According to several Canadian business publications, staffing and human resources challenges remain a primary barrier to growth. These challenges include finding skilled workers, improving productivity, and planning for impending retirements. Attracting and retaining quality employees should be an ongoing process that, over time, mitigates these challenges and builds a highly efficient company. Canadian small businesses…
2015 showed Canadian business owners and executives that uncertainty is the new ‘normal’ for operating a firm. With major shakeups in the Canadian economy, federal government, and international business factors, nothing can be taken for granted, and businesses must be willing to go beyond expectations to stay alive. Having reported major trends affecting business during…
Last week I wrote Part 1 of Downsizing: How to Optimize your Living Space, which explained trends in increasing living space per person. This trend was inconsistent with a reducing household headcount and flat-line house building costs, creating an excess in living space not seen in other countries. The solution to this issue, unfortunately, is…
Small businesses often have difficulty when completing Canadian government funding applications on their own. A significant time investment must be put into researching Canadian government grants and loans prior to writing a proposal, application, or other type of documentation. Failure to understand all of the program’s details could lead to the business’ application being rejected…
Kaizen, a Japanese word for “improvement”, is often used in business environments to implement and improve standardized activities & processes. Introduced by Toyota after World War II, kaizens have now become common practice in the manufacturing industry to continuously improve methods or procedures that increase productivity, eliminate waste, and/or reduce costs. However, with the vast…
In Canada, home ownership is widely seen as a key part of a long-term personal investment strategy. The 2011 National Household Survey (NHS) conducted by Statistics Canada reveals that 69% of households own their own homes (including both mortgaged homes and fully paid off). Unfortunately, home purchase is not necessarily a strong investment or a…
The City of Toronto is one of Canada’s mega-hotbeds of economic activity and is home to some of the nation’s most driven, successful companies. Both large and small, businesses within Toronto are constantly looking for ways to improve their operations to become more efficient, innovative, and grow into the future. To assist with these business…
As Mentor Works’ resident Fresh Prince of Frugality, I am constantly thinking about how I can reduce my living expenses to increase my flexibility to save, invest, and plan for the future. I often hear people discussing whether or not renting makes financial sense. Owning your own property has several major benefits, and renting can…
Perhaps it is because my family’s four daughters are more independent now, all out of the house – at university, married and only one left in high school – that really burned through the excuses that I could and should invest time to take better care of my health, energy levels, and most of all,…