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.
Read the piece →Advice from founders
Hard-won lessons.
Founders writing for founders. Real stories, real numbers, real mistakes. Each piece is contributed by a business owner and filtered by topic.
Featured this week
This week’s spotlight
Young founders.
Owner · Perth, ON
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.
Read the piece →Mobile barbering · Toronto, ON
I started cutting hair in my parents' garage at seventeen. The whole business grew out of the rooms I was already in, the locker rooms.
Read the piece →Vigabit Gaming
Owner · Ottawa, ON
[Short snippet, in the founder's own words, supplied by them.]
Read the piece →Recent pieces.
Updated weekly · 14 published
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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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If you have run a business for a few years, you know things that matter to every founder coming up behind you. Mentioned exists to make that knowledge visible.
If you have run a business for a few years, you know things that matter to every founder coming up behind you. Mentioned exists to make that knowledge visible. We lightly edit for clarity and length. No commercial pitches, no thinly disguised marketing. Just the real version of what you would say to another founder over coffee.
How contribution works
- 01 Pitch us a topic from your dashboard
- 02 Write 600 to 2,000 words in plain language
- 03 We edit lightly and publish within a week
- 04 Your business is linked from the piece