questions […]

Best Buy, according to most prognosticators, should be dead by now… bulldozed by Amazon, but it’s not. How did they turn the trick? They changed their business model. If you are in a products business these days, you will want to add services. If you’re in the service biz, you’ll want to consider adding products. […]

Why do private sales often suck? Well, here’s an email I received from a client of mine (a significant and sophisticated) real estate investor explaining why this may be so: A neighbor of mine is elderly; he lost his wife a few years ago. She was a fine person. Having said this, however, I have […]

What is the proper role of a CEO or founder? In my experience, s/he needs to take responsibility for just four things; these are: -sales -recruiting talent & holding them accountable -finance -vision, innovation, differentiation, business model & culture of the organization Everything else is up to the COO, chief operating officer, and other executives. […]

Here are 15 signs you are working with a great coach: You are more focused because you have learned to use the word “no” a lot more; you feel less stressed and overwhelmed You are more productive, and your financial situation is more stable and sustainable You’re crystal clear on what really matters to you; […]

[A version of this article first appeared in Ottawa Business Journal, https://www.obj.ca/bruce-firestone] When most people think about business models and modeling, they think it only applies to tech startups but turns out, they’re just as important in any industry including real estate. If I ask someone about real estate models, she or he will probably […]

Here’s a TEDx talk by Priya Parker that, among other things, helps you find your passion. I learned this year that the two most important days of your life are: the day you are born and the day you find out why. It took me 61 years to find my “why.” I discovered it when I […]

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

(This article first appeared in OBJ,  https://obj.ca/article/opinion-coach-houses-open-door-better-urban-planning-ottawa.) As OBJ readers may already know, the city of Ottawa recently changed its bylaws to permit construction of coach houses on many existing residential lots. This is part of a worldwide effort to densify and intensify existing urban areas to make them more interesting, more diverse, and more […]

[This article originally appeared on Spirepoint.ca] The number of mega wealthy people on this planet (a class that includes billionaires and millionaires, the latter, however, must have a net worth greater than $30 million USD to be included) is a tiny percentage of overall population—just 0.004% of adults qualify according to Wealth-X. This group controls […]