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Many Ontario employers will stick with Liberal labour reforms, despite Doug Ford’s promised reversal
Ontario employers are keen to see Premier Doug Ford scrap the previous government’s Fair Workplaces, Better Jobs Act, but many still plan to stick with the act’s provisions to keep workers happy. While certain aspects of the act (also known as Bill 148) have driven up costs, business owners are concerned about retaining and attracting workers in the current tight labour market. Story
How some entrepreneurs are cashing in on convenience of delivery apps
Every day from 3 p.m. to the wee hours of the morning, 24-year-old Connor McPhail sits inside an 8-by-10-foot box on Toronto’s Dundas Street just east of Bathurst Street surrounded by chips, chocolate and soda. This mini-shipping container is home to Snacko, Mr. McPhail’s new delivery-only convenience store that’s aiming to bring snacks to the doors of hungry customers across the country with just a few clicks on their phone. Story
In pursuit of the Green Rush
As Canada embraces the legalization of recreational cannabis, a new industry is born. Despite the stigmas that surround it, and an uncertain future, some bold pioneers see an opportunity to win big at a fresh start. The Globe and Mail talked to seven entrepreneurs – including economists, lawyers, marketers and business owners – about the risks and rewards of leaving the security of their jobs to make the leap into the cannabis industry. Story
The next wave of predictive health care
The Globe and Mail’s newest podcast, Industry Interrupted, delves into a discussion of how mobile medical apps have fundamentally changed health care. But they’ve never quite managed to break through the doctor-patient relationship. Now that apps are getting into machine learning, will that change? Story
Family business sticks with Wowbutter through thick and thin
Scott Mahon says his family business made a pivotal turn in 2009 when it decided to take control of its own creation – Wowbutter. “The best thing we ever did was coming out with the Wowbutter brand. We came up with the name because people would try it and the first thing they’d say was, ‘Wow’, so we called it Wowbutter. It’s a name that kids and parents like.” Story
Customer service inspiration: How-to hairdo videos set salon apart
At Salon Cyan in London, Ont., a big moment for customers is when the hairdresser reveals the finished hairstyle at the end. But Jagoda Hall, owner of Salon Cyan, realized that there’s another pivotal point, and it comes days after the customer has left. That’s when she tries to style her hair and realizes she can’t quite mimic what the professional did. Story
How to unlock billions of unrealized growth led by entrepreneurial women
In September, Mary Ng, the minister of small business and export promotion, announced a new $85-million fund to support women’s entrepreneurship programming. That comes a year after a 2017 McKinsey consulting firm study on gender parity in Canada said it will take 180 years before women entrepreneurs and business owners will achieve gender parity in this country. While Canada is viewed as a leading nation in advancing gender equality, support for its one-million-plus female entrepreneurs clearly lags far behind. Story
Bruce Linton on cannabis, partying with Snoop Dog and parenting
In the latest episode of the Globe’s I’ll Go First podcast, we hear from Bruce Linton – the man behind one of Canada’s biggest cannabis companies, Canopy Growth. Bruce shares his experience at the forefront of a budding sector, what it’s like to party with Snoop Dog and his strange nighttime routine. Story
Chef, server, hotel or restaurant manager: the ongoing struggle to find and keep staff
People in service businesses such as restaurants have been saying that it’s hard to get good help since, well, forever. But Yannick Bigourdan says it’s now harder than ever. “I think it’s getting worse,” says Mr. Bigourdan, owner of a restaurant called The Carbon Bar in Toronto and a string of other small food and retail businesses. Story
Small business owners: Don’t build your digital castle on someone else’s land
In an effort to woo more small and medium businesses to set up shop on Amazon, the e-commerce giant recently launched Amazon Storefronts. Available in the United States only (for now at least), Storefronts allows SMBs to sell their products on Amazon within a special section highlighting their business story with photos and videos. Storefronts is like Amazon Handmade and Amazon Launchpad, which feature handmade goods and products from startups. Story
Mid-sized cities are the perfect places to build a startup
What do Verafin, Radian6, Kinduct, Coconut Software, Vendasta, AbeBooks, GranDuke Geomatics and New Horizon Interactive all have in common? They are all very successful Canadian technology companies that emerged in mid-sized cities, which for the purposes of this article are defined as Canadian census metropolitan areas with anywhere from 50,000 to 500,000 residents. Story
WHAT WE’RE READING ELSEWHERE
She’s helping women change the world — one entrepreneur at a time
There was a premature ending to this story, an ending that involved public markets and rounds of financing and men in suits. Or the sense of an ending, to steal from a great novelist. Toronto Star
B.C. businesses suffer trade war collateral damage
‘It doesn’t feel real’: Small Town Buds in Devon is Alberta’s first licensed cannabis shop
One of the cannabis strains Chris Felgate’s store will offer Oct. 17 is dubbed Blue Dream. For the co-owner of Alberta’s first fully approved marijuana shop, it’s a fitting way to spark up a long-held ambition. “It’s exciting but, in some ways, it doesn’t feel real, like when you book a vacation and it’s not real until you’re on it,” said Felgate, who will operate 1,500 sq.-ft. Small Town Buds Cannabis Culture shop in Devon, a town of about 7,000 just southwest of Edmonton. Calgary Herald
Small First Nation steps up with industrial land
It is at least a year away from signing its first tenants, but the Aboriginal-owned Kwikwetlem Business Park in Port Coquitlam is not expected to have much problem filling up due to Metro Vancouver’s severe industrial land shortage. Business in Vancouver
Communauto first free-floating carshare approved under Toronto pilot
Montreal-based Communauto has expanded to Toronto, making it the first free floating car service approved in a city pilot. Announced this morning with Toronto mayor John Tory and Communauto president Benoit Robert, Communauto was the first to receive a permit from the city’s 18-month free-floating car share project which began in July. Betakit