Category Archives for "Sales & Marketing"

Years ago, I wrote, Why Cheering for the Maple Leafs is… Unnatural. Essentially, I argue that when your home team does well, whether that is in Van city, Calgary, Edmonton, Ottawa or now Winnipeg or, for that matter, Montreal, it’s good for the local economy, so cheering for the Leafs anywhere but in Toronto is […]

[Here’s a book review I wrote in 2010 that is still relevant today (circa September 2020), so I’ve now added it to my blog, Prof Bruce] For the first three quarters of my advance copy of the book Delivering Happiness (Hachette Books, June 2010) by Zappos.com CEO Tony Hsieh (pronounced ‘Shay’), I felt like this […]

Book review of Pitch Anything, an innovative method for presenting, persuading and winning the deal by Oren Klaff, https://youtu.be/0ihMwKc2Sow With insights from Bruce M Firestone, PhD Plus, how a yoga teacher went from earning just over $30k a year to more than $100k Plus, how Prof Bruce successfully pitched the NHL for an expansion franchise […]

Here’s an article I wrote some time ago. In it, I was trying to understand why someone might pay $171,000 more for an urban townhouse, which was essentially the same as a suburban, much less expensive one, except closer into town. Was it a rational economic choice? Here’s what I concluded… then. Today, in an […]

When Ottawa Sun columnist Rick Gibbons asked me this morning for my take on the pending divorce between the Sens and the Sens Foundation… well, this is what I wrote back: I was shocked when I found out what was going on, Rick. The Sens are abandoning Rogers House, Rink of Dreams and 25+ years […]

Purrdy Paws Mobile Grooming Spa founder Jayme Montero started with nothing. A teen mom, she had a “crazy” idea—to start a cat grooming mobile service when almost no one thought it would work—not her banker, her friends, no one. Her plan was to somehow finance and acquire a Mercedes Sprinter cargo van (which is tall […]

I woke up on the Easter long weekend thinking I could help people become successful entrepreneurs by offering a new online course called: Pivot! Start a business in just 3-months w/ practically no money down. “Hi Bruce, I just wanted to say that I was on your Pivot! webinar this afternoon and it was awesome. […]

Over 2,000 have signed up for this free webinar on March 24 at 7 pm ET: How to protect yourself, your biz, your real estate investments as well as clients, employees, suppliers, guests, residents, tenants… in a time of Covid-19 Listen as 20-experts give their views and take questions… Register now, https://www.covidcrisisplan.com/brucefirestone Prof Bruce is […]

The barndominium We live in what is fast becoming more and more of a gig economy. If you are a hobbyist, an assembler, an artist, a winemaker, a cabinetmaker, a woodworker, a plumber, an electrician, a contractor, manufacturer, a renovator, or you run an HVAC company or a yoga studio or a physiotherapy or RMT […]

(Excerpt from Don’t Back Down, the real story of the founding of the NHL’s Ottawa Senators and why big leagues matter) The most profitable businesses are either illegal (like drugs) or government-owned like property taxes, alcohol distribution (at least in Ontario and Quebec), utilities and lotteries (plus drugs, if you count legalization of cannabis in […]

So, you think you know something about modern-era business models? Well, test yourself by examining what chief executive officer Michael Lastoria has done with his fledgling chain of tiny (300-square foot) &Pizza restaurants, which now number 36 locations on the US east coast. Here’s his secret sauce in which he invokes crucial elements of the […]

Why is it that, for the longest time, the National Football League refused to allow corporations to own one of their franchises? It’s because the NFL understands perhaps better than any other league that a close relationship between ownership and fans/sponsors/corporate community/marketing partners/suppliers/agents/players/coaches/GMs/scouts/lenders/staff/local, state and federal politicians, police and regulatory bodies is incredibly important. With […]