The punch everyone already asked for
CJ's Punch didn't start as a business. It started as the thing you brought. Rooted in a Kittitian and Jamaican family, it was the rum punch asked for by name before anyone took a plate of food.
Advice
From the people who do it for a living
Pieces written by businesses listed on Mentioned, each signed by the business that wrote it and linked to its listing. Further down, practical pieces for business owners.
From the businesses on Mentioned
Written by the business, in its own words.
Birth of a NATION
Nation Performance did not start as a gym. It started as a feeling its three owners had been chasing since they were the ones coming up.
The feeling you can’t price-match
TK Scent Experience did not begin with a candle. It began with a memory: the way a Caribbean home announced itself before you reached the door.
Jazzy’s Brewhaus
We built the menu out of our neighbours. The beans, the bread, the brews are all local, and a lot of what comes in goes right back out into Perth.
The cut before the game
Tristan Miller started cutting hair in his parents' garage at seventeen. A few years later he was cutting for the CFL, NFL and NBA.
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For business owners
Running the business
Practical pieces from Mentioned, for the people running one.
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Community buildingFounder storiesFunding storiesHard lessonsHiring & teamMarketingOperations
Cash flow is the thing that kills you, not profit
Most Canadian small businesses that fail were profitable on paper. The money just arrived later than the bills did. Here is the simplest 13-week cash view that gives you 90 days of warning before a gap opens. And what to do the moment you see one coming.
Your first hire costs more than their salary
Between CPP, CPP2, EI at 1.4× the employee rate, and the time you stop billing to manage someone, your first employee costs far more than the wage. Here is how to budget the real number before you post the job. So the hire grows you instead of sinking you.
The nine kinds of funding, and which one you actually got
Being told "you qualify for a grant" and finding out it is a loan wastes weeks. Here are the nine kinds of Canadian business funding, sorted by whether you pay it back, with a real example for each.
Raising your prices is a sentence, not a strategy
Owners agonize over a price increase for months, then deliver it like an apology. The increase is almost never the problem. The delivery is. Here is the plain way to tell existing customers, what to expect, and why far fewer leave than you fear.
Hire for the slow season, not the rush
Everyone hires when they're drowning, which means hiring badly under pressure. The owners who get it right plan seasonal hiring against a cash forecast and bring people on before the wave. Here is how to time it so payroll lands when revenue can carry it.
Your best marketing is the businesses that vouch for you
Ad spend buys attention from strangers. A recommendation from a business your customer already trusts buys belief. Here is why word-of-mouth still outperforms every channel for small business. And how to make yours something people can actually see and act on.
The numbers most owners stop looking at
After a couple of years, many owners stop tracking the small things. And that's exactly where the money leaks. A simple monthly review of a handful of figures routinely surfaces thousands a year hiding in plain sight. Here is the short list worth checking every month.
Why partnering beats competing in a small market
The bakery and the café down the street aren't your rivals. They're your referral network. The businesses that grow fastest in tight communities are the ones woven into each other's circles. Here is how to build those relationships before you need them.
Firing your biggest client can be the thing that saves you
When one client is a huge share of revenue, you stop running a business and start running their errands. The late payments, the scope creep, the fear of losing them. Here is how to tell when a client is costing you more than they pay, and how to let go without panic.
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