Category: business

  • How To Name Your Company

    (Also on Medium here.) Basic thesis: Everyone’s mind is crowded. Your idea needs space in the brain to survive. The right name enables this, and more. Here’s how to find a great name— for your company, your project, or whatever else. Why I wrote this: I’m really good at naming things, for a few reasons. One, I […]

  • What is Breather?

    Wow, ok, so today is the day. Big launch in front of thousands of people, press, etc. It’s all happening. It’s real. Today is the day I launch the company I conceived of around a year ago. It’s a company called Breather. A company that I have been working on crazy hard for a very […]

  • The Future of Blogs is Paid Access

    Update: Aaron Wall left an epic comment here which adds significantly to the discussion. Click here to see it (it’s #55). Pay attention. This will be on the test. I remember having a conversation with Chris, sitting in Café Méliès in Montreal one time, talking about business. We had an idea for a private forum. […]

  • Every Business is a Machine

    I hear a McDonald’s franchise costs over a million dollars to buy. When you buy one, though, it basically starts to print money. They have the system down so well that you can plop a McDonald’s down anywhere and tell ahead of time how much money it will make. Likewise Starbucks, Dunkin’ Donuts, and all […]

  • All of Life is Sales

    Montreal is the capital of the North American telemarketing industry. As the second-largest French-speaking city in the world, with a cheap labour force and low cost of living, Montreal is the ideal place for telemarketing companies. This means that many of us, the people you know that live here, have worked these kinds of jobs […]

  • How To Save Newspapers

    Just a quick thought. Bloggers receive commission via affiliate links if they choose to. They are influencing a sale. They are salespeople. Companies see value in that, so they gladly pay that percentage. Newspapers influence people too, so why don’t they receive a commission? If they influence someone in selling an iPad, why shouldn’t the […]

  • How To Price Your Services

    What is your price point? We used to have very few options: work a job, start a company, be unemployed. Now there are a million options in between, especially on the web. Choosing where to price yourself will show people what you’re worth. I just bought Ev Bogue‘s The Art of Being Minimalist for $17. […]

  • We have seen the enemy

    I spent the last three days in New York at Tools of Change, a book conference, talking with people in the publishing industry. I did this mostly in bars, which are the places you are most likely to hear the truth, especially late at night. Only now, back home, do I realize: On the web, […]

  • Scoble out?

    Update: The part about Scoble leaving Podtech appears to be false. Sorry about the gossip dudes. My sentiments remain unchanged though. I don’t know anything about Podtech (I don’t think anybody does), but I just read on Andrew Baron’s blog that Podtech is in sinking and Scoble may be out (the original tweet-based rumour being […]

  • Attention is Power

    If you’re irritated about the way influencers seem to be jumping from one web app to another, you aren’t alone. Dave Slusher just renounced ‘the search for the newer and shinier,’ and I suspect many others will follow after Facebook becomes passé. What Dave doesn’t realize is that it is in the nature of early […]